The Governor General has passed, Long Live the GG!

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

Should have been? Who knows.

He wasn't obligated to do so by any rule, law or Constitutional precept that I'm aware of.

Martin's actions certainly deepened the Constitutional crisis, but as far as I'm concerned business was conducted legally all around.

Martin's actions are the reason there was a crisis.

When the government loses an iffy confidence vote (not the throne speech or the budget) and the opposition claims nonconfidence, they are obliged to bring forth their own clear motion of confidence, promptly, so that the nation and its government can resume normal business or have an election.

Martin refused that convention. We thus had an illegitimate government clinging to power for a matter of days. These are the sorts of things that can tank a currency.

[KrazyHorse]

Pffft. DanS is a fervent supporter of the Republicans.

I simply think that the system we had in place worked fairly well under enormous pressure which we the voters were responsible for placing it under. I do not support the Liberals by my vote, nor do I generally support them in any but an indirect manner by my speech.

Personally, I think Martin's a scuzzbucket. He's got little to nothing in the way of actual ideals, and appears to want power for power's sake. If skewering babies on a pitchfork could get him reelected then he'd become a baby-skewerer.

I don't think that our system broke or even bent too badly in the recent crisis. Maybe next time the Conservatives will get their **** together and actually win something for a change. But I'm not going to hold my breath...

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by notyoueither


Martin's actions are the reason there was a crisis.

When the government loses an iffy confidence vote (not the throne speech or the budget) and the opposition claims nonconfidence

Equally validly the opposition has the responsibility to not claim that they've brought down the government by working around the necessity for a formal vote of no confidence.

They both played everything they had in the hole. Neither side seemed particularly concerned with what was best for the Constitution...

[Tingkai]

Yup, basically Canadians want a Liberal-type government, but not the Liberals.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Equally validly the opposition has the responsibility to not claim that they've brought down the government by working around the necessity for a formal vote of no confidence.

They both played everything they had in the hole. Neither side seemed particularly concerned with what was best for the Constitution...

The same thing happened under King. The opposition attached non-confidence to an iffy motion in the Commons. King came back with an immediate motion of confidence, and he won.

There is a reason why governments have had to bring clear motions of confidence to a vote before. It is not because of budgets or throne speeches (you snooze, you lose). It is because if the opposition has the votes in the Commons to say you are toast, and they say you are toast, you are holding onto power illegitimately.

The rules were good enough for King, but not good enough for Martin?

[notyoueither]

I have to say that Harper largely lost my respect after that mess.

Our system depends not on laws so much as custom, precedent, and respect.

Now we have a precedent of a government clinging to power in the face of a Parliament paralysed by a complete lack of confidence. The opposition shut it down for days. No business could be done. How can you say there was a lack of non-confidence?

Martin was rewarded for flipping off the rules, not to mention the Commons. His government survived by denying the reality that he had lost control over the body that is supposed to be supreme in our land, and that is supposed to decide who governs us and when they are done governing us.

I don't blame Clarkson. Her job was to allow the politicians to sort themselves out and make a hard decision if they could not. Not enough time went by that should have forced her hand, and from what I've heard she was not inactive. In the end, the politicians did sort themselves out, so I can't see that she did wrong.

I don't really blame Martin for being a sleeze anymore than he has always been a sleeze.

I blame Harper for allowing Parliament to be held in such low regard by the PM and his creatures. This precedent is on his head for not standing up for something that he constantly says is so very important to him, the power of Parliament.

[notyoueither]