Coup d'etat in Canada?

[Gazer]

Has anyone been following the recent unfolding of events in Canada? It's quite amazing that this happens in a 1st world country...fun to watch from the outside.

10 weeks ago they had elections and the ruling party won the election with a < 50% majority...the other parties got more than 50% of the votes combined. Now those opposition parties have come to agreement and it looks like they're going to merge, form a coalition government and gain the majority over the ruling party and perhaps oust them from government a mere 10 weeks after elections with a confidence vote in parliament.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4B14D720081202

Extract from article:

The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and separatist Bloc Quebecois signed an unprecedented deal on Monday to bring down Harper and create a coalition government that would keep them in power until at least June 30, 2010.

The opposition says Harper is not doing enough to tackle the financial crisis.

Speculation is mounting that Harper -- facing his worst crisis since first winning power in January 2006 -- will seek to shut down Parliament until a budget the government has promised for January 27.

Ottawa says the coalition deal showed the opposition were twisting the rules of democracy. The Conservatives won a strengthened minority in an Oct 14 election.

"It used to be in Canadian politics that you had to win an election in order to become the prime minister of this country," Heritage Minister James Moore said on Tuesday.

Natural Resources Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn on Monday called the opposition deal "a coup d'etat."

Moore told CTV television that the Liberals and the New Democrats had lied to Canadians during the campaign when they promised not to form a coalition.

"Now they're entering into an agreement, giving the balance of power to Quebec separatists and Canadians are rightly outraged by this ... it's not what Canadians voted for."

 

[Deenem]

With everything going on with our local politics at the moment, it's easy to forget that similar things go on all around the world.

 

[medicnick83]

Alot of the same stuff that happen here, happen elsewhere.
Just we too busy with our own stuff that we don't notice the rest of the world.

 

[brixton tower]

Has anyone been following the recent unfolding of events in Canada? It's quite amazing that this happens in a 1st world country...fun to watch from the outside.

10 weeks ago they had elections and the ruling party won the election with a < 50% majority...the other parties got more than 50% of the votes combined. Now those opposition parties have come to agreement and it looks like they're going to merge, form a coalition government and gain the majority over the ruling party and perhaps oust them from government a mere 10 weeks after elections with a confidence vote in parliament.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4B14D720081202

Extract from article:

That's the beauty of democracy at work. See what happens when the ANC gets slightly <50%...and they'll go nuts as had been shown in Cape Town and which probably happen in the Western Cape come the next election.

 

[sox63]

I would hardly call it a coup, just democracy at work again.

 

[Moederloos]

I would hardly call it a coup, just democracy at work again.

agreed.

+50% of the population did not want the majority party. If the "majority" party is then "ousted", that is what the majority (of the voters) wants. AKA democracy.

Not sure where the issue is.

 

[Gazer]

I would hardly call it a coup, just democracy at work again.

The coup is their wording not mine

 

[Gazer]

agreed.

+50% of the population did not want the majority party. If the "majority" party is then "ousted", that is what the majority (of the voters) wants. AKA democracy.

Not sure where the issue is.

No issue, just fun to watch a firmly entrenched conservative government get the snugness wiped off their face.

 

[Gazer]

That's the beauty of democracy at work. See what happens when the ANC gets slightly <50%...and they'll go nuts as had been shown in Cape Town and which probably happen in the Western Cape come the next election.

Exactly!

 

[sox63]

I thought Canada was fully independant?

Jean, who is in Prague, will fly back on Wednesday rather than Saturday. She is the personal representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state.

What gives?

 

[TooFastTim]

Canada, like Aus & NZ is a dominion. The queen is head of state and she is represented by a Governor (or Governess) General.

What is happening is called coalition politics and many countries are run like this. It all depends on the ability to keep the coalition together. Examples are NZ, Belgium, Israel..

 

[Alan]

agreed.

+50% of the population did not want the majority party. If the "majority" party is then "ousted", that is what the majority (of the voters) wants. AKA democracy.

Not sure where the issue is.

Except they lied to their voters about forming a coalition according to the article.


I don't see anybody calling for their machine gun or referring to opposition party members as cockroaches though

 

[kilps]

They're still independent - British government has no say in those countries and when the Queen deals with them she is 'Queen of Canada' and 'Queen of Australia'

 

[blunomore]

A bloodless coup.