You thought your politics were filled with The Drama, America?

The political parties in Canada are currently involved in a very dramatic power struggle.

Our three opposition parties (Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, Bloc Québécois) signed a deal this week which would have them topple the government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and replace it with a coalition government run by them (or, more formally, run by the Liberals and NDP with Bloc support).

Those of you who've been following along here will recall that this is pretty close to what I described as an ideal arrangement, so you can imagine that I'm excited about this possibility...but to explain how this is possible in the first place for those more used to the American system, I should spell out the options in a parliamentary system.

In a country like Canada, which runs on the Westminster model of parliamentary governance, we don't vote directly for our Head of Government, but rather for our Member of Parliament, and the Prime Minister is typically the leader of the party with the most seats. In turn, our Head of State (Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor-General Michaëlle Jean) is separate and (being a monarchy, of course) not voted upon.

The United States, conversely, votes directly for the President as both Head of State and Government, and that person generally can't be removed from office outside of an election except through a few familiar constitutional means (death, resignation, and so forth).

Neil Macdonald has a good breakdown of what's happening from an American perspective, but basically, the Opposition is taking advantage of the fact that Harper's is a minority government and proposing that with their combined seat total, they can form a more cohesive government and gain the confidence of the House of Commons. By definition, the Conservatives do not currently enjoy such confidence, because that would require the support of...at least one of these other three parties.

After a vote of no confidence, such a proposal would go to the Governor-General and, if approved, could switch out the government without an election--the same way our Prime Minister changes without an election when the leader of the governing party is replaced.

Before such a vote could occur, however, Stephen Harper went to the GG and asked her to prorogue Parliament--call a timeout, if you will, which suspends the current session without dissolving it--and this morning, she agreed to do so until January 26, even though many thought that was a bad idea.

("I'm more pro-Wolverine, actually," quipped xandersgirl while we were talking about this last night.
"Well, it is quite the political gambit," I replied.)

The Governor-General's decisive role here puts her in a difficult position, and CalgaryGrit aptly described this as a "Kobayashi Maru" for her. Since she can't reprogram the simulation, there were only a couple of other options open to her:

Dissolve Parliament and Call an Election: "Wait a minute," you're asking. "Didn't you guys just have an election?" Why, yes, we did, less than two months ago. It may seem a little crazy to have another federal election before this Parliament has actually, you know, done anything, but it's not completely unprecedented to have two elections within a year in Canada, and some people (I'm looking at you, Norman Spector) feel this would be the best way to resolve this impasse. Besides, Elections Canada is apparently ready for this.

Accept the Coalition Government Proposal: Jean could've refused Harper and appointed the new coalition government under Prime Minister Stéphane Dion. Although this is constitutional, the GG traditionally accepts requests from the PM, and this sort of dismissal of a sitting Prime Minister hasn't happened since the "King-Byng Wingding" of 1926, in which Prime Minister Mackenzie King asked to call an election and the Governor-General of the time, Lord Byng of Vimy, replied with, "Not so fast, Mac," and handed power over to the Official Opposition.

As I said, various people think this is the way to go, including former Governor-General Edward Schreyer. (On a side note, I used to be an acquaintance of his son, Toban, whose house was recently destroyed by arson, so that family has other concerns on its mind at the moment...) This is still fairly likely to happen, since the Liberals don't foresee the Conservatives doing enough to change their minds.

In the meantime, Harper isn't living up to the principles of responsible government, choosing instead to delay the consequences of facing the House and wage a quasi-election campaign over the holidays to get his way, complaining about "socialists" (Sound familiar, Americans?) and "separatists" trying to stage a coup even though he attempted to do exactly the same thing in 2004 when the Liberals had a minority government and he was Leader of the Opposition.

It's a fascinating, yet frustrating, time to be a Canadian citizen.

The Canadian federal election is over and done with, so I'm here with some post-game wrap-up...

Here is the parliamentary seat count, before and after:

Conservative Party = 127/143
Liberal Party = 95/76
Bloc Québécois = 48/50
New Democratic Party = 30/37
Green Party = 1/0
Independent = 3/2

You read correctly--after all of the problems I described with the Tory government (and others which went unmentioned), they gained seats this time around and will once again form the government. Even as Barack Obama widens his lead over John McCain in the States, a plurality of Canadians went in the opposite direction and said they don't want change in this country.

On a more local note, the Liberals managed to lose two of their three seats in Manitoba (one to the Conservatives, one to the NDP), so I now live in the province's only Liberal riding.

Some birthday present, Canadian electorate. :/ Thanks a bunch.

American electorate, you are clearly on the path to surpassing us.

