One of the exciting things about the goings-on inside and outside of Canada’s House of Commons, is the education many of us are getting about how the parliamentary system works — mudslinging aside.
Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party have been claiming that Canadians elected the Conservative government and that they specifically chose him as Prime Minister of Canada. We didn’t. Canadians don’t elect the Prime Minister. Canadians vote for the individual or party to represent their riding. It’s very locally-minded with the hope that the party they support will be elected to govern the country (or at least provide balance in the House of Commons). When Parliament convenes, the members of the House select the governing party and, by extension, the Prime Minister. The decision is obvious when there’s a majority party; that is, a party with more than half of the seats in the House of Commons, not just more seats than any other single party or group of parties.
It’s good sense for the ‘minority’ governing party to work collaboratively with the other parties in the House of Commons if they expect to have support for their agenda. Now, more than ever, collaboration is an exciting idea for many people in the world. Not so for old-school politicians, especially (so it would appear) the Conservatives and Stephen Harper whose political future is at stake here. After all, he called an unnecessary election (breaking his own govern-your-term policy for an opportunistic power-grab), won more seats and yet managed to lose support of the House after only six weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, the Conservatives have collaborated with other parties in the past. They managed to rally the support of The Bloc for some key votes over the last few years. Oddly, they’re accusing the newly struck Liberal-NDP coallition of including a separatist party in their agreement. Not so. They’re counting on Bloc support for key votes. Oh… and the opposition leaders did gather around the Canadian flag, by the way.
It’s very easy to be confused by soundbites played out of context and the misinformed arguments and shouting over the last week. Don’t be misled by the accusations being thrown around, or be convinced by the Conservatives that the Parliamentary and Republican systems of government are the same.
I’m guessing that Canada’s elementary and even high school politics lessons haven’t covered the intricacies of our current situation. I certainly hope they do now.
Photo of Stephen Harper from the Ottawa Sun, December 3.
Photo of Jack Layton, Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe by Chris Wattie/Reuters.
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