Well, that was actually fairly quick – and probably smart of Jack to wait until Monday so that he could control the news cycle.

Ladies and gentlemen, we could very well be into an election campaign in 9 days time. The ball is now in Harper’s court – I’ll have more on this tonight, but baring a drop in the polling numbers for the CPC over the next week, it might very well be game on (although I can see the logic behind waiting until later this month to pull the plug).

UPDATE: Harper, obviously feeling burned by last spring, has said he won’t introduce a non-confidence motion but, as Andrew Spicer points out in the comments bellow, Harper has said he might give Layton his November 15th opposition day (huh?). I have no idea if he’s allowed to do this but, if this Parliament has been going for anything, it has been to put obscure parliamentary procedural rules into the limelight. If they work out some sort of deal, the government would fall on the 15th – otherwise, I believe the NDP opposition day is scheduled for the 24th. Mind you, as we’ve seen before, Tony Valeri might have some fun with the calendar, or the polls might improve for the Liberals causing the opposition to back down.

Either way, expect a lot of election speculation over the next week.