Canadian Politics

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 03 Dec 2008 20:21

Can somebody explain to me what's going on?

So I'm guessing you have a minority government and enough of the other minority parties to form a majority are getting together to form a stronger government?

Has this been sparked by anything in particular? Can some Canadians give their personal opinions etc. too please?

Can't say I'm a fan of Stephen Harper at all, but I don't read a lot about him either.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 03 Dec 2008 22:17

Yeah, you basically got it.

Fuck, finally we have a plot line worth following!

Basically, nobody likes Stephen Harper and something like 63% of the population voted for people other than him so they are trying to take over the govt and he is panicking and trying to prorogue the govt to avoid them kicking him out.

Uhm, fun stuff!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 04 Dec 2008 03:17

Thanks Tom, but now I have heaps of questions. I'll try to just ask a few so as not to intimidate people

1. Particularly what things is Stephen Harper doing that people oppose - what are the main issues, and which ones do you care about the most?

2. Is Canada usually ruled by minority governments? How many different parties are there that win seats and what portion of seats does each party win?

3. Is this the first time something like this has happened and if not, how often does something like this happen?

4. How well do the minority parties trying to form government get along? Do you think they'll be able to govern in a workable manner and how much will they need to compromise their values. Also what do those parties stand for?

That's enough for now. I was sneaky and included multiple questions under each number so it looked like I was only asking 4.

Don't worry about making sure your answers are absolutely accurate - I'd rather know what people think about those questions than anything else, I can obviously research it, but in a democracy it matters what people think, not what the facts are (although I'm sure footbaggers are generally fairly politically aware anyway).

Thanks in advance

Cass · Post by **Cass** » 04 Dec 2008 08:49

To be honest, I pay more attention to American politics than Canadian. I don't think much has changed since we had a Liberal party in office.

Our major parties are Conservative (143), Liberal (77), NDP (37), Bloc Quebecois (49), and Green (0). I'm not sure the last time we had a majority gov't, but it wasn't recently.

Our conservative party isn't very conservative (in comparison to USA), the Liberal party is a bit more left, NDP even more left, Green are pretty liberal too but they just focus on the environment, and the Bloc is for separatist Quebeccers.

I don't really care what happens, I don't think we'll see a huge amount of change regardless.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 04 Dec 2008 09:25

Well, Harper was granted his prorogue, so everything is suspended for 6 weeks while he desperately tries to convince everyone to let him be the main man.

Hmm, I'll have to return to the questions you asked.

Jeremy, have you ever been interested in market research? The kinds of questions you asked are much like that of market researchers.

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 04 Dec 2008 14:38

One of the things the Coalition is pushing for is more government spending in the yearly budget. In slow economic times, it can be a good idea for a government to spend a lot of money on new projects, so as to stimulate the job market and keep demand for commodities. Things like new highways, and infrastructure projects. These keep many of the working people working, instead of losing their jobs due to the lowered amount of consumer spending.

The Conservative party floored a (ahead of schedual by two months) budget which included NO extra spending, on the faith that the strong, commodity and service oriented Canadian economy could withstand the economic downturn. The opposition says that even if that may be the case, it is always better to take precautions and preventative measures to ensure continued prosperity of Canadian citizens.

This friction was enough for the Opposition parties to form a coalition to out-vote the budget, which is seen as a vote of no-confidence, and would usually call for an election. Instead, two of the opposition parties have thrown their support for the third, and have all agreed to govern as one big happy family (yeah right).

Basically its a bunch of hot air, and at best, the coalition could be successful in its budget alteration, and help alleviate a small portion of the stress on Canadian workers. It doesn't help the Conservatives (the governing party) that they have an AWFUL economic record over the last 3 decades due to their small government approach, and lack of investment in the people.

If this is wrong correct me.....but this is how I understand it.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 04 Dec 2008 16:02

Tom; I'm not interested in commercial market research at all, but I work as a data analyst so I occasionally analyse market research data. However I'd say those kinds of questions are all fairly important for understanding politics.

I'd like a little more info on the question of how well the coalition parties get along. A bit more to the left than the conservative party, even more left and separatist is not a lot of information

.

It sounds like this isn't a really serious issue to try to take the government down over. I mean there are strong arguments for both spending or not spending. I would suggest it's a bit irresponsible to potentially cripple the government over the issue. That's an opinion based on very little understanding of the issue though, so it's probably wrong

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 05 Dec 2008 07:27

Jeremy wrote:It sounds like this isn't a really serious issue to try to take the government down over. I mean there are strong arguments for both spending or not spending. I would suggest it's a bit irresponsible to potentially cripple the government over the issue.

The thing is, It wouldn't cripple the Govvernment it would just make it temporarily ineffective. The three opositoions parties share a lot of the same veiws on taxation and social progams, but of course, since this is politics, the second a new federal election is on the horizon they will go crazy trying to "differentiate" themselves, and no bills will make it through.

Really though, they way things are, there is so much tension between the ruling party and the opposition, that no legislation will pass anyway, so this is going to be 6 months to a year of ineffective governance until things straighten themselves out. The only hope is that a prudent budget desicion is made, so at least the lower levels of government can put things into effect to help the country and economy while the 'big boys' are duking it out in the house of commons.

In that sense, the most important issue is the current bubget, as it may be the only new peice of legislation we see in a while, and therefore is hopefully effective in protecting the nation from economic turbulence. Since its going to go down one way or another( a 'crippled' government), it might as well have some positive outcome.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 15 Dec 2008 16:10

Here's a few issues on which I would like a Canadian perspective:

1. Natural resources.... water specifically, and which of your politicians, or bureacracies, are angling to give it away to the U.S.

2. U.S. drone aircraft, soon be patrolling your "border".

3. Combined U.S./Canadian troops doing ,anything regardless of explantion, in your country.