Muncles

Let's see what happens next!

Delete as appropriate:

:scared:

Riadh

hi there

is that gonna be a problem for us , I mean for Immigration...

Watcher

Dont know anything about politics, but Ive read that its not going to be very pleasent for prospective immigrants.

MarkG

Yahoo news said they only had 123 seats: a minority government probably won't be making major changes any time soon.

bazza2154

The Conservatives have a very small seat advantage and fall about 30 seats short of a majority. Web reports believe that this Government will only last a year to 18 months so it is unlikely that they will carry out any radical changes in fear of upsetting voters for the next forthcoming election. Lets hope that the Status Quo remains for now but in the meantime use the time and learn French (more points) especially if you have only just received your AOR with a 36 month wait.

Gray C

Muncles

How did you get your AOR before you submitted your forms to CIC? That is a clever trick!

h_henry

Anyone able to explain how the Canadian election system works in simple terms please? Why will there be another election in 18 months?

macadian

Well...horsetrading will be the name of the game. Tories will depend on the support of other parties to get through legislation/policies etc.
A safeguard against extreme policies? Yes, of course and that is no bad thing however, their is a down side too. Where policies are good for Canada and Canadians, put forward by the goverment of the day, they can be blocked by the other parties, not on the basis that they are bad, but simply because they do not fit their own agenda! A case of Canada suffering in the name of party dogma.

If the new goverment find themselves in the same position as the Liberals a few weeks ago (no confidence vote) because they don't have a working majority (opposed to a party majority) then we have another election.

Thats democracy for you...but cant help think the only real casualty is Canada in that unless a goverment has a majority, very little gets done and the goverment of the day cannot carry out the terms of its mandate to get elected in the first place.

Time will tell.

In my humble opinion the situation we find ourselves in today is down to the 'Nanny State' of Toronto and the way it votes (inevitably) Put a monkey out there in the majority of the GTA and stick a Liberal Rosette on it and it would be elected as used to be the case (and still is in some cases) with the Labour Party in the UK .

iaink

4 main parties

Liberal (Centerish)
Conservative (Progressive Conservatives, PC) (Right)
NDP (New Democrats) (Left)
Bloc Quebecois (Seperatist)

The liberals and Conservatives split most votes, and the Bloc and NDP pick up the pieces. The bloc usualy has more seats than the NDP, but its agenda makes it politically unacceptable to strike a deal with them to hold power as that would make your own party look like it has a seperatist sympathy, and leave the goverment able to be held hostage over separatist issues, which is not seen as acceptable here.

This time round (again) no one has enough seats for a straight majority, so the larger party has to strike a deal with the NDP to run the country. Everyone expects that eventually they fall out over something, resulting in a vote of no confidence that leads to a new election.

Libs and NDP are closer together politically than Conservatives and NDP, so I dont expect a PC and NDP alliance to weather any major storms over say privitised health care, and we will all be back at the poles within a couple of years, not the "regular" 4 years that a majority government will be able to hold out for.

Thats the joy of a true multiparty political system.

Whats interesting to me is that if you asked everyone to vote for first and second choice, conservative supporters would probably go for PC and NDP (to get rid of the liberals), the Liberals would go for Lib and NDP (generally leftist leanings), and the NDP would go for NDP and Liberal for the same reason, so if you look at the "big picture" there is probably more leftist sentiment in Canada as a whole (if you lump NDP and liberal support together they outnumber the conservatives), but we now have a conservative administration.

I doubt anything too radical will happen as Stephen Harper will be aware that he is very much on probation, with another election probably not far away, so he will try and soothe the concerns of those who couldnt stomach voting conservative. I notice the NDP did well in this election, and I would guess thats due to a lot of disillusioned Liberal voters supporting them.

Lets see what happens eh!

dbd33

That is, in fact, what I want from the government. Governments can't improve life for the public, they can only do harm, so the less they do the better. My ideal senator is that guy who draws his money from South America and never votes; he causes me no trouble at all. I'd prefer a Liberal government but I can live with any ineffectual one; it's activism I fear.

dbd33

18 months is the popular bet.

MarkG

Indeed: most of the problems of Western nations have been caused by 'strong' governments... one of the things I like about Canada is that with repeated minority governments it's very hard for the government to really screw things up. Tony Blair, for example, was elected to a majority government with 22% of the votes and has destroyed or is destroying more traditional rights in the UK than any other Prime Minister in history.

If there's really an overwhelming case for a law it will get passsed no matter who's in power. And that's the only time a law should _ever_ be passed.

iaink

Eh, this Canada, the one just above the USA?

Surely some mistake. Since 1980 only this and the last government were minorities.

MarkG

Ah, I thought the previous one was too. But at the rate they're going, I suspect we'll be seeing more of them for the forseeable future... no Canadians I know really seem to think much of the liberals or conservatives (I don't know anyone who thinks much of Labour or Tories in the UK, but here they can get a majority with 22% of the votes).

macadian

Activism...frightening prospect and all the more likely without a strong democracy where goverment is allowed to cater for the needs of that countries majority, whatever the political bent of that goverment. Your ideal scenario above hardly promotes anything other than eventual anarchy...the consequences of long term ineffectual goverment.

You best get your gas mask, white overalls, tin hat etc ready for the next G8 summit?... 'Our way or no way'.