World

Prime Minister Harper to call 4 by-elections today

by albertacowpoke | October 4, 2009 at 08:03 am

130 views | 30 Recommendations | 10 comments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Government survived a non-confidence motion last week. This was made possible by the NDP abstaining from the vote.

Harper is now set to call 4 by-elections in order to fill vacancies in the House of Commons. One seat is in Nova Scotia and was formerly held by independent MP Bill Casey. Casey was elected as a Conservative but was ousted from caucus when he voted against the gouvernments' budget.

Two seats are in Quebec and are BLOC strongholds.

In all likelihood these by-elections will not increase the seats of the minority government, which presently holds 144 of the 301 seats in the House of Commons. 155 seats are required in order to hold a majority.

The last seat is in British Columbia which was one by the NDP by a 1000 votes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to call four byelections on Sunday to fill vacant seats in the House of Commons.

The byelections would be held for two vacant seats in Quebec, one in British Columbia and one in Nova Scotia.

The Quebec seats in Montreal and the eastern Quebec region of Rivière-du-Loup are considered Bloc Québécois strongholds, with the Bloc party candidates winning well over half the votes in 2008.

The Nova Scotia riding was held by independent MP Bill Casey, a former Conservative MP who was ejected from the caucus after he broke ranks and voted against a bill to implement the federal budget. He was re-elected as an independent but has since resigned his seat.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Add a comment

sara star

at 08:10 on October 4th, 2009

The Nova Scotia riding was held by independent MP Bill Casey, a former Conservative MP who was ejected from the caucus after he broke ranks.

How can he be ousted when he got voted in by the people? Don't the voices of the people count?

Sounds like dictatorship.

albertacowpoke

at 08:18 on October 4th, 2009

He got ousted from the Conservative caucus, which is at the discretion of any party leader . Bill Casey was still a member of Parliament, but served as an independent. He could have chosen to join any of the other parties, if accepted. It happens quite often when someone breaks party ranks.

Recently Arlen Specter, a PA Republican chose to become a Democrat.

sara star

at 08:32 on October 4th, 2009

Thanks ACP for clarifying that there is no such thing as free voting in Canada.

So when they vote they are only going through the motions?

I thought they only did these kind of things in Iran? Oh, but it's considered normal here. Here it is considered breaking ranks. In other countries it is considered a violation of human rights.

albertacowpoke

at 16:53 on November 1st, 2009

This is common practice in most Western countries. I didn.t say I agree with it. I recently had a discussion with my MP about just that. This will not change though. This is how political parties function. You will note that the NDP abstained from voting on Friday to keep the government alive.

I would hardly call it a violation of human rights though. Any club can expel any of its members, if they're not members in good standing.

Casey was still representing his constituency as an independent.

Another case of this was in Alberta recently when a Member of the Legislative Assembly, Guy Boutilier, protested against his own government for not building a Seniors Health Centre in Fort McMurray, which the government had promised.

Boutilier was a Minister at the time. He chose to do what was right for his constituency and as a result lost his job as Minister and was also ousted from the party caucus. He still represents his constituents.

marianmo

at 09:35 on October 4th, 2009

ty for this post...if im correct last time harper called for byelections he called a general election shortly before the byelections were to be held....is this a sign of things to come