Comments on: What's happening in Canada?

By: Elizabeth Renaud Blavat

Elizabeth Renaud Blavat — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:47:03 +0000

Thank you for the excellent explantion. Mon Pere est Qubecois! I listen to the Canadian radio program broadcast on US’s NPR nightly (the name is completely slipping my mind at the moment!) but I have been confused, and fascinated with the process and drama happening in your wonderful country.

So strange to hear you wonderfully cheerful, oh so civilized Canadians completely irate and caught up in this dramatic turn of events! We are political junkies, suffering the post election blues following our presidential election. We are so happy Obama won!

I think the Conservative party of Canada failed to learn a lesson from our election: mean spirited, harsh rhetoric comments made about those who differ and accusing those whose views are different from theirs of being unpatriotic will not win any more elections or hearts and minds of free thinking intelligent citizens. O Canada! We are praying you can all forgive and forget when this is begind you. We love our northern neighbors and relatives in Quebec dearly, but you may keep your Arctic air masses to yourself! J/K!!

By: The Economy » Blog Archive » Ephems of Blb » Blog Archive » on Leaking

The Economy » Blog Archive » Ephems of Blb » Blog Archive » on Leaking — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:22:12 +0000

[...] Megginson Technologies: Quoderat » Blog Archive » What’s happening … [...]

By: Joel Amoussou

Joel Amoussou — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:19:16 +0000

A US-Canada liberal “Axis of Good” would be cool!

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:39:31 +0000

“whether the move was morally right or wrong, it was politically ignorant”

Doesn’t that just perfectly sum things up

Canada didn’t vote for anyone this election – after all, less than 1/2 of the country voted (for clarity sake, I’m taking percentage of the countries population; not just registered voters).

By: Chris Charabaruk

Chris Charabaruk — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:22:45 +0000

The role of the sovereign and Governor General are not purely ceremonial. Close, but no. Likewise, the Senate is not as ceremonial as you make it sound, either — and in fact, there was a time when the Senate played more of a role in federal politics than it does today. The reason it’s more by the wayside is the strengthening of party politics in Canada since the start of Confederation.

By: » The Current Brouhaha in Canadian Politics, Explained Briefly » The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century : Joey deVilla’s Personal Blog

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:02:55 +0000

[...] his blog, Quoderat, David Megginson provides an excellent summary of the brouhaha that’s currently taking place in Canadian politics right now. If you’re not familiar with the Canadian parliamentary system of government, worry not: he [...]

By: B J

B J — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:22:12 +0000

The Governor General of Canada is the defacto ( in fact as opposed to dejure in law ) head of state.
All provinces and states were released from the British monarchy as a result of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 to be Sovereign within their spheres ( free within their boundaries). Quebec recognizes this and is the only province in the geographic land mass commonly known as Canada ( not to be confused with the defacto government which is a corporation registered in Washington DC at the Canadian embassy) that recognizes this.
The defacto federal government is encroaching on the exclusive powers of the provinces given to them under the BNA Act. Our politicians are actors who are passing acts and statutes which are the rules of the corporation known as Canada and registered in Washington. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms is proof of this in section 32 of the defacto government produced copy ( not the internet version)wherein the last paragraph it states that the Charter only applies to Governments ( federal, provincial and municipal) and does not apply to individual,corporations or others.
The acts and statutes apply to the employees of the corporations and not to the masses.
Our ignorance through a controlled education system is keeping us enslaved.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:55:52 +0000

It’s weird to see how someone could find this way of building a government weird – at least from a European perspective.

Isn’t this exactly what Pluralism is about? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralism_(political_theory)

Combining several political directions into one government to create policies that represent the views of most of the voters through a coalition doesn’t seem bad to me.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:44:34 +0000

Everybody’s saying that “we didn’t vote for Dion.” Well, unless you live in Calgary you didn’t vote for Harper either. That’s the way our system works. There are two power grabs going on here; the Conservative power grab has failed; we’ll see if the coalition power grab does better.

By: david

david — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:44:25 +0000

Nick: Canada didn’t vote for Harper, Dion, Duceppe, or Layton. The only people who voted for Stephen Harper were the constituents of Calgary West, and the only people who voted for Stéphane Dion were the consituents of Saint-Laurent – Cartierville — each riding elects its own MP, and then the 308 MPs get to decide who governs. Harper leads the party with the most seats, so he gets to go first, but if he cannot convince at least 155 of our elected representatives to support him, then Duceppe gets to give it a try next.

It doesn’t really matter when or why the other parties started plotting against him — love it or hate it, this is how our system was set up and exactly how it’s supposed to work.

By: Darren Chartier

Darren Chartier — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:53:31 +0000

@Nick: opposition parties in a minority parliament were strategizing after the election!?!? OMG CALL THE NEWS IT’S UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!

Great article on the whole, one thing you might want to add to our potentially confused American cousins is how the our “congress” (parliament) is also the executive branch through the Cabinet. So the comparison to the leaders of congressional committee’s isn’t exactly apt, it’s more like the PM appoints the various executive branch equivalents (i.e. Minister of Foreign Affairs is like the Secretary of State, etc).

anywho, good article =P

d_c

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:25:40 +0000

One problem with the article though. It seems there is prrof of coalition talks the NIGHT AFTER the NDP and the Bloc lost the election. They were just waitng for the right time to let it out, and the first confidence motion was more than enough.

Canada didn’t vote for Dion, and this is just an unacceptable power grab by the other parties.

By: Tim Fletcher

Tim Fletcher — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:22:04 +0000

An excellent writeup. Thanks!

By: Robin Taylor Roth

Robin Taylor Roth — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:09:33 +0000

Just a note of reassurance to those US folks who might wonder: the party leader does have to win his/her own Parliamentary seat. That has caused a few problems, in the past, leading to hastily manoevered by-elections.