Parliament Primer
With recent happenings and flaming polemics flying over the internet, I thought I would give all Canadian readers a refresher on how a parliamentary democracy works.
Canadians, are represented in the House of Commons by memembers of Parliament, duly elected in their ridings. These 308 members of parliament make up the House.
The Governor General, the Soverign's duly appointed representative asks a Member, who was the confidence of the House to try and form a Government.
I would like to be clear on this point, that the constitution that sets out the rules of parliament, makes no mention whatsoever as to Political Parties. An Independent MP can be asked to form a government if he/she has the confidence of the house.
Regardless of who makes up the government, parliament remains as elected by the people.
If the person(s) making up the government, loses the confidence of the House, then the Queen's Representative has options. She/he can ask if there is anyone esle in our body of elected representatives who has the Confidence of the House. If there is the Governor General can ask them if they would like to try and form Government with the current MPs in parliament.
If they cannot, an election is called, and new MPs can be elected to try their hands at forming a government.
Political parties are groups of people with similar ideologies who agree to vote in the House for each other. Hence it is usually the party who elects the most members, who becomes the government, as if they have a large number of seats, it is presumed they have the confidence of our elected MPs.
I would like to clarify now that what Jack Layton and Stephane Dion are doing is not illegal, nor undemocratic. People all over the web are screaming their brains out that this is a South American style coup. This is merely two parties, duly elected to be our representatives, deciding they want to put aside their partisan differences and work together. With the support of the BQ this new NDP-Liberal coalition will have the support of 65% of the house, hence it will hold the confidence of parliament.
Personally I think this is more democratic as a larger group of people will have to work together to help each other out. More Canadians are also represented by the Coalition as well. This is not an attack on democracy nor a political game. It is a perfectly legitimate parliamentary move.
I would like to mention too that in 2004 Stephen Harper also offered to form a coalition with the BQ and the NDP to form government and defeat the Minority government of Paul Martin. His attacks have been extraordinarily hypocritical because he himself is guilty of making so called deals with so called devils.
This was supposed to be a more civil parliament, but instead of working together with the other parties, the CPC went on a balls out attack in an effort to effectively bankrupt the opposition. This would cripple the other parties and make it very difficult for them to recover and represent their ridings. This was a very dirty political ploy.
No one is stealing anything. Parliament is playing by the rules of parliament.
I would like to mention that countries with higher HDI's than us have coalition governments. Ireland and several nordic countries.
How is a government that represents 65% of Canadians undemocratic?
I remind you again. We DO NOT elect government, we elect Members of Parliament to represent our riding. So unless you voted in Calgary in Stephen Harper's riding, you did not vote for Stephen Harper.
I hope this clarifies things a bit. Another couple issues Layton is net Lenin. Our social healthcare system is one of the institutions Canadians are most proud of. Thank Thomas Clement Douglas and the NDP for that. I have no idea why people still have this bizzarre cold war era fear of socialism. Support for families, support for students, support for workers, support for people. Social democracy does not want anyone left behind. If you are afraid of big brother go and complain to Manitobans about MPI. We have the cheapest auto insurance rates in the entire country. MPI is a government institution.
I may not agree with Stephane Dion in all things but I do in the fact that in these trying economic times, Laissez Faire ideologies leave people starving in the street.
Canadians, are represented in the House of Commons by memembers of Parliament, duly elected in their ridings. These 308 members of parliament make up the House.
The Governor General, the Soverign's duly appointed representative asks a Member, who was the confidence of the House to try and form a Government.
I would like to be clear on this point, that the constitution that sets out the rules of parliament, makes no mention whatsoever as to Political Parties. An Independent MP can be asked to form a government if he/she has the confidence of the house.
Regardless of who makes up the government, parliament remains as elected by the people.
If the person(s) making up the government, loses the confidence of the House, then the Queen's Representative has options. She/he can ask if there is anyone esle in our body of elected representatives who has the Confidence of the House. If there is the Governor General can ask them if they would like to try and form Government with the current MPs in parliament.
If they cannot, an election is called, and new MPs can be elected to try their hands at forming a government.
Political parties are groups of people with similar ideologies who agree to vote in the House for each other. Hence it is usually the party who elects the most members, who becomes the government, as if they have a large number of seats, it is presumed they have the confidence of our elected MPs.
I would like to clarify now that what Jack Layton and Stephane Dion are doing is not illegal, nor undemocratic. People all over the web are screaming their brains out that this is a South American style coup. This is merely two parties, duly elected to be our representatives, deciding they want to put aside their partisan differences and work together. With the support of the BQ this new NDP-Liberal coalition will have the support of 65% of the house, hence it will hold the confidence of parliament.
Personally I think this is more democratic as a larger group of people will have to work together to help each other out. More Canadians are also represented by the Coalition as well. This is not an attack on democracy nor a political game. It is a perfectly legitimate parliamentary move.
I would like to mention too that in 2004 Stephen Harper also offered to form a coalition with the BQ and the NDP to form government and defeat the Minority government of Paul Martin. His attacks have been extraordinarily hypocritical because he himself is guilty of making so called deals with so called devils.
This was supposed to be a more civil parliament, but instead of working together with the other parties, the CPC went on a balls out attack in an effort to effectively bankrupt the opposition. This would cripple the other parties and make it very difficult for them to recover and represent their ridings. This was a very dirty political ploy.
No one is stealing anything. Parliament is playing by the rules of parliament.
I would like to mention that countries with higher HDI's than us have coalition governments. Ireland and several nordic countries.
How is a government that represents 65% of Canadians undemocratic?
I remind you again. We DO NOT elect government, we elect Members of Parliament to represent our riding. So unless you voted in Calgary in Stephen Harper's riding, you did not vote for Stephen Harper.
I hope this clarifies things a bit. Another couple issues Layton is net Lenin. Our social healthcare system is one of the institutions Canadians are most proud of. Thank Thomas Clement Douglas and the NDP for that. I have no idea why people still have this bizzarre cold war era fear of socialism. Support for families, support for students, support for workers, support for people. Social democracy does not want anyone left behind. If you are afraid of big brother go and complain to Manitobans about MPI. We have the cheapest auto insurance rates in the entire country. MPI is a government institution.
I may not agree with Stephane Dion in all things but I do in the fact that in these trying economic times, Laissez Faire ideologies leave people starving in the street.