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updated 5 Jan.2007
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I feel very lucky to be living in this country, CANADA. I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and later lived in Sault Ste. Marie. During those times, I became familiar with the industrial heartland of this vibrant and beautiful land with its hard working people. I experienced the power of a Hamilton blast furnace and of the mighty falls at Niagara. I have been awed by the startling colours of the maple forests of the north, particularly around Wawa and the Agawa Canyon. Then there is Toronto, the city that has so much economic power, that is so busy and exciting, and is the city that because of its might, is strongly disliked, I think, unjustly so, by much of the rest of the country. Thanks to a career in Canada's armed forces spanning 23 years, there is not much of this great land that I have not seen. The majesty of icebergs at Cartwright, Labrador just can not be imagined. They are literally floating ice mountains. I could go on and on. Every province and region has immense worth and value. In it's own way, tiny Prince Edward Island is every bit as important to this land as mighty Ontario, culturaly wealthy Québèc or beautiful BC. So, rather than bore you with my own verbal diarrhea, I will try to supply a few links that should do a better job. |
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The House of Commons |
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The House of Commons is made up of the following political parties. They are shown with the number of seats as of today, 28 Oct. 2006. The number of seats resulting from the general election held on 23 Jan. 2006 are shown in brackets. |
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The Conservative Party of Canada |
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Liberal Party of Canada |
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Bloc Québécois |
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New Democratic Party of Canada |
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There was only one independant in the House as a result of the election. The member for Portneuf-Jaques-Cartier in Québèc City is radio Station CKNU talk show host, André Arthur. Sometimes refered as a "shock jock", he has been working in local radio for 30 some odd years and has always been controversial. It will be interesting to watch him in action in the house. |
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Mr. Turner, a former member of Stephen Harper's Conservative caucus was expelled from caucus on 18 Oct. 2006 for failing to toe the party line by speaking his own mind on his blog, http://www.garth.ca and supprorting his constituents more than his leader. |
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There are currently two independants in the House for a total of 308 seats.
2 Jul 2004
The Conservative Party of Canada, not to be confused with the PCs was formed in 2003 by the amalganation of the Progressive Conservative and the Alliance parties, the result of the "unite the right" movement. Both parties have now merged to form the Conservative Party of Canada. The new party will now have to hold a convention to define it's policies and principles. Since the June 2004 election, the newly elected leader, Stephen Harper is considering his options and may resign. It will be interesting to see how it all evolves because the two founding parties while in many ways being similar are in other ways so different. I personally think the very basic different visions of what Canada "is" will be the breaking point. The old Tories have a view of Canada as a strong federal state with a strong central government in Ottawa at its heart while the old time Reformers of the Canadian Alliance see Canada as a land with strong provincial governments being largely independant of any control by the federal government. Will it work? We will see.
28 Jan 2006
Since the above entry was written, the Conservatives have survived the differences between the old PC facton and the Reform / Alliance factions and were under Stephen Harper's leadership able to present a very credible and effective opposition. So effective that after about a year and a half and a few failed attempts, they were able to combine forces with the NDP and bring down Paul Martin's Liberal Government. They ran a very good campaign in the ensuing election, winning enough seats to form a minority government. The Liberals placed a strong second and will form the official opposition. The Bloc Québèc which exists in Québèc only, will hold the balance of power with 51 seats, ahead of the NDP with 29 seats.
Once again, there is one indedpendent elected, radio talk show host André Arthur in a Québèc City riding of Portneuf-Jacque-Cartier. Chuck Cadman who won in Surrey North in 2003 sucumbed to cancer last summer. He was succeeded by long time Surrey polition Penny Priddy for the NDP.
The Green Party with leader Jim Harris failed to elect any candidates. They polled a national average of 4.5% of the popular vote.
There is also another party on the scene, one that I didn't discover until mid-way through the campaign. When the New Conservative Party was formed in 2003, the old PC or Progressive Party of Canada disappeared. But the new Conservative Party did not suit all the members of the old PC party, especially the more "progressive" members or, as the were called, the so called "RED TORIES". A group of them got together and formed the new PCs, the Progressive Canadian Party. On the party web page, they claim to be Canda's oldest and newest politcal party having roots in the best of the old Progressive Conservative party's traditions, and following the old PC party constitution. This time around, they only ran 25 candidates nationally, and polled less than 1% of the popular vote. I think that was due to lack of exposure, and I hope they will do much better next time around.
THE FOLLOWING LINKS ARE OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT OF CANADA SITES |
HERE ARE A FEW MORE LINKS TO SITES THAT GIVE MORE SENSE OF BEING CANADIAN. ENJOY |
The official government of Canada web page. This will give access to all government departments in both official languages. Prime Minister's Web Site I wasn't sure whether to put this on the "Canada" page or "Politics", but this is a direct link to the PM so I put it here. : The PM's Mailroom is the highlight of the site. You're invited to send your comments, questions or other feedback to the Prime Minister. Canada Connects Hundreds if not thousands of links to a wide variety of interesting sites. The official site for Heritage Canada. This is the stuff that pride is made of. Collections Canada A vast collection of phtotgraphs from all areas of this great land resulting from a project involving Canada's School Net. While browsing quickly through, I found a history of Canada's Acadians of Nova Scotia. That is just one example of the fascinating stuff available as a link from the Heritage Canada site, above. Travel Canada Official Gov't site leading to National and Provincial parks, museums, festivals & more. A good place to start if you are planning a Canadian vacation this year. |
CBC Canada's national broadcaster. This site is so rich, always current and up to date. It features Canadian and International news and sports, streaming audio and video, special features. There are links and guides to CBC television and radio, national and local stations. A must visit. The Trans Canada Trail.All the info on this great effort. It even has a Video. Anyone for a hike? The Canada Page This is a very well researched and composed site. It has plenty of interesting Canadian links, some of which have a depth of information which could be used as a study resource. The National Gallery of CanadaA tour of our national gallery in Ottawa. Come on in and see some of our national treasures. Proud To Be CanadianLots of great pages from ordinary Canadians like you and me, eh Yahooligans An assortment of interesting links related to Canadian history. |
If anyone would like to contribute suitable links, please e-mail them to me. Thank you.