It wasn’t until about a week ago that I found out Canada can have elections whenever they want.
I mean, I knew they had elections — they’re a democracy and all that — but I had never noticed when they had them. I wasn’t paying attention. The same way I don’t pay attention to the Denver Nuggets. Has the season started?
I have no idea, in fact, if the Nuggets are a baseball team or a basketball team. It has partly to do with the name: Nuggets. Sounds like something you’d get in a McDonald’s Happy Meal.
But the nation of Canada would seem a bit more important than a Denver sports team, or a McDonald’s Happy Meal. Reportedly, it has a population of 42 million people, most of whom speak decent English, and it covers 3.9 million square miles, which makes it larger than Texas. So I’m ashamed at how little I know about Canada and its elections.
Many Americans are in the same boat as me, I imagine. Other than the fact that it served as a haven for draft dodgers during the Vietnam War, most of us hardly noticed it was even there, taking up the space between Alaska and the Lower 48.
Then President Donald Trump pointed out that Canada could one day become the 51st state, if the right kind of deal could be made. (Nothing he loves more than making a deal.)
He also pointed out that we’ve been buying more from Canada — mostly crude oil — than they’ve been buying from us — mostly because they have more than enough crude oil to keep them happy. They also make some of our cars for us. It’s sort of like the lopsided relationship I have with Walmart. I keep buying stuff from them, but they never buy stuff from me.
Anyway, Canada has been appearing in the news, for a change, and they had an election yesterday.
They have a really different way of doing elections. In March, Prime Minister Mark Carney, current leader of the Liberal Party, called for a ‘snap’ election, shortly after taking over from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who resigned in January.
I grabbed the graph at the top of the page at about 8pm last night, before most of the political districts had reported. The commentators on GlobalNews.ca were guessing which party would elect the most Members of Parliament and get to pick the Prime Minister, and all the commentators sounded pretty confident that the Liberal Party would wind up with the most seats.
When Prime Minister Carney called for an election — which was his prerogative, apparently — he caused the entire Parliament to be dissolved. So I’m guessing Canada hasn’t actually had a government since March… until after yesterday’s election.
The Prime Minister’s main opponent in the race was Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Whichever party gets the most seats in Parliament gets to pick the Prime Minister.
I would kinda like to see our U.S. Congress dissolved, but we have a different constitution, and we’re stuck with it. Just like the Canadians are stuck with theirs.
We’re also stuck with a two-party system. We get to vote for either the Democrats, who hate anyone that has a lot of money, or for the Republicans, who hate anyone that doesn’t have a lot of money.
Things are different in Canada, as I found out last night. They apparently have five political parties, each with slightly different political aims and the ability to get at least one Member of Parliament elected.
I would hate to be that one MP from the Green Party. When I was in high school, my mother made me wear wool slacks to school, when all the other boys were wearing jeans. So I can definitely sympathize with Canada’s Green Party. Even if that lonely Green Party MP is allowed to wear jeans.
One of the things that struck me was the foreign-sounding names of the party leaders. “Pierre Poilievre”, for example. That name sounds suspiciously French. And so does “Yves-Francois Blanchet”. And “Jagmeet Singh” also has a foreign ring. I’m wondering if Canada is full of foreigners?
If they have been listening to President Trump, they know that he wants Canada to become the 51st state. But at the rate the Trump administration is deporting foreigners, why would they want to see that happen?
From what I read, none of the candidates were, like, “rah rah rah” to become the 51st state.
This morning I checked back in this GlobalNews.ca and grabbed the screenshot below, now that more of the electoral districts had been counted. Still looks like the Liberal Party is leading, and that they will pick the Prime Minister… although they need 172 seats to have a clear majority in Parliament.
168 is close, but “close” only counts in horseshoes. With 168 seats, they will have to form a government with one of the other parties.
That probably won’t be the Conservative Party, if I know anything about politics.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.