[Dragonfly]

Canada will also be having an election soon. The following is a brief explanation of the Federal political system.

When Canada has an election, there are no conventions. The conventions occur when the various parties want to elect a new leader. Any Canadian citizen 18 and older can become a member of a party by registering and paying a fee.

There are 32 Federal political parties in Canada, including the Marijuana Party of Canada! See http://www.altstuff.com/federal.htm for a complete listing.

These are the major Federal parties:

The Conservative party is currently in power and is led by the Prime Minister Steve Harper. This party is loosely like the Republicans.

The Liberal party has a leader by the name of Stephon Dion. The Liberals are loosely like the Democrats.

The New Democratic Party, or NDP, is led by Jack Layton. There policies are very much Unions like the autoworkers, and the environment.

The Bloc de Quebecois has their seats in Quebec.

And the Green Party that is all about the environment. They get a few votes but I don't know if they even how official party status.

Official party status occurs at elections. A party has to have at least one member elected to the House of Commons - our parliament.

I should clarify - an elected member holds a seat so when I say a seat, I'm talking about a person elected to parliament.

There are 308 seats in the House of Commons. In my city, there are eight ridings or seats. It is based in the population. Toronto will have many seats where as rural areas and low population will only have a few.

When we have a Federal election, local members of the parties are selected to run, or they can run as an independent.

They run against other candidates in other parties. There would be one liberal, one conservative, etc per riding - there are 308 ridings.

I vote for the candidate in my riding only. The votes are tallied up and who ever gets the most votes in my riding is now a member of parliament. They must look after their constitutions and they will also have duties in Ottawa.

If the majority of seats elected across Canada are Conservative, then Steven Harper is the Prime Minister. If the majority of seats elected across Canada are Liberal, then Stephen Dion will become Prime Minister.

The only wrench is what we call a minority government. This means that a party gets voted in to power but they don’t have 50% of the seats (1/2 of 308), but they still have more than anyone else.

Canada has had a minority government for 4 years now. It is screwy because not a lot of laws get passed. The Prime Minister needs a certain amount of votes to pass a law. He has to rely that members of other parties will agree to his law – which doesn’t happen often.

The reason our elections happen fairly quickly is we already know who is the leader of each party. The prime minister sets the date of the election.
The leaders of the parties travel across Canada and do their best to meet everyone the wants to meet them. We do have a couple of televised elections - in English and in French.

Then the voters go to the designated places to vote, on the day of the election. And cast our ballots. The polls are open until 9pm. After that the votes are counted.
By midnight, we usually know who the next prime minister.

Fact - Did you know that a Canadian voter can leave work early and get paid for the hours they missed, if they need to travel to vote?

Please let me know if I have made an error – thanks.

[Darla_G]

wow a lot of information in there. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

So i would guess Harper is going to try and get reelected as Prime Minister? Do i have that right?

I am interested in knowing about this so please keep us informed.

[Dragonfly]

Harper hasn't called for an election just yet. He definately wants to be re-elected but this time, in a majority (a party holds at least 155 elected members).

We use to have a federal party called the Rhino party. They were all about the party!
Legalizing marijuna was one of their platforms. Now, we have the Marijuana Party of Canada.

Maybe if Harper goes to one of their conventions, he will leave being a little less anal.

[Karren]

No conventions!!! No kissing babies either???

[Darla_G]

Is it the novelty that it is in the US to have women hold the highest offices?

[Dragonfly]

The only time there is a convention is when the party wants to elect a new leader.
Jean Cretian stepped down while he was the Prime Minister.
Other leaders have been chosen this way or when they were not in power.

This is a nifty little fact that most people do not know:
Canada has already had a female Prime Minister!!!

Brian Mulroney was the Prime Minister and wanted to step down - so a convention was held. Kim Campbell was voted in as the new leader so she assumed the role of the Prime Minister until the next election. If memory serves me, she was Prime Minister for no more than six months.

[Saja]

Ohmy god these new Haper commercials are driving me insane....they are soooo awful

[Dragonfly]

Saja, don't you like his warm fuzzy sweater vests?

[Darla_G]

Originally Posted by Carolyn

Saja, don't you like his warm fuzzy sweater vests?

do you have a pic you can find. its better if we know the contestants!

[Dragonfly]

The Prime Minister Steven Harper announced a Federal election for Tuesday, 14 October, 2008. Voter turn out is predictably pitiful. Hopefully, more than usual 20% of elegible Canadians will vote this time.

My prediction - the Conservatives will get re-elected and it will be another minority government. Yee haw - more hard earned tax payer's money well spent. Thanks Steven.

[Darla_G]

thank for the link Carolyn, here are the Contentants

Federal NDP leader, Jack Layton. (The Ottawa Citizen) Federal NDP leader, Jack Layton. (The Ottawa Citizen)



Steven Harper (the incumbent)


Stephane Dion (Liberal party candidate)

[Dragonfly]

Thanks very much Darla!