Canadian Politics

[CGM]

OK this is kind of interesting. First of all a little background.

Candada has four main political parties, and also some fringe parties. When you vote in Canada, techically you are voting for the local representative of one of the parties. The winner of a Canadian election is the party that has the most representatives elected to parliament. Because there are more than two parties, it is possible to have a minority government, which means that the governing party has less representatives than the total of all the other parties combined. This is the current situation, a minority government. The Conservative Party (Right Wing) currently forms the government.

OK, so it seems that the three main opposition parties, Liberal, NDP, Bloc Quebecois, all left wing, have formed a coalition. The plan to defeat the Conservatives in a confidence vote next Monday. They have indicated they wish to form a new government rather than force an election. They can do this. It is most likely that this coalition will assume the reins of power and function as a single party. A less likely scenario is that the governor general of Canada, who is ostensibly a representative of the Queen, can decide to call an election.

This sort of event has not happened in Canada in over 80 years, governments have been defeated more recently, but elections have been forced, not the coalition assuming power.

It's kind of strange, a major shift in who is running the country, that does not come about as the result of an election. Strange for a major western democracy anyways.

IMO a few Canadians may get upset, most will shrug their shoulders, and life will go on. Myself I'm not too concerned.

I am pretty sure that this sort of thing can't happen in the US, and if it did, people would go berserk.

Here'a the full details if you are interested.

CANOE -- CNEWS - Politics: Opposition signs coalition deal

[CFH]

Wow. I'm fully in support of that. When I heard they were going to defeat the gov't, I couldn't figure out why. It makes sense now.

I'm fully in favor of this.

[Youngblood]

I hope they kick their ass, take their candy, and don't offer any consolation hugs.

We've been dicked around here in the north for forever and could use some representation for a change that actually means something. Not that I'm over-optimistic that would happen...but it couldn't get much worse.

[CGM]

If all this does come to pass, it will be interesting to see whether this coalition can hold together, or eventually dissolve into infighting.

[CFH]

If all this does come to pass, it will be interesting to see whether this coalition can hold together, or eventually dissolve into infighting.

I'd put money on the latter. At some point, one the Liberals will burn an American flag, Layton will give a 2 hour speech on the virtues of Leninism, and the Bloc will introduce bill after bill with the goals of dissolving the country, removing all traces of the English language from Quebec, and putting Patrick Roy on a stamp. All the while Steven Harper will quite weep in a dark corner.

[amat]

CFH and Youngblood what was that commercial I posted? That was great political stuff.

[Trainer Monkey]

OK this is kind of interesting. First of all a little background.

Candada has four main political parties, and also some fringe parties. When you vote in Canada, techically you are voting for the local representative of one of the parties. The winner of a Canadian election is the party that has the most representatives elected to parliament. Because there are more than two parties, it is possible to have a minority government, which means that the governing party has less representatives than the total of all the other parties combined. This is the current situation, a minority government. The Conservative Party (Right Wing) currently forms the government.

OK, so it seems that the three main opposition parties, Liberal, NDP, Bloc Quebecois, all left wing, have formed a coalition. The plan to defeat the Conservatives in a confidence vote next Monday. They have indicated they wish to form a new government rather than force an election. They can do this. It is most likely that this coalition will assume the reins of power and function as a single party. A less likely scenario is that the governor general of Canada, who is ostensibly a representative of the Queen, can decide to call an election.

This sort of event has not happened in Canada in over 80 years, governments have been defeated more recently, but elections have been forced, not the coalition assuming power.

It's kind of strange, a major shift in who is running the country, that does not come about as the result of an election. Strange for a major western democracy anyways.

IMO a few Canadians may get upset, most will shrug their shoulders, and life will go on. Myself I'm not too concerned.

I am pretty sure that this sort of thing can't happen in the US, and if it did, people would go berserk.

Here'a the full details if you are interested.

