The results of the 2006 Canadian federal election
The liberal party had made several mistakes to gain afoot in this election, In addition, Harper worked tirelessly to demine the liberals, constantly attacking them over scandals they sunk into during their tenure in government. These scandals included court decisions, media coverage, same-sex marriages, sponsorship scandals, their relations with the United States and so on. Other reasons for his win were the declining popularity of liberals and the corresponding increase in popularity by conservatives. Liberals’ ideas of increasing taxes were also vital to Harper’s win, consequently making history as the first conservative minority party to lead government since the liberals.
The motion of no confidence passed in 2005 was a clear indication that change was imminent. Besides, there was no other leader capable of outshining Harper apart from the liberals whose candidate had been deemed unfit to exercise executive powers in Paul Martin. There is a high probability that if a new party leader were elected to run against Harper before the 2006 federal elections, maybe things would have been different. However, they kept with Martin and only realized this mistake after he was defeated, causing him to resign. Besides, several issues surrounded Martin’s government. These issues ranged from fiscal imbalance, the desire by Quebec to form their own government, abortion and gun registry, among others.
The federal government policy has changed very much since the election of the Harper minority government
Among the policies, including environmental policy, which the conservatives took up in order to reduce rising emissions from greenhouses, which cause climatic changes because of polluted environment and depleted ozone layer. The conservatives’ position on the implementation of the Kyoto accord, which they criticized for having harmful effects and giving insubstantial results regarding the reduction of greenhouse gases, was met by strong criticism from opposition parties as well as several environmental organizations.
Another policy change has been regarding foreign affairs; Martin’s government was much reluctant in its approach to foreign policies, however, this has changed in Harper’s government. Conservatives have employed a principled approach to their foreign policies, Harper’s relations with Washington, Kandahar, Jerusalem have been close, and he was quoted supporting Israel’s war with Hezbollah on his way to a G8 summit, which was alarming as other world leaders shared different sentiments. For instance Jacques Chirac, the then French president referring to it as “aberrant”.
Speculations have also come about Harper’s government, which is accused of muzzling the media especially from researches relating to his environmental policy changes. This has caused havoc, and the yet to be authenticated report only referred to as a ‘leak’ is said to contain sentiments of frustrated Canadian researchers and scientists who have been barred by the new media relations policy. This policy, entrenched in 2007 requires senior federal researchers and scientists to ask for permission before they give an interview to the media. This has been taken negatively by the affected media centers as they feel that some information has been censored or going by the trend of improvement that has been realized since their coming to power, there is a considerable possibility of this happening. Back in 2006, they only held 127 seats, making it difficult for them to pass legislation without the support from the opposition, but after gaining another 17 seats, 12 shy of the required majority, the future promises a lot more. This consolidation has been caused mainly by liberal’s drop and confusion, which prompted Harper to call for these elections. Liberals now languish much further from their 103 seats in 2006 to just 77, which is quite surprising given their trademark as a historically dominant party in Canadian politics. A further reason why conservatives may gain the majority is the fact that they lost more seats in Quebec, but this can be corrected with proper realignment with the issues concerned. Liberals currently have a long way to go, and this gives conservatives the advantage to advance their numbers to the majority in the House of Commons.
Do Canadians respect minority governments?
Given the trend that has continued since Martin took over, Canadians have tolerated minority government and this would imply they respect them. On the other hand, there are critics of this model of government and it has not been easy for Harper to pass legislation with the minority. This explains why he has always tried to consolidate more seats by calling for an election, the most recent being his third. Some people have wondered why parties cannot form coalitions like in the U.K. to give majority governance. I believe this could be due to the respect Canadian people have given to minority governments. Other reasons that could count in this are about the system, that is, the prime minister is not elected directly by voters; If this was not the case then Canadians would most probably incline more to majority governments.