Let's say that the culture gaffe doesn't happen and the Tories win with 161 seats. What happens next? Will Iggy still become Liberal leader?
Let's say that the culture gaffe doesn't happen and the Tories win with 161 seats. What happens next? Will Iggy still become Liberal leader?
What, RogueBeaver hasn't done a TL with Kennedy as PMWhich would likely mean Kennedy gets the nod. I can see Kennedy looking like less of a buffoon than either Dion or Iggy.
AFAIK, the NDP, Bloc, and Greens all depend heavily on the money that they receive from the government to engage in their electoral campaigns. Outside of the Conservatives, only the Liberal party has enough independent financial support to fund a half decent campaigns (and they're not as good at raising support as the Tories are...)
I'm surprised no one's mentioned what they tried to do in OTL and failed to, namely cut federal funding for the political parties. However this time, when Harper pushes that piece of legislation through, (ostensibly as a part of a greater economic stimulus package) he won't have the majority of parliament set against him.
The bill will pass and with one fell swoop Harper's effectively returned Canada to a 2 party system. AFAIK, the NDP, Bloc, and Greens all depend heavily on the money that they receive from the government to engage in their electoral campaigns. Outside of the Conservatives, only the Liberal party has enough independent financial support to fund a half decent campaigns (and they're not as good at raising support as the Tories are...)
Without Federal funds for the various parties, come the next election (2012/2013, possibly earlier) the various other parties besides the Liberals and the Tories are going to have a hard time competing.
I think that he might have the votes to get something like that through Parliament now, even with a minority. And the CPC presently has the most seats in the senate, though not quite a majority yet. So under a CPC majoirty, successful (and meaningful) Senate reform would be a certainty. (IIRC, the Tories will hold an outright majority in the Senate by Christmas of this year.)I'd also wager that once Harper achieves a majority in the Senate (He's only 2-3 seats away from it right NOW IIRC) in ATL probably in 2011, he'll ram through some kind of senate reform, perhaps creating something that resembles the Triple E senate the west has been wanting for years.
When would the next election be?2012?
In theory, the next election would be in 2012. That's perhaps the only piece of domestic legislation passed by the PM that I vehemently dislike: you don't deprive yourself of such an easily used political weapon. IMO, it's an "Americanization" of the parliamentary system in the worse sense of the word IMO.
I have to agree here. We will have a fixed election date...... ummm unless we lose a vote of confidence....... ummm and unless we smell blood in the water and engineer a confidence vote with a poison pill...... ummm and unless we really, really want an election and finesse the date somehow..... ummm.... What the heck was wrong with a parlimentary tradition that has worked perfectly fine for centuries?