What on earth is happening in Canada....aye?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Canadian lawyer, Nicholas Wansbutter, joins the show to discuss the political goings on in his home country and just what he thinks of Donald Trump and the direction our world is headed.
Thanks, very informative.
As a Canadian I pray we all vote Conservative. When we get closer to the Federal Election I will be out with signs trying to do al I can to ensure we can begin to fix my country I love so much.
It's going to cost a lot of money at California prices to rebuild LA. I don't think the american taxpayer should be responsible for paying to rebuild this shit.
Canadian here, an expert on our government and Political Science in general. It is hard to find non-partisan comments in Canada right now. This is awkwardly explained in this interview.
We don't elect a President. We only elect local Representatives, Members of Parliament. Theoretically the best in our own community. They usually belong to a party and if they do, that party's members choose a leader, usually from the MPs. The party with the most MPs becomes the Government and their leader becomes the Prime (or first) Minister. The Party with the second most MPs s becomes the Official Opposition and their leader is The Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
If a Member resigns their seat, it becomes immediately vacant and a by-election can be called by the Prime Minister to hold a local election to choose a replacement. If a member has a title, as in Minister of Labour or Leader of their party, and they resign their position, their post becomes vacant. but they remain in Parliament ( if they are an MP. It's very odd to appoint non-MPs to the Cabinet, but it happens).
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned his POSITION as leader of the Liberal Party. That's all. He still holds his seat as a Member of Parliament. The Liberal Party has to choose a new leader. They get to decide when and how and to whom this will occur. Until that happens, Trudeau is still Prime Minister, but not leader. The Liberals still hold the most seats, so that new leader will become the next Prime Minister.
If Trudeau resigns his position of Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister occupies the temporary position of Acting Prime Minister. That Deputy is chosen by the Prime Minister, as is all the Cabinet.
Right now, though, the Deputy Prime Minister, Christia Freeland, had already resigned her position and Trudeau has not appointed a replacement. Add the fact that the Liberals are outnumbered by the non-Liberal MPs until the next election and it starts getting weird. The Liberals have maintained power only through the support of non-Liberals, mostly the MPs of the New Democratic Party.
(The NDP, in the past, was responsible for Canada's Old Age Security in the 1920's and Universal free Medicare since the 1960's. That is pretty much the extent of their influence. Pretty important stuff for a Canadian, but some people of questionable integrity call the NDP Communist or Socialist for those accomplishments.)
In essence, though, at this time, Trudeau is like Biden, no one is like Kamala and the leader of the Conservatives is like Trump, except the election hasn't happened and isn't mandatory until next October, but can be called anytime by the Prime Minister, which is either nobody or Trudeau. And everyone knows that the Conservatives will win the next election and their leader, Pierre Poilievre is going to be elected as if he were a President.
That's pretty simple, isn't it?
Now add in the role of the Governor General and the proroguing of Parliament.
@@Rawdiswar A good question (of course) but difficult to explain in a non partisan fashion.
A PARLIAMENT is the time between elections. A SESSION is the meetings in the House of Commons during a parliament. There can be any number of these sessions. Each session begins with a Speech from the Throne, which is prepared by the Prime Minister for the Governor General to read. It is the only time the Governor General is allowed to enter the House of Commons. It is written to sound as if it was written by King Charles III of England. It is a speech that outlines the agenda of the government for that session. The House is PROROGUED when that agenda is completed. To open and close the session, the prime minister must ask permission from the Governor General in their role as King Charles' representative in Canada.
The PM can ask for permission to PROROGUE at any time, but if it is granted, all unfinished business is discarded in the House and all committees and all endevours to question or investigate the government are suspended. If the PM asks permission to begin a new session and is granted that permission, the whole process starts again with a clean slate in the House, but committee work can resume from the point it was interrupted.
If the PM wants or needs to call an ELECTION, permission must be granted to DISSOLVE Parliament. If the GG grants permission, ALL business in Ottawa comes to an end.
