Notices by M. Grégoire (mpjgregoire@mastodon.club), page 65

@hhardy01 Elections must be held at least every five years, but there could even be two in a year if a party fails to hold the confidence of the legislature (because for instance the legislature doesn't pass the budget). Typically one party is elected, the re-elected, and then an opposing party comes to power, so there is a major change in government every nine years or so.

@hhardy01 ... if a budget or other important bill is defeated in the legislature. The leader of the party with the most seats in the lower house is chosen by the monarch to be the prime minister, that is the person who selects the other ministers. The cabinet hence holds the executive power and leads the legislature as well. Tyranny is averted by the courts and the prospect that one of the opposing political parties will win the next election.

@hhardy01 Sure. The classic explanation comes from *The English Constitution* by Walter #Bagehot.

The Westminster parliamentary system in the late 18th century was similar to the current US system (minus federalism). Then it evolved to ensure dominance by the legislature. All appointments and regulations are signed by the monarch, but they are actually decided by the cabinet of ministers. The ministers must be members of the legislature, and are required to resign...

@hhardy01 I am familiar with the US constitution. Would you be interested in an explanation of how things work in a #parliamentary system?

@hhardy01 Well, I'm no law prof, but building a wall doesn't seem at all commensurate with seizure of property or arrest of persons.

What's the Army Corps of Engineers for, if not to build things? Don't they build levees, dams, that sort of thing? Are such projects authorized by law individually, or is there an envelope of money they're assigned?

Honestly it seems strange that there's such a fierce dispute over a $5B demand. Even in the Canadian budget that's not a huge sum.

"The idea that things wouldn’t really change – that the environment would neither move noticeably forward or noticeably backwards – but that everyone would stop talking about environmentalism – that you could go years without hearing the words “endangered species” – that nobody would even know whether the rainforests were expanding or contracting – wouldn’t even be on the radar."

What Happened To 90s Environmentalism?
https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/01/01/what-happened-to-90s-environmentalism/

@hhardy01 The current situation is absurd, possibly immoral, but not unconstitutional. The real solution is to move towards a parliamentary system.

"I had heard the maxim that there is no humility without humiliation—how true it proved. My first reaction to the video was to feel aggrieved, thinking that I did not deserve what was happening to me, but on the Day of Judgment all my sins will be shouted from the housetops, and Todd’s rant will sound like a retirement luncheon toast in comparison. Of course I deserved it, and worse; most of us poor sinners do."

"The solution, then, is not to try to make shame storms well targeted, but to make it so they happen as infrequently as possible. Editors should refuse to run stories that have no value except humiliation, and readers should refuse to click on them. It is, after all, the moral equivalent of contributing your rock to a public stoning."

Shame Storm by Helen Andrews | Articles | First Things
https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/01/shame-storm

@ink_slinger I would say that the Liberals moved left in the last election, notably with regard to deficits, cannabis and electoral reform [0]. For 2019 they will promise a new social programme, pharmacare at the federal level. That leaves the Liberals and the NDP (and the Bloc in #Quebec) competing on the left. Is that where the Greens should hunt for votes also?

[0] I do not believe that a #CarbonTax is necessarily a left-wing policy.

@Ca_Gi @jalcine @maloki I see lots of MAGA, but I don't spot any White Power. Did I miss something unacceptable amidst the unpleasantness?

@ink_slinger If the beliefs of Canadian Greens align with those of Nordic Greens, then they should run with similar policies; same thing *mutatis mutandis* for German Greens. But there's a lot of competition for left-wing voters in Canadian federal politics at the moment, so I'm not sure that they'd gain votes by moving left.

As for Elizabeth May, hasn't she been weak on criticising the Liberals? Are there other potential leaders likely to be better?

#canpol

@thurloat @ink_slinger I think it will be hard to get good hardware support for the plethora of different phones out there; hence buying hardware intended to support a distribution will be necessary. I'd like to be wrong about that...

#GNUlinux #SmartPhone