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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ReplyDeleteHarper mentioned that only the party with the largest number of seats has the right to form a government. Yet, he accepts the legitimacy of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government even though Netanyahu's Likud Party did not receive the largest number of seats in the Israeli Knesset.
ReplyDeleteThe CBC needs to do a reality check.
It really is a strange view of our Constitution for a Prime Minister to take. He is not a stupid man, so my only conclusion is he is deliberately giving an false reading of our Constitution for his own gain.
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