Canada has no government

[Schiavona]

I may live south of the border, but at least I don't live in silly America!

From where I live you're right in the heart of "silly America"!


And I haven't seen one post from a Canadian who lives north of me! All you Southerners shut up!

[Fencergrl]

What about Furry? She's a Canadian who's so far north she's on the other side of the north pole... in Germany!

[fencerX]

In Canada, the Governor General is the head of State .

Bzzt. Wrong. The Queen is the head of state of Canada. The GG represents the Queen and carries out HM duties in Canada on a daily basis. Since HM has more important things to do than muck about with the administration of the colonies, the GGs of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc represent the Queen and as Vice-regal act for the Queen. The queen is still officially head of state and the one who gets mentioned in legal papers, yada yada yada ...

[SJB]

My favourite thing to watch right now is this:

Martin: Harper blah blah Conservatives blah blah

Harper: Martin blah blah Liberals blah blah

Layton: Here is how the NDP will focus on/address this issue.

[Fencergrl]

I must admit between Harper wanting to do away with gay marriages and the Martin wanting to spend more time and money on the firearms issue... the NDP are looking better and better.

[SJB]

I concur.

I only wish that my riding's NDP candidate had a snowball's chance in hell of winning the seat.

This being Alberta people don't think before they vote, sadly enough.

[jBirch]

Bzzt. Wrong. The Queen is the head of state of Canada. The GG represents the Queen and carries out HM duties in Canada on a daily basis. Since HM has more important things to do than muck about with the administration of the colonies, the GGs of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc represent the Queen and as Vice-regal act for the Queen. The queen is still officially head of state and the one who gets mentioned in legal papers, yada yada yada ...

Forgot about this issue...

Not quite. The letters patent for the office of the GG are unique in the Commonwealth in the powers granted the GG. Essentially, the Canadian GG *IS* the monarch in Canada, holds the Great Seal of Canada and exercises it at their discretion. The monarch must obtain the Great Seal of Canada before they are able to exercise their powers in Canada and so the GG can be rightly said to be the "Head of State". This is reflected in tradition in that the GG represents Canada when abroad and not HRM. Something no other commonwealth nation's GG can do.

The only time this is not the case is when the Monarch chooses to formally renounce those patents. When that happens, the Great Seal is returned to the Monarch and the GG's office dissolved. There is no provision in Canada for a disagreement between the Monarch and Their GG without the dissolution of the office of the GG.

James.

[kalivor]

My favourite thing to watch right now is this:

Martin: Harper blah blah Conservatives blah blah

Harper: Martin blah blah Liberals blah blah

Layton: Here is how the NDP will focus on/address this issue.

It strikes me that if everybody listened to all the ads they saw and did as they were told, the NDP would win in a landslide.

After all, the NDP is the only party actually asking people to vote for them. Unless you count the (amusing) blog on the Liberal website: http://www.liberal.ca/blogs_e.aspx