Our parliamentary system is constituted in such a way that the government must maintain a majority of support in the house to pass legislation. This is not a problem when one political party wins a majority of the seats in the house, i.e. the Chretien Era. In this capacity, the government can pass all the legislation it wants with minimal or no responsibility to the opposition parties in the house. In the case of minority parliaments, of which we have seen for most of the past decade now, the government needs the support of at least one other party. Should it not obtain this support, the government must call an election. So far, the Harper government has managed to be defeated in the house without losing the confidence to govern the country. Sound confusing? Actually, the government can only be forced to call an election if it is defeated in a motion of confidence. This can simply be a motion that states that the members of the house have lost confidence in the government, or it can come with the defeat of monetary bills, tax bills, or budget implementation bills.
(more…)