Historic vote topples Harper Government
Canadians are getting a Spring election as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government lost a confidence vote in Parliament this afternoon. Harper will call on the Governor General, David Johnston, on Saturday to formally launch the election process.
The unique aspect of this was the nature of the motion: for the first time in Canadian history, the ruling party has been found in contempt of Parliament, for allegations they deliberately withheld information on matters up for Parliamentary consideration.
Harper has just addressed the press, stating the economy remains the main priority of the nation and he’ll be taking that case to the electorate.
The opposition will be running hard on the themes of ethics, leadership and democratic process.
By law the election must be held on a Monday after a campaign of at least 36 days, leading to projections of May 2 or May 9th as election day. Those details should be known by next week.
I don’t know all the specifics, but how refreshing to read the words 36 days in the same sentence with “election.” Imagine if we had an election process that short. More and more I’m beginning to think Canada has a lot more going for it than I had previously considered.
Oh, Canada rocks!
A parliamentary system has several advantages with the short election process being one. Since there aren’t fixed elections there is no “permanent campaign” like we are stuck with and lawmakers have to do the nation’s business if they want to get re-elected, not just blame everything on the other side. The other big advantage is that because minority parties actually have some clout. Their support is often required in order to form a government so they get at least some say in what happens. And contrary to the nay sayers they have a better health care system, 30th on the WHO rankings compared to 37th for the US so yes, they have a lot going for them.
Oh, I forgot this one… When you win a million in the Canadian lottery, you actually get a million not a million minus annuity interest and taxes.
We always call Canada “The place where they do everything right”, and until the border guards got guns, I believed it……It was probably our idea.
There’s no reason we couldn’t shorten our election seasons. Have a 50 state primary on the first Tues of Sept (Super Duper Tuesday) and the election in Nov. Simple as that. But it would take an agreement of all the States to do it.
Canada has some good ideas, they also have some cruddy ones. But hey, the grass is always greener….
“Canada has some good ideas, they also have some cruddy ones. But hey, the grass is always greener….”
Who needs green grass when you can have snow all year round (like they pretty much do in the Northwest Territory)?