Election 2009

[nfitz]

I think The GG of Australia actually dismissed a PM in 1975!!!
What Happened was the senate blocked off any supply bills and the govt was then running out of money to meet its obligations. The GG in these situations generally listen to the advice of the PM. Instead the GG sacked the PM and put the opposition leader as a caretaker PM who then called elections of both houses and won easily..

Well to be fair, the PM was also trying to get the GG dismissed, and their house voted a non-confidence motion against the PM the same day, just after the PM was dismissed (though it's not clear if they had been informed that he had been dismissed). Needless to say, the intrigue around that one makes Ottawa look dull.

 

[lordmandeep]

Yeah that situation is very hard to understand for an outsider ^^^

Yes I asked my cousins in Australian and it still is a watershed moment in politics there even though they were not even born.

Looking at that makes the King-Bynn Crisis and the recent coalition crisis look like nothing.

If we start to get elected senators, we could see even more craziness at Ottawa.

 

[adma]

Germany simply bans such parties outright.

Or at least, the far right's flotsam hasn't yet been able to cohere into an elected/electable force, at least on a national level. Though the ex-Communists *have* been benignly electable in a few spots in the former East Berlin and whatnot...

 

[gristle]

After all the ads warning how the Liberals would form a coalition with the Bloq and NDP, it looks like Harper's government lives another day thanks to support from those two parties.

Those Conservative TV ads blithering on about a presumed coalition can now officially be passed off as pure BS.

 

[ungodlycrosscheck]

^ Why? Harper did not make any deals with the NDP or the Bloc to keep the 40th Parliament going. I'm sure if you asked most members of the Conservative caucus, based on recent polls, their party finances, and their organization they are not scared of an election one bit.

What it boils down to is the NDP bent to save their own hides. Harper made no calls and offered no deals. Jack had to suck it up pure and simple, and shouldn't we all thank him for it?

The NDP's financing structure is based on a centralized model, quite simply money rasied for the NDP at the provincial levels and federal level goes into one bucket and is distributed regionally for provincial and federal campaigns as they occur. Having blown their wad to fight the HST in BC and on the NS provincial election, and despite the per vote election subsidy for federal elections, they are worn thin. Another major source of their revenue comes from a substantial piece of real estate in downtown Ottawa at the Northeast corner of Bank and Slater streets. The building's tenant recently ended their lease and the building requires significant work to get it into shape for potential future renters. It has put a big hole in their finances.