Archive for category Canada
Word of the week: prorogue
You may recall that in October Canada held an election. Many Canadians found this to be a waste of time and money, as the election changed nothing other than the numbers of seats each party held — the Conservatives still held the most seats but still formed a minority government, the Liberals lost seats but still formed the Official Opposition, and the Bloc Québécois and the NDP brought up the rear. The election cost $300 million, and was actually held contrary to the Fixed Election Dates Act that the Conservatives themselves brought in.
Some analysts say that the Conservatives brought about the election in an attempt to get enough seats in Parliament to form a majority government, and thus have enough power to push their desires through Parliament without having to bend to the wishes of the other, more left-leaning, parties. Others say that the Conservatives saw the economic downturn coming and, realizing that right-leaning parties typically fare worse under weakening economic times, tried to gain a majority in Parliament before their party’s fortune weakened with the economy. In any case, the Conservatives maintained their tenuous grasp on leading Canada.
On November 27, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty provided his fiscal update to the House of Commons, which included a suspension of the right of public employees to go on strike until 2011, the selling-off of Crown assets, and the elimination of public funding for political parties. The latter point enraged the other parties. In Canada, political parties receive $1.95 for every vote they get in a federal election. This tends to help smaller parties more, as they receive less money in donations and rely on public funding to keep running. The Conservatives are the least reliant on these funds, as they make up 37% of the money they received in 2007. For the Liberals, this funding made up 63% of the money they received, the NDP 57%, the Green Party 65%, and the Bloc Québécois a whopping 86%. The three opposition parties stated that they would not support this fiscal update in a vote on December 1.
As fiscal votes are votes of confidence in Parliamentary governments, if a majority of members vote against a fiscal vote this means that the House has lost confidence in the leadership, and this typically spurs the Governor General (the Queen’s representative in Canada) to dissolve Parliament. This was what the Conservative government faced last week.
Flaherty announced that he would not bring the update before the House, averting that crisis. However, December 1 was also to be an opposition day where the opposition parties set the agenda. This meant that the opposition parties could schedule a vote of confidence in the government, and this vote would probably result in a “no confidence” outcome. This opposition day was cancelled by the Conservatives, and the next one would be held on December 8.
Since then the Liberals and the NDP have come to an agreement to form a coalition party. This coalition would hold 114 seats to the Conservatives 143 and thus still not hold a majority of seats. The Bloc Québécois have come out in support of the coalition, stating that they would support the coalition on confidence votes. Thus the coalition would, for the all-important confidence votes, have another 49 seats, giving them 163, a majority of the 308 seats in Canada’s House of Commons.
This left Prime Minister Stephen Harper with few options. He could dissolve Parliament, thus forcing another election. This option would be looked upon disfavourably by the public. He could ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until January, which means that Parliament would be suspended and not meet until then. He could ask the GG to prorogue Parliament for up to a year. He could also resign as Prime Minister, forcing the Governor General to request that Parliament form a new government, which would allow the Liberal/NDP coalition to form the government.
Today Stephen Harper asked Governor General Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament until January 26.
Now, here’s my take. Readers probably know that I’m a leftie. I voted for the NDP in the last election. I don’t like Stephen Harper one bit. I think that his decision to prorogue Parliament until January is a case of taking his ball and going home. Canada is currently in the mires of an economic downturn, and Canada needs a government that will do something about it. Instead Harper suspends Parliament and forces nothing to happen for seven weeks, all because his tenuous grasp on power was threatened. This is the man that is supposed to lead Canada? This is the man who says he has Canada’s interests at heart?
Stephen Harper is a dangerous man, and this move must backfire. One can never overestimate the intelligence of the Canadian electorate, however.
On early Canadian election results and breaking the law
My American and international readers might not know this, but by posting Canadian election results before the polls closed nationwide, I broke Canadian election law.
Since 1938, a ban has been in place that forbids reporting election results in Canada before all the polls have closed. Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act states:
No person shall transmit the result or purported result of the vote in an electoral district to the public in another electoral district before the close of all of the polling stations in that other electoral district.
The punishment for breaking this law is a fine no greater than $25,000.
This law was challenged in the 2000 election when Paul Bryan, a software engineer living in British Columbia, published results on his website. After bouncing upwards in the court system (convicted in B.C. Provincial Court, overturned in B.C. Supreme Court, ban upheld by B.C. Court of Appeal), the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the blackout. Bryan was fined $1000.
I don’t live in Canada, so I don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the law. I don’t agree with the law, either. Voters should be given the opportunity to vote with any information available to them. If this means Western Canadians get to know the results from Atlantic Canada and possibly change their votes because of this new information, so be it. Elections Canada has every ability to stop this from happening by having the polls close across the country at the same time (tough to do as Canada spans five time zones), not release the results to the media until all the polls are closed, push for expanded early voting or mail-in votes, or close polling stations at staggered times across the country but only start counting at the same time.
