Election Call

It's Fall, and here in North America, Election fervor is in the air! No, I'm not talking about Obama or McCain, I'm talking about Canadian politics! I know, I know, after 2+ years of American election campaigns saturating the infotainment sphere, who can think of anything other than the world's greatest two-party system, right? Thankfully, instead of 2 years of campaigning, we get 2 months.

Last election, 45% of Canadians made their way to a voting booth to perform their patriotic duty. As we all know, the conservatives won a minority government, with the liberals coming in second and forming the official opposition. The bloc Quebecois came in third and Smilin' Jack Layton and his New Democrats came in fourth place. There was also one lonely independent(now Green Party).

So The Right Honourable Stephen Harper and his cronies have decided that the House just cannot work in its current form (read: a minority government) and have gotten the Governor General to dissolve parliment. So much for fixed election dates, right Steve?

(A brief explanation of minority/majority governments:
When a federal political party(of which there are sixteen) wins more than 50% of the seats in parliment, a majority government is formed. If a majority cannot be formed, the party with the most amount of seats becomes the minority government, and is forced to work with other parties to pass any new bills.)

In the last election, I voted NDP, the party I feel most closely represents my political views. Their failure to form a majority government does not bother me in any way. Sure, it'd have been nice to have an NDP government, but really, I was pleased with the minority government situation. It lends itself to an atmosphere of flexibility, as opposed to the totalitarian leanings of a majority government.

Now, because the Right Honourable Prime Minister cannot force the other parties to cooperate with him, he feels that the only way he can effectively serve the Canadian people is to dissolve parliment and cost the taxpayers a hefty burden to promote his conservative agenda.

Thank you, Fearless Leader. Thank you for saving Canada from the horrors of a minority government. Just imagine what kind of awful situation we would be in if the parties had to cooperate together in parliment!