So you're saying you have a system where your electorate isn't packed to the gills with complete morons? Yeah, that's not gonna work south of the border.
Sounds to me like if your electorate was as dumb as ours, consumer demand would create that 24x7 bullshit instead of... beaver wrestling broadcasts or whatever the national sport up there is.
On my phone and will try and look it up later but he(liberals) had less then 40 percent of the popular vote.
And I assume that because it's a parliament he has to form a coalition of some kind and compromise in order to get over the 50% mark, yes?
Not all members of parliament vote along party lines, which is kind of refreshing. On the important stuff, you see them voting for what is best for their constituents, because if you don't, you're out. There have even been a number of cases where elected members of parliament have switched parties while elected. It's called "crossing the floor", and it just happened a couple of weeks ago. http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/11/...to-ndp-a-realignment-of-political-battlefield
It's a parliamentary system, yes. Also - and I think this is really important - we do NOT have fixed elections. The government has a five year window where they can call an election. If an election is not called within that time, then one automatically occurs. Without giving an eyes-glaze-over primer on Canada's government, here are some highlights: - We do not directly elect a Prime Minister. The PM is the person who leads the party that has the most seats in parliament. - Canada is divided into 338 electoral ridings, loosely based on population. They endeavor to have an equal number of people in each riding. So, geographically, they vary greatly in size. - Any registered party can nominate a candidate and run them during an election. So in a particular riding you might have 3-10 people running for the seat, although some people are just loons. For example, the Marijuana Party Of Canada is not a reasonable threat to the MP seat. - Parties fracture and reform relatively frequently. If one party gets too far out there (most recently an ultra-conservative portion of the right broke off from the Conservatives and formed the Wild Rose Party), they often splinter off into their own. Also, parties can merge. I think it happened in the 90s when the Reform party banded with the Conservatives and formed the PCs. - A party can be a majority rule (meaning they have more than 50% of the seats in parliament), or they can be a minority rule (don't have 50%, but have more than everyone else). Typically, minority governments are lame ducks that get nothing done. Here's a key reason why our system is different: - if the ruling party attempts to pass a major bill that fails, an election is immediately called. In the same vein, if the party is suddenly exposed as corrupt in some way, or in some capacity compromised, an election is called. It's called a "Vote of No Confidence," and if it passes you have a federal election 28 days later. This holds asses to fires, because in the back of every party's mind is the knowledge that if they get too fucking crazy, they will find themselves in the middle of an election. So you can see why we have an overall different system. While we absolutely have our faults, no one is guaranteed power, ever. And if anyone gets too fringe they will lose their party, or lose the majority of their seats. I hope that all made sense.
Right now we have the following parties that can reasonably be expected to gain seats: - Conservatives - Liberals - New Democratic Party (NDP) - Green Party (always gets a big chunk of votes, but is too diffuse to ever land more than one or two seats. They have the effect of splitting the vote, kind of like Gary Johnson did.) - The Bloc Quebecois - nationalist party of Quebec. They only ever get seats in the province of Quebec, but they can get a lot of them. Their ultimate goal is to break off Quebec from the country to form their own nation. They came close to doing it in 1994. There are a host of smaller and regional parties, none of whom ever get seats. Also, a sitting MP can "walk across the floor," and join another party. It happens sometimes; often, come the next election, that person is out.
This is a very key point. For the last 10 years the governing party and Prime Minister was Conservative and was supported by religious types in Canada. Never once did the issue of abortion or gay marriage come up as a policy issue, not in the debates nor in the House of Commons. In Canada it seems that even though you believe something is immoral or wrong according to your religious beliefs it doesn't mean that you think the government should legislate against it. This is obviously in stark contrast to the US.
Dylann Roof is being allowed to represent himself at his trial. I guess that saves some poor lawyer from having to represent him, but this has all the makings of a shit show. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/us/dylann-roof-to-represent-self-charleston-trial/index.html
Active Shooter reported on OSU campus. Currently reporting 8 people injured, 7 of which are stable and 1 in critical condition. Currently reporting that there are 2 suspects, one of which has either been apprehended or killed on site.
I hope everyone is okay. I thought it was odd that the "Run, Hide, Fight" tweet from OSU was being criticized. That's directly from DHS website and pocket card: www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/active_shooter_pocket_card_508.pdf If you are not law enforcement, or otherwised trained and carrying a weapon, I think the Run, Hide, Fight guidance is probably the best advice to give. It's a lot better than Scream, Panic, Tweet.
At this point there's been no reported fatalities, other than the one suspect. 9 others were taken to local hospitals, 8 of which were considered stable, 1 was in critical condition. There's still some confusion on whether or not there was a second suspect or not and law enforcement is still on campus investigating around one of the parking garages near where the original incident occurred.