Ok. I don't really talk politics here, well, ever. Maybe three posts in all my blog's history? But this? This is ridiculous. Take a wee boo at what's been going down in the Canadian government the last few weeks. (And those of you who run away screaming at political stuff? Seriously. Read this, and TELL me this isn't MESSED UP.) Are ya ready?
We had a federal election in Canada two months ago. You know, the one where they spent 300 million dollars to basically come up with the exact same government they had before, minus a few seats for the liberals, plus a few seats of the conservatives (seriously - it BARELY changed)? You know, the THIRD federal election in five years? That resulted in yet anOTHER minority government? Well it's about to get dissolved.
So here's the breakdown to show how the minority government works, for background:
Conservatives won the most seats, at 143, so they form the governing party.
Liberals got 77 (the official opposition)
Bloc Quebecois got 49
New Democratic Party got 37
Independents got 2
So the Liberals (who lost BIG time and their leader was pretty much disgraced because he led the biggest Liberal loss... ever? In a long time, anyway), Bloc (whose main goal is to have Quebec LEAVE the country and create a new country of their own - good for a federal party, no?), and NDP together have 163, which is actually MORE than the governing party, hence the minority government.
The danger with a minority government, other than making it very difficult to get anything done, is that if the other parties band together and have a vote of non-confidence in the governing party, then the government is dissolved and an election is called.
Now the Liberals, Bloc, and NDP all have VERY different priorities, so don't usually work well together. Usually. Over the last few weeks, however, they have made an unprecedented coalition to vote down the current government because they don't agree with it's policies and think it doesn't have a good plan for the country. Well, duh, that's why you're not part of THEIR party, dum dums. A non-confidence vote would either trigger another election or cause the governor general to name the coalition to be the ruling party (which is more likely, cause if another election was called, people would MUTINY... and likely elect the biggest Conservative majority EVER cause they'd be so ticked off at everybody else for making them vote AGAIN, TWO months after the last one). Of course, the mutiny might be BIGGER (and SHOULD be bigger!) if the parties that the country did NOT vote for suddenly were APPOINTED to rule the country? Um, hello? I thought we were a democracy?
So basically, if this non-confidence vote goes through, the elected government will be replaced with the election losers, led by the man who led his party to the biggest loss ever. It's a big ol' LEGAL "We didn't win so we're staging a giganto hissy fit and taking power anyway to govern a country that REJECTED us."
Eeeeexcellent.
I am SOOOO not a letter writer, but I'll be writing the Governor General to say that heck YEAH we'd better get to vote for a new government if this one falls. Dude, I'll send in my ballot from the middle of nowhere in AFRICA for that one.
:end rant:
8 comments:
yikes. i had to read your email a couple of times and was shocked! ohhh, governments..... nice people need to be in charge. but nice people don't WANT to be in charge because the job sucks. irony.
Wow. That all makes no sense. And we thought America was bad... ;)
You're so going to be glad you're in Africa!!
interesting that if you don't like who's in charge, you can oust 'em and have another election! Craziness!!
yes, it's all very frustrating...
you reminded me of Rick Mercer in his rants... LOL
I've so wanted to rant and haven't been able to. Hubby was reformatting and has restricted my use, now blogger is not letting me post on my blog. :(
I'm ready to .... spit, scream....pu...
And it's because the Conservatives were going to take away tax money that the parties get. It's all about money!!
Well here I am in the opposite camp! The parliamentary democracy we have is all about the various MP working together to come to a compromise about the direction our country should take. Why is it that the conservatives are the only party that does not want to do that? Hmmm - are they afraid of a great big loss? They do not have the support of the majority of the country and they should act like it. If the other parties can work together - give them a try. It can't get any worse.
Mary - true enough! I just think that there should be an election to decide.
Looks like you may get your wish - can the coalition hold until January? Maybe they are a grouchy lot! Plus we all got to learn a new word - though spelling it maybe be an issue. You'll have to figure out how to vote from Kenya.
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