Canadian government toppled by non-confidence vote

[Occhidiangela]

The Gomery Report.   
Required reading before any further questions  ;)
[right][snapback]95955[/snapback][/right]

*Snort*

I'll read the Full Monty when I get home. Thanks for the link, Shadow. :) Your comments on timing are enlightening.

The four page summary looked a lot like a cut and paste, with a few changes into Canadianese, from one of a dozen audits of US Derpartment of Defense Acquisition and attendant Congressional Malfeasance in ( _____ insert a district or state here.)

What, not even a footnote from the gentlefolk in Ottawa? With the high academic standards held in Canada, I would have expected the authors to present a proper citation! :lol:

All joking aside, I will ponder the report in its fullness over a Boddington's tonight.

For DeeBye

No, vote of no confidence is not like an impeachment in the US.

To clear up your misconception, an impeachment is explicitly called for when high crimes and misdemeanors, breaches of the law, are shown to have been committed by a government official. In an impeachment, government does not dissolve, nor are elections triggered. The individual hits the road, and everyone else pretty much "gets on with it" until the next scheduled election cycle. During the interim, they attempto to cut each other to ribbons over the impeachment mess and other issues, politics as usual.

As you know, the "vote of no confidence" may be called due to shady behavior as well, but it can also be called based on sheer incompetence. We have no real analogue for the "you're fired because your policies and decisions are appalling and we have no confidence that you'll get smarter soon enough to unscrew the mess you have made. We (the majority vote) all agree that you suck irrecoverably at this governing thing."

Impeachment for incompetence-absent-illegal-behavior is not an option. (Awaits torrent of GWB jokes) Incompetence is usually worked around, or the office holder involved is induced, by his own party, to GTFO for the good of the party. Or not.

If one is looking for a US parallel, the vote of no confidence is more similar to the recent California Recall vote vis a vis Governor Gray Davis -- which then led to the Governator -- than it is to impeachment.

They are all similar in that each is a political tool, and is thus driven by political agendas. Big surprise there. :o

Occhi