canadian parliament suspended until Jan 2009

Well mike, it is actualy in our news. Fox did a brief report on it lsat night, more coverage than I can remember seeing in our news on Canadian politics. It wasn't editorialized or analysed, but a lot of straight reports. That alone speaks of the signifigance. I have been reading your "constitution". WOW. No wonder you guys are screwed. The first issue with it is that it doesn't even originate from with in Canada. The second is the very confusing language it was written in. This is no accident. A few things that jumped of the page at me: Parliament of Canada Act -- CHAPTER P-1 Prerogative saved 3. Nothing in section 2 alters or abridges the power of the Crown to prorogue or dissolve Parliament. ---------- Governor General's Act -- CHAPTER G-9 OFFICE OF GOVERNOR GENERAL Corporation sole 2. The Governor General of Canada or other chief executive officer or administrator carrying on the Government of Canada on behalf and in the name of the Sovereign, by whatever title designated, is a corporation sole. your monarch is a corperation the Queen is the "federal government". Federal Government = Queen or Queen = Federal Government. ---------- Criminal Code -- CHAPTER C-46 "government" means (a) the Government of Canada, (b) the government of a province, or (c) Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province; the "Queen" is a reference to a corporation, the personification of an office in which is found the undertaking of "government" or is it? III. EXECUTIVE POWER 9. The Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen. 10. The Provisions of this Act referring to the Governor General extend and apply to the Governor General for the Time being of Canada, or other the Chief Executive Officer or Administrator for the Time being carrying on the Government of Canada on behalf and in the Name of the Queen, by whatever Title he is designated. Criminal Code -- CHAPTER C-46 "Canadian Forces" means the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada; "Her Majesty's Forces" means the naval, army and air forces of Her Majesty wherever raised, and includes the Canadian Forces; I used to laugh because our constitution was written at about a 7th grade level. In looking at it now to do so was a stroke of genious. It left almost no room for misinterpretation or hiding of dictatorship.

I am from Ontario, and I am massively annoyed at Harper over this. He should be forced to face the confidence motion he brought forward instead of allowing him to porogue the government. It is an act of cowardice and it shames our system of government. USA press is probably quiet about it because they don't understand what is happening, even in Canada there is so much false information about how this situation came about and its precedence that very few seem to have any idea what is going on. I'll give you a brief overview of what is happening and what it means for those unfamiliar. Basically Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, issued a minibudget to tide us over until the scheduled Jan budget. However in this budget he added all sorts of riders that would have financially crippled every party but his own, and he ignored every other parties suggestions for the budget despite the fact that it is a minority government and without the support of at least one other party he would not be able to pass a single bill. The other parties were backed up against a wall. They had only three options: 1) Support the poison pill budget and suffer the consequences 2) vote down the budget and be default voting that they have no confidence in Harper's ability to rule the country, and allow Harper to call another election spending $500 million on an election just a few short weeks after the last one. 3) Vote down Harper and form a coalition government in place of Harper's conservatives, saving the country $500 million (at least) and avoiding backlash from voters on having to go back to the polls (Canadian's hate to vote) Harper was playing a dangerous game with the Parliament. Harper now claims that coalitions are undemocratic, but in 2004 he was all for them when he wrote to the Governor General (our head of state, an appointed not elected position) asking the GG to allow his Conservatives, the NDP and the Bloc to form a coalition instead of the then Liberal Government. You see in Canada we don't vote in our government, we vote in the Parliament and the Parliament forms a government of Ministers called the cabinet. The cabinet can be in any form that the parliament has confidence in. By tradition it is usually formed by the party with the most seats in the house of commons, but this tradition is not the rule, nor is it the only form there has been. There has been a couple coalition governments in the past, and there is at least one instance of a government formed by the party that had been an opposition party because of the failure of the government that the party with the most seats at the time. Harper is now trying to claim that the process of forming a coalition is undemocratic, despite the fact that it is clearly an allowable form of government within our system, and despite the fact he himself attempted the exact same thing just a few short years ago. He is also claiming that a deal with the bloc amounts to a deal with the devil since the Bloc are separatists. Personally I find the existence of the bloc abhorrent, however I do feel they unfortunately have the right to exist and to have seats in the house. And considering the number of times Harper has propped his government up using Bloc support you'd think he'd realize that he has no choice in the matter. Some say that aligning with the bloc will destabilize the country and lead to the separation of Quebec from Canada, but this notion is absurd, every government since the creation of the Bloc has worked with the bloc in some form.