C is for Coalition!

[Pub Lover]

You need to have a strong leader that can deal with the squabbles of a coalition government. Here in New Zealand they only ever have coalitions in parliament, and the times that they have a jackass ontop of the heap are always good for the opposition to win enough points to ofset the special interest bullshit that the minor coalition parties try to push through. So it really hangs on who the Liberals pick to replace Stevie D.

Hey, I was telling Colonel Flagg that Harper couldn't hold it together for long. :D

[Colonel Flagg]

Originally Posted by Pub Lover

Hey, I was telling Colonel Flagg that Harper couldn't hold it together for long. :D

That you did, sir, and you were right.

All kidding aside, this .... thing going on with our neighbor to the north will provide us political junkies with a good fix until Mr. Obama gets it goin' on in January.

So, what's the timeline for the total collapse of the Canadian government?

[AChimp]

Originally Posted by Colonel Flagg

So, what's the timeline for the total collapse of the Canadian government?

It could happen as early as next Monday or even as late as the end of January.

Harper is probably going to ask the Governor General to prorogue the parliamentary session, which essentially means ending the session early without ending the government. This is typically only used for situations where the government's agenda is finished for the session and everyone agrees to go home early. It's never been used to actually avoid a non-confidence motion, so it would technically be an abuse of power to do so.

The other factor is that the government is required to grant at least one Opposition Day per session, which is where the opposition parties get to introduce bills and stuff. The Opposition Day was supposed to be last week, but Harper postponed it until next Monday to try and recover from this crisis. Proroguing the Parliament now would deny the opposition from it's special day, so the Governor General has to decide which rule takes precedence.