Election

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Jim,
          The government has to have an election by the 5th anniversary of
being sworn into office.
Some times we have a minority party running the House of Commons, if the
other parties gang up and defeat a bill, an election can be forced before
the 5yr term.  some of our best Governments have been minorities.  They
have to listen to what people are saying, or fall. 
The sitting government can call an election at any time.  Some times it's
done to get people to get involved in a major issue.  The free trade
agreement with the US is one recent example.  Kind of like a referendum.
This election was political opportunism,  economy is good, wait another
year the mood may change, so go for it.
X still marks the spot so far as the candidate is concerned.  Since all
votes are counted with each party having a delegate observing the count,
any spoiled ballots are adjudicated on the spot. 
When the vote is within 0.1% a judicial recount is automatic, unless some
one concedes defeat. A political party has to have very good grounds to
obtain a recount, since they had delagates observing the total count.
The system works for us.  We could never concentrate on all those primary
things.  Too many old codgers could die before election.   Come to think of
it, did'nt you have a corpse on the ballot for the senate?
In Vancouver this year there was a line up out side of the voting station
at the time of close. The election officer sealed the line off, and allowed
all that were present their vote.  Now that's democracy.
Not the individuals fault the station was under staffed.  They did their
duty by being there before closing time.
Regards roger 


At 01:59 PM 29/11/00 -0500, you wrote:
>To our Canadian Cousins;
> As the weeks have drug? dragged? along accompanied by your good natured 
>ribbing vis a vis our election???, with a recent spate of bragging about the 
>efficiency of your own election, a question has arose? arissen?  The 
>questions are as I understand them...........
>Why did your Head of Government call an election 18 months early?
>Don't y'all have reguarly scheduled elections?
>Serious question and not meant otherwise.
>Jim Bryant (FL)
>Oh Yeah! technical input...Phil the ole saw about having to tune a piano 
>before you can tune it is one bit of "common knowledge" you can put in the 
>bank. Your observations vis a vis A4 pitch drop is an excellent observation 
>of that fact.
> 
Roger Jolly
Saskatoon, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505