Harper loses no-confidence vote, E-Day in Canada May 2.

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CBC News--Election Day set for May 2

Would one of you Canadian or British chaps explain how a particular vote gets to be a "vote of confidence"?

We Unitedstateseans do not have anything like that in our system. Elections get held at fixed intervals regardless of how votes go.

ruveyn

The Conservative Party is currently a minority. The other parties are not happy with them for a number of justified reasons, including the often blatant way Harper has disregarded them in the bill decision making process, especially considering he does not control a majority. So the other major Canadian political parties voted for no confidence in the Harper government, forcing him to have the Governor General dissolve parliament and forcing an election

The fundamental difference between our government and yours is that the Government is drawn from and answerable to Parliament. The Prime Minister is elected only by the voters in the constituency in which he runs for election as a member of Parliament (though he will have previously won election as the leader of whichever party he heads, by whatever system that party uses). It is by the Crown's understanding that he has the support of the largest voting bloc in the House of Commons that he is invited to form a Government.

Parliament, like Congress, has two principal functions: to enact legislation, and to appropriate supply. A government which cannot secure supply cannot govern.

So, a government can fall on a confidence vote in three ways:

1) On the Throne Speech. The first business of each session is a Speech from the Throne in which the Governor General lays out the government's policy agenda for the session. If this happens in the first session of a new Parliament, this is a circumstance in which, by convention, the Governor General may refuse the Prime Minister's advice for a dissolution and a new election, and instead call upon the Leader of the Opposition to form a government.

2) On the Budget, or on Supplementary Estimates. The Budget includes the government's "Main Estimates" for spending. Approval of the estimates is the mechanism by which individual departments and agencies receive money that they can spend. (Otherwise it is held in the "Fiscal Framework"). Supplementary estimates happen at later stages in the fiscal year to increase or decrease departments' "reference levels." If the government is defeated on any of these votes, it is a failure to secure supply, and is automatically a confidence matter. The usual practice is that the Prime Minister will advise the Governor General that he has lost the confidence of the House and seek a dissolution.

3) On a matter that is specifically determined to be a confidence matter. The Government can declare any of its legislation to be a confidence matter, such that the Opposition, in defeating the proposal, will automatically cause the Government to fall. Similarly, the Oppostion may, on an Opposition Day in the House, introduce a motion that the Government has lost the Confidence of the House (this is what happened last week).

In the latter two scenarios it is possible for the Leader of the Opposition to seek permission from the Governor General to form a government. Normally this would require an overt demonstration that he enjoys the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Commons--through a formal coalition agreement for example. The constitutional convention is that it is preferable to continue with the current Parliament rather than call a general election. However, if the Government has successfully procured supply since the last election, the general principle is that the Prime Minister is entitled to a dissolution if he seeks one.