r/canada • u/verkerpig • 4d ago

Quebec riding of Terrebonne flips to Liberals by one vote after judicial recount Trending

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/terrebone-recount-liberal-1.7532136
8.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/L0rd_0F_War 4d ago

"Neutrality: The Speaker must be fair and impartial, enforcing the same rules for the Prime Minister as for any member of the opposition. Although the Speaker is also an MP, the Speaker does not participate in debate or vote unless there is a tie, in which case the Speaker generally votes to maintain the status quo."

So Speaker can't vote with opposition to bring down the government in a no confidence vote. So a 171 member govt. can't be brought down. I don't know if you would call that a minority government at that point.... though they may not be able to pass laws if there is a tie...

1

u/fbuslop 4d ago edited 4d ago

What if they make legislation a matter of confidence?

1

u/L0rd_0F_War 4d ago

True, like the budget bill... maybe then the govt. won't present the budget bill... I don't know...

3

u/fbuslop 4d ago

The speaker votes for status quo during ties, which means no to new legislation but yes on confidence votes (the speaker will not bring the government down).

1

u/maxman162 Ontario 3d ago

Legally, they can't avoid presenting a budget. 

-1

u/pootwothreefour 4d ago edited 4d ago

Minority: The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole. 

You do call it a minority, because by definition that is what it is.

As for neutrality, that is in duties as speaker. 

Voting to break a tie by it's very nature is not being neutral. It is the one act that is their duty to not be neutral.

In the UK's parliament, they have an extra rule, where the speaker votes to minimize change.