How many have heard about what is going on in Canada?

[TheChristmasArmadillo]

The canadian Prime Minister has dissolved parliament in order to not loose his job.

AIBU to expect some mention of this on the BBC news website, or in fact any uk website? Surely this should be big news? For any democratically elected leader to dissolve a parliament.

Google it and it's surprising how little comes up about it.

One site i have found is
here

this explains the background to all this very clearly (from a knitting blog surprisingly).

But surely it is shocking that this is happening and no one is reporting it over here. I can't believe this, and all the stuff leading up to it isn't being talked about.

Haven't read the story yet. But nothing unusual about govt leader dissolving parl, surely? Gordon Brown will do it when he think it is in his best interest -- ie when he judge Labour has best chance of winning election.

Well, I think I'm with Thready on this. If he dissolves parliament, he'll presumably have to go to the country, so if he's rubbish then he'll get voted out (or that's the theory). Which is most democratic.

Yes, I see now. Prorogation different from dissolution. something on BBC here. Will read properly.

Ah, OK. That's a bit different.

But what were the constitutional grounds on which the gov-general acquiesed to prorogation?

ta for the bbc link - I couldn't find anything on when I looked, probably because dissolved is the wrong word.

I do find it shocking though that a democratic leader can basically repeatedly say to the government, either you pass what I say or I'll force an election (which he knows they cannot fight) on everything and then when they form a coalition to be able to fight an election, he then suspends parliament so he can't be dismissed. And that the person supposedly put there to stop the abuse of power has agreed to this.

And I find it weird that this isn't mainstream news.

Canada is rarely in the news at the best of times and although they are a big land mass, they are quite a small population. I guess they're not a big global player.

It does seem that it is undercovered -- esp compared with the snowstorm of USA coverage in UK.

Seems like the Canadian const is just as ful of procedural dodges as ours.

But what is the constitutional pretext? Is it because the opposition is relying on separitist votes? Odd that the coverage doesn't explain the nature and grounds of prorogation.

BBC are too busy reporting on the 'news' that is Strictly Come Dancing.

I give up, I really do.

threadworm - you are right there is a surprising lack of details in the reports.

No breakdown of the basics behind it - even for example the last time their parliament was prorogued.

I find it odd, that there is little information on what would seem to be a big situation over there.

Apparently it wasn't much publicised even in the US until the daily show did a sketch on it.

Well who here knew that as well as Tony Blair, the Aussie prime minister backed Bush all the way in the war with Iraq? In Australia at the time there was loads of footage on TV and papers of Bush, Blair and the Aussi prime minister (oops can't remember his name!!). But here he seemed to be cut out of all the same footage as if he didn't count. So weird.

I guess our media have their favourite headlines, e.g. Israel/Palestine, the US etc and manage to ignore Asia, South America and up until recently, most of Africa!

I wouldn't put it past Gordon Brown to try and postpone a general election if it looks like he's going to lose.