Canada: Federal election to be called on Sunday.

"Paul Martin will visit Gov.-Gen. Adrienne Clarkson on Sunday and ask her to dissolve Parliament, clearing the way for a June 28 federal election, the Prime Minister's Office announced Saturday.

Polls suggest the Martin government is perched on a knife's edge, teetering between majority and minority status..."

link

first time ever on a federal election. This could be a very interesting election. It isn't a bad thing to have it close, hopefully that will bring out the voters.

In USA first tuesday of each year is election day. President is every 4th year.

But it seems these other countries just decide to have an election and then set a date....

I totally did not understand the India election. She won but decided not to take because she was foreign born but another guy who wasn't voted in and isn't Indian took it.....

Help a clueless person out please...point me in the right direction...in a maybe a page or two.....not a HUGE text book.

the Prime Minister has up to 5 years tocall an election, it is called "dropping the writ". The election is then to be held 6 weeks later. We have no set day, per se, for the election as is the case in the United States. Most Prime Ministers call an election in their 4th year unless they are in real trouble then they wait till the last minute and lose anyway, lol.

I have no idea how the process worked in India re the latest one, it was very interesting.

All the money Bush is raising and spending is great for networks and advertising firms.....but can you imagine how many good things could be done with that instead.....

your system sounds interesting and less marketing hype..... the marketing hype here turns people off and influence them. It is so much propaganda....especially repubs as you can tell.....

of the election rather than a year or more that happens in the US. In the last election, Jean Chretien spent a total of 5 million as opposed to the hundreds of milliions being spent in the US elections. There are some things I would like to see changed in our system but, overall, I like it.

to your country. I may still look at it because of the overall system seems to be more compassionate.....

only problem is it is cold and I moved from Conn to Virginia. But Virginia is so RW in politics, I must leave here. There are some really nice things but these politics and meanness just will get me in trouble.....

What would you consider the best least expensive least cold area to move to.....??? I was thinking of Vancouver, although I have not been to that city, I have been to Victoria. I have been to Quebec and enjoyed it at the time, but it get truly cold there.

I love seeing the film at disney the 360 degree film about Canada. Just lots of beautiful country.

I have been to Gabrielle island. That was a nice retreat weekend.

there. The Okanagan (Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon) are also very beautiful and not very cold in the winter and less expensive than Vancouver if you are looking at B.C.

No marketing hype (well, maybe some), but we don't waste our money and our time. No nonsense types, we Canadians, LOL!

They're a piece of paper with the candidate's names and party affiliation printed on them.

There's a large check box next to each name.

You place an X on the checkbox of the candidate you want to vote for.

You drop the folded ballot in a big locked box... then they're all hand counted.

Downside to this is that's all you get to do. Once a party's elected, they have near absolute power; that's the advantage of minority governments.

maybe even a minority Liberal gov't.

A bit.
In our parliamentary, system it was designed such that people would vote for for their local choice of a member of parliament (MP). At present each riding will have a Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green and some with other name tags.
The intent was that each riding would vote for the best individual, regardless of party. (There are 301 ridings in Canada)
When all the ballots are counted the party with more than 50% of the seats becomes the party in power and their leader is the PM. Should he/she step down then the party would have to elect a new leader to be the PM.
In the event that no party has more than 50% of the seats, then the party with the most seats would be invited to form the government. Should they loose a vote of confidence in the House (Parliament) then the party with the next highest number of seats may be requested to form the government.

Sure that I left out a lot and hopefully don't have errors. Also hope that the lingo is understandable.

you put it down just perfectly.....

x(

It would be called.
:evilgrin:

Well done!

a pretty good result. (A pretty good result: Liberal minority, NDP 40+ seats. An excellent result: replacing the Conservatives as official opposition. With a strong campaign and some breaks, it could happen.)

Why am I optimistic? My mom called me today with the surprising news that, for the first time in her life, she's voting NDP. My sister and brother-in-law too, for the first time since the NDP won Ontario in 1990. These are apolitical people, in ridings not traditionally favourable to the party, but they're "sick" of the Liberals and don't trust the Conservatives.

The polls are looking good, but that my mom is voting NDP tells me this is freakin' magic time.

to see them become the Official Opposition over the faux Conservatives or the BQ. I vote Liberal but wouldn't be at all upset with a Liberal minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power.

