Political Coup taking place in Canada.

[Mac Jesus]

...Apparently it's a coup!

Anyone paying attention yet?

In a political coup, Canada's three opposition parties have joined hands to oust the just elected minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a deal signed by the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) and backed by the separatist Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa Monday, the first two parties will form a new government, with the third supporting them from outside.

Under the deal, Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion will become the new prime minister till May when his party chooses a new leader to replace him.

Dion has sent a letter to Governor-General Michaelle Jean - who is away in Europe - about the decision of the combined opposition to defeat the current government in the House and form a coalition government.

The coalition deal will last till June 30, 2011, when the two parties will review their relationship. But the Bloc Quebecois, which is supporting them from outside, said it will back the coalition only till June 30, 2010, and then review the arrangement.

The cabinet will have 18 ministers from the Liberal Party and six from the NDP. It will be the first time since 1926 that a Canadian government will be replaced without an election.

In the 308-member House of Commons, the ruling Conservative Party has 143 MPs, the Liberal Party 77, the NDP 37 and the Bloc Quebecois 49.

In the Oct 14 general election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party was returned with a tally of 143 seats in the 308-member House of Commons. But it fell short of the 155-seat majority mark, leading to the current crisis.

Curiously, the man (Dion) who will be Canada's new prime minister had led his Liberal Party to its worst-ever defeat in decades, reducing its tally from 95 to 77 in parliament.

He is scheduled to step down in May when his party chooses a new leader who will then become the prime minister.

What brought the opposition parties together was the last week's economic update by the ruling party which failed to announce any package to stimulate the economy and cut public funding for political parties.

An outraged Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canadians will not like the overturning of ``the results of an election a few weeks later in order to form a coalition nobody voted for and everybody denied.''

Referring to the Bloc Quebecois which wants French-speaking Quebec province to break away from Canada, the prime minister said, ``And to have a coalition like that that can govern only with the veto of the people who want to break up this country.Do they really believe that is in the interests of this country?''

http://story.canadastandard.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/71df8d33cd2a30df/id/437027/cs/1/

 

[JoMoDo]

Interesting. It's nice to have a 'liberal' legislative branch with some juevos.

 

[Mac Jesus]

It's interesting to note what got it started....

Harper planned a new economic plan that, among other things, would cut all public financing of political parties, lower the wages of those in the public sector, and ban the public sector from striking for 2 years.

The opposition parties would not have created this coalition if Harper did not threaten to cut their public financing. Although the conservative party gets the most money from public financing -- They are also the party who gets the majority of their money from private donors, the other parties get the majority of their finances through public financing, without this money it would be really hard for them to run a proper campaign.

 

[Mac Jesus]

A note to nobody:

Canada's politics are getting hella funny,

Harper and the governer general just shut down parliament to dodge a vote that would take away power from him. Nothing will get done for 60 days. No economic changes, no coalition, parliament is shut down.

Conservatives are complaining how the coalition is undemocratic (taking the right away to strike, isn't? How about cutting your opponents funding? Good luck running a campaign with no money!). They are also condemning the liberals and NDP for having a coalition with the Block Quebecois because it is a seperatist party. However the BQ came out with letters from the conservatives that show that in 2000 the conservatives approached them with the same thing.

I would not want the liberal leader in power nor do I like the idea of Harper in power. But I'm glad a stand was taken against the bullshit economic plan that was about to be pushed through parliament.

 

[MaKaVeLi_420]

This is all everybody is talking about up here. Even though I'm a Conservative supporter, Harper (Or the voices in his cabint) brought this on himself. On the one side, cudos to the other parties for having some balls and taking a stand. On the other side, they're a bunch of fuckin snakes because it's been planned since last year. We just had an election in October which the Conservatives won with 37% of the vote. It's like our opinion doesn't matter...It's a bloody joke, they should all agree to disagree and work together on a new economic plan so our country doesn't go broke....ridiculous. The fuckin government up here is a circus right now

 

[Mac Jesus]

^^ where did you get the information that they've been planning it since last year?

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

It's interesting to note what got it started....

Harper planned a new economic plan that, among other things, would cut all public financing of political parties, lower the wages of those in the public sector, and ban the public sector from striking for 2 years.

The opposition parties would not have created this coalition if Harper did not threaten to cut their public financing. Although the conservative party gets the most money from public financing -- They are also the party who gets the majority of their money from private donors, the other parties get the majority of their finances through public financing, without this money it would be really hard for them to run a proper campaign.

What does public fiancing of political parties entail?

 

[Mac Jesus]

I'm not sure how it works in the states, but in Canada for every vote a political party gets, they recieve 1.75. This money consists of the majority of the funding for every political party in Canada, minus the conservative party of course.

 

[MaKaVeLi_420]

^^ where did you get the information that they've been planning it since last year?

On the news....Last year, Jack Layton had approached Dion with the idea...Also, in 2000, Harper approached I think Duceppes with the idea of this exact plan to overtake the Liberals, rofl. Politics is a joke