Re: Bill Maher Warns Canada Is A "Cautionary Tale" For U.S.: "We're Diving Off A Cliff"

On Fri, 19 Apr 2024 02:23:40 -0700
The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:

On Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:11:00 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
 

Actually, we DO have (more-or-less) fixed election dates both
federally and in some provinces, including mine, BUT I saw a story
recently that the feds are developing legislation to delay the next
federal election by approximately a week. (I didn't see a proper
explanation but I strongly suspect it is to ensure that those who
got elected in the 2019 election have just over 6 years in
Parliament so they qualify for those very generous pensions.) I had
not realized that our feds even had the ability to adjust election
dates that way and I'm really not very happy about it. 

 
There's no such things as fixed election dates when there's a minority
government (e.g. when there are more than 2 parties and the top party
has a plurality not a majority in the House) as Canada has had since
2019.
 

I think we have the same (correct) understanding of how elections work
in this country, we're just quibbling about the terms.

Perhaps a phrasing that we can agree on is that no federal
government in this country, whether it has a majority or a minority, can
now have a term longer than 4 years. (It used to be 5 years.)  However,
a minority government may call an earlier election if it thinks it can
better its seat count. (Has a majority government ever gone to the
polls early to improve its seat count? I can't think of one but I
suppose it might have happened.) And, of course, a minority government
can be defeated if enough of the smaller parties get together and get a
larger vote count on a confidence measure.

Politicians can SAY 'the next election will be on _________' but
unless they actually have a majority there's no guarantee and besides
you're not seriously telling me politicians never have their fingers
crossed when they speak to the public are you <evil grin>
 
We're in the happy position of having had neither of our past two
members having qualified for one of those obscenely cushy pensions but
our current MP is both a cabinet minister and someone who WILL get a
pension should he gain re-election this time which is by no means
guaranteed.
 
Obscenely = "gets severance pay (which if memory serves is about a
year's pay for a 2 term MP) BEFORE that pension kicks in"

They get "severance pay" AND the pension?? I didn't know about the
severance pay portion. I've NEVER been happy about parliamentarians
setting their own salaries but this just makes me unhappier about it! I
remember when the current system was being conceived and someone or
another proposed that MP salaries be set by some independent body but
couldn't get Parliament to go for that - unsurprisingly.

--
Rhino