[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[HVC]

Just do a lottery. A random citizen gets tapped every four years. They'll just do what the PM wants anyway so BB will be appeased (assuming the pm is conservative )

[Josephus]

We should wrestle for it.

[Barrister]

We should wrestle for it.

Introducing Canada's next Governor-General:

[HVC]

Lol. The right honorable Lesnar has a nice ring to it, but as a potential jets fan his judgement is obviously suspect

[viper37]

It could be an appointed figure head...kinda like the GG.

merge the PM office with the GG.  Heck, if we're talking proportional vote reform, why not elect the Prime Minister seperately? Rework our entire political system, something close to the French or German model, an inspiration of the world's best practices.

[Barrister]

It could be an appointed figure head...kinda like the GG.

merge the PM office with the GG.  Heck, if we're talking proportional vote reform, why not elect the Prime Minister seperately? Rework our entire political system, something close to the French or German model, an inspiration of the world's best practices.

It can be useful to have a Head of State separate from your Head of Government.  It's the GG who gets to do a lot of the symbolic events, the foreign funerals, the town-hall chicken dinners, leaving the PM to the business of running the country.

Also the GG does have actual roles - like in proroguing Parliament, or calling for elections.  I think it preferable to have a neutral person involved rather than leave it entirely up to the PM when a writ can be dropped.

[viper37]

I despise Harper more for that, and for his other actions contemptible of Parliament's authority, than for any of his other policies, for policies can be reversed, but sapping Parliament is much more difficult to undo.

I admire the balsy move. It showed the opposition wasn't ready to govern, and it insured the stability of the country.  Had he went with the no confidence vote, the opposition might have actually imploded after a few months.

If the opposition had been really ready to govern, they would have won the election.  The fact they couldn't agree on that showed the relative weakness of their plan.  As we see in the US, governing is not for amateurs.

Besides, as has been proven time and again, the Liberals are very damaging to this country I live in, I would rather avoid, by any legal way, deny them power.  Even if barely ethical.  You can't trust these people.  There is absolutely no distinction between the government's pockets and the Liberals' pockets under Liberal rule.

Say what you will about Harper, your ideological bias is duly noted, but he was a great Prime Minister despite his flaws.  He balanced the budget, solved the fiscal imbalance, showed dignity to Canadians of all origins, protected our democracy, never hesistated to help the weaker countries of the world as was the role of Canada prior to the Liberal's perversion of these ideals (Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda to name a few).

Also, I have read many constitutional argument that Jean had no choice but to obey the Prime Minister.  She sought advice, and that was was told to her: agree with the PM.  The fixed election law did not apply for minority government.

One article I read:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/michaelle-jean-feared-dreadful-crisis-when-harper-sought-prorogation-ex-adviser/article4370133/
(you'll like it, the scholar interviewew doesn't like Harper )
Trying to find the others, I can't seem to find them in my bookmarks and Google is not really useful for non english texts.

[viper37]

It can be useful to have a Head of State separate from your Head of Government.  It's the GG who gets to do a lot of the symbolic events, the foreign funerals, the town-hall chicken dinners, leaving the PM to the business of running the country.

Theoritically, yes.  Whenever something important happens, it's the PM duty to go there though.

Also the GG does have actual roles - like in proroguing Parliament, or calling for elections.  I think it preferable to have a neutral person involved rather than leave it entirely up to the PM when a writ can be dropped.

She's not neutral.  She's named by the PMO office and can be replaced by that same office.

At least, she should be elected, and have more powers.

[Barrister]

To give Trudeau credit where credit is due: our new foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, had been banned from Russia due to things she's written about the country as a journalist. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/10/canada-chrystia-freeland-foreign-minister-russia-critic

[Monoriu]

Just do a lottery. A random citizen gets tapped every four years. They'll just do what the PM wants anyway so BB will be appeased (assuming the pm is conservative )

You can do whatever you want, just don't drag me into this 

[Josephus]

To give Trudeau credit where credit is due: our new foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, had been banned from Russia due to things she's written about the country as a journalist. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/10/canada-chrystia-freeland-foreign-minister-russia-critic

She's also a lot cuter than Dion. Just putting that out there.

[citizen k]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jane-fonda-blasts-justin-trudeau-202758935.html

[Grey Fox]

It can be useful to have a Head of State separate from your Head of Government.  It's the GG who gets to do a lot of the symbolic events, the foreign funerals, the town-hall chicken dinners, leaving the PM to the business of running the country.

Theoritically, yes.  Whenever something important happens, it's the PM duty to go there though.

Also the GG does have actual roles - like in proroguing Parliament, or calling for elections.  I think it preferable to have a neutral person involved rather than leave it entirely up to the PM when a writ can be dropped.

She's not neutral.  She's named by the PMO office and can be replaced by that same office.

At least, she should be elected, and have more powers.

...no.

[Josephus]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/jane-fonda-blasts-justin-trudeau-202758935.html

and no one cares.

[Valmy]

Justin Trudeau's approval rating among US Vietnam vets just went up several points.