Stephen Harper's call for an immediate general election caught some in his own party offguard at a national caucus in early September of 2005.
Harper had said on the eve of the meeting that he was confident of his party's electoral strength, despite several polls that indicated Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberals were edging towards majority support.
But most of his fellow MPs spoke merely of the need to be ready to hit the hustings, while few displayed any zeal to do battle with Liberals while they were flying high in public opinion polls.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day said he expected the Liberals to trigger an early election through the use of a budgetary non-confidence motion.
