[log1c]

What's the deal with this??


Canadian PM employs loophole in potential power grab - CNN.com

You guys can just absolve your parliment?

We need a little help here understanding who is running your country right now.

-Sincerely

Your friends to the south

[MSP]

I sure wish we could dissolve our representatives... in a vat of acid.

[mattdev]

I blame NDP for getting Harper elected.

[smirnoff]

Okay so right now we have a govt made up of a bunch of different parties, and none currently have majority. So we call it a minority govt.

Any party can call for an election, whenever they like. The decision to have an election gets voted on.

(at least that's the basic gist of what's happening... I get as lost as anybody trying to understand the system and all it's quirks)

_________

Edit: So to more directly answer your question logic... Yes, we CAN just dissolve our parliament.

The possibility of a Minority Govt is one of the benefits of having more than 2 major parties imo...

[Lord Kain]

Originally Posted by mattdev

I blame NDP for getting Harper elected.

lol.... right... I just hope you're not serious

[mistawiskas]

Originally Posted by smirnoff

Okay so right now we have a govt made up of a bunch of different parties, and none currently have majority. So we call it a minority govt.

Any party can call for an election, whenever they like. The decision to have an election gets voted on.

(at least that's the basic gist of what's happening... I get as lost as anybody trying to understand the system and all it's quirks)

_________

Edit: So to more directly answer your question logic... Yes, we CAN just dissolve our parliament.

The possibility of a Minority Govt is one of the benefits of having more than 2 major parties imo...

The complications are there by design. An inimatic government can get away with more.... just look at ours'. "plausible deniability" is the politician's best tool.

[smirnoff]

Originally Posted by mistawiskas

The complications are there by design. An inimatic government can get away with more.... just look at ours'. "plausible deniability" is the politician's best tool.

That may be so. Add to that the tendency for power to attract the corruptible and you get a real shit sandwich.

[log1c]

I wish we had a 3rd party. Libertarian is the most obvious one, ... since it blends the aspects of both major parties. Too bad they didn't latch onto the "CHANGE!" mantra early enough, or they could squeeek by at 5% of the vote.

[Goofus Maximus]

I really think I prefer a Parliamentary system to the one we have now. If we'd kept our Constitution, our system would be great, but the current two-party Imperialist system we have, I don't like!

They've undercut too many of the checks-and-balances, added a vast additional 4th branch of Government in the Civil Service bureaucracy, that isn't covered in detail by the Constitution, and just plain ignored (and don't use) checks like the ability of Governors to call Constitutional Conventions to completely bypass the Congress and amend the Constitution directly.

Edit: The Libertarians were FORMED on a platform of change. They just don't get constant media coverage so that everyone would know what they stand for...

[Juballharshaw]

Originally Posted by log1c

I wish we had a 3rd party. Libertarian is the most obvious one, ... since it blends the aspects of both major parties.

Haha, what?

The Libertarian platform of small federal government and local control run contrary to both major parties. Plus, they're not going to to be a viable 3rd party until they siphon off the Goldwater Republicans, ie the Ron Paul crowd.

The two major parties I see coming up that could take a significant portion of the voting populous are the Constitution and Green parties, though not anytime soon.

[MaesterB]

Yeah...this election, I'm voting Harper and his Conservatives back in. They've done the west some good.

Stephane Dion is an idiot who really thinks his new Carbon Tax is the way to win people over, but only in eastern Canada. Sure...tax the shit out of the provinces that are making money in oil right now (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan) and funnel it back into Ontario, and thusly Quebec, because east sucks ass and can't make money for themselves. (sorry lord kain..it's a fact )

And then there's the NDP...PLEASE. Jack Layton and his cronies spouting off things just so people notice they are there. And the Bloc...why are they a party in the house of commons for the country of CANADA?! Nobody outside Quebec votes for them, and the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP have people that are representatives of ridings within Quebec, so the Bloc should be left out of it.

I think BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and I guess we can take Manitoba with us too, should just form the Country of Western Canada, and watch Eastern Canada wither and die.

/rant

[jake]

I was suprised by how many people I talked to in Quebec in the last few days who said they would be voting conservative this election. If Harper ever smiled in a picture he would have the majority easy.

I will be voting green again this election.

[smirnoff]

Originally Posted by jake

I will be voting green again this election.

Likewise...

But what's this crap about green being excluded from the debates Recent polls showed they had 7% of the countries support.

[MaesterB]

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe didn't threaten a boycott, but did express a preference for only the four major parties at the debate

Four major parties? Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP. Three. Who's the fourth? Maybe if the Bloc and Green got together, that might be enough for a fourth party.

[smirnoff]

Well they do have a significant numbers of seats... but yeah they are far from the voice of the country.