As we pointed out more than a year ago when he was making the issue a central plank of his election campaign, Mr Bruce Golding, now the prime minister, has conceded that establishing a fixed election date in Jamaica is not as simple as he initially suggested.

Indeed, bringing legislation to Parliament to effect the change within his first 100 days in office was one of the promises that Mr Golding, in office for just shy of a year, has failed to fulfil. For, as he said in answers to parliamentary questions just over a month ago, having a fixed election date would require amendments to deeply entrenched clauses of the country's Constitution.

As well it should. The enforced delay will provide an opportunity for Mr Golding and his government to reflect on the matter, and as the PM told the House, to engage the Opposition in a search for consensus. Rash action has been prevented.

Developments elsewhere this week also provide Mr Golding with additional opportunities to reflect on the efficacy and/or utility of a fixed election date, and how, in the context of the Westminster parliamentary system, it might serve to box in an administration.

Canada's by-elections

Take the case of Canada, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservatives, heads a minority government. The Tories, in short order, are facing three by-elections, two of which they might lose. But that is not the sum of Mr Harper's worries.

In recent weeks, although Parliament is on recess until mid-September, the premier has been harrumphing about his inability to pass legislation, especially on key economic issues. He has complained specifically about an inability to tie down Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, on a legislative agenda, which is now more critical, given the divergence of the Liberals on key policy issues.

So, Mr Harper wants to clear the air with a general election which, ironically, the pundits predict would lead to another hung parliament and minority government. That now, however, is beside the point, for Mr Harper feels that an early election would be in the interest of his party and of Canada.

Legislation

"The country must have a government that can function during a time of economic uncertainty, and if it is not this Government or this Parliament, the public will have an opportunity to decide whom," Mr Harper said in Ottawa on Tuesday.

No problem here! Except that in 2006, the Government passed legislation that fixed Canada's election day. On the basis of that law, Canadians should next go to the poll in an election for the Commons on October 19, 2009.

While the Canadian law is not constitutionally entrenched, supporters of Mr Golding, if not the prime minister himself, had pointed to the Ottawa model as a progressive move in constitutional development. But as Mr Harper is finding out, such a constriction, in the context of Westminster, can be debilitating to government and governance. He has argued that since the Opposition has no intention of allowing him to serve until October 2009, the government needs to create certainty by calling an election. Mr Golding, with his thin majority in the House and the constitutional challenges to the right of some of his members to be MPs, also understands this.

The matter, clearly, demands deep consideration.