Hi everybody,
I noticed a diary bringing up the issue of the Canadian parliamentary crisis that is currently unfolding. I thought that I would sum up the situation for you all since the whole affair is rather messy and requires some background info!
This is my first diary so I hope that you enjoy it. It is little long but there are a lot of details.
Canadian Parliamentary System
First, a quick explainer of our government: ours is based upon the British parliamentary system, in which parliament is comprised of the lower house or the House of Commons (HoC), the Senate, and the Governor General (GG). While written in our constitution that our head of state is the British Crown, Queen Elisabeth II, who is represented by the GG (chosen by the Canadian government), the real power resides in the hand of the Prime Minister. The GG position is mostly a ceremonial one, however their presence is still required in order for government to work. For example, the GG must give his or hers royal accent in order for a bill that to become law.
The person running the show is the Prime Minister (PM). The PM's power resides in his or hers ability to garner a plurality of votes in the HoC in order to pass legislation, bills, etc. Like the US, we have political parties, although ours is a multi-party system. The current governing party is the Conservative Party (centre-right party). Representing the opposition, there is the Liberal Party (centrist party), the New Democratic Party or NDP (left-wing), and the Bloc Quebecois (a regional party from the province of Quebec that advocates the separation of the province to become its own country). Each party wins seats in the HoC in the same manner as Representatives are elected to the Congress (i.e. first-past-post, or winning the most votes in a riding or county). The PM requires the confidence of the House to govern, i.e. he need an absolute majority of the members of the House to back him up. If the PM does not hold the confidence of the House, he loses the right to govern. This is especially important for all matter of a financial nature (budgets, ways-and-means bills, etc.) because these are regarded as matters of confidence.
2008 federal election
Canada had an election in October in which the Conservatives, lead by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, won 143 out of 308, while the Liberals, NDP and Bloc won 77, 37 and 49 respectively. There are also two independents. Since Harper's party won the most seats but not the majority of seats in the House, his is a minority government. Before the election, Harper held about 122 seats but managed to increase that number.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
During the election Harper promised to work with the opposition to make parliament work for the people, especially since the last session was acrimonious. However, last Thursday the Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, presented to the HoC an economic update on the state of the Canadian economy. The Conservatives decided that for now they were not going to spend money to stimulate the economy like most other countries have done in lieu of the global economic crisis. However, the Conservatives announced some other measures: they were going to suspend the right of federal employees to strike for two years; they were going to cancel a pay equity program, therefore making it harder for women to be paid the same as their male counterparts; and they were going to cancel the public financing of political parties, a move that would financially cripple the three opposition parties (the Conservatives have become adept at raising funds and therefore they would not be affected to same degree as the other parties).
Upon hearing the economic update, as well as the other planned measures, the opposition went ballistic. All three opposition leaders immediately declared that they would not support the update, and since it had to be approved by the HoC, and was a financial matter, it was tantamount to a vote of no-confidence, meaning that Harper's government would fall.
Shortly after the opposition revolt, the Liberals and the NDP started to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition government to replace the Conservatives. They would require the support of the Bloc quebecois in order to gain the necessary votes to form a majority in the House. The Liberal were ready to present a vote of no-confidence on Monday, December 1st. However, Harper moved to cancel all House business that day, delaying the vote to December 8th, the day that the House would vote on the economic update.
A constitutional crisis began to brew. The opposition parties were able to formalize an agreement to form a Liberal-NDP coalition with the backing of Bloc. The Conservatives went into damage-control mode, attacking the agreement as undemocratic, a grab for power and as an affront to the will of the people. The opposition argued that Harper had lost the confidence of the House and that they were ready and able to govern the country.
At first, Harper tried to make concessions to the opposition: he backed off from his plans to cut public funding of parties, public sector workers would retain the right to strike, and that pay equity would not be touched. It was even announced that the government would present a budget in January (a month earlier than usual) to deal with financial crisis. But it was too late and the damage was done. The opposition wanted blood!
Realising that the opposition was determined to bring his government down, Harper announced that he would do everything in his power to make sure that the Lib-NDP coalition would not seize power. However, in order to do so, Harper was left with two options, both involving the Governor Gereral, Michaëlle Jean: ask her to dissolve Parliament and hold new elections, or ask her to prorogue the parliamentary session, essentially ending the session and stop all parliamentary works. Either option required her approval.
GG Jean, on a trip to Eastern Europe, flew back on Wednesday to meet with the PM. The oppositions parties, hoping also to meet with the GG, sent her a letter stating that they were ready govern and that they should be given an opportunity to form a government rather then her granting Harper's request to either dissolve or prorogue Parliament.
This morning, Thursday, December 4th, Gov. Gen. Jean met with Harper, and granted his request for her to prorogue parliament until mid-January when House would reconvene and vote on the budget. The move was unprecedented, since no prorogation has ever been granted this early in a parliamentary session.