Although Canada is a relatively small nation in terms of population size, and economic and military power, and thus citizens of other lands may be forgiven for not keeping track of the minutić of its internal politics, I am sure that many people outside Canada are vaguely aware of the following basic facts:
Canada is situated close to the United States, and the language of the larger portion of its people is English. Thus, its people enjoy the same books, musics, and movies as Americans to an even larger extent than people in many other countries throughout the world.
Canada is less conservative politically than the United States, although less liberal than Sweden or even France.
Keener observers of Canadian affairs may also be aware that Canada, like Belgium, houses two major linguistic groups; French speakers, largely concentrated in Quebec, and English speakers, who are the majority in the rest of the country.
Canada's two major parties have historically been the Liberals and the Conservatives, and the NDP (New Democratic Party) is a social-democratic party that has been Canada's third party. Recently, there was a shift in Canada's political landscape when a party was formed by Quebec separatists (many of whom were defectors from the Quebec wing of the Conservative party) to seek representation in the Federal Parliament, called the Bloc Qučbecois.
Today is Saturday, April 30, 2011. On the Canadian calendar, April 30 corresponds to April 15 on the American calendar in terms of one aspect of its significance. (And "T-1" corresponds to "1040", and "T-4" corresponds to "W-1".)
This is an exciting time for Canadians. In addition to rushing to fill out our tax returns at the last minute, yesterday, April 29, Canadians turned their hearts to the Mother Country for the wedding of Kate Middleton to His Highness William, Prince of Wales. And on May 2, although, again, outsiders may be forgiven for not having noticed this, Canadians go to the polls in a Federal election.
Under the American system of checks and balances, if the President is a Democrat, and the majority leaders of the House and Senate are Republicans, this just means that a lot of bills get vetoed, and the government doesn't do as much.
In the Parliamentary system, the House of Commons is like the House of Representatives, except that its majority leader is the Prime Minister, who leads the country. There may be a Senate, or a House of Lords, but it isn't elected and so it doesn't get to actually block legislation (theoretically, it could, but it would be considered unfair, and so might spark a revolution or something).
(Parliament refers to both the House of Commons and the Senate, much as Congress refers to both the House of Representatives and the Senate.)
While the Prime Minister appoints the cabinet, and leads the country, there is also a King or Queen, or a Governor-General, or a Chancellor, or a President in the Parliamentary system. This person is mostly a figurehead who puts his ceremonial signature on all legislation, but he also has the role of deciding when a new election is needed.
While elections happen, by law, after a certain number of years, such as 4 or 5, under the Parliamentary system, they can happen earlier. Usually, an election will be called almost immediately should any law of substance, set before Parliament by the governing party, fail to be passed.
Such a thing had happened in Canada, which is why we're having our current election. Stephen Harper's Conservatives had a minority government, but it took the unified opposition of the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc to defeat the Federal Budget.
As has been noted, Canada's political culture is to the left of that of the United States. However, it is still a diverse political culture. In some ways Albertans are analogous to Texans, but while Edmonton stands out in Alberta much as Austin stands out in Texas, in many ways Calgary would still to be to the left of Austin rather than being like Houston or Dallas.
Thus it was that Sun Media, the company that owns a chain of tabloid newspapers in Canada (they featured a pretty girl on Page 3, but have since moved her to the sports section in the name of gender equality; unlike those in British tabloid newspapers, these women keep their breasts covered) decided that the quality of journalism in Canada would be improved if, in addition to the cable TV news services provided by the CBC (more like the BBC than like PBS, but they are funded by commercials, not TV license fees or pledge breaks, like a real TV network) and CTV (a private-enterprise television network, like CBS, NBC, or ABC). One which had an openly conservative orientation.
There were doubts in some quarters that the quality of Canadian television journalism would be improved by the emergence of a Canadian counterpart to Fox News - which, like CNN and the major American networks, is
available to many Canadians on their Cable TV systems. Sun Media attempted to somehow reassure Canadians on this point without actually saying anything disparaging about your Fox News network.
On April 29, 2011, this new television news service had, through bold investigative reporting, found vital information that it felt the need to present before the Canadian people.
As it happens, the opinion polls have had the results of our election teetering back and forth. First, the election was going to be a waste of time - Harper would be returned with a minority similar to the last one. Then it looked like he might get the majority he wanted. Then, although his poll numbers stayed much the same, an unexpected large increase in NDP support, largely at the expense of the Liberals, but also at the expense of the Bloc - which was surprising - a shift in how votes would be split seemed to indicate that a Conservative minority would be forthcoming. The possibility of Jack Layton, the NDP leader, becoming Canada's next Prime Minister, although still somewhat remote, was no longer utterly beyond the bounds of possibility.
And so, in this context, the Sun News Network alerted Canadians to the fact that, several years ago, Jack Layton, seeking relief for tired muscles after exercise, was spoken to by a police officer who advised him that the facility in which he had gone for a massage was perhaps not as legitimate as it seemed.
EDIT: Meanwhile, our more mainstream news outlets have, today, found some other amusing news about the NDP to cover. Here's a reasonably balanced story about this latest issue -
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ndp-candidate-back-from-vegas-and-has-a-shot-at-winning-seat/article2004730/
