Stephen Harper

Does not understand parliamentary democracy. His statement this morning at Rideau Hall shows this quite clearly. He believes that a minority government has a "mandate" to govern, and if it does not have the confidence of the House, there must be an election, regardless of when this happens. That is not how our government is organized. That is a totally bizarre reading of our constitution.

Let's be clear here. Harper is right that if he gets a plurality of seats, he gets to try to form a government. If he is unsuccessful, and he does not have the confidence of the House, the Governor General has every right to ask the opposition parties to form a government if they can command the confidence of the House. It is quite simple really, but Harper wants to confuse the public by pretending that our Constitution is illegitimate.

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