Canada’s minority Liberal government has fallen to a vote of no confidence forcing an election to be held by late January.
The Conservatives in Canada have been beating the scandal drum and the New Democratic Party (NDP) have reportedly lost faith in Paul Martin’s government because they are allowing more private medical care.
This is almost refreshing as governments here usually have such huge majorities that they can withstand any number of scandals and arrogance.
Scratching below the surface here there is usually tremendous unrest among the members of parliament (MP’s) in the ruling party (no matter which party is in power), but for some reason people tend to prefer to hold power at all costs.
While this is discouraging to say the least, there are signs that the electorate is becoming more demanding. Hopefully this change will encourage MP’s to hold their party accountable even if it means voting against them on the floor of the House of Assembly.
In our view, the country is more important than who the governing party is. Maybe that means supporting the opposition party immediately after each election to keep our government in check.
Let’s hope for a smaller majority government after the next elections no matter which party wins at the polls.