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politicsGreetings Friends & Strangers! If you are beyond the borders of my rather large country, you may have only heard the faintest rumblings of an election being called in Canada! You may have heard it was called because the government "toppled" (which sounds so dire!), or you may have heard it was called because "Acting Deputy Mayor of Toronto Jack Layton" did something or other. Yes, we in Canada actually have news stories about what news media in other countries write about us, and yes, we have been laughing at you, but mostly in a way that says "Gosh, we really are boring and uninteresting to the rest of the world, aren't we?"
So, in light of the vast amounts of misinformation out there about this most important of elections, the 41st in our history, I thought I would give you a handy-dandy guide to sorting out what the heck is going on here so you can decide whether or not you care.
This is Part 1: What is a Parliamentary Democracy and how does it work? Chances are, if you live in another commonwealth country, this will be terribly boring except for the niggling details, so you may want to skip it, but I promise to try and make it fun as well as informative!
Q: Teacher Anna, please tell me how your government works!
A: Really badly! <-- ha ha ha ha, I'm very funny.
Federally, Canada has two houses of government, the Parliament, which is the house we vote for, and the Senate, which is appointed. Parliament is made up of representatives from each electoral district, called ridings. Each representative, or Member of Parliament, has one vote in Parliament, and there are 308 seats in the House of Parliament. "Seats" and "ridings" are often used interchangeably, so in order to get a majority in the House, a party must win in 155 ridings and claim 155 seats. All seats are voted on at the same time. We do not have fixed election dates: a vote can be called at any time. Our shortest parliament lasted just under 6 months, and our longest lasted literally to the day just under 6 years.
Riding election results are determined by a first-past-the-post system. This means that the winner in a riding does not need to have received the majority of votes, just the most votes of anyone running. This is why you'll often hear people in Canada talking about the percentage of votes and how this doesn't really match up with the parties of people being elected. In the most recent election, which was in October of 2008, the party that got the most seats (the Conservatives - more on them in a bit) only got about 37% of the "popular vote". Popular Vote is a term that means the overall percentage of votes a party received, but it often doesn't translate into actual seats. (For example, the Bloc Quebecois received 10% of the popular vote, and 49 seats. The NDP received 19% of the popular vote, and 36 seats. I'll explain why that happened in a bit.)
After the election results are counted - by hand, we vote with paper and pencil here - and tabulated, each riding's winner is determined. Most people who win will belong to a federal political party. The number of ridings that were won by members of a party will be counted up, and that will get the number of seats that party has. The party with the most seats is invited by the Governor-General (the Queen's official representative in Canada, as the Queen is our Head of State - more on this in a bit) to form the official government, and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. He (and right now the only serious contenders for Prime Minister are all male) gets an official residence and lots of money for his trouble. The leader of the party who gained the second largest number of seats become the leader of the official opposition, and he (see previous note) also gets a nice official residence and a nice salary. These men will both talk a lot about how hard-working Canadians need to tighten their belts to help get through these tough economic times. None of the leaders of the parties have suggested they would refuse official residences or rent them out for nice events or cut their salaries or anything, even though at one point someone who is currently leading the Conservative Party of Canada made a big deal about how he would never live in an official residence because they are a waste of tax payers' money. I am just saying. (Or was that Manning? Seriously, these white dudes just all run together for me after a while.)
Oh, and the Senate: Appointed by the Prime Minister, until retirement. It's a huge patronage appointment. The current controversy here is that Harper said "Oh, yes, I will abolish the Senate" and then started stacking it with party partisans. The plan is allegedly to have a majority senate of Conservatives so he can push through a bill to abolish it, but having actually studied the history of my country outside of Toronto, I can tell you that that has never actually worked here.
(Do not let anyone tell you Harper is from Alberta. He is not. He's from Toronto. Canadian regionalism being what it is, this is important.)
Map Source: Wikipedia
Q: What are these political parties that make up your strange electoral options?
As of right now, there are either four or five recognized federal parties, by which I mean people who may or may not be invited to the leader debates held on national television. I say four or five because there is a bunch of arguing about whether or not the Green Party should be invited to the official debates. Last election the leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, was initially excluded from the debate until public outcry meant that the people who make these decisions - allegedly a consortium of Canadian broadcasters - were "forced" to include May. So of course they've already said they won't be including her again this time. As soon as I can figure out who to call, I will be.
