Murray Dobbin is a member of the Catch 22 team. While Harper has cried the loudest that he doesn't want an election, is actions show the opposite.

Layton pulls the plug on Harper government

The drama is over and Jack Layton and the NDP clearly did the right thing, very quickly rejecting the Conservatives’ budget and pledging to vote against it “in its current form.” That held out the possibility of voting in favour of an amended budget which Finance Minister Flaherty quickly scotched with a Bush-like – you either vote for it or against it. An election is a certainty – though it could still come via a vote of non-confidence later this week based on a committee’s findings that the Harper government was in contempt of Parliament for refusing to reveal the real; costs of it its 18 crime bills.

The Conservatives clearly want an election but want someone else to be blamed for having to have one. They have not been hurt as badly as they should have been by the multiple sleazy scandals they created and they know the economy is going to get worse over the next six months as the stimulus money dries up. Now is their best chance to get a majority.