Here's how she broke it down for me:
It's actually very easy, here goes: Conservative - right wing, color: blue; Liberal - centrist, color: red; NDP - socialist, color: orange; Greens - environmental, color: green; Bloc Quebecois - French Canadian Separatists, and then there's all the small parties, including the Marijuana Party of Canada (really, it does exist)...
Well, currently the Conservative Party has a minority government; the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois, between the three of them, have more seats. So they can outvote the ruling party on legislation and that can lead to the overthrow of the party...
It's the party that counts. We elect the party, through our local representatives (members of Parliament). The leader is not elected by the people, but by their party...
But it gets even more complicated, because the leader of the Liberal party, Stephane Dion, who signed a deal with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to overthrow the Conservatives is now himself being overthrown by one of the individuals who was a contender for the leadership contest of the Liberal party last year - Michael Ignatieff. Consitutional experts will have their knickers in a knot for some time to come.
So, in Canada, it is perfectly constitutional for there to be a huge transfer of power in the opposite direction of what the voters decide. Who knew?
7 comments:
I love that you have a label called "dumb Americans." ;) I see much potential for this category in the future...
Reminds me of a joke I heard once, goes like this:
"The Canadians think there is a huge rivalry between Americans and themselves. They hate us, but the truth is that we don't care. Just don't tell them that, or they get really mad..."
Huh. Who knew Canada was such a hot bed of political unrest? A veritable breeding ground for coups. Lebanon's got nuthin' on Canada!!
Excuse me while I return to navel gazing...
Frank, that joke also works if you substitute Buckeyes for Canadians and Wolverines for Americans.
Cathryn, point taken. I shouldn't have been so glib. I suppose an ignorance of Canadian politics is more forgivable (but unfortunately no less common) than ignorance of what's happening in Lebanon, Sudan, Congo, Burma and everywhere else people are actually dying.
No more common is what I think I meant. But that doesn't sound right, either. You know what I'm trying to say.
I wasn't really trying to make a point. I was mostly just trying to be funny. When one thinks of political coups, Canada does not immediately (or even gradually) come to mind!
But yeah, Americans' general ignorance of the world at large is shameful.
Waitaminute-- you mean there's ANOTHER country over this one??
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