Anyway, parties:
The Conservative Party of Canada: Canada's only major Federal right-wing party. The Conservatives came out of a "Unite the Right" movement about 10 years ago that united the right-leaning kinda-centrist Progressive Conservative Party with the much further right Reform Party. In the US, they would be Democrats, from what I can tell, which makes me feel very sorry for the US. Their leader is Stephen Harper. They are currently running on the "Vote for us because Michael Ignatieff lived in the US and the UK and Layton is a bad man who looks terrible in orange" platform. From what I can tell the only policy initiative they have suggested so far is a tax-sharing plan that would allow people who earn more than $85,000 a year to split their income with a less-earning (read: stay-at-home) partner to lower their collective tax requirements, but not until the budget is balanced so who the heck knows when. However, they are the first party to mention an actual policy initiative rather than "Vote for me because everyone else is stupid", so props for that.
The Liberal Party of Canada, aka the self-described Natural Ruling Party of Canada: Basically, a centrist party with vaguely left-leaning tendencies at the moment. Their current leader is Michael Ignatieff, who is currently being vilified as an egg-head for having taught at Harvard and getting a Rhodes Scholarship or something, I don't even know. He's "elitist and out of touch with Real Canadians". He is somehow both the leader of a major political party and a political rookie, having only returned to Canada about five years ago and then jumped feet first into politics. His current campaign is "Look, Harper is a bad bad man", which you'd think would be a winning campaign but likely is not. The fact that there is a dearth of Ignattief/Bob Rae slash, despite their having been college room mates who grew into political rivals that have publicly fought over leadership of the Liberal Party is all the proof I need that there is no RPF Canadian politics fandom.
The New Democratic Party of Canada: Not Actually Socialists, Not Really Concerned About Unions Anymore. Layton made an absolute fool of himself last election going around saying "I'm Jack Layton and I'm going to be your next Prime Minister", which would be the US-equivalent of saying "I'm Ralph Nader, and I'm going to be your next President". It is really not going to happen. In general the NDP is the most left of the parties that have a chance of getting any power federally, but they keep telling their base that they don't count nearly as much as the millions of voters who are just waiting to defect from the Liberals any day now, really truly honestly, if only that damned Elizabeth May didn't steal them all away. I want to like the NDP a lot more than I do, but I loathe Layton so very very much that I just can't get over it. Also, he looks terrible in orange. His campaign so far this year seems to be "I would totally be willing to have a coalition if only the other parties would let me!" Back in 2005 he performed Party for Sale or Rent, which is all I'll say about that. *cough* (Okay, I'll also give him props for being willing to mock himself that much, but he certainly hasn't been willing to since.)
The Bloc Quebecois: Leftist party that only runs in Quebec, they are an official Separatist Party that has, in the past, made up Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Because Canada is just like that. I basically know nothing much about them except that Gilles Duceppe, their leader, is a pretty epic troll who is currently pulling out things Harper foolishly signed in 2004 to say "Oh hey, Harper is lying to you about things he said in 2004!" (Why this is a revelation, I don't know, since this came up back in 2009, but everyone's all shocked! so let's go with it.) As an English-Canadian, I get the impression that Duceppe basically doesn't care about whatever else is going on, he cares about Quebec, and he's pretty honest about it.
In the last election, the BQ received 10% of the vote and 49 seats. This is because they only run in Quebec, but Quebec has a larger number of seats than other provinces due to some rules in our Constitution. The rule is that if you win in Quebec & Ontario (or at least do well in both provinces), you've won the election. This has lead to some serious regional issues in Canada because the west is really damned bitter about it, as well they should be.
The Green Party of Canada: Vaguely left-leaning centrists, led by Elizabeth May. Since they've never managed to get a seat in Parliament, they're basically pretty impotent, but somehow both the Liberals and the NDP blamed the Greens for siphoning off the left-wing vote last election. Please note: Elizabeth May no longer has a secret eco-friendly underground lair in New Glasgow, but instead is running in B.C. The Green Party, obviously, focuses their attention on environmental-related policies and initiatives. I hope May wins her seat this time.
There are, of course, a variety of other parties in Canada that run in many, if not all, ridings. These include The Pirate Party of Canada, the NeoRhino Party (named after Neo from the Matrix; their platform is a piece of wood), the Marxist-Leninist Party, the Western Block Party, who advocate for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and BC to leave Canada, and The First Peoples National Party of Canada.
Q: Skip the commentary, Anna, just tell me where to get more information myself!
A: I am really liking the Defeatist.
That is all for Part 1! Part 2 will have a video from Rick Mercer and an explanation about the dreaded C words! You'll like the video from Rick Mercer, he's actually funny, not like me.
So, in light of the vast amounts of misinformation out there about this most important of elections, the 41st in our history, I thought I would give you a handy-dandy guide to sorting out what the heck is going on here so you can decide whether or not you care.
This is Part 1: What is a Parliamentary Democracy and how does it work? Chances are, if you live in another commonwealth country, this will be terribly boring except for the niggling details, so you may want to skip it, but I promise to try and make it fun as well as informative!
Q: Teacher Anna, please tell me how your government works!
A: Really badly! <-- ha ha ha ha, I'm very funny.
Federally, Canada has two houses of government, the Parliament, which is the house we vote for, and the Senate, which is appointed. Parliament is made up of representatives from each electoral district, called ridings. Each representative, or Member of Parliament, has one vote in Parliament, and there are 308 seats in the House of Parliament. "Seats" and "ridings" are often used interchangeably, so in order to get a majority in the House, a party must win in 155 ridings and claim 155 seats. All seats are voted on at the same time. We do not have fixed election dates: a vote can be called at any time. Our shortest parliament lasted just under 6 months, and our longest lasted literally to the day just under 6 years.
Riding election results are determined by a first-past-the-post system. This means that the winner in a riding does not need to have received the majority of votes, just the most votes of anyone running. This is why you'll often hear people in Canada talking about the percentage of votes and how this doesn't really match up with the parties of people being elected. In the most recent election, which was in October of 2008, the party that got the most seats (the Conservatives - more on them in a bit) only got about 37% of the "popular vote". Popular Vote is a term that means the overall percentage of votes a party received, but it often doesn't translate into actual seats. (For example, the Bloc Quebecois received 10% of the popular vote, and 49 seats. The NDP received 19% of the popular vote, and 36 seats. I'll explain why that happened in a bit.)
After the election results are counted - by hand, we vote with paper and pencil here - and tabulated, each riding's winner is determined. Most people who win will belong to a federal political party. The number of ridings that were won by members of a party will be counted up, and that will get the number of seats that party has. The party with the most seats is invited by the Governor-General (the Queen's official representative in Canada, as the Queen is our Head of State - more on this in a bit) to form the official government, and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. He (and right now the only serious contenders for Prime Minister are all male) gets an official residence and lots of money for his trouble. The leader of the party who gained the second largest number of seats become the leader of the official opposition, and he (see previous note) also gets a nice official residence and a nice salary. These men will both talk a lot about how hard-working Canadians need to tighten their belts to help get through these tough economic times. None of the leaders of the parties have suggested they would refuse official residences or rent them out for nice events or cut their salaries or anything, even though at one point someone who is currently leading the Conservative Party of Canada made a big deal about how he would never live in an official residence because they are a waste of tax payers' money. I am just saying. (Or was that Manning? Seriously, these white dudes just all run together for me after a while.)
Oh, and the Senate: Appointed by the Prime Minister, until retirement. It's a huge patronage appointment. The current controversy here is that Harper said "Oh, yes, I will abolish the Senate" and then started stacking it with party partisans. The plan is allegedly to have a majority senate of Conservatives so he can push through a bill to abolish it, but having actually studied the history of my country outside of Toronto, I can tell you that that has never actually worked here.
(Do not let anyone tell you Harper is from Alberta. He is not. He's from Toronto. Canadian regionalism being what it is, this is important.)
Map Source: Wikipedia
Q: What are these political parties that make up your strange electoral options?
As of right now, there are either four or five recognized federal parties, by which I mean people who may or may not be invited to the leader debates held on national television. I say four or five because there is a bunch of arguing about whether or not the Green Party should be invited to the official debates. Last election the leader of the Green Party, Elizabeth May, was initially excluded from the debate until public outcry meant that the people who make these decisions - allegedly a consortium of Canadian broadcasters - were "forced" to include May. So of course they've already said they won't be including her again this time. As soon as I can figure out who to call, I will be.
