Political storms

Hmmm ... have Canadians grown balls while I wasn't paying attention? This quiet, peaceful nation of mine is making noise ... and scary as it may be ... I kinda' like it!

Political storms are waging ... the Governor General (our true "head of state") has flown back from Europe to address the "situation" ... the newspapers, radio and television news broadcasts are having a field day ... with the public voice swaying rather evenly between outrage and "way to go!" ...

Personally, I'm just thrilled to pieces to see Canada with a fresh, new set of balls ... and whichever way this goes isn't as important as the process. I don't think the country will grind to a halt or fall apart because something "unheard of" is happening. What I truly hope is that this is not a "tempest in a teapot" ... some media or spin doctor prank (ahhh ... a whiff of my inherent cynicism is raising its head ... having done my fair share of spin-doctoring in my time) ...

So what's the brouhaha about? Simply that a coalition government is being plotted, planned, threatened ... and I find it amusing that everyone seems to have forgotten that this ploy was already threatened once before by the very man (and party) that finds itself targeted this time.

With a multi-party system, such as Canada has ... our elected official and party often finds itself as a minority government with less than 50% ... in this case less than 40% of the popular vote. Unlike the US, we do not vote directly for our leader - our prime minister. Canadians vote for the best representative for their particular region and leader of the party most often represented by this elected officials becomes the prime minister.

Coalition governments ... work elsewhere in the world ... why not Canada? I think it's a great step in the progression of a true democracy. We need a government that can work together. By establishing a coalition - these parties and leaders have already taken the first step to prove that they can and will work together towards a common goal ... (am I being too idealistic here?)

A black American President ... a coalition government for Canada ... could this be the start of a new age?

I don't know about you ... but I'm keeping my ears and eyes open and my fingers crossed that this coalition comes to pass ... this is definitely a move in the right direction ... a government that allows participation by hereto fringe parties ... an open door for parties of all stripes and flavours to participate in the formation and process of Canadian governance ... just as it should be!