[xman]

It is all, but for the formality of the Prime Minister walking down to Governor General Jean's residents to ask her to dissolve Parliament and Canada too will officially be in election mode. So many questions arise and like all elections, only time will tell the answers. Still, I'd like to know what you all think.

1. Can Stéphane Dion muster the charisma needed to even keep the Conservatives in a minority let alone become PM himself, or will Canadians run like rats from a sinking ship from his party?
2. By meeting the criteria with their first sitting member at the time of dissolution of parliament, will the Green Party finally be included in the leaders' debate?
3. What's "the issue" gonna be this time around?
4. What riding are you in and how do you hope/expect it to turn out? (I'm in Libby Davies' NDP riding and will be stunned if she loses it)
5. What do you want the candidates to do?
6. What else would you like to say?

X

[Nord Jim]

Originally Posted by xman

It is all, but for the formality of the Prime Minister walking down to Governor General Jean's residents to ask her to dissolve Parliament and Canada too will officially be in election mode. So many questions arise and like all elections, only time will tell the answers. Still, I'd like to know what you all think.

1. Can Stéphane Dion muster the charisma needed to even keep the Conservatives in a minority let alone become PM himself, or will Canadians run like rats from a sinking ship from his party?
2. By meeting the criteria with their first sitting member at the time of dissolution of parliament, will the Green Party finally be included in the leaders' debate?
3. What's "the issue" gonna be this time around?
4. What riding are you in and how do you hope/expect it to turn out? (I'm in Libby Davies' NDP riding and will be stunned if she loses it)
5. What do you want the candidates to do?
6. What else would you like to say?

X

Gee, where's Joe Clark when you need him. Or Kim Campbell?

j

[Hutch]

The difference is that the election will get called and about a month later Canadians will vote, its nothing like the never ending US election process. I really don't know how anything gets done in the US, actually I do, nothing does get done.

I love this too.

According to elections Canada, the major parties had an $18.3-million spending limit for the 2006 election, while individual candidate limits averaged about $80,000 each.

Thats what a slow weekend during the US Presidential Elections.

[xman]

And as a result of that spending cap the 4 incumbent parties are all on a level playing field for spending.

I just found out the Liberals are really in disarray with no candidates yet in 31 ridings in Quebec alone. No wonder Harper wanted to break his own fixed election law.

Jack Layton's first campaign stop was in the Conservative stronghold of Alberta. Talk about wishful thinking. Either that or he's seen how badly Dion polls out there and is looking at stealing a few ridings. I suppose it could happen.

The media is trying to write the Bloc out and as much as I'd like to see that happen, somehow, I suspect Duceppe has a little more support than that.

X

[xman]

And ... The Green Party is in the debate. I'm shocked actually. I just can't wait to see how much it'll hurt the Conservatives. A lot of people feel that the NDP will suffer and they might be right because they picked up a lot of votes in 2006, but it was the Conservatives that lost votes to them in 2004. I bet this is rougher on the Cons than the NDP.

X

[xman]

Oddest campaign I've ever seen. We were talking about family issues and now we're talking about the economy. Suddenly too. Canadians will do exactly as they did last time I suspect. What fun, more of the same.

On a personal front I have been down to my MP's office three times so far and hope to squeeze another visit to poll the riding. You know, "C'Mon out and vote"!

I've already voted on the final day of advanced ballots because I'll be working for Elections Canada on E-Day counting votes the good old fashioned way, on paper.

The real victory in all of this so far has to be Elizabeth May of the Green Party. It'll be a miscarriage of democracy if they don't win a seat. It could really happen too. The miscarriage of democracy seems imminent again.

Once the votes are all counted I'm gonna go and party like a mad mad ... for about an hour and then sleep.

X

[Whiggamore]

Great campaign with a half-decent result. Harper is the man for the job. I'm obviously disappointed in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labradour, but pleased with Ontario and British Columbia. Nunavut was a nice touch but it is a shame the Northwest Territories didn't send the Tory candidate there to Ottawa. He'd have been in cabinet hands down. Imagine that, the North having a minister. The local campaign I was volunteering on experienced a pretty stunning victory, too, which was nice.

I'm glad we took two in British Columbia, but disappointed that we didn't wave Hedy Fry and Ujjal Dosanjh goodbye and make it four.

The attitude of some pundits that this was a waste of time really angers me. What would they prefer over the occassional inconvenience of democracy? A dictatorship? Boneheads.

The Conservative are coming out of this strong and wealthy. The Liberals are still going down and they'll be bankrupt. The Bloc needs to be finished, somehow. How can that not be illegal? The NDP has peaked. The Greens will never be a force. Once Dion is replaced we'll be back at the polls and I predict a Tory landslide. Harper will join the ranks of MacDonald, Laurier, King, etc. me thinks.

I can sleep easy knowing my Candian dollars, the arctic, etc. are safe.

Back to Belize for me now, though. 36 days was enough to last me a couple of years.

[WireBeard]

Amazing...the Canadians have already replaced the government.....in just over a month.

I wish we could restrict the campaigns like that.....

[Hutch]

Just think November is coming soon, then it will be time to start running for 2012

[Whiggamore]

Originally Posted by WireBeard

Amazing...the Canadians have already replaced the government.....in just over a month.

