Timeline for How do you explain Canada's Trudeau's power-sharing agreement to a five-year-old (American)?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
20 events
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| Mar 29, 2022 at 18:48 | comment | added | Ertai87 | @D.Kovács In Canada, a true "minority" government, wherein the party "in power" does not have even a plurality, nevermind a majority, of the "electoral points", could feasibly happen (it is covered in our constitution), but in practice never occurs. A "coalition government" and a "minority government" are, for all intents and purposes, the same thing in Canada. | |
| Mar 29, 2022 at 18:07 | comment | added | D. Kovács | @Ertai87 as said: I'm sure that my lack of English terminology here is significant, but I'd still say that they are not necessarily the same. Creating coalitions is fairly common in plural multiparty democracies. Governing from a minority position is far less common, Belgium being recordholder in many aspects of this kind of endeavour. | |
| Mar 29, 2022 at 15:26 | comment | added | Ertai87 | @D.Kovács I've heard both terms used interchangeably. As best as I'm aware, they're the same thing. | |
| Mar 29, 2022 at 9:42 | comment | added | D. Kovács | Slight misunderstanding (may be that my knowledge is in the wrong here): what you describe is not minority government but creating a coalition. Minority government is when one (or more but that's really unusual) party with less then 50% of the "election points" is allowed to form/lead the government. Although, according to Wikipedia "minority government" and "government by coalition" and not as clearly distinct as I imagined until now. | |
| Mar 24, 2022 at 18:41 | comment | added | T.J.L. | @Ertai87 I think a president not being the same thing as a prime minister is an important distinction, and a five-year-old could understand the difference between "we vote for the president" and "we don't vote for a prime minster, we vote for people who get to pick one out of their group to be the prime minister". There's ELI5, and there's dumbing it down so far that it important details are lost. | |
| Mar 24, 2022 at 18:29 | comment | added | Ertai87 | @T.J.L. OP asked for an ELI5. I felt that was too much detail to include for an ELI5. | |
| Mar 24, 2022 at 18:09 | comment | added | T.J.L. | I think this is missing something that explicitly calls out that the Canadian Prime Minister isn't individually elected, he comes from within another body. The US President is elected separately from other bodies. | |
| S Mar 24, 2022 at 13:10 | history | suggested | 2012rcampion | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
explain what "forming a government" means
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| Mar 24, 2022 at 1:30 | comment | added | Ertai87 | @MichaelSeifert I got mixed up between the House and the Senate and forgot that House districts are formed by population count. You are correct, that is an apt description that I could have used. Someone needs to explain the American electoral system as if I was a 5 year old, apparently :p | |
| Mar 24, 2022 at 0:07 | comment | added | SJuan76 | Good! Now I only need a five year child who could explain your answer to me. youtu.be/V2rX-1rTuhE | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 23:49 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 24, 2022 at 13:10 | |||||
| Mar 23, 2022 at 19:44 | comment | added | Michael Seifert | If you're talking to an American, you could probably replace a lot of the second and third paragraphs by saying "Imagine if the party that got a majority in the House of Representatives automatically got to form the government, with their leader as Prime Minister." | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 17:29 | comment | added | llama | I think calling the NDP far-left is pretty hyperbolic | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 15:37 | comment | added | reirab | FWIW U.S. ballots typically have more than two options for President, as well (4 is common, but it varies from one election to the next and from one state to another.) It's just that only two of them usually have enough support to actually win a state, so the others rarely get any electoral votes (though half a dozen or so people did get electoral votes in 2016... some of whom weren't running. - haha) Republican, Democratic, Green, and Libertarian are usually on the ballot in every or nearly every state. Some smaller party or independent ones show up sometimes, too, though. | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 15:35 | comment | added | Ertai87 | @SebastianLenartowicz No, because OP specifically asked about Canada. | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 12:44 | comment | added | gmauch | As a Brazilian I'm glad I don't have to explain to an American or Canadian (of any age or IQ level) that Brazil currently has 32 political parties and more than 20 have elected federal representatives. | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 8:45 | comment | added | Sebastian Lenartowicz | Do you think it's worth noting that this kind of outcome isn't specific to Canada, and in fact occurs in many representative democracies? | |
| Mar 23, 2022 at 1:03 | comment | added | Zeus | I like it, but this is 7-year-old level, I'd say. Arithmetics, subordinate clauses... | |
| Mar 22, 2022 at 19:32 | history | edited | Ertai87 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 5 characters in body
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| Mar 22, 2022 at 19:20 | history | answered | Ertai87 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |