Canadian politics

As I not-so-patiently wait for confirmation on the new place with N, I guess I will blog about Canadian politics instead.

We had an election yesterday that has lead to a really fucked up government. So, what exactly is going on in Canada?

First, a really short primer on how Canadian government works; please correct me on anything that is wrong, but only if you're pretty damned sure:
We have political parties which field candidates for the position of "Member of Parliament" (MP) in ridings (small geographic electoral regions) across the country. The leader of the party with the most MPs in parliament is the Prime Minister. Edit: As everyone and their brother has pointed out, MPs can vote according to their conscience without losing their seat. They might get kicked out of the party and have to run as an Independent the next time around, or join a different party, but they keep their seat until the next election.

To pass any legislation, a majority (154+/307, once one of the MPs becomes Speaker and can no longer vote except in event of a tie) of MPs have to vote for it. If a political party has enough MPs to do this on its own, it has a majority government; if not, it has a minority government. In a minority government, it is not unheard of for parties to hammer out an alliance in order to form a consistent majority

This time around we elected a Conservative minority government, making their Party Leader Stephen Harper the Prime Minister. The party with the next largest number of MPs (the Liberals in this case) from the official Opposition, and the party leader of the Liberals will be the Leader of the Opposition. However, the Liberal party leader resigned late last night, so they need to choose someone new first.

Unfortunately, the numbers worked out to create a fairly unstable situation. Here they are:

Conservatives, the most right-wing party: 124 MPs (often called the Tories, their colour is blue)
Liberals, the centrist party (and official opposition): 103 MPs (often called the Grits, their colour is red)
NDP, the left-wing party: 29 MPs (their colour is orange)
BQ, the Quebec Separatist party: 51 MPs (their colour is a different shade of blue, and they tend to be socially progressive... but their main goal is for Quebec to separate, which isn't so cool)
And, there is one Independent MP: 1 radio DJ from Quebec.

So how does this work? Well, it doesn't, really, but it will have to because we won't be ready for another election for about a year -- elections are expensive.

Let's try that again. Why is this government somewhat dysfunctional -- moreso than most?

Add the numbers. To pass any bill, they need 155 votes.
Con+NDP = 153 (and this is a rather unlikely alliance, allying the left with the right wing folk...)
Lib+BQ = 154

This leaves things in the hands of an independent radio DJ.

Con+BQ = a majority... but to get an actual alliance rather than the occasional assist from BQ, what would the conservatives have to offer/promise them? Separation? I don't think even the Conservatives could swallow THAT bitter pill. So, how likely do you figure this alliance is?

Con+Lib = a massive majority, but I can't imagine that, in their capacity as Opposition, the Liberals would choose to form an actual alliance.

So, it looks like there will be no formal alliance. Each piece of legislature will end up with different configurations of parties voting together. More shortly on SSM/social conservatism.

Bad news regarding social conservatism in Canada

All of this was gathered by looking at http://www.howdtheyvote.ca for records on voting, and http://www.cbc.ca for information on the election, and x-posted to canpolitik.

The Good News: Medical Marijuana
When the move to legalize medical marijuana came through Parliament (it's been there for only one vote so far), all of the Conservatives voted against, as well as 11 re-elected Liberal MPs.

So, assuming all returning MPs will vote as they have before, and all new MPs will vote according to their party, and ignoring the Independent MP, a vote right now on MM would be in favour of MM:
135 nay
172 yea

The Bad News: Same Sex Marriage (SSM)

There have been three votes on SSM recently:
Of those who were re-elected...
3 Conservatives voted in favour of SSM each time.
1 Liberal voted in favour of SSM on the first vote, missed the second vote, and voted against in the final vote
3 Liberals and 1 Bloc Quebecois voted against SSM for one vote and were absent, paired, or otherwise not listed for the other two votes
5 Liberals voted against SSM for two votes, and were absent, paired, or otherwise not listed for the other vote
19 Liberals and 5 Bloc Quebecois voted against SSM for all three votes

Of those who voted contrary to their party against SSM and were NOT re-elected...
6 Liberals and 1 Bloc Quebecois are being replaced by Conservatives
1 Liberal is being replaced by another Liberal
1 NDP is being replaced by a Liberal

So, assuming all returning MPs will vote as they have before, and all new MPs will vote according to their party, and ignoring the Independent MP, a vote right now on SSM would find against SSM:
155 nay
152 yea

And, remember that one of the MPs who is probably in the Yea camp will become Speaker, and only be allowed to vote if there's a tie.

( The details )

I guess we can just hope that if the SSM issue rears it's ugly head again, several people will abstain or change camps, or that some of the new Conservative MPs will vote contrary to their party.

Anyone know of any new MPs who are likely to vote contrary to their party either way on SSM or MM? What about the Independent, any idea what he's likely to say about these sorts of issues?

Rambling about the evening and health

Today I plucked the first-ever coarse dark hair off my chin. I expect that it is only the first of many.

The PCOS is getting worse, I guess. I have a really painful zit on my chin and another near my nose (also a PCOS symptom). And I'm having difficulty with my weight... losing it, gaining it, both. I keep on saying it, but it really is past time I got back on my bandwagon and began eating properly.

Meanwhile, I try not to freak out about housing. No word from N. She's super busy with tutoring and working, but I just want a confirmation. The fact that she hasn't called or emailed to confirm tells me that this isn't an easy decision for her, and that makes me all the more nervous. It might be that she has misgivings about me, or that she's decided she wants to interview more options before reaching a decision, or that she has to calculate her mortgage and make sure that the amount she wanted to charge me is the amount she needs. Not sure about how the first possibility would end up affecting things. The second possibility would delay and possibly cancel things, something I really don't want to deal with. And the last possibility... if she comes back offering the place to me, but for more money, I don't know what I'll do. I guess I'd need to sit down with my budget and really think about things.

Positive things, thoughts
My ovaries have been bothering me a lot less lately. This is good, since they were really worrying me the weekend before Arisia.

This evening, I caught up on my HDD stuff but did not watch the two new episodes I had saved. Instead, while some old episodes were copied onto a DVD, I popped Bend It Like Beckham into my laptop and cleaned my room, emptied the suitcase from Arisia, packed the toybag back up, and otherwise organized things in my room. I started a cereals spreadsheet for consideration, since the low carb Special K I've been eating for breakfast is going off the market and I need to consider other options. Finally, I tried to sign up for AppleCare to no avail -- it kept on telling me my postal code was invalid. I'll try again from work tomorrow, when their helpline is actually on.