The insanity that is the Canadian Government

I'm very happy that I don't own a TV because I therefore don't watch any commercials, but I do feel left behind sometimes because I am reading outdated knowledge. So, essentially what I'm saying is, if any of this information is old news I apologize. And please if you wouldn't mind, help me get back up to date with your sources. :)

I'd like to write down a transcript of certain pieces of this very important video I've found.

"Canada was originally a British Colony, and unlike the United States, decided against violent uprising as a method to gain independence and instead tried asking politely. The result, while much less bloody than the American Revolution, has been a significantly slower path to sovereignty, and even today we still have not fully escaped the pretense that we are ruled by the Queen of England. Contrary to popular belief, the Executive Head of the Canadian Government is not the Prime Minister, but the Governor General, a representative of the Queen of England that resides in Canada and holds reserve power over Parliament. The Governor General is appointed by the Prime Minister and essentially acts as a rubber stamp. The Prime Minister is the leader of the House of Commons, the primary component of Parliament. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body of three hundred and eight seats, each of which representing a riding of approximately one hundred thousand people."

"Elections can have two outcomes: One is a majority government where a single party wins more seats than any other combined and can do whatever it wants for as long as it wants to. The other outcome is a minority government, where the other parties outnumber the leading party, and the leading party does nothing because it is too afraid that the other parties will call a No Confidence Vote and force another election. A majority government is almost impossible to get, and as a result, a whole lot of Nothing gets done. No party will sacrifice itself for its ideals, and the problem is only going to get worse, as more extremist parties surface to capitalize on minority vote."

"Canada's most recent election was in October, where the massive self interest and vote splitting of each riding caused Canada to go from a Conservative Minority Government lead by Stephen Harper, to a Conservative Minority Government lead by Stephen Harper."

"Six weeks later, the US is having an economic meltdown and Harper has another six weeks of doing nothing to add to the two years of doing nothing that he has already accumulated. Then, Harper releases his economic plan. Seeing that the plan was not completely identical to the American plan, by including billions of dollars we do not have in bailouts to the floundering Canadian companies, the opposing parties of the Liberals, still lead by Stephan Dion, and the NDP, lead by Jack Layton, formed an alliance to try to usurp the Conservatives by beating them in a No Confidence Vote. They appealed to the Governor General to use her reserve powers to instate them as the new government without going to an election. Unfortunately, since the Liberal and NDP seats combined do not outnumber the Conservatives, they must also have the support of the Bloc Quebecois. But since every English speaking Canadian despises the Bloc Quebecois, they are not actually in an official alliance with the Bloc Quebecois. They just have formed an agreement in which they would agree with each other on everything and support each others interests. Oh, and the Bloc Quebecois would have veto powers..."

"Stephen Harper, on the other hand, is petitioning the Governor General to delay Parliament long enough to avoid the No Confidence Vote that would force him to resign. So now, the fate of Canada's government comes down to the decision of our Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, a woman appointed without vote to a ceremonial position to represent the interests of another ceremonial position by a Prime Minister (Paul Martin) that was voted out of Parliament three years ago. It is now up to her whether to ignore the voice of the majority by allowing Harper to retain leadership, ignore the election results by thrusting a makeshift minority coalition into power, or send Canada back to the ballot box to vote again. Regardless of her decision, I am incredibly pissed off, because it means that the election we just had was completely pointless."

Here's the video if you'd like to hear the entire video.

Also, if you don't feel like reading all of that, lets let Rex Murphy put it in his words



I suppose it's not surprising why many Canadians spend more of their water cooler hours talking about American Politics than the politics of their own country. Occationally, I'm more than embarrassed to even admit that this is my government. I'd rather complain about America because it feels like a movie, and I can bitch and moan about the state of the world but never do anything about it because it isn't my country's fault.

Canadians! We have DISASTER in our government! We have a very significant breach of our democracy taking place, and many Canadians don't even give a shit. If Michaëlle Jean chooses to instate the Coalition without an election, what other breaches of democratic contract will Canadians face in the future? Well, those breaches probably won't be cracked by a Canadian force at all. While our "politicians" squabble with each other instead of fucking DOING something, other more decisive leaders will move right in and attempt to stabilize things in their favor. And with priggish fucking douche bag Stephen Harper in the seat, we might as well just stand in line and get our chip installed right now. Our Prime Minister has no plan, no clues, no idea of what he's even doing as Prime Minister. All he's doing is biding time.

Again, I apologize if I'm behind the times, I don't have a TV. I am in the dark, as you probably are, waiting for a sign that some competent leader is going to show us a way out. I know this is probably old news, but I haven't heard anything recently about this Coalition, and I'm checking my sources daily. When do we vote? Will we vote? If you have any info on this, please let me know.

Also, please keep this in mind: these political leaders are not magical, they won't solve any of the problems that need to be solved right now, and the system they are a part of prevents any of them from doing the right thing. We are free. We must keep it that way. We Canadians must take back the House of Commons.

Write to our Governor General, and request our national right to vote