RE: Canada's election: I've done my research and I still don't quite get it.

[pepperbear]

Could some kind person, perhaps even a native Canadian, explain to me exactly what happened yesterday and what it means? I don't quite understand the concept of "minority government" as it pertains to the power structure within their parliamentary system.

thank you in advance.

[RandySF]

1. The Conservatives have a majority of seats in Parliament

Therefore, they can form the government and tell the other parties to piss off. They have full control for the next four years, until a new election will have to be called.

[dsc]

2. a minority government means that the ruling party doesn't

have a majority in parliment and thus depends upon one or more other parties to survive no confidence votes. That would be like the situation in Britain where the Conservatives need Liberal Democratic votes to stay in power. Now the Conservatives in Canada don't need votes from another party to survive no confidence votes and thus can pretty much do what they want when they want.

[liberalpragmatist]

3. In a parliamentary system...

... the prime minister and the cabinet need to have the "confidence" of the majority of the House. That means that a majority backs them or at least won't NOT back them.

Most of the time, this means that a parliamentary majority - either one party or a coalition - will back the prime minister. But in some cases where no party has a majority, the leader of the largest faction will govern in a "minority government" which can stay in power because enough other parties are willing to let them stay in power and won't vote them out of office in a "no confidence" vote. Any legislation that passes will still need the support of other parties in this case, though.

Canada had a minority government until recently. Now, they'll have a conservative majority government.

[pepperbear]

4. thanks to all. n/t