Certain bills are always bills of confidence (like a finance bill) and other bills can be made bills of confidence at the discretion of the person presenting them, and there is such thing as a simple confidence motion. What happens is that every MP votes, and if the motion/bill passes with more than half the MPs voting for it, then Parliament is said to have confidence in the government and it stands. If it fails, the result is that Parliament does NOT have confidence in the government, and the prime minister is required to request that the governor-general dissolve parliament, which triggers an election.
However - and this is a big however - the two biggest parties are centrally controlled, meaning the leader of the party requires his MPs to toe the party line. They can and do kick people out of the party who don't follow closely enough. If a party has a majority government and tells its members that they must vote the party's bill or risk being kicked out of the party, most will do it. So votes of no confidence usually happen in minority government situations, when all opposition parties can gang up on the governing party and bring them down.
This time around, everyone knew the Liberals weren't ready for an election. The PM has spent half his term in office playing political chicken, proposing things he knew the Liberals would hate, in order to tempt them into a vote of no confidence. Since Canadians didn't want an election, there was a chance that forcing an election would backfire on the Liberals, resulting in a majority government for the Conservatives. But the Liberals refused to rise to the bait, so Harper dissolved Parliament without waiting for a vote of no confidence.
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Re: North America, home of the right-wing leaders
Date: 2008-09-24 08:03 pm (UTC)However - and this is a big however - the two biggest parties are centrally controlled, meaning the leader of the party requires his MPs to toe the party line. They can and do kick people out of the party who don't follow closely enough. If a party has a majority government and tells its members that they must vote the party's bill or risk being kicked out of the party, most will do it. So votes of no confidence usually happen in minority government situations, when all opposition parties can gang up on the governing party and bring them down.
This time around, everyone knew the Liberals weren't ready for an election. The PM has spent half his term in office playing political chicken, proposing things he knew the Liberals would hate, in order to tempt them into a vote of no confidence. Since Canadians didn't want an election, there was a chance that forcing an election would backfire on the Liberals, resulting in a majority government for the Conservatives. But the Liberals refused to rise to the bait, so Harper dissolved Parliament without waiting for a vote of no confidence.