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The Global Legal Monitor is an online publication from the Law Library of Congress covering legal news and developments worldwide. It is updated frequently and draws on information from the Global Legal Information Network, official national legal publications, and reliable press sources. You can search previous news by searching the archive.
Canada: Elections - General Election 2008
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http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp3_695_text
(Oct. 07, 2008) On October 14, 2008, Canada will hold the 40th general election in its approximately 140-year history, and its third one in the past four years. Having a parliamentary system derived from that of the United Kingdom, prime ministers have always had the option of asking the formal head of state, the Governor-General, to dissolve a sitting Parliament and call an election at a time they believed was advantageous for their party. The one constitutional requirement in this regard is that a general election must be held within five years of the previous general election. (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, s. 4, being Sched. B to the Canada Act, 1982, c. 11 (U.K.).)
The year after the current Conservative Government came to power in February of 2006, Prime Minister Harper enacted legislation that was aimed at reducing the number of general elections by providing that an election would automatically be called after the fourth year of a Parliament, unless there was an emergency. The Act to amend the Canada Elections Act stated as follows: "[E]ach general election must be held on the third Monday of October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election, with the first general election after this [law] comes into force being held on Monday, October 19, 2009." (2007 S.C. c. 10, s. 1.)
In enacting this amendment, its framers believed that a prime minister would be discouraged, but not prohibited, from calling for an earlier vote by the history of Canadian voters punishing leaders who have dissolved Parliament at a date the electorate generally considered to have been "too early." (James Robertson, Bill C-16: An Act to Amend the Canada Elections Act,
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E&Session=14&query=4544&List=toc (last visited Oct. 2, 2008).)
- Author: Stephen Clarke
- Topic: Elections More on this topic
- Jurisdiction: Canada More about this jurisdiction
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Last updated: 10/07/2008