What's going on up there Canada?

[Ltrain]

Can someone explain the issue between the Canadian parliament and the Prime Minister? I am curious. Thanks!

[UG]

Canadia is a poor and sparsely-populated country where up to 98% of the citizens are alcoholics.

[pgil]

as far as I understand the situation, the opposition parties were unimpressed with the latest budget proposal of the sitting minority government, and so were faced with the prospect of rejecting the budget, which forces an election because budget votes are confidence votes, and if a sitting government loses a confidence vote in parliament, they can no longer lead.

As an alternative to another election, the opposition parties got together and came up with an alternative to another election so close to the last two. The NDP and Liberal parties, with the backing of the Bloc Quebecois, would form a coalition government when the sitting conservative government falls.

Together they have enough votes (seats in parliament) to pass legislation, and possibly more importantly, to be able to pass budgets and survive other confidence votes.

Now it is up to the Governor General (who, up until now, I was certain was simply a figurehead position who could not actually make any decisions, guess I was wrong) to decide whether to call another election after the non-confidence vote, or to allow the opposition parties to form a coalition government.

I think I got it all right.

[AHiltz]

You are wrong. The budget was not the issue. It was the Economic Update that supposedly pissed off the Opposition. The Opp are claiming that the Conservatives are not doing enough to try and stimulate the economy.

A few things can happen here now and all roads lead to the Gov General. The PM is going to try and get her to end the current parliamentary session until January which would allow the Tories to retain control for a while longer. The Opp on the other hand are going to try and get her to recognize and allow their alliance which would give them control and make the Liberal leader the new PM. The GG also has the option to ignore them both and allow parliament to continue. If that happens the Opp will take the first non-confidence vote opportunity and bring down the gov't forcing yet another election.

[Ltrain]

as far as I understand the situation, the opposition parties were unimpressed with the latest budget proposal of the sitting minority government, and so were faced with the prospect of rejecting the budget, which forces an election because budget votes are confidence votes, and if a sitting government loses a confidence vote in parliament, they can no longer lead.

As an alternative to another election, the opposition parties got together and came up with an alternative to another election so close to the last two. The NDP and Liberal parties, with the backing of the Bloc Quebecois, would form a coalition government when the sitting conservative government falls.

Together they have enough votes (seats in parliament) to pass legislation, and possibly more importantly, to be able to pass budgets and survive other confidence votes.

Now it is up to the Governor General (who, up until now, I was certain was simply a figurehead position who could not actually make any decisions, guess I was wrong) to decide whether to call another election after the non-confidence vote, or to allow the opposition parties to form a coalition government.

I think I got it all right.

How do you have a Minority Government in power? Was it a coalition that dissolved?

[a500lbgorilla]

thats so cool. who knew Canada was capable of such drama!

[pgil]

a minority government isn't uncommon. the last government we had was also a minority. They form the government because they had the most votes of all of the single parties. They just had to get votes from members of other parties to get legislation passed and to survive non-confidence votes.

I believe that they had the backing of the bloc for the most part in the last minority government. It was definitely not a coalition.

In the new coalition government, if it happens, there will be members from both parties holding cabinet positions. this was not the case in the last two, which were minorities.

[Galapogos]

thats so cool. who knew Canada was capable of such drama!

Yeah, it's really just a scam to make the world think we have cool politics too. Jon Stewart cut us deep when he made fun of us for no one else in the world knowing about our quiet little election going on at the same time as yours.