NO CONFIDENCE AND DISSOLUTION . . .

Well, Meech Lake was a constitutional crisis--issues of constitutional significance are decided by the provinces, and require unanimity. That ain't likely to happen. Parliament has no say in those matters.

Harper has successfully gotten a prorogation twice. On the first occasion, he was just weaseling out of a challenge to his authority, and he meekly backed down before Parliament came back, without admitting that he'd done so. You see, in a Westminister style of government, cabinet ministers have far more power than do cabinet secretaries in our government, and the executive has in some respects more power than does out executive. A minister can set policy which has a profound effect on citizens, without a vote in the Paliament--such as tax code, or labor regulation. Those are things which would require Congress to act in our system. So, for example, the Finance Minister (and nobody in Harper's government acts without his knowledge and consent--everybody does what Stephen Harper tells 'em) torpedoed an equal pay for equal work provision for women, and some policies about public sector workers which had the force of law. He was in the **** for it, nobody was happy. So he convinced the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, and then quietly dropped those policies before they came back. The electorate being what it is, the outrage was past its due date.

But the last time he pulled that ****, the NDP and the Liberals were prepared to jerk the carpet out from under him in a perfectly constitutional and reasonable manner by forming a government by coalition. Instead, Harper convinced the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, forever blackening the reputation of a woman who had been highly popular until that time. She's been replaced, and no one really knows if the new Governor General would grant a prorogation. But, if Harper comes back from the election with the most seats, but a minority government, and his budget is defeated, the traditional remedy is for the other parties to have a shot at forming a government, and the Conservatives would be out. Harper is too much of a megalomaniac and a bully to let that happen, so he might well ask for a prorogation. If he did, and the GG granted it, people would be outraged, especially younger voters. Harper has a pretty arrogant attitude about the attention span of voters and their outrage--but he may well be fouling the Conservative nest with younger voters, who formed Facebook groups and set up online action groups the last time this happened. Maybe he's right--but then again, maybe he's short-sighted and he's digging the grave of the Conservative Party. It all remains to be seen.

I seriously doubt that he'll get a majority, but it would not surprise me to see him come back with more seats. The Liberals have been a bunch of stumblebums for the last several years, and it seems that nobody has a very high opinion of the Liberal leader, Ignatieff, who would presumably be the Prime Miniister if a coalition formed a government. The New Democrats don't have the seats to form a government, and the Bloc is not a national party. We live in interesting times.

Does the prorogation have a set time in which Parlaiment must "reset itself" and then come back? or does the PM call for its return also? So interprovincial affairs are settled by the provinces? Thats sorta like Interstate Commerce or crossing provincial lines no? How do they make interprovincial hiways work?

Sorry for bustin in on a thread but I have to asmit a lot of ignorance on Canadian govt . I spend a lotta time up there and Im more amazed at how the provinces act like little(or big) kingdoms, with the exceptions of the RCMP or the CCG on the water. I see the presence of CRCG much more obviously than I do the USCG when we cross over many times. The Canadians are always bouy tending and checking whereas the US couldnt even tell you where last years bouys wandered off to. SO we have these update maps that are like xerox prints to isert in entore areas where bouys have been ripped away and are gone. Itd take em three years to replace . Et every year I see the Canadians dusting and painting even the most menial of bouys.
We all have GPS so its not a matter of a quaint technoilogy. A bouy is still the best confirmation that youve been plotting correctly and that your GPS aint fucked up.

AGain, sorry for the interruptions but You guys dont have a great right wing radio network up there, so everything is filtered through CBC

Prorogation is for a set period--a couple of months, i believe, but don't quote me. Traditionally, it was at the pleasure of the monarch. Charles I prorogued Parliament in 1628, and didn't call them back for ten years. By 1638, some members had died, some had left the country, and some simply refused to come to Westminster. They couldn't form a quorum, and a new election was held, which returned an even more combative and rebellious parliament. Maybe one of the Canajuns here will know how long a prorogation lasts.