I wish we could restrict the campaigns like that.....

Still the same government.

And yeah, the 36 day campaign is a Godsend.

[WireBeard]

So I am guessing that Canda has a system similar to the UK....

Regardless, how does campaigning compare to the US?

Do you have "primaries"?

Do you elect everyone (Prime Minister, representatives, etc.) at the same time or are the done in alternating years?

With the recent election, who exactly was voted on?

What determines if the new government will have to be a coalition?

When Parliament was dissolved, what was up for grabs in the election?

I could go look this up on the web, but I want to hear the view of an actual Canadian.

[xman]

Originally Posted by WireBeard

So I am guessing that Canda has a system similar to the UK....

yup

Originally Posted by WireBeard

Regardless, how does campaigning compare to the US?

Well, we get it done in a shorter span, but otherwise it's pretty much the same.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

Do you have "primaries"?

No. Party leaders are voted on at the leadership convention if a new one is needed.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

Do you elect everyone (Prime Minister, representatives, etc.) at the same time or are the done in alternating years?

All at once.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

With the recent election, who exactly was voted on?

Currently you can only vote for your local MP. The party with the most MP's forms the government and their leader becomes Prime Minister .. usually.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

What determines if the new government will have to be a coalition?

In the antiquated First-Passed-the_Post system our countries both share, it is easy to get an unfair majority, that is a majority of seats without a majority of the vote. If you don't get enough seats for that and must forma more natural Minority Government with fewer than half the seats, the government must create legislation which will gain the support of at least part of the opposition parties. Sometimes a few parties will band together and create a coalition between two or more parties.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

When Parliament was dissolved, what was up for grabs in the election?

Each Parliamentary seat.

X

[WireBeard]

Cool, thanks! I'm not sure Americans could put up with having to listen to all the people in Congress and the President/VP candidates campaigning at once...even if it was in a shorter time.

Do your candidates do debates?

So, under you system, you could be elected MP one year and them there could be a crisis and Parliament dissolved and you are back on the campaign trail?

What is/was the catalyst for Parliament being dissolved? I am guessing t is not something the PM would do lightly.....

[xman]

Originally Posted by WireBeard

Do your candidates do debates?

Our locals do all candidates debates and all running candidates are invited. The leaders debate is organised by the very exclusive consortium of Canadian broadcasters. That they (the corporate media) decided to allow Green Party leader Elizabeth May to debate at all is astonishing, but the protesters were out early in the campaign and the very Conservative Prime Minister (he's still PM during the election) didn't want it rattling his campaign so he advised them otherwise.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

So, under you system, you could be elected MP one year and them there could be a crisis and Parliament dissolved and you are back on the campaign trail?

Any real crisis would only occur on a vote of confidence issue like the budget or something else big. An astonishing amount of power rests in the Prime Minister's office alone. It's usually set up by the PM though. He puts something into the budget that he knows the opposition will defeat and we're off to the races.

Originally Posted by WireBeard

What is/was the catalyst for Parliament being dissolved? I am guessing t is not something the PM would do lightly.....

The Prime Minister saw he was running high in the polls and wanted his unfair majority before the opposition leader had a chance to become better known or anything else got in his way. So, yeah he had a meeting with each of the other party leaders and then walked down to the Governor General's house (about 20 minutes of boring TV time) and asks her for permission. She's the Queen's representative. It's a ceremonial position only wielding little to no power. The PM decided he wanted an election and we (300 million dollars later) are right back where we started. A little shift in the seats. The Opposition leader will resign tomorrow because he lost. All he has to worry about is whether people will vote for him. People will get mad if they have to go to the polls again too soon and those voters are tough to control, but other than that it's totally his call.

X

[WireBeard]

Thanks! I love the time frame.....

[Hutch]

Wirebeard, don't you like the two plus year election?

By the way the 300 million was the approximate cost for the whole election. Considering Obama raised 150 million last month alone, wow elections are cheap in Canada.

There were two debates one in French and one in English.

There have been recent attempts to change the system with fixed election dates and proportional representation, but they haven't flown.

The fixed dates in theory sound good but then you end up with the unfortunate truth the election is on November 4th and you start campaigning for the next one on November 5th.

[WireBeard]

I bet the debate in French sounded better.......

[xman]

There was a great moment in the French debate when Elizabeth May of the Green Party came right out and called Stephen Harper a fraud for his environmental policy. It was a rousing debate.

X

[Milton Man]

I liked the moment in the English debate when Gilles Duceppe came out and said to the other four candidates that "I know I won't be prime minister. Three of you won't be prime minister either. You might not know it."

It was a one horse race simply because there are too many centre-left parties splitting the vote, so we are then left with a consolodated right vote, which ends up forming the government with only 36% support (and 64% of the population wanting a centre-left government).

Until someone galvanizes the centre-left, we will continue to have our fractured minority governments...and subsequent elections every 2 years at $300 million a crack of tax payers money...

Mark

[xman]

Actually, until we get proportional representation and upgrade our ancient democracy to join the rest of the world, people will keep talking about undemocratic stunts like uniting the left or crossing the floor instead of getting on with the democratic job of debating the best way forward for all parties involved.

X