Crazy Canadian Politics

I'm sure most of you know what has been happening in the weeks before the Canadian parliament was prorogued. However, for those of you who don't know, here's a very brief recap:

Background:

The story begins with the Conservative party of Canada presenting a "mini-budget" to make changes before the full budget comes out in January. In this budget, among other things, they included a bill to remove the per-vote subsidies for political parties. They said that political parties needed to "tighten their belts" during the economic recession. This bill was a matter of confidence, meaning that if it was stopped that it would mean that another election would be called. The rest of the political parties rely fairly heavily on these subsidies, and by presenting this bill Harper gave the other party leaders two options: a) let the bill through and try to find new methods of funding, or b) stop the bill and set off another election which no one wants and for which they would be blamed.

The other parties didn't take too kindly to the removal of the subsidies and threatened Harper's government with a coalition (they would team up to form a majority in the house of commons and take over governing the country). When the coalition threats remained after Harper removed the bill, Harper asked the Governor General to prorogue parliament (put it on hold until next January). The GG granted this and Parliament Hill is currently inactive.

There are two sides to this debate. One side supports Harper and says that a coalition is undemocratic because Harper was voted to be the PM and anyone else leading the country would be against the will of the people.

The other side notes that as long as a majority of the house of commons supports one person, that person should be the PM. It is democratic as long as the leader has the most votes in parliament.

I want to hear your opinions on this. I'm trying to remain neutral for the time being, because I want to be able to see the outcome without any bias one way or the other.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

There are fair arguments for both sides of this debate. Obviously those in favor of the coalition will say that the coalition is completely democratic, while those who voted conservative will say that this coalition goes against the will of the voters.

Unfortunately for the Conservatives, the coalition is completely legal - in fact, it's even written into the constitution that if a minority government leader can't keep government together and functioning, the opposition can form a coalition and take over the running of government and make it work.

So while some say that the coalition is undemocratic, they are wrong. This is still, however, a major turning point in Canadian politics. If the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc can get parliament to work, it could mean that future governments could be more willing to do the same. If it fails, however, it could be the end of coalitions in Canada for a long time. This is unprecedented territory in Canada - hopefully it works out for the best.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Videos - Rick Mercer Report - CBC Television

Everything you wanted to know about Canada but were afraid to ask. Now with pictures!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This is true. If the MP shouting "treason" honestly believes what he is saying, it means that he does not know for a fact that it is treason, and is making things up as he goes, which is not a good trait for your local MP to have. However, If he does know that it is not treasonous, then he is deliberately lying to the people of Canada to try to get them to take the Conservative's side in this whole affair. And MPs lying like that is simply unacceptable.

I think the biggest reason that the political comedians like Mercer and Colbert don't get too angry is that they don't want to take a side officially. Because some of the things they try to say are actually legitimate, they don't want anyone to discount what they have to say on account of bias. I've been watching Rick for long enough to know that he's quite liberal-minded, but it's a lot easier to make fun of all politicians if you try to keep an open mind. Besides, their job is to make people notice politics and laugh at it. They aren't political analysts (Colbert's an actor, Mercer dropped out of high school to pursue comedy), they just make politics understandable for people without the patience to watch the news or question period.

And funny as heck.

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