A question for our Canadian friends

So, I followed along with the whole coalition government thing, but how the hell does this happen? Is the Governor General accountable to the people in any way? Did anyone anticipate this kind of situation? Can Harper theoretically just keep the parliament closed until someone comes to his house with pitchforks and torches?

Help a dumb American out here.

Let's just hope that it doesn't give GW any bright ideas...

tanstaafl.

Heh.. Harper got most of his ideas *from* GW -- he's our "mini Bush".

The Queen is our ruler, and the GG is her representative in Canada. Harper is *her* "prime minister" (first minister among ministers).

The Q/GG have little real power, but one of those powers is deciding to dissolve parliament or not. Another is granting the break that Harper wanted.

Since Harper appointed her (because she's probably been a nice supporter of his party in the past), he has more influence on her than is healthy. In this case he seems to have managed to intimidate her into allowing him to withdraw a new parliament with no particular democratic justification.

So we have no reps until the end of January now.

Ugh.

The conservative party has been a disgrace and a cancer in Canada for the past 20-something years. Essentially since the crooked Brian Mulroney took office here.

I'm no expert, but like every other asshole, I have an opinion.

The current government is "in power" but doesn't "have" power. As the article mentioned, this type of move is unprecedented and I didn't think the Governor General had the power or would otherwise agree to this move when it's obviously being made to circumvent the normal way the parliamentary system is supposed to work.

As you've probably read, if a government wants to get anything passed, they need to have a majority of votes. A minority government would therefore need votes from members of parliament belonging to other parties. If they're not proposing things that the opposition parties are strongly against, they'll get those votes.

If they don't get those votes and their proposition fails, the opposition parties can call for a non-confidence vote. Which is basically a vote by the members on whether to oust the minority government due to a their ability to effectively govern the country (not being able to pass propositions means they're essentially useless).

This is the very same method used to dissolve parliament in 2005 (Liberal minority government).

This is just another absurd tactic by Harper's conservatives that continues to aid in the destruction of this country. The last smooth move was the snap election he called in October which resulted in approximately a 54% voter turnout but did gain them a few seats. The election was supposed to be next year with far more campaigning time and obviously more time to prepare and inform the voters that an election was coming up at all.

Unfortunately, a large majority of the country don't trust the NDP (too far left) and the Liberal party has somewhat of a buffoon for a leader right now. Hopefully that will change in the new year which would give the Liberals a real shot at winning an election and with a majority of seats. This past election saw votes split all over the place which also enabled the separatist Quebec-based party (the Bloc) to gain so many seats (49 which is even higher than the NDP's 27)

So, Harper appointed the Governor General, but he works for her? Isn't there an obvious conflict of interest there?

Might this not be a good time to reconsider the whole monarchy thing? I mean, what exactly does being part of the Commonwealth buy y'all?

Funny pictures on your currency and postage stamps.

Sounds like an issue of poor leadership, bad decisions and financial troubles. We better send them 100 billion or so. Canada is too big to fail.

Maybe they could swing by Detroit and car pool to DC to pickup the cash

Well, having the GG means that Harper will be held to the late January date for resumption of parliament, as otherwise the GG can dissolve it and call an election.

It's very handy having that one extra layer there, just for this kind of situation. Just a pity she made an incorrect decision on the first use of this power in, oh, nearly 100 years I think.

Cheers

Incredible goodwill when visiting other Commonwealth nations, lots of athletic gold medals that you folks cannot have, and common roots to help us all get along a teensy bit better.

Cheers

Poutine

No, that's from the other side of the family.. les francophones.

After all, most of those corporate jets that transported Big Three top brass to DC, hat in hand, were made by Bombardier

Ah, anything with cheese curds is good. I only don't get why they need to spoil them with gravy.

Are you kidding?? French fries with gravy is great!

I've yet to sample Poutine (can a vegetarian gravy version be found?). But French fries with mayo is awful good!

Well the corporate jet thing didn't do so well with the begging for money and all. The "Need money for jet fuel" sign just doesn't do it.

Bombardier does make some killer snow machines. Maybe they'll try that next time. Or perhaps a Can-an three wheeler. My pick.

I've has this gravy before, but it's not very good. Tastes like thick, brown, salty water.

Whoops.. failed Canadian Affairs 101 there!

Our current GG, Michaëlle Jean, was actually appointed by the previous Prime Minister, Paul Martin, whose party (the Liberal Party of Canada) is now in opposition.

Cheers

Harper's conservatives are making good use of their time off. They're now wasting more tax dollars on a negative ad campaign against the Liberal party and the proposal of the coalition government.

They claim that power has to be earned and that they were voted in, not the Liberal party and those who would support a coalition.

This is of course complete garbage. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc members of parliament are there because the public voted them into their occupied seats. If they have enough seats to form a coalition it means they have enough seats to control the commons, which means they'd have enough seats to successfully vote down the current government in a no-confidence vote. At the end of the day, this simply means they have more seats. Period.

The public voted and their votes are represented in parliament. The majority of the votes went to the opposition. The opposition was somewhat split and the conservatives "won" by default, not because they earned anything. A coalition government would better represent what the populace wants as it can potentially represent a greater number of voters.

I'm ever so tempted to put up a quick anti-Harper web site. Something like stepdown.ca would be a good domain too.

It's a disgrace that in the current economic climate the conservatives voted to give themselves a vacation (aka stay of execution) until late January. I might as well be literally wiping my ass with my money, since every while the conservatives occupy even a handful of seats in the parliament, we're doing it figuratively.

I'm hoping todays election can finally put an end to the "Harper Government" and bring about the return of the "Government of Canada".

Good luck up there.

Yeah, congrats to Canada, for getting rid of Harper. Hopefully Justin can undo some of the damage that's been done.

The damage is rather extensive unfortunately. That bastard was in there far too long.

Holy necro-post, Batman!

And yeah, nice to see the Harper era come to an end. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to suffer through 78 whole days of election ads! *weeps uncontrollably*

Fortunately, I don't get to watch TV ads, and radio ads in the car were avoided easily enough.

My parents however.. hook, line and sinker. But fortunately enough of their neighbours had a better outlook on things.

Cheers

On the flip side, the rest of the world really does understand the insanity of the U.S. election system, since our insanity is broadcast worldwide. That said, Donald Trump piñatas are a thing. There's at least something marginally right in the world.

Another example seen in Guadalajara: A new play titled "Trump's Children." the tag line is "A dark comedy about the White Hou$e".