A ban on disseminating information in the age of world-wide instant communication is infeasible, as my blog (and others, and other sources like Twitter) demonstrate. It’s a law for the radio age, not for the Internet age, and ought to be stricken from the Canada Elections Act.
Further reading:
- Bloggers flout law by Janice Neil
- Blackout broken: Election results available early online at CBC News
- Election blackout renegades could dodge prosecution
- Election Results thread… at The Surly Beaver
[tags]canada election 2008, elections canada, section 329, canada elections act, paul bryan[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: CBC calls Conservative minority
In the hour it took me to get home, the obvious happened: CBC projected a Conservative minority government. It looks like the Conservatives gained 15 seats (127 to 142), the Liberals lost 18 seats (95 to 77), the BQ gained one seat (48 to 49), and the NDP gained 7 seats (30 to 37). Two independents were elected, both in Québec one in Québec and one in Nova Scotia. The big winners are clearly the Conservatives and the NDP, both at the expense of the Liberals.
This election will probably cause some call for a change away from the First Past The Post voting system used in Canadian federal (and most provincial) elections, as the Greens took 6.6% of the popular vote with no seats to show for it, whereas the Bloc Québécois took 10.1% of the popular vote and got 49 seats. It’s highly unlikely anything will change any time soon, though.
[tags]canada election 2008, canada, liberal party of canada, conservative party of canada, new democratic party, bloc quebecois, green party of canada, first past the post[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: Western Thoughts
Watching the CBC Interactive Map is fairly entertaining as the western provinces report results. The prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) were entirely Conservative at the beginning. Now little pockets of Liberal and NDP start to show up, especially in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Oop, there it goes, a riding in Central Saskatchewan just flipped back to Conservative. That riding would be Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, where the Conservative candidate currently has 44.68% and the NDP candidate has 44.59%. One to watch!
BC is interesting — so far it appears to be splitting between Conservative and NDP. The Liberals look to be taking a pounding out west. I currently see one lone Liberal riding in all of BC, in Vancouver East. Mind you, only one polling station has reported from there, and the Liberals and NDP are tied with 16 votes each. Way too early to call.
I’m watching two ridings in BC: Victoria (where I cast my vote) and Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca (where my wife cast her vote). Neither have reported any votes as of yet. Victoria should probably go NDP, and Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca could go Liberal or NDP (watch as it goes Conservative).
[tags]canada election 2008, vancouver east, saskatoon-rosetown-biggar, victoria, esquimalt-juan de fuca[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: New Brunswick results
Ten seats in New Brunswick. CBC is currently reporting the Conservatives have won five, lead in one. The Liberals have won three, and the NDP one.
Sympatico/MSN News is reporting the Conservatives have won six.
This is the last Atlantic province to be finalized. The Liberals have elected 17, Conservatives 10, NDP 4, with one Independant.
Results courtesy CBC and Sympatico/MSN News.
[tags]canada election 2008, new brunswick[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: Nova Scotia results
Nova Scotia had eleven seats up for grabs in the 2008 election. Although the popular vote looks to have split evenly amongst the Liberals (30%), the Conservatives (26%), and the NDP (29%), the Liberals come out the winners, taking five seats. Conservatives took three, NDP took two, and one went to an Independant (Bill Casey in Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, who used to be in the Conservative caucus).
Results courtesy CBC.
[tags]canada election 2008, nova scotia, bill casey[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: Prince Edward Island results
Only four seats up in Prince Edward Island. Three went Liberal, one went Conservative. The Green Party pulled down nearly 5% of the vote, about half of what the NDP gathered.
Results courtesy CBC.
[tags]canada election 2008, prince edward island[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: Newfoundland-Labrador results
Results courtesy Sympatico/MSN News and CBC:
Liberal Party of Canada – 6
New Democratic Party – 1
Seven seats were up for grabs in Newfoundland-Labrador.
[tags]canada election 2008, newfoundland, labrador, newfoundland-labrador[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: 2140 EDT Results
Results as of 2140 Eastern Daylight Time:
13 – Conservative
24 – Liberal
5 – NDP
2 – Bloc Québécois
1 – Independant
From this it looks like Quebec’s results are coming out. No further details just yet. Canadian news organizations can release results nation-wide (and on the Internet) in 20 minutes.
[tags]canada election 2008[/tags]
Canada Election 2008: Atlantic results
Polls are closed in Newfoundland and Atlantic time zones, and CBC is reporting that the Conservatives have lost their three seats in Newfoundland-Labrador. Peter MacKay has won Central Nova, beating Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
Current standings:
16 – Liberal
10 – Conservative
5 – NDP
1 – Other
[tags]canada election 2008, peter mackay, elizabeth may[/tags]
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