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

[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.