CANOE -- CNEWS - Politics: Opposition signs coalition deal

Thats sort of why the whole idea of impeaching Bush didnt get much traction in the states. Anyone knew that if we impeach Bush that only meant that the real President would assume the presidency anyway.
We sort of operate on a check down system,so if we impeach Bush,that only means Cheney would have assumed the Presidency.
We've only had one President who wasnt elected for anything,and thats Gerald Ford,he was named Vice President when Spiro Agnew went down in flames for taking kickbacks as gov of Maryland,and then became President when Nixon went down in flames for Watergate

[CFH]

The more I think about this, the less I like it. Putting aside my personal views on our version of "democracy", the Conservatives were elect the same way as any other government in our recent history. In my mind, as much as I dislike them, they've done nothing which justifies this kind of drastic action. If successful, this will undermine our political system and disenfranchise a great number of Canadians.

[Mikkel_K]

The more I think about this, the less I like it. Putting aside my personal views on our version of "democracy", the Conservatives were elect the same way as any other government in our recent history. In my mind, as much as I dislike them, they've done nothing which justifies this kind of drastic action. If successful, this will undermine our political system and disenfranchise a great number of Canadians.

From a (continental) European perspective, this isn't _that_ unheard of. It happened here in Denmark in 1993 at least (yeah, quite a long time ago now, but we've only had one other prime minister since, so it's still relatively fresh). Sparked some (a little) controversy, but more so in political circles (i.e. among the defeated) than among the population. I'm fairly sure it has happened other places as well.

Anyway, it is a characteristic of a parliamentary democracy, with all the benefits that that brings with it. This may be one of the deficiancies though.

[CGM]

Well Well, it looks like our fearless leader is going to shut down parliament in order to prevent the coalition from gaining power. It looks like he is going to keep it closed till the new year.

I wonder how long he is prepared to keep it shut down.

CANOE -- CNEWS - Politics: PM plans to shut down Parliament

[Youngblood]

US politics : He's a terrorist! Pals around with terrorists! He's a muslim! He's anti-american! The rallies : "kill him, burn him!"

Canadian Politics: He wears a goofy sweater vest, eh.

The rallies: "Hey you see Jack Layton take Harper apart on the sweater vest thingy last night, eh?" "Ya eh haha...was saweeeet."

[amat]

And if Bush shut down the Capital because he was about to be impeached, holy shit. I live in the most liberal area in the US maybe anywhere I have no idea. They would go absolutely ape shit down here hahaha

I saw this on the ticker on CNN that he was going to shut down parliament after I read this thread and thought, wow. That's crazy stuff where the hell are the checks and balances? So if the Prime Minister decides the Prime Minister can simply answer to no one? Hahaha what a sweet gig that is maybe Jack Harper has enough balls to just try to become the dictator of Canada. That just seems incredibly odd to me that he has the power to do that.

[CFH]

And if Bush shut down the Capital because he was about to be impeached, holy shit. I live in the most liberal area in the US maybe anywhere I have no idea. They would go absolutely ape shit down here hahaha

I saw this on the ticker on CNN that he was going to shut down parliament after I read this thread and thought, wow. That's crazy stuff where the hell are the checks and balances? So if the Prime Minister decides the Prime Minister can simply answer to no one? Hahaha what a sweet gig that is maybe Jack Harper has enough balls to just try to become the dictator of Canada. That just seems incredibly odd to me that he has the power to do that.

I would fully support a fascist dictator ruling Canada. I'd be the first one to order a black shirt and learn whatever kooky salute was required of me.

[CFH]

Parliament has been suspended, the desires of the majority ignored. I still go back and forth on this, but I think suspending Parliament was the wrong thing to do; and once again I'm leaning towards supporting the Coalition.

So now we have no fucking federal government until Feb.? Great, not like there are any major issues which need to be dealt with or anything. I love the cooperating with "Separatists" fear-mongering tactic used by Harper. Like it or not, those ELECTED politicians represent the wishes of Quebecers and they should be respected as much as any other party.

GG agrees to suspend Parliament: PMO