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It's time to talk politics - Canadian politics. Yes, in the middle of the American election sweeps we're going to talk what's happening on the political front north of the 49th parallel. It seems that all the election fun that our American friends have been experiencing was just too much for the Canadian government to handle so they are calling an election. Not only are we going to get swept up in the election fever, we are going to have ours FIRST. So there. Kinda. Maybe. There's just a couple of small things that they need to do first like dissolve Parliament and actually call the election. Minor details really.
Now I feel I must highlight some facts about Canada and Canadian politics. First, we have a Prime Minister, not a president. Right now that is the leader of the Conservative party, Stephen Harper, and no he is not our head of state. That distinction lies with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her face is on our currency (yes that also means that Charles will some day be our our currency and no, we really don't want to talk about that). Being the Queen of England keeps her a wee bit busy so she has a representative in Canada, our Governor General. Right now that is Michaelle Jean. The Governor General, not the Prime Minister, is the Commander-in-Chief of Canadian Forces. The duty that is most important to this discussion is that the Governor General is the one that dissolves Parliament. When the Prime Minister wants to dissolve Parliament to hold an election they must approach the Governor General and ask her to end it. This is a conversation that we're expecting soon. Word on the street is that the announcement will be coming this Sunday and the expected election date is October 14, 2008. Yes, as Reconnecting says, "we're presuming that an election is being called and we will have elected a Prime Minister prior to knowing who the next President of the United States will be."
We do not have set dates for elections. It used to be that a Canadian election had to be called at least every five years or so and it has historically gone longer, like during WWII. The current government changed things a little so that there is a pretty firm five year deadline but elections can still be called earlier than that. Right now it seems that we are averaging an election every three and a half years. We do not have primaries. Our election cycles, according to the Canada Elections Act, need to be a minimum of 36 days. Our longest election cycle ever was 76 days. Basically the government can call an election whenever they want so long as they can get the Governor General to agree to it. In 1926 the sitting Government General, Lord Byng of Vimy refused to which resulted in what is now know as the King-Byng affair. It was quite scandalous by Canadian standards.
We do not have a limit on how many terms a person may serve as a Prime Minister. Our longest serving Prime Minister was William Lyon MacKenzie King (he of the King-Byng Affair) who served as our Prime Minister for just over 21 years, including during WWII. Sharon at Poe's Deadly Daughters reminds us he also thought that he could communicate with spirits including those of his deceased mother, Leonardo Da Vinci, and several of his dogs (all of whom were named Pat). The Canadian population was not aware of this until after his death.
We have had a female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell. We didn't exactly vote for her mind you. You see in Canada we do not vote for the Prime Minister directly. Canada is divided into over 300 federal electoral districts which we call "ridings". Canadians cast their vote for the individual in their riding whom they wish to elect and whatever party wins the most ridings across the country becomes the party in power. The leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister. If the leader of the party steps down while in office the new leader becomes the Prime Minister. Presto chango and that's how you get a new Prime Minister without ever having an election, which is how we came to have a female Prime Minister. She was still the leader of the party when they had the election - her party lost. (Just an aside to American politics here
