Hey Canadians!!! The Daily Show is ripping on your Government (and The Queen) again!!!

[Up2Late]

Oh MAN! :rofl: That was VERY Funny! Don't miss the replay at 1:00am EST or the first showing if you get it later than 11:00pm! :spray: :rofl:

[applegrove]

1. Thanks for the heads up. I'll be watching.

[Up2Late]

2. What time does it show where you are?

Does it show at the same times as we get it here (11:00pm/10:00pm in the East and Central time zones, 11:00pm PST on the West Coast)? Mountain Time, I have no idea when you get cable shows.

[applegrove]

3. I'm on East Coast time up here in Ontario. We get the Daily Show on the comedy network

at 11:00 I think. And on CTV at midnight.

[Up2Late]

4. Oh, O.K., I'll check back after midnight...

...btw, where are all the Canadians tonight? Did they all stop posting here since Obama won the election?:shrug:

[Robbien]

5. Question for a Canadian

Who is this Ignatieff person and can the coalition win with him?

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Like their Governor General, he's an ex-TV presenter

OK, that may be doing both of them a bit of a disservice, but that really is what he's best known for in the UK - he presented an arts programme here for a few years:

Michael Grant Ignatieff, MP (/ɪgˈna.tʃəf/; born May 12, 1947) is a public intellectual, historian, and Canadian politician. He has held academic positions at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and the University of Toronto. An award-winning author, he has also worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker.

Ignatieff was based in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2000. During this time he was on the staff at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford and worked as a film-maker and political commentator for the BBC. He lived in the United States from 2000 to 2005; there, he was director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. He returned to Canada in 2005 and took a position as a visiting professor and senior fellow of the Munk Centre for International Studies at Toronto.<1> In November, 2005 he was heralded as a possible Liberal candidate for the next federal election.
...
While living in the United Kingdom, Ignatieff became well known as a broadcaster on radio and television. His best known television work has been Voices on Channel 4, the BBC 2 discussion programme "Thinking Aloud" and BBC 2's arts programme, The Late Show. His documentary series Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism aired on BBC in 1993. He was also an editorial columnist for The Observer from 1990 to 1993.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ignatieff

Controversially, he was in favour of the Iraq war. It'll be interesting to see if Canadians think he spent a little too much time abroad to be ready to lead the country yet. He's probably the most 'international' figure ever who may end up leading a major country.

[applegrove]

12. he's not the governor general. Michelle Jean is. She was also a TV presenter and intellectual

before she was named GG. Her role is mostly a ceremonial one unless there is a minority government. She has sway as to when an election is called (the prime minister always has to ask her permission if he/she wants an election}. She can then ask a coalition of other parties if they can come up with a majority and form the government.

It is as the leader of this coalition that ignatieff is interested in. To do that he would have to be named as leader of the Liberal Party which leads the coalition of parties.

The question is "can he be appointed" as the Leader of the Liberal Party when there is at least one person (Bob Rae) who wants to run in a leadership race? Rae is saying it isn't democratic to just appoint Ignatieff. Could Ignatieff be appointed interim leader (thus leader of the coalition right now) and then could the Liberals have the leadership race in May as planned right now?

So

1. The current Conservative Government has a minority of seats in the house of commons but they had more seats that any other party so they formed the government after October's election.

2. If they loose the vote on a major bill then the government falls. They have put very Karl Rove aggressive things in their budget including things that would see Unions busted and funding for the opposition parties go way down. So the coalition was formed by the opposition parties and they said they will vote against the budget. If the Conservatives present a budget at all like the one they proposed they will loose the vote on a major bill and the government will fall.

3. The GG can then call an election or ask a coalition of the other parties if they want to form the government. (There was already an election in mid October).

4. The current leader of the Liberals is viewed as weak so the Liberals don't want him at all cost leading a potential coalition. He has agreed to step down when a new Liberal leader is either elected by Liberals or appointed.

5. The Conservative, when they realized their budget would cause their government to fall, went to the GG and asked her to close parliament for two months or so. I don't think that this has happened in parliament (certainly not Canadian Parliament)except in the middle ages in England during some sorta crisis.

6. The Conservatives have until sometime in late January before they have to present a budget once parliament is up and running. What will the budget look like? and will the government fall?

7. The liberals had a leadership race planned for April/May. There were three strong candidates. One of whom, Leblanc, has agreed to back Ignatieff as an appointed Liberal leader. One of whom, Rae, wants a democratic process and a leadership race. Then there is Ignatieff who obviously would love to be appointed now as leader of the Liberals and thus a coalition, to be reaffirmed in a leadership race potentially after he is Prime Minister.

8. The Prime Minister in Canada is simply the leader of the party that forms the government. People in Canada only vote for their local member of Parliament. We do not have an executive to vote for like you do in the USA.

9. The coalition would be made up of a majority of members in Parliament and would include the Liberals(centre left), the New Democratic Party (socialist) and the Bloc Quebecois (separatist, centre left). The Conservatives made a huge stink about how the coalition would be anti Canadian with the bloc Quebecois.

10. Tune in in January to see if we can get rid of the conservatives (who have had two minority governments so they have been afraid to govern as the neocons they truly are with the exception of this latest budget proposal that caused all the fuss).

[applegrove]

13. Update. Seems Bob Rae has said he will not run for the leadership.

Also Ignatieff isn't as enthusiastic about a coalition as everyone else is.

[Billy Burnett]

6. An unelected dictator for life (the queen) controls the Canadian government.

Where's the anti Chavistas on this?

[RB TexLa]

9. I'm all for the old bag being thrown out on the street.

[Up2Late]

7. replay kick

:kick:

[pansypoo53219]

8. you had to know your history for that segment.

INDIA! ROTFLMAO! i was on the floor actually.

[Up2Late]

10. Told ya so! They don't get to talk smack about Canada very often, so they must save them up...

...for when they can. I loved the Bryan Adams crack.:rofl: