felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
felis_ultharus ([personal profile] felis_ultharus) wrote2008-11-28 12:42 pm
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So, yeah -- in political news, the government might fall on Monday.

The reason? The Harper government decided to do what did all last session -- throw nauseating things like banning government worker strikes and starving the opposition parties for cash -- into a budget. They figured that since a budget is a confidence motion and voting against causes the government to fall, they could force the Liberals to go along.

They badly miscalculated, though. See, the NDP and Bloc would have voted against it anyway, but they finally pushed the Liberals too far. Voting for the budget would be an act of suicide for the Liberal Party.

So what happens now? Either Harper backs down, or the government falls. Normally that means an election, but since we just had it, our governor general can use one of her "reserve powers," and give the opposition parties the chance to form a coalition.

So on Monday, we could have a new prime minister. Or an election. Or maybe Harper will learn how to back down and eat crow, but I suspect that's the least likely of all possibilities.

[identity profile] urbangeo.livejournal.com 2008-11-29 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not concerned about the "waste" of money for an election. If that's what it costs to keep a democracy, I think that's a small price to pay. I'd rather them spend that than choose to vote for bills that they believe are against people's interests. My only concern is that if there's an election nobody will bother voting.

[identity profile] lux-apollo.livejournal.com 2008-11-29 09:59 am (UTC)(link)
The lack of voter turnout would be the heart of the waste I was refering too - why spend money on another election if the public will be apathetic and not show up and do their part?