The irony (if you want to call it that) is that Canada used to have movable elections. The government in power had up to a 5 year term but could call an election at any point in time (most often at around 4 years), the other way to get an election was through a vote of none-confidence (if most of the representatives voted in such a vote against the government in power).
The current party in power was annoyed at the previous party because it had most of the seats (so hard to get a vote of none confidence) but was not popular any more and they where extending their power as much as they could. So in 2007 a law for fixed term elections (4 years new vote in Oct) except that the none confidence vote was still there (so in essence -theory- the party in power can't decide on the next elections but can still be kicked out if they are crap)
So here is where the irony comes in. The party in power is relatively popular (actually it is more like the other parties are messed up then this one is doing well) but a minority (most of the seats belong to other parties). So even though the next elections should be next October the party in power decided to vote against itself and force elections this year while the other parties don't have their act together and so circumventing a law they created and passed to make elections more even for all parties.
