[AChimp]

I think that the main issue right now is that the uneducated masses just finished watching the US election wrap up on TV and are under the impression that we vote directly for Prime Minister in Canada.

Everyone who is complaining about the coalition process seems to lack a basic understanding of how the parliamentary system functions. They're saying, "we didn't vote for Dion so why does he think he can be prime minister?" I tried explaining to a couple of co-workers yesterday that we vote for our MP, *not* the PM, but the concept kept sailing over their head. The largest minority gets the opportunity to attempt to form a stable government; it does not mean they get to be the government and that's the end of the story.

If all of your opponents can agree to not disagree, and they all add up to a majority, it's not hard to see what's going to happen.

It's unfortunate that the Conservative spin machine is encouraging this misconception, because I think that's the most damaging outcome of all of this in the long run. Guaranteed if things were the other way around, you can be sure that they'd be informing the public about how a coalition would work.