JamesHackerMP

https://www.facebook.com/hipstorians/photos/a.1448145472063755.1073741829.1448143138730655/1763473537197612/?type=3&theater

Well this is a first: the United Kingdom declares independence from somebody else!

Thank you Bonam!

Actually, deadlock in the Australian Senate is a rather special case. If there's a lot of it, the Prime Minister has the "trigger" to dissolve, not only 1/2 of the Senate that's up for election normally (they tipped their hat to the US Constitution to have a Senate that was elected only partially at once but a House elected entirely), but to dissolve the ENTIRE Senate in what they call a "double dissolution election": all senators and all MPs are up for grabs. This ends up settling things nicely by allowing both chambers to re pass bills that were bouncing back between the two chambers. Also, from what a Canadian was telling me, who I've been talking to for years, the Canadian Senate doesn't have near the power of its Australian counterpart (and by extension, anywhere CLOSE to the power of its US counterpart). You Canadians would know better than I would, but what's the exact amount of "power" your Senate has? From the minimal research I have done, PM Mulrooney needed to appoint eight senators to pass the goods and services tax. But on the other hand, if your Senate is appointed, it can't possibly have that much authority---can it? See from my original thread (under US/Canadian politics) that I said I was here sort of for research into your system, and wanted to learn more than I could on, say, Wikipedia or something. So that's why I am putting my 2 cents in here, I wanted to know from the rest of you, how much power does your Senate have? Is it really that important compared to the Commons? What is it able to actually do? Or not able to do?

In Baltimore, we had an Indy Car race, or something of the sort. It was a PITA getting in or out of the city for weeks, and the governor and General Assembly ended up having to protest that we didn't get paid on time. I admit, it wasn't that bad. But I shudder think if we hosted the Olympics. Not all cities that host the Olympics have the same experiences. I take it you live in Vancouver? (says "BC" in your location, and from your comment, I'm just guessing.)

As an American, I cannot help but think that some of you are thinking rather pessimistically (or perhaps optimistically?) We've had far worse unrest before. Even if it doubled, or tripled in its intensity, we've still survived worse. Then again, I'm an optimist.

So I hear. But what was it like for the citizens of Vancouver?

As a former political science major I've always been fascinated by other world cultures---and their governments especially. So I figured I should google "Canadian political discussion boards" and I came up with Maple Leaf Web. So, I joined. I'm hoping that the members here can discuss with me, not only issues affecting Canadian-American relations, but topics about Canada itself, in particular. Political Science major or not, I don't know everything there is to know about my own country--how many people do you meet on the street in Toronto or New York who do, right? But I figured I can learn a lot about Canada from a website like this that you couldn't learn elsewhere. Sure, I could look on Wikipedia: it will tell me the difference between the Queen in Parliament, or Queen on the Bench or Queen in Council; that it has a bicameral Parliament consisting of an appointed Senate and an elected House of Commons; or look at the CIA World Factbook and find out your population is 35,099,836 (July, 2015 estimate), making it the largest of the fifteen Commonwealth Realms outside of the UK....big deal, I could find that stuff out in 15 seconds, and little of it more than scratches the surface. But if I wanted to go deeper, I figured it was best I logged onto a site like this one. So if nobody minds, I'll just sit back and watch...and occasionally throw myself into the gladiatorial arena just to pick your brains. If nobody has a problem with that. Warmest regards, The Right Honourable James Hacker, M.P.

Here's my advice: never host the Olympics. I'm told that it turns your whole city into a police state, the traffic gets screwed up, there are tourists from all over from countries whose standards of behavior might not meet your own, and, see point one, the city turns into a police state. You're better off letting someone else host it. ("My" advice comes from people who have lived somewhere that hosted the Olympics or some such other event.)