I have to admit, I was a little surprised to hear you can just sorta combine parties and voila! New PM.

However, I think US election fever rubbed off on Canadians. I've always felt that our government was less centralized. I vote for the MP that I think will work hardest for me, and/or whose platform is most in line with what is important to me, and not for the party leader I want to head the country.

Interesting times regardless.

[quote]quote:Originally posted by Dru

Dru, in theory you are correct and I wish it were so. However, I've often wondered why they bother to put names on ballots. Seriously. They do NOT vote on their own. It is the exception, the rule is do what the party/leader says. Don't and you're out.
Harper has taken back the contentious demands but they still want the power. I think that shows what is really important to the Liberals and Layton!

Sam has it correct, and she participates in Canadian democracy the way the system intended for voters to participate. Unfortunately all too many of us, myself included, tend to vote against who we'd least like rather than for the candidate who we would like. I suppose this is yet another plug for proportional representation to replace our first past the post electoral system.



Well I can only tell you that we have elected our leaders, and every last one of them now occupies a seat in parliament with each member enjoying a single vote, that is how our parliamentary system works and it is an elegant, dynamic and flexible form of government.

Some people seem to forget that in order be Prime Minister of Canada you must have the support of a majority of parliamentary votes. When a Prime Minister no longer has the votes in parliament to pass legislation it is called 'a loss of confidence' and our system then compels the Prime Minister to report to the Governor General that they no longer have the confidence of parliament and a new government must then be formed either by election or by an opposition that does enjoy the 'confidence of parliament'.

Because we have just had an election that essentially returned the same minority government we already had, our constitution allows for the Governor General to ask the Official Opposition if they can form a government as an alternative to calling yet another election.

Now perhaps the idea of a coalition government is just scary enough for Canadians to change their minds about wanting yet another federal election, despite the fact that up to now a majority of voters say they do not.

On the other hand if our system did not allow for an alternative, and the results of another election only returned the same Conservative Minority to be immediately defeated again, then our system could not function.

Thankfully we do have a progressive system and a coalition comprised of MP's who together represent 65% of Canadian votes in the last election does not frighten or upset me at all.

The idea of the Bloc having a prominent place with respect to decisions made for the West scares the crap out of me.

I've seen and heard this number thrown around a lot. It's not true. In fact only 54.4% of the national vote went to Liberal/NDP/Bloc. Hardly an overwhelming large majority. I also laugh at the irony of Liberals and NDP painting Harper as "scary" for Canada, while they get into bed with blatant seperatists (Bloc). Perhaps they should simply have a national vote - conservative mandate vs. coalition mandate - I wonder which would win??

Quebec sovereignty is dead. The only reason the Bloc has the presence it does in today's parliament is because of lingering anger in Quebec towards the Liberal's and an absolute refusal to support Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

Here is a fact to console all who suffer from Bloc anxiety, there is absolutely no avenue available in our constitution for the Bloc to use it's position in parliament to achieve sovereignty for Quebec.

Moreover, talk of Western separation is equally ridiculous.

Ok, but we are not talking about 'overwhelming majorities' because no party has one, and by the same number's, the alternative has only 45% of votes.

Seems to me that that 55% is still a larger base of support of than 45%.

Also, those 55% voted for their individual party. They did NOT vote to support the other 2 parties in the coalition.
There is nothing left in this confidence vote for them to vote against. It is a power grab. Let the voters decide, not the politicians!

if you didn't vote, then in my mind you don't have the right to bitch about it. we cannot say that because someone didn't vote, it means they didn't want any certain party to win, which is what you do when you say that only 22% of eligible voters wanted him as PM. (not saying you didn't, and I know a lot of people didn't vote because they didn't think that anyone deserved their vote, and that is fair enough)

More conservate candidates were elected than any other party. to me (and to federal election law), that says that "we" as a country voted harper in as our PM. 3 guys that lost an election should not be allowed to take over. with your 22% voted for harper logic, that means that even less than that voted for one of the other candidates individually. we hold elections for a reason. Dion himself said that he would work to make sure this parliament work. now he is going back on his word and doing something like this? its perposterous to think that it would even be allowed.

If they want to overthrow the gov't, then they should have to call an election (perfectly legal and acceptable, although IMHO probalbly not the right time to win public opinion by doing this) and have the 3 opposition parties team up and run as one party.

If they do that and win, then fine, they are the new gov't. But to randomly decide to team up and kick out a gov't that was democratically elected less than 2 months ago, without letting the people vote on the issue, that shouldn't happen. how many of you voted for gilles dusept (sp?) to run the country?

Well I'm afraid the voters have already decided and this is the parliament we have. Sure we could go back to the poles in yet another federal election but at some point we're going to need a government that has the confidence of parliament and there is no reason to think we wouldn't get exactly the same result for a third election in a row.

Quite a few people that voted for the Liberals, Bloc or NDP, or Green* for that matter (*1 million votes in total but no MPs) voted "Anybody But Conservative". There was even a Facebook group encouraging it. For those people, a coalition is exactly what they voted for.

I know there were many people who felt that way, however I'm sure it wasn't anywhere close to a "majority of Canadians".

Having said all this. If it were justifiable I would be in support of a coalition if it gave us stability. Just angers me that they are unable to stop playing politics and start solving problems, as the MAJORITY of people wished they would.

Canada cant govern itself, we should become a colony of britain again.

Dude, your MLA represents you in the Provincial Legislature. I don't think they have much say in Parliament. You should write your MP. []

In my opinion, I am happy that there might be a coalition. As a non-Conservative, I think I might actually get some representation in the House of Commons. Now if only we could elect someone with a brain...

Oops. That's what a weekend at Long Beach will do you, softens the brain. Slip of the fingers...I did write my MP, Bill Siksay. I didn't vote for him, but he seemed like a quality person so I think he'll respond.
On another note, I don't even know who my MLA is. Hmmm, I'll go look it up.
Ahh, Harry Bloy. Pretty sure I voted for him. Going senile. [xx(]