I See Things . . .

It’s pretty cool how when you start to learn about something you seem to notice it more everywhere in life. Like when you get a new car and suddenly it seems like everyone is driving the same car. Well that’s the great thing about reading. You start to read about a topic then you start to notice that topic more in life.
I just read a little booklet put together by the Canadian Library of Parliament called “How Canadians Govern Themselves”. It gives a good outline of how politics work in Canada and even gives a good basic comparison to the American system. So since I’ve read it the news has become much more interesting. I guess politics are always on the news as it is but since I didn’t know much about it or even care much about it I would just tune it out. But now that I’ve got my head into the beginnings of the Canadian politics world the news is just jumping out at me. The fact that we have a minority government in Canada right now makes things interesting.
For the sake of my own learning, the Americans who may be reading this and other Canadians who are much like myself let me attempt to briefly explain why this is interesting to me.
If the minority government we currently have (the liberal party under Paul Martin) tries to pass legislation in the House of Commons and is unsuccessful the Government is defeated and a new election will be called. So recently when the Liberal party presented the budget to be voted on the Conservatives decided to not even vote! They were not supportive of the budget and knew if they voted that way their votes along with the other non-Liberal votes would defeat the Government. Then there would need to be an election that they didn’t think they could win.
But now the conservatives are saying they will vote against the budget if the Liberals don’t change a key point regarding some environmental issues.
So anyway, I don’t totally understand it all yet but as I’m learning the more interesting it is becoming.