Tom Says: “How do you spell majority..?”
In political circles the world over, majority is spelled “majority” with one exception, that exception is Canada — where majority is actually spelled minority. Now that I have you good and confused, let me try and sort it out…
In democratically elected countries if a party gets more than fifty per cent of the available seats in it’s elected government it is considered to be a majority. It means simply if all the sitting members of the party in power are in attendance on any given day, the government can do whatever it wants to do.
The one exception is Canada.
The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper have way less than fifty per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, but at the same time the Conservatives can do pretty much whatever they want to do — and are they ever doing it.
The way a parliamentary democracy is supposed to work is that the opposition is supposed to hold the party in power’s feet to the fire and get the best deal the can possibly get for the tax payers. But we don’t have anything like that in this country, at least not at the present time.
What we have is a Conservative government, a party interested only in Quebec, a socialist party and something that at one time was called “The Liberal Party.” It seems the Liberals are far better when they’re in power than they are when they’re in the opposition. Their members run around the country telling us all how bad the policies of the Conservative party are, but when push comes to shove, they fold their tent and go hide somewhere in caves.
There is a segment of the Liberal party, and no body knows how large — who want to bring the Conservative government down at the drop of a hat and there’s another segment which doesn’t want to bring the government down under any set of circumstances. The the past several months the dont’s have been winning the argument. So as it stands now the “Harperites” could start doing the most ridiculous things they can think of and while the Liberals might make lots of noise, they still won’t oppose them on the floor of the House of Commons.
This is a very quick Politics 101 lesson in how a minority is really a majority — only in Canada eh?
I’m Tom Young.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I’m no Liberal supporter, in fact I am a strong supporter of the current government. That being said, the current Liberal Party is a sham. Where are the Chretiens, the Trudeaus, the Turners? The strong voices of the Liberal Party dead and gone. I have no idea what is going on over on that side of the house, but it’s definitely not pretty.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Tom,we need jack layton to retire. why? so PETER STOFFER can take over and lead us to our first NDP goverment. he’s our obama! maybe? just maybe? a chance for possitive change and common sense approches.
the NDP is being held back by jack”s cartoon characticture! bring on …
THE STOFFMAN.
i’m ready for change. how about you??
March 16th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Hi Tom , I respect your show and I would love to be a guest on it one day , to talk about the the violence from parents towards coaches and other spectators. I am a coach and I coach Kids 12 and 13 yrs old boys rep basketball team , however this year we did have 2 girl players on our team , anyway , at the beginng of the the year I was verbally asaulted by a parent and during the year there was underlined threats , and at the end of the year I was cut off while driving and threatened in front of kids that that if I did not play this parents child more I would pay . There is enough Incedents that a show could be mada , I was stalked by a parent who like me and police were going to be called , it was insane . I also am a FIBA referee and have played the game for 30 yrs at different levels .