Canadian Government Fall Down Go Boom
A Canadian government it seems cannot stand alone, unless they
have a majority, then they can do what they want. Canadians
don't see it often but in November 2005 a minority liberal
government was defeated by a conservative motion of
non-confidence. This is possibly the most useless act in world
wide politics. Keep in mind I'm saying this one day after the
governments defeat, and it won't be until January 23rd that I'm
proven right, but I will be proven right. Before I get too far
in I'll give you a bit of an explanation for those of you who
don't follow Canadian politics, non-Canadians can probably skip
this paragraph. Any member of parliament can move to vote on no
confidence, the government themselves can even do it. If the
vote goes against the government they must either resign or call
an election. In the case of the November vote, Stephen Harper
moved for a vote of no confidence, the first even successful
straight vote of no confidence. Usually a vote of no confidence
is attached to a bill, the government will often use the vote of
no confidence to force through bills that its own party don't
agree with. If they don't vote for a bill with a no confidence
vote attach they risk an election, and thus they risk their
jobs. So basically the vote of no confidence has been used by
Prime Minister to keep their MP's in line. This is most useful
in majority governments when the PM knows that all they need is
their own party to vote with them. In this most recent case it
was a Liberal party that fell. Until recently the NDP were
keeping the Liberals in power. They do this sort of thing for
other favours, you vote my bill I'll vote your bill, you don't
defeat my government I'll add a pay raise for you here, etc...
Seems useful right, seems the NDP may have something up their
sleeve right? Wrong. The NDP are more confused that the
conservatives and the Conservatives don't know their head from a
hole in the ground, and this is coming from someone who has only
ever voted conservative! Why is this whole process useless you
may be asking by know, for the same reason I'm just getting to
my point now, it's a waste of time. The Liberal government is
just going to be re-elected. They won a minority in the last
election and they are going to win a minority again. The
Conservatives are not trusted enough to win an election. Their
radical viewpoints may have been accepted twenty years ago, but
today Mr Harper, most of us are ok with gay marriages, try
peddling that view point in the US. Fears from ancient Alliance
and Reform policies, such as their gun policy, do not help
either. Maybe the NDP will get elected? Fat chance, you're hard
pressed to find someone who doesn't think of the NDP as a big
joke. Well maybe the liberals will win a majority government
this time? That will be tough with the sponsorship scandal still
fresh in our minds. The result will be another minority Liberal
government, but first we need to pay for an election and
election campaigning over Christmas, hooray! The blame should
lie in the conservatives lap. While the Liberals historically
rule this country the Conservatives do get in once in a while
and make so advancement in directions the Liberals don't. So why
can't they get into power now that the Liberals look so
terrible? The conservatives split into three separate parties.
Canada has enough trouble just getting people to vote in the
first place, now we have to worry about understanding party
affiliation as well. And those who do vote are always going to
vote for the party that allows gay marriages, abortions, and pot
smoking. Oh yeah and if you think economic policy is going to
change someone's mind, think again. Economic policies have about
as much place in the voters mind as they did in this article.