- Pacific
Parliament to dissolve, election in early MayGovernment found in contempt -- a first in Canadian history
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the Governor General today to dissolve Parliament, setting the stage for a federal election in early May.
The Harper government was defeated in the House of Commons on Friday on a non-confidence motion declaring the government in contempt of Parliament.
It is the first time in Canadian history that a government has been found in contempt.
The Liberal motion passed by a vote of 156 to 145, as opposition parties teamed up to topple the Conservatives.
The campaign for Canada's 41st election is expected to begin this morning, when Harper visits Rideau Hall to ask Gov. Gen. David Johnston to dissolve Parliament. Canadians will go to the polls for the fourth time in roughly seven years.
Harper said he was disappointed in the vote and argued that Canadians would be, too. He scolded opposition parties for rejecting the government's budget, tabled this week by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. "There was nothing, absolutely nothing, in the budget that the opposition could not or should not have supported," Harper said in a statement in the House of Commons foyer.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Ignatieff and his coalition partners in the NDP and the Bloc Québécois made abundantly clear that they had already decided that they wanted to force an election instead -- Canada's fourth election in seven years, an election Canadians had told them clearly that they do not want."
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party will offer a "compassionate, responsible" alternative to the Conservatives.
He was again pressed with questions about whether he would consider forming a coalition with one or both of the other opposition parties if the Liberals don't win the most seats. Ignatieff stuck to his position that he wants to form a Liberal government.
"I am here with this team of proud Canadians to create a Liberal alternative to the Conservative government," he said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said the New Democrats have a track record of working with other parties. "I'm running for prime minister, I'm running to lead the largest party in the House of Commons, and then to work with the mandate that Canadians give me, reaching out to other parties as required," he said.
A parliamentary committee recently recommended the government be found in contempt for failing to provide enough information about the costs of its crime legislation. Speaker Peter Milliken ruled earlier this month that, "on its face," the government appeared to have breached the parliamentary privilege of MPs by refusing to release the information.
The non-confidence motion stated: "That the House agree with the finding of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs that the government is in contempt of Parliament, which is unprecedented in Canadian parliamentary history, and consequently, the House has lost confidence in the government."
The vote will be seen as a formal finding of contempt against the government, because the motion clearly used the word "contempt" and was approved by the Commons, said Ned Franks, a constitutional scholar and professor emeritus at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
Party leaders will fan out across the country today to begin a campaign expected to end with a vote in early May. The Conservatives plan to focus on the economy, arguing a change of power would undermine the still-fragile recovery. The opposition parties will put the spotlight on what they describe as the Conservatives' lack of ethics and accountability. (3.26.2011, Andrew Mayeda, Postmedia News) http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Parliament+dissolve+election+early/4509003/story.html#ixzz1IV00EEXK
"To Achieve World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification" Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." Ian Williams Goddard
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson