A political rivalry between Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his former finance minister, Paul Martin, has effectively left Canada with two prime ministers, one freshly chosen by his party to lead, the other refusing to step down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Sep26.html

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00"> Obviously a small flaw in this type of system. It is going to be total chaos. Who will world leaders call I guess they will now have a choice. I expect Bush will only talk to Martin, they have more in common as Martin is more of a business man.</font>

[ 10-01-2003, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

I'm sorry, correct me if I'm wrong, but since Martin is leader of the majority party that means he's PM, right? Why not just arrest Cretin,I mean Cretien. Isn't he violating the law?

No he isn't. It's only a tradition that the leader of the governing party becomes PM. Oh and Martin hasn't been chosen just yet. ;) The election is in Novemeber. But with 89& :eek: of the delegates he's bound to win.

But this is absolutely ridiculous! Come on Chretien, you're not good enough to stay so leave your office with your dignity intact.

Here's how it works in most democracys/republics:
A president (head of state, democratic replacement for a king) is chosen by popular/people's vote.
A prime minister or chancellor (head of government) is elected by parliament or chosen by the president. Most commonly parliament will elect (or the president will choose) the leader of the party with the most popular votes in the elections.
Note that a prime minister or chancellor is NOT the ruler/head of his country but only the leader of the government (the institution which is designed to manage the country) and in most countries he/she does not e.g. have emergency powers (e.g. is the supreme commander of the armed forces).

Hmmm interesting Canadian civics lesson.

I really don't see the problem. Chretien will stay on his post until February - then Martin will take over. This way you can have time for a smooth transition (I said can - not will ;) ).

Of course, this explanation does not cover Britain, The Netherlands, Austrailia, New Zealand...etc. where the PM *is* the effective head of state and *does* have emergency powers at his/her disposal and *is* the supreme commander of the armed forces...

Easier to say that when a prime minister and president both exist, the president is the higher authority.

Lucky for you you said "can". [img]tongue.gif[/img] You don't know Chretien I take it? Smooth? [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[ 10-02-2003, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: WillowIX ]

I like Jean Chretien. He can be strange sometimes, but I think he's one of our best prime minister ever.

<font color="orange">He's not too bad, for all people bug him. We out west seem to have the popular opinion of hating his guts, but that's because:
1) He, like practically every other PM and politician ever, is convinced Ontario is the centre of the universe.
2) We don't think we're getting enough out of the amount of money we pull into the country (which I think is fair enough)

I don't think he's too bad, but it severely pisses me off that he moved the CFB base from Calgary to Edmonton...suspicious when you consider that the only Liberal MP in Canada is in Edmonton. :rolleyes: </font>