Been reading many comments online, in news forums and hearing the "public" talk on television. Let me preface this by saying that comments on websites (even news sites) and polls of the internet can point toward trends but since it is unregulated and thrives upon the anonymity principles of the internet, I believe that many comments are plants or bogus, serving only inflame or sway opinion. That being said, there seems to be a lot of public vitriol about this coalition, people saying this isn't democratic, and we want a leader we elected. Some people seem terribly upset by this ordeal and i'm sorry to say I have no sympathy with them.
well I lie. I have some sympathy. It's hard not to have sympathy for folks who believe they are being conned out of their inherent democratic right to have a say and be heard. It is hard not to sympathize even a little with people who cannot remember their social studies class and watch watch way too much american tv and news and have deluded themselves into believing we are an american style of republican democracy.
my dear friends, i have undertaken the onerous task or pretentiously setting the record straight.
- We are a federation, not a republic
- We are not a democracy. We are a constitutional monarchy. Take a short trip back with me to grade 9. We have a British style of government (boos and hisses from Quebec). The Queen has a representative to do her bidding in her Dominion/Commonwealth of Canada, that being the Governor General. The Governor General is appointed by a PM and has a term that usually lasts 5 years. This current GG was appointed by the Liberal government.
- In this system of government we do not elect a leader of the country. We vote for MP's to represent our interests to the House of Commons. We vote mostly for parties. The party with the most seats forms the government. The Prime Minister is then appointed by the GG and he/she usually follows the principle of appointing the leader of the winning party as PM. Again it must be stressed that we do no elect a leader of the country, only Members of Parliament. Therefore Harper is a representative of Calgary-Southwest appointed by the Governor General to be Prime Minister.
- In the case of minority governments, if the ruling minority loses the confidence of the House, the GG can ask someone else who has the confidence of the house (majority of support from any and all parties) to be PM is asked to do so. Therefore within a parliamentary democracy is is entirely democratic to have a coalition government and this is the purpose of a parliament.
So ladies and gentlemen, friends and stoppers-by, there is Canadian government in basic. To all those whining about how un-democratic this coalition is and how un-canadian this is, get over yourselves. Really. No Seriously. This fiasco in Ottawa is perhaps the most democratic and Canadian our government has been in quite some time.
This is Canada, not America. Eh.
peacelovefreedomjustice.
-s
"this has been an abrupt (non-prorouged) social studies lesson from the free city."