Of course, a few things need to be kept in perspective here:

There was a new record low in voter turnout, with 59.1% of registered voters casting a ballot. (In Manitoba, it was even worse, with only 56.8% of the population voting.) Out of those voters, the Conservative share was 37.63%, so this government was re-elected with only 22.24% of Canadians behind them.

Our first-past-the-post system allows for that kind of electoral weirdness, where political parties can gain or lose quite a few seats with just a miniscule change in their popular vote percentages, and those parties often end up with disproportionate representation in Parliament as a result. Besides the Tory example I just gave, the Bloc was able to get 50 seats with just under 10% of the vote, while the NDP only won 37 seats despite having over 18% of the vote and the Greens gained no seats at all despite almost 7% of the vote.

(For the uninitiated, the Bloc Québécois only run--as their name implies--in the Province of Québec, as they were formed with the intent of separating that province from the rest of Canada. That goal has fallen by the wayside more recently, but they continue to be popular there, so their votes are concentrated in 75 ridings out of a possible 308. Ironically, most Canadian political quizzes I take tell me that my views are most in line with the Bloc, even though it's impossible for me to vote for them.)

As predicted, the new identification rules caused problems for voters, and I'm sure that the number of voters would've been at least marginally higher without this problem. Then again, maybe the candidates just needed some campaign ads in video games.

The pundits also failed to call this one, with all of the seat projections underestimating the number of seats for the Conservatives and overestimating the number of seats for the Liberals. Even then, they were predicting that Stéphane Dion would have to step down as Liberal leader after losing, so with a worse defeat than anticipated, it looks like that's exactly what he'll be doing.

I feel bad for Dion, as he basically didn't do anything wrong, but rather simply failed to solidify a new Liberal brand in the eyes of the Canadian public, despite making more sense on a variety of issues than Harper (who, having assured Canadians that our economy is better off than the rest of the world, has now announced "his" plan to deal with the crisis). A different leader and a renewed sense of purpose and vision should help the Grits regain power in the inevitable election to come around 2009/2010.

In the meantime, I'll be playing The Political Machine 2008 (which xandersgirl was kind enough to get me in Minneapolis this past weekend :)) and creating my own political outcomes, while hoping that our neighbours south of the border show more wisdom and better judgement than at least some of my compatriots...

On this Canadian Thanksgiving Day, along with all of the other things (and people) I'm lucky to have in my life, I am thankful that I live in a country with universal suffrage.

Canada's system certainly isn't perfect (there are problems with current election law, for example, which are troubling), but considering that most Canadians wouldn't have been able to vote in a federal election a hundred years ago (and some, not even fifty years ago), this country has come a long way.

I hope that any Canadians reading this keep that in mind on Election Day tomorrow, and that any Americans reading this keep it in mind as November 4 approaches. Many people in the world today don't share this democratic privilege with you, so it's important to exercise your franchise and fight those who would try to keep your opinion from being counted.

Besides, Apathy Is Boring.

Canadians can visit Elections Canada if they need more information on voting requirements, while Americans can visit the Federal Elections Commission (or Rock the Vote).

Election Fever has actually started taking hold in Canada, with only a few days left to go...

Between simultaneous debates on both sides of the 49th parallel and the general flurry of political activity amidst the looming failures of capitalism, the differences and similarities between the campaigns in Canada and the United States are both striking--especially in how the same approach to something can be viewed differently in each country.

I haven't really had time to take a breath and update the federal election situation until now, so prepare for a barrage of news linkage and video. Feel free to skim through to your cause(s) of choice.

( Let's make the most of this beautiful day... )

Er...did I forget anything? ;)

On a more personal note, I was quite surprised when I got two voter registration cards in the mail recently. Thrilled though I was at the opportunity to vote early and often, it appears to have been a "simple" snafu on the part of Elections Canada, though it was enough to merit a brief appearance on the local news by my brother, who was also doubled up.

I was also surprised to learn that the riding where I'm writing this, Winnipeg South Centre (The Fighting South Centres!), is considered a tight race in this election, which concerns me because the Conservative candidate seems to be rather homophobic. I'd much rather have Muppets at my political rallies, but that seems to be more of a West Coast phenomenon.

Even with the increased efforts by ordinary Canadians to take part in this election, and some of the disgusting antics now on display by the Republicans in the US election, I still envy other efforts from American groups, such as this production (no doubt already nestled comfortably in dimpled_infamy's bookmarks):


At the end of the day, I have heard the people sing on my own...

No sooner had I posted about how Canadian politicians tend to run a clean campaign than the Conservative Party posted a graphic on one of their election websites of a puffin dropping a deuce on Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion. That's 100% class, right there.

