Possible Canadian 2020 election

[robkelk]

Some background:

As of this posting, Canada has a minority government. With more than two parties, it's possible that the party that gets the largest number of seats in the House of Commons does not get a majority of seats in the House of Commons, and thus is required to form alliances within the chamber in order to "command a majority of votes in the House" and thus have the legal prerequisite to form a government.

The Liberals prorogued Parliament last week, ending the last session of Parliament. The next session of Parliament will start early next month.

Every session of Parliament begins with a Speech from the Throne, written by the Head of Government and read by the Head of State (in Canada, these are two different people), followed by a vote to accept the speech. This is a vote of confidence in the current government - if it fails, the government is dissolved (the state remains in place) and we go to an election. And in a minority government, if all of the other parties vote against a government motion, it fails.


So, there's a possibility that there might be a general election in Canada this year. Now what?

Normally, there's a 65-day campaign followed by a vote on a Monday. But there's an elephant in the room this year, and its name is COVID-19.

How to protect voters? Sure, there's always mail-in ballots, just like in every general election. But the bureaucrats at Elections Canada have another idea: move the election forward one and two days, having the voting take place over the weekend, and rent more facilities to have a larger number of polling places with a smaller number of voters at each polling place.

Sure, this costs more money than a usual election does... but Canada can afford to protect its citizens this way.