History is Made in Canadian Politics
The government has fallen. This isn't a big shock, as well all knew it was coming, the opposition was just waiting to call it so that we wouldn't end up with an election during the Christmas holidays. Today, at around 7pm EST the minority government of the Liberals was defeated in a non-confidence vote. This has only happened 4 or 5 times before in the history of Canada since Confederation. So why is this historic? B/C it is the first time that the non-confidence vote was a solely non-confidence vote. There are several votes throughout the year which constitute confidence votes, the main one being the budget. If a government proposes the budget, and the house votes it down, it can be cause to dissolve parliament. Today's confidence vote was a motion, put forward by the Conservatives, which simply said the government did not have the confidence of the MPs (members of parliament), and shouldn't govern anymore. And yes, I did sit at home and watch 300 some odd MPs stand up and clap for each other. What can I say? I grew up in a politics obsessed family.
I have to say I'm impressed with how all the MPs handled the vote. The last time we had one of these (in the Spring), there was a lot of yelling and whatnot. I guess knowing the outcome made everybody more polite. There was an MP from BC who is being treated for cancer and, therefore, couldn't fly but wanted to be there so much that he drove the entire way across the country. The entire house gave him a standing ovation when he voted. This friendliness will not last long. Pretty much every correspondent is predicting this campaign, the longest in 25 years, is also going to be the ugliest. I look forward to the hilarious black and white commercials.
The emails into the news are fairly amusing. People saying they're excited for the election, despite the fact that it's going to be on Jan 23, which just happens to be the coldest time of year. One viewer wrote that he was hoping to get a sign in his front lawn before the ground froze. Hee! Canadians really do kick *ss.
Why is all of this happening? Mostly b/c of the sponsership scandal. I feel fairly confident that nobody in the USA has ever heard of the sponsorship scandal, which is kind of sad, b/c I've heard of Scooter Libby, and he is nothing compared to this. The sponsership scandal in summary? In Canada we have a province called Quebec. Quebec is French. There are a lot of Quebecois who feel that they should be their own country. There is a political party whose whole purpose is the seperation of Quebec. Many years ago, when I was in Gr. 3, we held a referendum in Quebec to decide whether or not they would leave the country. (The result was a NO by a very small amount) Leading up to that referendum was a campaign, funded by the federal government to encourage unity b/w Quebec and the rest of Canada. This is where the sponsorship scandal comes in. During that time, bigwig Liberals gave contracts, for everything from consulting to golf balls with Maple Leafs on them, to their friends and political supporters. Expensive contracts. Overpriced contracts. To put it simply hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars where given to Liberal cronies. We just recently finished the trial of these people, which brought to light just how crooked all these people were, from former Prime Minister Jean Chretian right on down. It gets even better, as this scandal has dissillusioned many Quebec voters, causing them to switch their support from the Liberal party (which always does very well in Quebec), to the Bloque Quebecois, which wants Quebec to seperate. So the program which was supposed to keep Quebec in the country, has ended up getting us even closer to them leaving.
The report from the inquiry just came out, and the oppposition jumped on the chance to put the Liberals through an election when their poll numbers are down. The polls aren't actually that off, and anything, from a Conservative minority to a Liberal majority could happen. Should make for an entertaining winter!
I have to say I'm impressed with how all the MPs handled the vote. The last time we had one of these (in the Spring), there was a lot of yelling and whatnot. I guess knowing the outcome made everybody more polite. There was an MP from BC who is being treated for cancer and, therefore, couldn't fly but wanted to be there so much that he drove the entire way across the country. The entire house gave him a standing ovation when he voted. This friendliness will not last long. Pretty much every correspondent is predicting this campaign, the longest in 25 years, is also going to be the ugliest. I look forward to the hilarious black and white commercials.
The emails into the news are fairly amusing. People saying they're excited for the election, despite the fact that it's going to be on Jan 23, which just happens to be the coldest time of year. One viewer wrote that he was hoping to get a sign in his front lawn before the ground froze. Hee! Canadians really do kick *ss.
Why is all of this happening? Mostly b/c of the sponsership scandal. I feel fairly confident that nobody in the USA has ever heard of the sponsorship scandal, which is kind of sad, b/c I've heard of Scooter Libby, and he is nothing compared to this. The sponsership scandal in summary? In Canada we have a province called Quebec. Quebec is French. There are a lot of Quebecois who feel that they should be their own country. There is a political party whose whole purpose is the seperation of Quebec. Many years ago, when I was in Gr. 3, we held a referendum in Quebec to decide whether or not they would leave the country. (The result was a NO by a very small amount) Leading up to that referendum was a campaign, funded by the federal government to encourage unity b/w Quebec and the rest of Canada. This is where the sponsorship scandal comes in. During that time, bigwig Liberals gave contracts, for everything from consulting to golf balls with Maple Leafs on them, to their friends and political supporters. Expensive contracts. Overpriced contracts. To put it simply hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars where given to Liberal cronies. We just recently finished the trial of these people, which brought to light just how crooked all these people were, from former Prime Minister Jean Chretian right on down. It gets even better, as this scandal has dissillusioned many Quebec voters, causing them to switch their support from the Liberal party (which always does very well in Quebec), to the Bloque Quebecois, which wants Quebec to seperate. So the program which was supposed to keep Quebec in the country, has ended up getting us even closer to them leaving.
The report from the inquiry just came out, and the oppposition jumped on the chance to put the Liberals through an election when their poll numbers are down. The polls aren't actually that off, and anything, from a Conservative minority to a Liberal majority could happen. Should make for an entertaining winter!