Anyway, parties:
The Conservative Party of Canada: Canada's only major Federal right-wing party. The Conservatives came out of a "Unite the Right" movement about 10 years ago that united the right-leaning kinda-centrist Progressive Conservative Party with the much further right Reform Party. In the US, they would be Democrats, from what I can tell, which makes me feel very sorry for the US. Their leader is Stephen Harper. They are currently running on the "Vote for us because Michael Ignatieff lived in the US and the UK and Layton is a bad man who looks terrible in orange" platform. From what I can tell the only policy initiative they have suggested so far is a tax-sharing plan that would allow people who earn more than $85,000 a year to split their income with a less-earning (read: stay-at-home) partner to lower their collective tax requirements, but not until the budget is balanced so who the heck knows when. However, they are the first party to mention an actual policy initiative rather than "Vote for me because everyone else is stupid", so props for that.
The Liberal Party of Canada, aka the self-described Natural Ruling Party of Canada: Basically, a centrist party with vaguely left-leaning tendencies at the moment. Their current leader is Michael Ignatieff, who is currently being vilified as an egg-head for having taught at Harvard and getting a Rhodes Scholarship or something, I don't even know. He's "elitist and out of touch with Real Canadians". He is somehow both the leader of a major political party and a political rookie, having only returned to Canada about five years ago and then jumped feet first into politics. His current campaign is "Look, Harper is a bad bad man", which you'd think would be a winning campaign but likely is not. The fact that there is a dearth of Ignattief/Bob Rae slash, despite their having been college room mates who grew into political rivals that have publicly fought over leadership of the Liberal Party is all the proof I need that there is no RPF Canadian politics fandom.
The New Democratic Party of Canada: Not Actually Socialists, Not Really Concerned About Unions Anymore. Layton made an absolute fool of himself last election going around saying "I'm Jack Layton and I'm going to be your next Prime Minister", which would be the US-equivalent of saying "I'm Ralph Nader, and I'm going to be your next President". It is really not going to happen. In general the NDP is the most left of the parties that have a chance of getting any power federally, but they keep telling their base that they don't count nearly as much as the millions of voters who are just waiting to defect from the Liberals any day now, really truly honestly, if only that damned Elizabeth May didn't steal them all away. I want to like the NDP a lot more than I do, but I loathe Layton so very very much that I just can't get over it. Also, he looks terrible in orange. His campaign so far this year seems to be "I would totally be willing to have a coalition if only the other parties would let me!" Back in 2005 he performed Party for Sale or Rent, which is all I'll say about that. *cough* (Okay, I'll also give him props for being willing to mock himself that much, but he certainly hasn't been willing to since.)
The Bloc Quebecois: Leftist party that only runs in Quebec, they are an official Separatist Party that has, in the past, made up Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Because Canada is just like that. I basically know nothing much about them except that Gilles Duceppe, their leader, is a pretty epic troll who is currently pulling out things Harper foolishly signed in 2004 to say "Oh hey, Harper is lying to you about things he said in 2004!" (Why this is a revelation, I don't know, since this came up back in 2009, but everyone's all shocked! so let's go with it.) As an English-Canadian, I get the impression that Duceppe basically doesn't care about whatever else is going on, he cares about Quebec, and he's pretty honest about it.
In the last election, the BQ received 10% of the vote and 49 seats. This is because they only run in Quebec, but Quebec has a larger number of seats than other provinces due to some rules in our Constitution. The rule is that if you win in Quebec & Ontario (or at least do well in both provinces), you've won the election. This has lead to some serious regional issues in Canada because the west is really damned bitter about it, as well they should be.
The Green Party of Canada: Vaguely left-leaning centrists, led by Elizabeth May. Since they've never managed to get a seat in Parliament, they're basically pretty impotent, but somehow both the Liberals and the NDP blamed the Greens for siphoning off the left-wing vote last election. Please note: Elizabeth May no longer has a secret eco-friendly underground lair in New Glasgow, but instead is running in B.C. The Green Party, obviously, focuses their attention on environmental-related policies and initiatives. I hope May wins her seat this time.
There are, of course, a variety of other parties in Canada that run in many, if not all, ridings. These include The Pirate Party of Canada, the NeoRhino Party (named after Neo from the Matrix; their platform is a piece of wood), the Marxist-Leninist Party, the Western Block Party, who advocate for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and BC to leave Canada, and The First Peoples National Party of Canada.
Q: Skip the commentary, Anna, just tell me where to get more information myself!
A: I am really liking the Defeatist.
That is all for Part 1! Part 2 will have a video from Rick Mercer and an explanation about the dreaded C words! You'll like the video from Rick Mercer, he's actually funny, not like me.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 09:22 pm (UTC)