Halloween is a time for kids to dress up, a time for the grandchildren to descend upon poppa’s garden to gather in the pumpkins.

It is not a time, at least not this close to the last one, for a federal election because no matter how you cut it, the end result will be the same.

Sure, we might see “another” government in place but it will still be a minority. No clear mandate, no clear and decisive action, and all that will result is another year or two of instability until the stars and political egos line up once again.

And if you think my reference above to egos driving the agenda is off, please tell me how else to explain the Opposition’s stance in early August that it wants an election at Halloween. There is no reason to want an election right now, other than the Liberals think they can, and they’ve managed to raise a few bucks for an election war-chest.

While the Conservatives haven’t been stellar in their operations of government, they are soldiering on in an attempt to get the country out of recession. They are making overtures to the U.S. about the folly of “Buy America.” They are compromising with the Liberals (otherwise they would have already dumped the ineffective, costly and irrelevant long-gun registry).

But Michael Ignatieff, in his drive to become yet another semi-effective prime minister, with his fellow Opposition MPs slavering to be in cabinet (along with all the perks that entails), has decided that what the Conservatives are doing isn’t enough, and he can do a better job of doing not a lot.

Of course, it isn’t enough, because if the Conservatives had the power of majority they could be decisive, could do things that would truly embed them further into the politics of this country, or make such a mess of it that the voters would want to dump them.

But this planned election is nothing to do with what voters want. We don’t have a say. All the decisions are being made in the political backrooms.

The NDP is happy to go to the polls, the Greens ecstatic, the Bloc thrilled with yet another stage to espouse their destruction of the nation.

But all that has little to do with us. All we want is to go to work, spend a little money, and live life as we are supposed to in this great land of opportunity.

But every time our economy begins to look up, every time our dollar begins to strengthen, our politicians throw us into a state of instability that, in the eyes of the investment world, further slows our recovery.

If there was a chance we’d have a majority government, one that could for four years introduce significant policy and make decisions that were good for the country, I’d be all for an election.

But this time, like the last few, that just won’t happen.

Another minority, nothing accomplished, and another year or two of watered-down decisions and policy.

No wonder we can’t go one way or the other sufficiently well to actually elect a government in the true sense of the word; we just haven’t seen or heard enough of what any of the major players will actually do to allow us to make a rational decision at the ballot box.

Until that time, if I can send a message to Ottawa, it would be “set aside your ambitions and egos and just do what is in the best interests of Canadians.”

And forget Halloween, it’ s for kids, not adults who are supposed to run the best country in the world.

markrushton@abbynews.com