Edited to add: Congrats on your mom!

free to punish the Liberals without worrying about defeating them. I think that sentiment favours the NDP, because those are largely people who don't want to elect the Conservatives by accident.

I think it could shape up to be something like this: 150 Liberal, and 50 each for the NDP, the Bloc and the Conservatives, with 8 more to go wherever, to determine if it's a minority or majority, and who gets to claim official opposition.

you have three viable national parties.

another thing I like about our election system is that the campaigning can only go on for 6 weeks instead of months.

- OTTAWA -- A Compas poll for CanWest News suggests that Prime Minister Paul Martin and the governing Liberals are headed for a minority government.

The poll found the Liberals have 39 per cent support, while the Conservatives, who have been helped in Ontario by the provincial Liberal government's tax-raising budget, now stand at 31 per cent.

http://www.politicswatch.com/index2.html

The Liberals had slipped, but all that slippage had went into the NDP or the undecided category. I think it will become clear soon that Harper and the Alliance/Conservative/Tories/Call_them_what_you_will just do not resonate with the bulk of the Canadian political culture anymore. The Canwest poll was either a bad sample, or was heavily torqued, in my opinion.

The one positive about this, is that there will be a greater push to go towards proportional representation as time goes on, which I favour on principle. The fact that the right wing is not able to gain power (leaving aside the corporatist tendencies of the Martin Liberals for a moment) through control of the media or election spending means they will push for the compromise of proportional representation.

I believe this would be a positive development, on strictly democratic grounds.

We should give government overhaul some very serious thought. Instant Runoff elections might help a third, and possibly even fourth party gain some clout and power to challenge the existing two party structure. Maybe if the Greens and Libertarians are willing to get serious in their campaigns.

the left will have it's best federal showing in a generation, if not ever.

I saw a poll today, that said something like 65% see the "Conservatives" as simply the Reform/Canadian Alliance Party, given yet another new branding. And most of them would never vote for it.

I thought of that, when I saw tonight this quote from the mid-80s by Barbara Amiel (who is, of course, "Lady" (Conrad) Black): "You're considered to have a rare kind of social disease if you espouse neo-conservative ideas in Canada."

More so now that we've seen the practice, than when we knew little more than the theory.

TORONTO - Prime Minister Paul Martin is considered the "most capable" federal party leader by 46 per cent of those surveyed in an Environics poll conducted for CBC on the eve of the general election called for June 28.

The Liberal leader's rating is more than triple that of Conservative leader Stephen Harper, whom 14 per cent of respondents called the most capable.

NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe were each favoured by six per cent of the 2,100 people interviewed between May 12 and 18.

None of the leaders deserved to be called "most capable" in the minds of nine per cent of the respondents, and 19 per cent either didn't know or wouldn't answer. The results are considered reliable within plus or minus 2.14 points, 19 times out of 20.

more

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/05/23/canada/poll_leaders040523

( It is interesting that more people than usual are going to vote based on local candidates, this could get VERY interesting!)

Layton reminds me of Bush with that stupid smirk on his face and juvenile one liners, Harper is a stiff bore and is as charismatic as a doorknob. Bleh!

Stephen Harper :puke:

I'm only able to make a token protest vote. :( That's how it's always been for me, seems I always live in ridings with the likes of Lougheed, Klein, Manning, etc. Yuck.

I have a faux Conservative too but am hoping that he will be turfed this election but doubt it.

It's really sad.

Damn this Alberta "broom-handles-up-their-asses" conservative country!

We have a conservative incumbent in our Edmonton riding, and I don't think the Liberal candidate will have much of a chance (though hard to tell - in provincial elections Edmonton votes liberal a lot), but the NDP candidate could give him a bit of a run.

Here's hoping! :evilgrin:

Sid

I'm going to my eldest niece's high school grad that day. The next day is my birthday. :)

I've generally always been a "Liberal", but I don't know this election.....I don't know.... :shrug:

I have voted NDP before, I've also voted..........Progressive Conservative!!! :evilgrin:

;)

Harper and his faux Conservatives want to be locked arm and arm with the bush war criminals, they would have sent our troops to Iraq, they will give tax cuts, ala bush, to the rich. I would love to see posters with bush and harper side by side with the heading above harper saying "a vote for harper" then the word "means" between the two photos with the words "you get bush" on top of the bush photo. It is the truth, a vote for harper is a vote for bush, imo.