Canada has a sudden outbreak of parliamentary democracy

[pecunium]

Harper called an election last October, probably because he was afraid an Obama win would affect things up North. He managed to keep a minority gov't in being; one which was almost the same as the one he called, "dysfunctional and unworkable," when he called the election.

With Bushlike grace he promptly began to act as if he had an unassailable majority. A couple of weeks ago the agenda they wanted to carry out was made known. It had a lot of things Canadians, by and large, are against: things like three striks laws, the repeal of parts of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights, creating; "crimes against the unborn", restricting the right to strike, and a bunch of other stuff.

As a result the opposition got together to discuss, well opposing.

Last week Harper really stepped in it, he proposed a budget which the opposition (and a lot of the MP constituents) didn't like, and he proposed; as a means of saving money, that the funding of Candian Parties be removed.

Since the Conservatives are flush, at the moment this didn't go down too well (the Liberals just had a leadership race, the NDP is always short of cash, and Canada has had had more elections of late than normal; three, in a time period where one is the norm, added to that new funding rules drastically changed who can donate, and how much).

I guess Harper was thinking the opposition in Canada would act like the Democrats, instead of the Republicans, in his neighbor to the south. He was wrong.

Come the next vote of confidence, he's out. In all probability he will hold a record for the shortest lived gov't in Canadian history. The wonderful irony of it all is the tactics being used against him (even to some of the critical players) is exactly the same as those he put forward in 2004, when he was leading an opposition party.

Comments

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to hear what my sister's got to say about this. (She's up in Winnipeg.)

[calimac.livejournal.com]

With Bushlike grace he promptly began to act as if he had an unassailable majority.

When will they learn? This attitude is what so quickly sank the short-lived Joe Clark government back in 1979. (Clark certainly learned: he was much less arrogant in later years, and when last heard of he had abandoned the Conservatives altogether and was semi-endorsing the Liberals.)

Statistical footnote: Clark's government lasted 66 days between the call of Parliament and dissolution, so if Harper falls next week that will indeed be shorter - about 3 weeks! I'm not sure how long the Meighen government lasted in 1926: he was PM for 88 days, but that included the election campaign period after dissolution.

[greenmother.livejournal.com]

It's telling that one of the Conservative talking points is that the coalition's actions are "undemocratic". Which highlights how little they know (or want to know) about Canada's parliamentary democracy and how it works or, alternatively, how little they believe most Canadians to know about our parliamentary democracy and how it works.

I am hoping that our Governor General will refuse any request by Mr. Sweater Vest (in our household he is none too fondly referred to as Ferret-Boy, even though it defames both ferrets and boys. But I digress.) to prorogue Parliament or to call an election rather than allow the Liberal-NDP-BQ coalition to form a government.