Originally, since 1867, federal elections were held no later than five years after the previous election day. (Maybe it was different in the 19th century, before cars and airplanes) Since 2007 the election is held the third week of October in the fourth calendar year after the previous election.
(this change made no sense to me except to align our election with American elections and set them BEFORE America chose its President. This change was made by a far right Conservative government.)
As always, the PM can choose to cause an election at any time, but must always ask permission. The PM can also set a date for the election other than October, but no later than these new restrictions. Unlike America, the members of the House of Commons can also force an election by a vote of non-confidence in the House with a simple majority of 50% plus one. (There are 338 seats at present; 153 Liberals, 17 short of a majority) This forces the PM to ask permission to call an election. The Leader of the Opposition can also ask permission to form a government without an election.
In any case, the Governor General has the power to refuse anyone's request or invite that a request be made.
The Governor General position is filled by the Prime Minister. The PM submits the name to the English Monarch who then appoints that person to be their representative in Canada.
The existence of such power in the hands of an unelected official greatly disturbs many Canadians, and therefore the GG has rarely refused a Prime Minister's requests and only ever in the events surrounding a minority government.
More of a personal observation is that sometimes the far right or the far left has voiced the opinion that the whole mechanism of the Governor General and the Monarchy should be eliminated. Many feel the Governor General is merely a figurehead, that their actions should be restricted to simply rubber stamping anything done by the government. To remove the Monarchy would make Canada more of a Republic than a Democracy as the Prime Minister would hold an absolute power over His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
This concern has led to the appointment of people unschooled in our history or the mechanisms of our government. The choices recently bear a similarity to DEI appointments.
I feel that the Governor General holds a great responsibility to protect our system from abuse and to protect Canadians from abusive power. I feel that the GG should have refused Trudeau's request for Prorogation and only accepted a request for Dissolution. It would have forced the Liberals to run in an election without a leader or to keep Trudeau on as leader, but it would have served Canada rather than accommodate Trudeau.
@@Rawdiswar Wow! My head hurts, now.
It's spelled eh, neighbour.
That was an interesting discussion. As an American who is mostly conservative and has mo spititual beliefs, my views are unsurprisingly very different from yours. However I'm always open to what other people have to say.
We find ourselves in a mitually difficult situation. To a large extent America's national security is highly dependent on good relations with Canada. The fact that most of us rarely think about Canada is a good thing because it's one problem we don't have to worry about. Ive been to Csnada many times and it was aleays very agreeable. I had many Canadian friends when I lived in France.
From a distance to foreigners we appear very much alike but we know that in many important ways we are very different.
Right now Canada's economy is in serious difficulty. President Trump sayscwe have a 250 billion dollar a year trade deficit we can no longer sustain. In fact we're lokely to impose tariffs on all imports including Canada. This would wreck what's left of Canada's economy. The proposal to make Canada a state is one ptoposed solution. Personally I dont like it. I think there will be a clash if cultures. I don't think Canadians will adjust to American culture and we're not about to adopt a more Canadian culture. In fact Trump's mandate is to restore America's culture to where it was begore it was under relenyless left wing attack. Much of our population is insane and our government is corrupt, incompetent and treasonous. It has been under attack by a globalist cabal. There is no democracy here now.
So I'm hoping for a better solution than a union of the two countries. I've warned President Trump that if they beclme Americans theyll all move to florida.
Very interesting, thanks!
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Kevin Davis , your an american, yes! God I'm so sorry for you ... Yo Nicholas Wansbutter dont you know why parliament will have to start at new concernig laws etc... Pierre Poilievre and his sidekicks of the PPC have been doing since november 2024... The regular business of the House of Commons is currently on ice because, at the request of Conservative Party MPs, two questions of privilege have been debated for weeks and are preventing the House from considering any other item on the agenda of Pierre Poilievre.
The NDP is not communist. 🙄
please NPD neither communist nor socialist... just more concerned, so little, with some social issues. Please stop this ideological bias / froma Canadian
Don't they regard themselves as the new democratic socialist party
Awesome and informative interview!! Thank you!
Great show!
Great
Podcast thank you!!