AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

Canadian Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen greet supporters as they depart Ottawa on the election campaign earlier this month.

The vote forces the conservative minority government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to call for early elections on May 2, and so Canadian voters will go to the polls in just a couple of weeks.

To find out what led to this historic rift VPR's Mitch Wertlieb speaks with Jeff Ayres, a professor of Political Science at St. Michael's College, who says this second Harper government has been fending off scandals and accusations by the country's Liberals that it's broken the rules governing Canada's Democratic system.