by In the showdown between the Conservatives and an erstwhile Liberal-NDP coalition, one point gets obscured. In the Canadian political system, the voters do not vote for a government. When we vote, we vote for a local Member of Parliament. The formation of government is a byproduct of that, not the direct choice of Canadians. So, who does choose who forms a government. Very simply, it’s the Governor General. Most of the Governor General’s power’s are heavily constrained by convention, in that the GG has to follow the advice of the Prime Minister and cabinet.
In the showdown between the Conservatives and an erstwhile Liberal-NDP coalition, one point gets obscured. In the Canadian political system, the voters do not vote for a government. When we vote, we vote for a local Member of Parliament. The formation of government is a byproduct of that, not the direct choice of Canadians. So, who does choose who forms a government. Very simply, it’s the Governor General. Most of the Governor General’s power’s are heavily constrained by convention, in that the GG has to follow the advice of the Prime Minister and cabinet. The one area where the GG has some discretion is in the appointment of the Prime Minister.
So, when the Conservatives complain right now that somehow the idea of a party coalition getting into power is undemocratic, they’re right. But by the same standard, so is the fact that they’re in power right now. But they’re missing the point of Canada’s parliamentary system: the voters have never chosen their government. That’s why talk of a "constitutional crisis" (the latest media buzzword) is misplaced. This is well within the structure of Canadian parliamentary government.