Having said that, here are a few of the more substantive issues dominating the campaign thus far:

The Environment: A lot of this debate revolves around The Green Shift, a central plank of the Liberal platform, in which a carbon tax is imposed on polluters in return for benefits to individuals. The Conservatives like to trash that plan, but since their "solution" to environmental problems is doing nothing at all, I consider their comments suspect.

Afghanistan: Specifically, how much it costs for Canadian forces to be there and whether they should stay. With my brother-in-law still in Afghanistan, there's a personal component to this issue for me. On a related note, the Liberals support allowing Iraq War deserters to stay in Canada.

Avoiding Deficit: Since the last government was brought down over a kickback scheme, responsible government spending is always a prominent issue, but this election is already full of claims by each party that every other party's fiscal planning will result in an end to the budget surpluses Canada has enjoyed for the past decade. Even though former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is (as dontmentionlove quoted) "not fluent in either official language," he still managed to string enough words together yesterday to point out that it was his Liberal government which eliminated the federal deficit in the first place. (Come to think of it, Bill Clinton's government eliminated the federal deficit in the United States, too...damn those tax-and-spend liberals!) Conservative leader Stephen Harper constantly asserts that his party should still be trusted to handle Canada's economy, even though they brought the country to the brink of deficit in the first place, so I'd say he is (to coin a term) talking out of his puffin-place.

Despite the flying fecal matter, Canadian attack ads continue to be mild by American standards, except (perhaps) for this Liberal ad (Is that Jim Byrnes, Highlander's Joe Dawson, doing the voiceover?), and this NDP ad from Québec, which is pretty hardcore:


Both of those ads were mentioned by excellent political blogger Dan Arnold, who has also been scientifically demonstrating the probability that not much will change as a result of this election with his statistical projections of another Conservative minority government. I find this oddly comforting--mostly because it's not a Conservative majority government.

With all of these issues (and more) to think about, the nation in general is clearly caught up in Election Fever, judging by...the complete lack of posts about the election by any other Canadian on my friendslist. ;)

I also haven't noticed a single campaign sign in the riding where I live, and only a few in other parts of the city. I'm a big political news junkie, so my own sense of media coverage is definitely skewed, but has anyone else noticed (or cared) that an election is on?

This could be happening because a lot of people (including myself) assume that Dan Arnold (and others) are right about the the lack of real change...

...or it could just be a complete lack of knowledge, as depressingly demonstrated for me last night.

I was listening to two other people in the midst of an animated political debate at Tavern United when I decided to ask our server who she was planning to vote for. Now, I realise that pubs aren't exactly a haven for elevated rhetoric (political or otherwise), but I was expecting something of an answer. Not only did she not have an opinion, which is fine--not caring is an option, even if I can't relate--she didn't know enough to distinguish between the parties, and she wasn't aware of who the current Prime Minister is, which I honestly found mindboggling in a university student. (I mean, do the Americans reading this ever encounter people who couldn't name the POTUS?)

She left before she could remind me too much more of these teenagers, but I've been wondering about that ever since.

So...which wins out, apathy or ignorance?

As expected, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a general election in Canada today, which will be held on October 14...despite this violating the spirit of his own law which provided for a fixed federal election date next year.

For those generally unfamiliar with Canadian political affairs, you can always follow more closely, but the Associated Press article on the election call already provides some good background, and its description of "the crowded left in Canada" is rather apt...which worries me when it comes to the potential outcome of this election.

Here is the current parliamentary seat count:

Conservative Party of Canada = 127
Liberal Party of Canada = 95
Bloc Québécois = 48
New Democratic Party = 30
Green Party of Canada = 1
Independent = 3
Vacant = 4

Four of the five parties listed above could be described as left-wing, and although by their powers combined, they outnumber the Conservatives, we might now be in a situation that is the reverse of the Canadian landscape a decade ago. At the time, the Conservative Party was actually two right-wing parties which all-but-guaranteed a split of the conservative vote and consecutive Liberal majorities, and I'm concerned that the Tories will use vote-splitting between the Liberals, the NDP, and the Greens (along with the Bloc in Québec) to coast to a majority victory in this election.

Ideally, I'd prefer to see a strong Liberal minority (say, 140-145 seats) with the NDP holding a firm balance of power (40 seats or more), but I'd also be okay with a (rather improbable) return to the Liberal majority government(s) of old, which would make for a nice birthday present from the Canadian electorate...even though I know the most likely outcome here is a virtually identical Conservative minority. :/

Although I can take solace in the fact that Canadian elections (generally) avoid the contentious mudslinging which dominates the American political scene, we also miss out on catchy grassroots advertising, like this number from the Texas Democratic primary:


Staid though our elections may be, at least they get to the point--the whole thing will be over and done with before Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin have had their chance to duke it out. ;)