Rideau Hall is busy this time of year

It is probably not ideal that, having put it about for several days that he has no time to meet Stephen Harper before Sept. 9, Stéphane Dion will meet Stephen Harper on Sept. 1. It makes it harder to contrast Harper’s impetuousness with Dion’s calm decisiveness if there is no calm decisiveness. (You think it’s easy to make scheduling?) But moving the drama, such as it is, forward by a week will simplify planning for everyone, and if nothing else it will put paid to the danger that the Prime Minister might go to Rideau Hall and kick off an election without even bothering to see a Liberal leader who spent the summer believing he controlled the timing of an election.