The federal Conservatives' spending spree over the past few months serves as mounting evidence of a pending election, according to one economist.
Claude Denis, a professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, told CTV Newsnet that a spring election may be in the offing.
He said the speculation comes as the Conservatives enjoy the highest poll standings they've had in months while Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's leadership continues to take criticism.
Adding further to Denis' claims, the government began to ramp up its spending around the time Dion was elected as leader in early December, and has announced over $10 billion in spending in the past three months, according to a tally by The Toronto Star.
"It's been on the way (an election) in a sense since the Conservatives won their minority government. The situation is unstable," Denis told CTV Newsnet.
The latest Tory spending announcement -- made on Tuesday -- doled out $1.5 billion to Ontario to help improve transit and phase out coal-fired power for the province's 12 million people.
Of that, $962 million will go towards extending one of Toronto's subway lines and to improve transit in Toronto suburbs.
Another $586 million will go to help the province build an east-west electrical grid to Manitoba to import relatively clean hydroelectric power and move away from coal-fired power plants.
Denis said the recently announced initiative serves several purposes for the government. It can be held up as proof of the Tories' new focus on the environment as a top priority, and represents an appeal to urban voters -- an area where the Conservatives have yet to make a major breakthrough.
On Tuesday Harper said: "This is about cutting the commute, boosting the economy and improving air quality."
"From an electoral perspective Toronto is the big prize in a lot of ways," Denis said. "It also represents the difficulty the Conservatives have had in the major cities in the past several elections.
Denis said the Tories have the means to pay for their spending pledges, and there's no danger of the government running out of money.
"One of the things that's an inheritance from the Chretien government and Paul Martin as finance minister is that the Canadian government brings in a lot more money that it has been needing to spend in the last five years," Denis said.
"There's no issue of Stephen Harper running a deficit in this government, that's not going to happen."
The federal government will present its 2007 budget on March 19. It has been billed as a tax-cutting fiscal plan that will also include new spending initiatives.
The budget is also expected to target the so-called fiscal imbalance with the provinces, by boosting transfer payments with extra cash destined for post-secondary education and infrastructure spending
