Canada's parliamentary opposition reacted with outrage on Thursday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down the legislature until Jan. 26, seeking to forestall a no-confidence vote that he was sure to lose and, possibly, provoking a constitutional crisis. Full Story »
Posted by Dwight Rousu
The article tells the news and some reactions, but leaves many questions unanswered. The Canadian law and any precedents are not explained. It is interesting that a key policy factor in the dispute is the reactionaries eliminating publicly financed elections from their proposed budget.
Just the facts. Not much comment on the implications of this "banana republic" type move. What on earth was Harper thinking.
Canada's fedral election system is ridiculous. Taking the Greens as an example, they got 6.8% of the vote and therefore should have had 21 seats in the present parliament. They were poling at around 10% which would have given them 36 seats. The difference is probably people voting stratigically for the party they least dislike and not wanting to throw away their vote on the greens when it doesn't count. Ditto a lot of the other small parties. The Kanuks should take this ... More »
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