A stinging rebuke from the speaker of the House amid a string of embarrassments for the Harper government don’t have MP Cathy McLeod overly concerned. But NDP candidate Michael Crawford figures Prime Minister Stephen Harper may intentionally pull the plug next week to head off more controversy en route to a spring election.

“Since I was elected with a minority government, in my mind, there have been many twists and turns along the road to an election,” McLeod observed Monday in relation to the events of the past week. First there was the resignation of a member of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s staff over use of ministerial stationery for an overtly partisan appeal.

Then there were House Speaker Peter Milliken’s twin rulings. Milliken ruled the government violated the freedoms and privileges of Parliament by not revealing the full cost of anti-crime bills and corporate tax cuts. He also found International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda had given inconsistent testimony to a Commons committee.

Next came the accusation from the parliamentary budget officer, a frequent critic of the Tories, that the government had low-balled the cost of the F-35 stealth fighter deal.

All of this came on the heels of the “in-and-out” election financing scheme, a simmering scandal in which the Federal Court of Appeal backed Elections Canada. In effect, the Harper Conservatives broke the rules in the 2006 election, the court found.

“I think, obviously, those are opposition calls,” McLeod said of criticism stemming from Milliken’s rulings. She suggested the procedural calls result from challenges confronting a minority government with an exceptionally long tenure, the longest in Canadian history.

McLeod took issue with the opposition barb that the rulings are proof of that the government, instead of bringing greater accountability and transparency to Ottawa as promised, has gone in the opposite direction. “I absolutely disagree,” she said, citing the bargain struck over Afghan detainee documents. When Milliken ruled the opposition had the right to see uncensored documents, a compromise was found.

“The election may be short term or it may be down the road, we absolutely need to focus on the important issue, which is the economy as we work our way through these parliamentary rulings,” she said.

Crawford said if Harper wanted to extend the life of his government he would have been more conciliatory in his budget preparation. “If he really wanted to avoid an election, he’d be coming out and saying, ‘OK, I’m not playing games here.’ ”

Aside from the question mark over the budget, the opposition is finding it increasingly difficult to support the government due to all of the above. “The speaker’s ruling was devastating. It was embarrassing. It was a scathing indictment of Harper that he’s violated basic parliamentary procedure.”A Commons committee will report back on the matter March 21. “They’re going to come back and recommend contempt of Parliament, and that’s the day before the budget,” Crawford said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”