One year ago, Stephen Harper, master of all he surveyed, called an election -- what could possibly go wrong?

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One year ago tomorrow, then prime minister Stephen Harper called a supposedly impromptu news conference in front of the governor general's official residence in Ottawa and told Canadians he'd asked for Parliament to be dissolved and a federal election to be held on Oct. 19.

Governor General David Johnston, naturally, complied with that plan quite readily, notwithstanding the unusually long campaign period.