A Xmas Canadian Election

The Canadian Parliament has thoughtfully sacked the Government the day after I arrived in Vancouver. This has been coming for a while, so it was nice they held off until I could watch it on 24 hour cable news.

Now Virginia may want to know why there is going to be an election in January 2006 when one wasn’t required until 2009.

The answer is simple. Corruption. And no not the minor stuff like baubles of office, but the real deal. The Liberal Party (centre-left) Government spent $250 million on a sponsorship programme in Quebec, meant to promote staying with Canada. However up to $100 million of this money which to advertising agencies, sometimes for work billed not performed, and then some of that money was allegedly donated back to the Liberal Party. This really happened it seems. It wasn’t just a suggestion such as a senior NZ Labour Party official made in the late 1980s, but it actually happened according to witnesses under oath.

Now the current Canadian Parliament has 133 Liberal MPs, 98 Conservative, 43 from Quebec Separatists and 18 from the (left wing) New Democrats. These are the four major parties. The Greens also stand in all seats, but not even Canadians are that stupid, and they have no seats. They do have a Sex Party though 🙂

Now the Government almost fell a few months ago, but in a stunning betrayal a woman called Belinda Stronach defected from Conservatives to Liberals on May 17. She had been a contender for the leadership of the Conservatives so this was not a junior MP. She quickly was appointed as a Minister and this move was seen as opportunistic to say the least.

So the Government held on for a few more months but finally the New Democrats voted with the Conservatives to bring the Government down saying they had lost their moral mandate to govern. A no confidence vote passed 171 to 133. It is the first Canadian Government to lose a confidence vote – a couple of others had lost confidence but called an election before being sacked.

So what will happen? Well you would think the Liberals would be toast but despite all this, there is a good chance the Liberal Party will form the next Government. The Conservative Party is easily demonised by aligning them with Bush (fatal in Canada) and for many years they have been divided. The last election was the first one which had the right wing parties standing under one banner, and in 1993 they got reduced from 169 MPs to just two MPs!

The latest polls show the Libs around 5% ahead. However this is FPP, so it will come down to marginal seats and a poll did show 54% think the Government should change.