Canadian Politics 101

The majority of this blog's readers are not from Canada, so for those of you who only think of Canada in terms of polar bears and hockey players this will all be news to you.

Those of us who live in Canada are apparently facing another federal election on the heels of the last one held October 14, 2008. Yes, less than 2 months ago.

We have a minority federal government in Canada, which means the ruling Conservative party needs the support of at least one of the opposition parties in order to pass anything in the House of Commons.

The Conservative party brought forth an economic update to the country in which they detailed some things they may do in an official budget. Things to stimulate the economy while trying to maintain our long history of fiscal surpluses. Yes, we have not run a deficit in many years.

One cost cutting measure was to eliminate a subsidy provided to all federal parties based on the number of votes that party received in the last election. Since the Conservatives received the most votes they would lose the most money.

However the Conservatives have the most money on hand from their very successful and very constant fund raising. The Conservatives can live without the subsidy; the other parties cannot in their current form.

So, the opposition parties are now in talks to form a coalition government. Meaning if they all vote together they have more seats in the House of Commons than the Conservatives.

This has never been done in Canadian Political history. We would then have a ruling government made up of Liberals (just as the name implies), New Democrats (socialists), and the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc is a fascinating bit of Canadian politics, we actually have, and pay for, a "federal" party that only runs candidates in Quebec, and who's sole mandate is to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada.

That's right we pay for a party that wishes to destroy the country. We the Canadian tax payer pay the Bloc's members of parliament salaries, benefits, and pensions. The party is also subsidized by the Canadian tax payer like all the other parties.

So while the world is facing its greatest financial crisis since the great depression Canada would be run by three different political parties, liberals, socialists, and separatists.

The best part is the whole idea was not conceived by the current opposition party leadership, but by their leaders of the past who are no longer members of the House of Commons. Former liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent have been reported as the masters of this idea.

The other political alternatives are, we have another federal election, or the opposition parties vote with the Conservatives and let them rule as we the people elected them to do 6 weeks ago.

So if you were, or are, a Canadian citizen which alternative would you prefer.

Imagine the carnage of a coalition government of liberals, socialists, and separatists running this country.

Imagine you were a Liberal or New Democrat politician and 6 weeks after the last election you showed up on my doorstep asking for my vote again. Asking because the Conservatives took away your tax payer subsidy. Asking, because of the tax payer’s subsidy, you had not bothered to do any proper fund raising. Asking because even if you did try fund raising no one would give you any money.

If I were our Prime Minister I would draw the line in the sand and dare the opposition to try any of the alternatives other than voting with the government to pass whatever budget they ultimately do bring to the House of Commons.

Some would say he already has.

Now we wait to see if anyone blinks.