Canada set for election after government defeated

[Capitalist Pig]

http://today.reuters.com/business/ne...yID=nN28250731

OTTAWA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Canada's shaky minority Liberal government lost a vote of confidence on Monday, ending a 17-month stay in office that was largely overshadowed by a patronage scandal. Prime Minister Paul Martin was set to visit Governor General Michaelle Jean -- the representative of head of state Queen Elizabeth -- on Tuesday to ask her to dissolve Parliament and set an election date. A well-placed source told Reuters that Martin would call an election for Jan. 23, setting the scene for the country's first winter campaign in more than 25 years.

[shield772]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...da_elections_8

TORONTO - A corruption scandal forced a vote of no-confidence Monday that toppled Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government, triggering an unusual election campaign during the Christmas holidays.

Canada's three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin's government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.

The loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on Jan. 23. Martin and his Cabinet would continue to govern until then.

[Clarence]

Can somebody help me understand this. Is this anything like a coup?

[shield772]

No it's just their system of governemnt.

[Capitalist Pig]

We posted threads about the same thing. No biggie, but just check next time.

[shield772]

I did just didn't see it, sorry

[rmnunez]

Canada's three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin's government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.

SO does this mean its likely we will see the opposition assume executive authority in Canada? What role do conservatives have in the Canadian opposition? Is a more conservative leader for Canada the more likely outcome?

[Nono]

I love the way American right-wingers (and their counterparts further south) react to the Canadian party names "Liberal" and "Conservative".

I'd say the Liberal Party is more conservative than the Conservatives in that it seeks to conserve a vision of Canada (business-friendly 19th-century-liberal) whereas the Conservative Party, which used to call itself the Progressive Conservative Party before joining up with the yahoo Alliance (ex-Reform), is today a weird cocktail of radical freemarketeers and right-wing reactionaries (mostly from Canada's West) who spend a great deal of time -- unlike the Liberals -- engaged in internecine doctrinal feuds.

The reality is, though, that there are so many parties on the federal scene at the moment that the result of this election is bound to be yet another minority government, probably Liberal.

In Canada, by the way, people talk about someone being a "big-L" or "small-L" liberal, or "big-C" or "small-c" conservative, in recognition of the meaningless of the party names.