If you were wondering about the political state of Canada, which you probably weren't (no shade, most Canadians don't pay attention either), our Prime minister announced today, August 15, 2021, that we're going to have a Federal election on September 20, 2021.
This is about two years sooner than we were supposed to have another Federal election and is, obviously, kind of a weird thing to do in the middle of the fourth wave of a pandemic. So why are they doing it? Basically, because the Liberal government wants more power.
If you're fuzzy on how Canadian politics work, here's the simple version: We don't elect our leader directly. Instead, each of the 338 ridings elects someone to represent them on the federal level, and whichever party gets the most representatives or 'MP's gets to control the government, and their party's leader becomes Prime minister.
However, you can get the most MP's, as in more than every other party (there are 4 main political parties in Canada, five if you count the Greens, which you should not) without getting the majority of MP seats.
Currently, the Liberal party has the most seats at 155, but to have a majority they need 170. Without a majority, they need to convince other MP's/parties to vote with them on any legislation they put forth. The liberal party really does not like doing this, because it means they have to *gasp* compromise with others, like the much more left wing New Democratic Party, which does hideous things, like make them give more money to people who lost their jobs during a global pandemic.
So, instead of working with their colleagues like adults, the Liberal have decided to just dissolve the fucking government and make the country pull together an entire Federal election in a little over a month.
They think this will allow them to win more seats because their recent polling has been good; and it's possible they're right, as again, most Canadians don't pay attention to our own politics and just attribute any good or bad thing that happens to whomever is in power, even if another party had a hand in bringing it about.
So, it's possible the goodwill brought about by the pandemic benefits will net then a majority government. It's also perfectly possible that calling an election in what is even to the politically apathetic a transparently cynical bid for power will backfire and land them right back into a minority government.
It's even technically possible they'll lose power completely, though that's a long shot: even though we technically have 4 parties, only the Liberals and Conservatives have ever been in power, and everyone is still dunking on the Cons for not admitting Climate Change is real. CBC News projects only about a 6% chance of the Conservatives winning at all, with a 51% of a liberal majority government and a 43% of a Liberal minority government.
And that's the current state of Canadian politics! A cynical grab for more power by a centrist party mad that they have to share who probably won't face any consequences for their selfish, childish decisions! But at least we can always take solace in the one thing that we always cling to whenever we fail to be even marginally progressive;
At least we still aren't doing as bad as the Americans
