And now… Canada
Some consider Canada to be “Our Neighbor to the North.” Others consider it to be that state with weird money. Many don’t consider it at all.
This is an interesting moment for Canada’s government; its future hangs in the balance and will likely be decided today by an unelected head of state who is also a former CBC reporter.
Well, this takes a moment to explain, for those of us who don’t live in a parliamentary democracy. I’ll take a swipe at it, and then give you some resources.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper leads the Conservative party and its minority government in Parliament. Three other parties together have the majority of seats, but not enough on their own to form a government.
In the past few days, two of the parties – the Liberals and the New Democrats – have signed an agreement to create a coalition. That’s still not enough to form a majority government. Enter the Bloc Quebecois, an (officially) separatist party based in Quebec. The Bloc has signed a separate agreement saying it will support the coalition for 18 months.
In order to save his government, PM Harper has asked the Governor General Michaëlle Jean (the former CBC reporter and host) for prorogation – essentially to postpone parliament for a few days. One of the Governor General’s other choices is to recognize the coalition. We’ll likely know the answer today.
OK, that’s my fractured attempt at an explanation. Here’s a better, and more hilarious, explanation from CBC’s Washington correspondent Neil Macdonald: Dear neighbour, about what’s going on in Canada
Other Resources:
- Harper meets the Governor General (Globe and Mail)
- The Governor General’s choices (Globe and Mail)
- The leader’s addresses (CBC)
- The National (CBC’s flagship nightly news)
- The Current (CBC Radio One’s flagship morning program – this link to today’s show, with on-demand audio, will be active later today)
The CBC web site has several video reports, including Don Cherry explaining prorogation. You gotta see it to believe it, but we can’t link to it because, despite the colorful web site, CBC has no understanding of how to propagate its content (proving that you can be huge and still dumb).
UPDATE: The Governor General has decided to prorogue Parliament until late January. The decision doesn’t prevent a vote of no confidence in Parliament – it only delays it until the government presents its budget in about 6 weeks.
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MiddleAgedWoman
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toddmundt
