Author Topic: Canada's elections - October 14  (Read 25374 times)

Offline Sheriff Roland

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #40 on: October 17, 2008, 01:48:14 pm »
Oops

Sorry David

I misread your question about "How long between the elections for Prime Minister?"

I thought you were asking when we were going to vote for PM (Prime Minister).

Oilgun set you straight on that one, however ...

Only recently (Harper did this) has the rule of 4 years maximum between election been in place. Often, past majority government did stretch the 4 years out to 5 years. And even once, during war time, elections were suspended all together.

Minority governments are not expected to last 4 years. In this case, Harper called the election before the 4 years had lapsed. Usually early election, during a minority government, occurs because the opposition loses confidence in the ruling party and votes to defeat it. Harper felt he had a chance to produce a majority government so he called this one. Course he messed up and we're still in pretty much the same minority government situation as 6 weeks ago ... except now he doesn't have to call another election for 4 more years - unless, of course, he gets defeated in the interim.
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Offline Sheriff Roland

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #41 on: October 17, 2008, 01:51:48 pm »
But he has to within a year, doesn't he?

I just read in the Globe & Mail that Dion didn't listen to his advisers to not mention his "Green Shift" (aka: Carbon Tax  aka: Tax increase) during the campaign.  I guess it was hard to do when he kept getting grilled about it by Harper.  I actually liked Dion but he seemed too naively honest for the job, lol!

Are you suggesting that Harper has to call an election within a year?

The answer is no. He has a 4 year mandate, same as always ... unless he gets defeated by the opposition - something that Dion has refused to do consistently these past (almost) 3 years.
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Offline Lumière

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #42 on: October 17, 2008, 02:52:20 pm »
I saw this not long ago...


Dion expected to call it quits Monday
By The Canadian Press


OTTAWA - Stephane Dion is expected to announce his resignation as Liberal leader on Monday.

Dion, who has been in seclusion since taking his party to its second-worst defeat in history, has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET Monday.

Liberal insiders say Dion has grudgingly accepted that he can't survive a mandatory leadership review vote, scheduled for May, and will announce his decision to step aside.

It's unclear if he will stay on as leader until a successor is chosen.

The Liberals were reduced to 76 seats in Tuesday's election, down from 103 in the 2006 vote.

Their share of the popular vote fell to 26.2 per cent - two points lower than the party's disastrous showing in 1984 under John Turner and only four points ahead of the its worst-ever result in 1867.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081017/national/liberal_leadership_dion


Offline oilgun

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #43 on: October 17, 2008, 02:58:56 pm »
Are you suggesting that Harper has to call an election within a year?

The answer is no. He has a 4 year mandate, same as always ... unless he gets defeated by the opposition - something that Dion has refused to do consistently these past (almost) 3 years.

I got confused because I thought Harper had set Oct 2009 as a fixed-date for the next Elections.  I guess my interpretation of fixed-date is different then Harper's.  I read further and found out that the fixed-date law is just window dressing:

Quote
Mr. Harper’s own fixed-election law, which set an October 2009 date for the next election, has left people confused about whether he had the ability to set a date of his choice if his minority government hadn’t been defeated in the Commons.

In fact, the fixed-date law is pure window-dressing that does nothing legally to change the prime minister’s control of election dates. The law itself contains a clause acknowledging that it doesn’t change the powers of the Governor General. (That would require a constitutional amendment.) But since those powers are exercised only on the advice of the prime minister, the fixed-date law leaves the prime minister legally free to advise the Governor General to ignore the fixed date. And the Governor General is legally bound to take that advice.
From: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/1077641.html

Offline Lumière

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #44 on: October 21, 2008, 03:30:00 pm »

Possible Liberal leadership contenders

By The Canadian Press


OTTAWA - Names being mentioned as possible Liberal leadership contenders:

Michael Ignatieff: Toronto MP; former leadership front-runner. Supporters already working behind the scenes on a new leadership bid.

Bob Rae: Toronto MP; former NDP premier of Ontario; former leadership contender. Supporters working behind the scenes on a new leadership bid.

Gerard Kennedy: Newly elected Toronto MP; former Ontario cabinet minister; former leadership contender. No word on whether he will run again.

Martha Hall Findlay: Toronto MP; former leadership contender. Supporters say she will likely run again.

John Manley: A former deputy prime minister who ran briefly against Paul Martin for the leadership in 2003. He has been coy about whether he will run.

Frank McKenna: Former New Brunswick premier. A Frank4PM website has been set up in a bid to build pressure on McKenna to run but those close to him say he's unlikely to take the bait.

Justin Trudeau: Newly elected MP; eldest son of late Liberal icon Pierre Trudeau. Says he will not run.

Dominic LeBlanc: New Brunswick MP; fluently bilingual Acadian with deep roots in the party - father, Romeo, was press secretary to Pierre Trudeau, later an MP and cabinet minister, and eventually became Governor General. Testing the waters for support.

Ujjal Dosanjh: Vancouver MP; former NDP premier of British Columbia. Said he's considering a bid.

Martin Cauchon: Former cabinet minister.

David McGuinty: Ottawa MP, brother of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Denis Coderre: Montreal MP.




http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081020/delection/liberal_leadership_quicklist


Offline Sheriff Roland

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #45 on: October 22, 2008, 12:01:47 pm »
I was reading this article this monrning and didn't finish it then, cause there were comments that offended me.

