Toronto Star Q&A on Coalition Governments

[marmar]

New Q & A on coalition governments

IAIN MARLOW
Staff Reporter


Do coalition governments work? How often are they formed? Our story has those answers and if you have other questions please submit them by adding a comment. (We will only publish comments here that ask questions about coalition governments.)

The Star asked readers’ questions to constitutional historian Curtis Cole, who has taught at the University of Western Ontario and York University’s Osgood Hall Law School. He is currently the director of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Academic Advising and Career Centre.

What are the criteria for proroguing Parliament and what kind of discretion does the Governor General have?

It’s almost entirely within the prime minister’s discretion to request a proroguing, but it would be highly unusual to ask for one when a session really hasn’t begun.

In essence, proroguing means the session is over - that we’ve completed the proposed business for this session. Which is different from an adjournment, which is just not sitting for a period of time - either overnight or for a weekend or for a holiday period.

And so, it would be highly unusual and may extend into that really narrow band (of activity) that the GG is expected to exercise - of granting what is appropriate. And there’s just very little discretion.

Would it be an abuse of power for the Governor General to prorogue parliament, when an election was held just over a month ago?

I think that would be a reasonable interpretation. It would be an abuse of the prime minister’s power to make that request and legitimate for the Governor General to say no.

What would happen if the Coalition failed?

That would seem to be evidence that nobody can form a government with this current parliament and that it would be reasonable, then, to have to go back to an election. Theoretically, the Conservatives could say, `Here’s our evidence to say yes, we can command the confidence of Parliament again,’ if they got the Bloc or somebody to support them, but that’s highly theoretical, and we’d start to look like Italy - going back and forth like that.

Is this a coup d’état?

That’s the way the Harper government would like to portray it. But it’s fundamentally confusing a Republican system with a Parliamentary system. In essence, we have an indirect election of government - rather than a direct election. In a Republican system, voters in the U.S. got to decide, `Do I want McCain or Obama.’ And then secondarily: `Who do I want as my local rep or my state rep?’ Whereas in the Canadian parliamentary system, like the British parliamentary system, you only get to vote for whoever your local rep is, and then the majority of members of that legislature then get to decide who forms that government. And they’re free to change their minds over the course of a parliament. And in a circumstance, that we have in modern parliamentary system with party discipline, they tend to vote along party lines, which means you generally only get this when you have a minority situation. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/547915