Meech Lake was a constitutional question--it was only a constitutional question. It was an attempt to get Québec to ratify the 1982 constitution, and thereby make les habitants happy about remaining in Canadia, and give up all that annoying separatist nonsense. It failed utterly. The provincial consent is only needed for constitutional issues. Commerce and finance are in the purview of the House of Commons.

Yeah, everything is filtered through the CBC for most Americans. There is talk radio here, though, but you'd have to know what station to tune in to. CBC have a rather noticeable liberal bias. Talk radio in Canadia is flagrantly conservative (any that i've ever heard) which probably helps their ratings, the pragmatical dogs.

I like the sound of the whole process.
SO you have conservative talk radio? Ill bet they use talk radio convversation words of more than one syllable up there.

Any sign of the Online Party of Canada becoming active?

and the campaign begins!

election May 2nd

Apparently, here in B.C. we're saving one trip to the polls this year:

---

HST Referendum Will Be Mail In
Vancouver/AM980

3/25/2011

The Provincial Government is moving to a mail in vote when we vote on the HST June 24th.

There will be no change to the referendum question itself.

Attorney General Barry Penner says moving to a mail in ballot is expected to save BC taxpayers 18 million dollars, and address potential voter fatigue.

He says it will be undertaken by Elections BC "in a neutral fashion".

not sure how to vote?

here's a voting compass from the CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/03/11/cv2011-vote-compass.html

just think folks, if the conservatives win another minority, and the others reject their budget (which was the other way the election could have been triggered), and a coalition government can't be put together, we could all be voting again in July (and September and November and.........)

hahahahaha

I'm apparently about evenly likely to vote Green or Bloc, even though I answered the quiz that I'd never vote either.

I'm morally to the left of everyone. Economically, I'm mostly left of the Conservatives and Liberals, though I agree with the Conservatives on one point.

Iggy said "no" about being part of a coalition in his opening speech this morning.

Harper said Canadians wouldn't know, or care, why there was a contempt vote. He may be surprised. The pundits suggested that it was a stupid comment for him to make.

Unfortunately, I live in a riding that ALWAYS votes Conservative federally, and "Liberal" (read conservative, social credit) provincially.

Or, the GG could get his head out of his ass, and allow the Liberals and the NDP to attempt to form a government.

On the classical radio station today, during the news, they reported that two thirds of a representative sample of "seniors" (by which they mean people over 55) said that honesty in government members was more important to them than any other issue. I can't speak to the accuracy of the poll, but if it is accurate, Harper could be in for an ugly surprise. Ignatieff's a putz. If he got more seats than the conservatives, he'd still need to form a coalition to govern, and that would mean making nice with the NDP.

OH YEH, while Im at getting edumacated. Explain the origin of the term "Riding" , Is it like a district that could be ridden about on horseback in a day?

Sorta like Wm.PEnns "Walking Purchase"?

they've got about 600 likes on FB

that's not much oomph

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographically-based constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a circonscription, but frequently called a comté (county).

Originally, most electoral districts were equivalent to the counties used for local government, hence the French unofficial term comté. However, it became common, especially in Ontario, to divide counties with sufficient population to multiple electoral divisions; these became unofficially known as ridings, from an archaic British term denoting a subdivision of a county.

Soon after Confederation, the urban population grew — and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote. Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" was then used to refer to any electoral division.

A political party's local organization is generally known as a riding association.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_(country_subdivision)
The word riding is descended from late Old English *þriðing or *þriding (recorded only in Latin contexts or forms, e.g., trehing, treding, trithing, with Latin initial t here representing the Old English letter thorn). It came into Old English as a loanword from Old Norse þriðjungr, meaning a third part (especially of a county), cf. farthing. The modern form riding was the result of initial th being absorbed in the final th or t of the words north, south, east and west, by which it was normally preceded.

A common misconception holds that the term arose from some association between the size of the district and the distance that can be covered on horseback in a certain amount of time.

I know I could look it up but hearing it from a homie who can cut through the stuff is preferable.

or i guess its le homie