Was going to quote from it but found out in rereading it today that the 'offensive' passages were interpretations of comments from others elsewhere. Anyways - the bolding is mine.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=53fc2f65-0b46-4159-badb-a160afc677c0

Harper must manage rising anti-Quebec backlash

Iain Hunter, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

How many times have we heard the question: "What does Quebec want?"

Since last week's election, we might ask as well: "How is it going to get it?"

It wasn't long before election-watchers crunched the numbers the morning after and came to the conclusion that, hey, Quebec doesn't matter any more.

By plumping for the Bloc Québécois, the voters in that province seemed to be assuming that another minority government would be elected and that it would be weak enough to need Bloc support to survive, and have to pay for it.

Well, it turns out that the Conservatives can survive very well without Bloc support. The party can't make a difference even in alliance with either the Liberals or the New Democrats: It will take the combined will of all three opposition parties in the Commons to force another election -- should any of them be inclined to do so any time soon.

Stephen Harper is better with the arithmetic of this minority parliament than Joe Clark was with the one he had: He can afford to govern as if he has a majority, until he gets tired of it all again and pulls the plug.

I've seen the lament of newspaper columnists and academics that Quebec has turned its back on playing a role in the government of the nation in this election. That after all Canada has done for it -- righting a "fiscal imbalance" that was a fiction, giving anyone who wants to claim it the right to belong to a Quebec nation inside "a united Canada," whatever that means -- Quebec has given the rest of us the one-fingered salute.

Who could have thought that something as inconsequential as the Conservatives' cancelling a few so-called artists' travel grants or threatening to crack down on violent juvenile criminals could have made such a difference?

How could these issues have turned off Quebecers from voting for the party that was almost sure to be returned as the government in Ottawa with the cash to meet whatever demands that they might make, right whatever wrongs they perceived?

After all, aren't there artists in other parts of Canada? Are juvenile criminals confined to Quebec?

I've also seen disturbing letters to the editor and the remarks of blogheads reminiscent of nastier times in the past. They suggest that Quebec should be made to pay for backing a party content to live off the perks of a country it doesn't recognize.

The government must stop catering to Quebecers' "entrenched tribalism." No more should the "French tail" be allowed to wag the "English dog."

And, most disturbing of all, that it's now the turn of "the West," toward which the weight of Conservative support has shifted.

I've never approved of the extent to which successive prime ministers lately have pandered to the demands of regions and provinces at the expense of strong central government, though pretending that one size should fit all is absurd in a country as vast and diverse as ours.

I've never liked the way national cost-sharing formulas are negotiated and then wrecked by side deals that are more politically motivated than anything else. And I hate the way our provinces are described as "haves" or "have-nots," as if there aren't wealthy people in poor provinces and poor people in wealthy ones.

And I feel sorry for all of us that people get so upset when they see the English dog chasing its French tail. It's a splendid tail, and it should wag, not droop.

I was present in that old railway station in Ottawa when we put our nation on its new, independent track, but left Quebec as an unwilling caboose at the end, and its prime minister [sic] an emotional wreck. I still think that what I regarded as the mother country could have done more to make us try again before succumbing to Pierre Trudeau's advice to hold its nose and pass the bill that left Quebec alone.

I was present, too, when so many Quebecers' hopes sank in Meech Lake and were lost in Charlottetown.

It doesn't surprise me that people in Quebec have a different view of our union than, say, Albertans, or that what happens in Quebec City, as voter turnout in provincial elections shows, is more important to them than what happens in Ottawa.

Some loyalties have no price.
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Offline Sheriff Roland

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #46 on: October 22, 2008, 12:06:31 pm »
I'll be moving this thread to 'My Great White North' blog later this week.

a redirect will be left behind in this forum (but based on recent posting rates, that notice may not stay on the first page two days!  :-\ )
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #47 on: October 22, 2008, 12:22:58 pm »
I'll be moving this thread to 'My Great White North' blog later this week.

a redirect will be left behind in this forum (but based on recent posting rates, that notice may not stay on the first page two days!  :-\ )


Roland, just want you to know I've been reading this thread.  I'm so unknowledgable though, that I've had nothing to add.  But I look at it every time there is something new, so thanks for having it here as long as you have.

Offline Lumière

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #48 on: October 22, 2008, 12:27:20 pm »
I'll be moving this thread to 'My Great White North' blog later this week.

a redirect will be left behind in this forum (but based on recent posting rates, that notice may not stay on the first page two days!  :-\ )

LOL.
Yeah, I've had to dig for it three or four pages deep in the past.


This latest article you posted Roland, are those all (particularly the bolded bits) Harper's comments?


Edit: Just saw your note here:  :)
Quote
Was going to quote from it but found out in rereading it today that the 'offensive' passages were interpretations of comments from others elsewhere. Anyways - the bolding is mine.


Offline Sheriff Roland

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Re: Canada's elections - October 14
« Reply #49 on: October 22, 2008, 12:34:31 pm »
This latest article you posted Roland, are those all (particularly the bolded bits) Harper's comments?

None of it is Harper's.

The first (offensive) bit is the article's author's synthesizing of some comments he's come across, while the last two bolded-up parts are from the author of the piece, Ian Hunter
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