Distracted from moving by our government

[jbailey]

A brief distraction from moving - I find it fascinating that people should vaguely think that a coalition appealing to the Governor General is undemocratic. As far as I can tell, this comes from watching too much American TV. As Canadians, we don't elect the government or the PM. We elect MPs to fill seats, and the GG chooses the government based on the available people who can form the most stable government.

This bit is important! The MP you voted for is *still* your MP. Now the people elected to run the country have to try and figure which group represents the best chance of running smooth government. For those of us not around to remember the last time this happened (1926, Lord Bynd as GG), it's perfectly reasonable for the GG to ask the opposition to try and form a working government.

By some measure, this is extraordinary, but I think of going for another election 7 weeks after the previous one to be the equivalent of seeking marriage counseling 7 weeks after starting dating someone. As in, it's perfectly okay to write it off and try the other available options.

Time to get some sleep for our first night in the new appartment. =)

Comments

[malpingu.livejournal.com]

Boggling, isn't it. I've also had to explain this to other Canadians whom I would have thought would know better. We do not elect governments or even parties, let alone coalitions!

[diluvienne.livejournal.com]

Yay for coalition! I really hope it'll happen. That seems to be the only change (and we so need change!!!) we can get in this country for a while...

[auzure-skies.livejournal.com]

I am with you... I am so furious that Stephan Harper got away with this. He's pulled some real bullshit with the proposed budget, and I'm glad that the other parties are calling his bluff. I really didn't think they would. Let's hope that Canadians remember Harper's true colours in a month.

[diluvienne.livejournal.com]

*fingers crossed*

[mmmmtino.livejournal.com]

I think this makes about as much sense as the Electoral College in the US.

Of course, it makes sense that you elect your MP and that the collective members of Parliament form a government. That I get.

It's that the Governor General, appointed by the Queen of England (and not elected by anyone--or even chosen because of any particular skills), has so much power in this situation that I think is appalling to lots of people.

-m

[jbailey.livejournal.com]

The Governor General is appointed at the recommendation of the Prime Minister for a 5 year term, and is generally recommended based on years of distinguished service to Canada. The tradition is that it alternates between a Francophone and an Anglophone.

That she has so much power is an interesting quirk of the system, but it's an interesting one: You have a situation where she has essentially three reasonable options (and a number of other ones which she has theoretically the right to take, but lets look at the realistic ones)

1) All Prime Minister Harper to prorogue parliament in order to have time to resolve the problem.

2) Allow the coalition to form the sitting government.

3) Dissolve parliament and send voters back to the polls.

#3 actually becomes the worst option in this case, given that an election was 7 weeks ago we can't reasonably expect a wildly different outcome. As it is, she chose #1.

But what about #2? The formation of the minority government by that party with the most number of seats is a custom. The other parties could have formed a coalition right away and requested to become the sitting government. In fact, I'd expect that if we held another election (which would probably lead to a weaker minority for the Conservatives) that the coalition would do exactly that.

I haven't had time to explore it, but it appears that we have examples of Lieutenant Governors doing almost exactly the same things in Ontario in the last few decades. The goal of the Governors is to ensure the smooth operation of parliament however that happens. It's an interesting final catch that rarely gets used, but I can't think of another mechanism that wouldn't have us back at the polls 3 months after the previous election.

In the end, we are still a monarchy. =)

[yuen.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the ones who look at both the MP and the party. I think it's important factor which party the MP is associated with, the ideas they support. Otherwise, why bother having a party in the first place.

No it's not a product of American television. The primary television shows in our household were Cantonese and I rarely watched. And I voted several times before moving down to the US.

I don't particularly like the current PM. But if the opposition were really *that* concerned about the country and it's people, they should have put this move forward before the Oct election. Now they're just being bullies, banding together to gain the control they couldn't get on their own.

[jbailey.livejournal.com]

I agree that it would've been nice to see the coalition early on, but let's take a look at what this coalition is: The Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc? It's like the start of a bad joke. In October, we weren't seeing the effects and the responses to the economic recession that we are now which is one reason I think we didn't see a coalition proposal earlier, but I think also given the disarray in the Liberal party after the election, they wouldn't have had their act together any earlier to make the proposal.

Harper's mistake was thinking that the stronger minority gave him a more solid mandate, and I'm happy it blew up in his face. Even with the proroguing of parliament, he's still going to have to come back with decent solutions. It's too bad that he's not likely to consider governmental appointments outside of his party. There are some people with decent skills in the House, and he could do well by putting some of them in cabinet.

Britain's no better

[bruce89 [launchpad.net] (from livejournal.com)]

When Gordon Brown was made PM over a year ago, there was a large (mostly English) number of people going on about how he "wasn't elected".

Also, the Queen is the Queen of the the UK and the Commonwealth, not just England (which is not a country).