Cimarron, the thing to realize is that this is a very rare situation. It's not only the first time this has happened in Canadian parliamentary history, it's also the first time it's happened in the history of the Commonwealth (your geography will tell you that this includes 54 countries).
Votes of non-confidence can bring down governments, but they don't happen very often. Out of Canada's 144-year history and 40 governments, there have only been 6 prime ministers defeated by such a vote, as follows:
- Arthur Meighen (1926) -- weasel moves to avoid losing vote
- John George Diefenbaker (1963) -- divided cabinet, disagreements about nuclear weapon issues within NATO
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1974) -- defeated budget
- Joe Clark (1979) -- simply very unpopular
- Paul Martin (2005) -- sponsorship scandal (corruption)
- Stephen Harper (2011) -- contempt of parliament (withholding/altering information)
Generally speaking, a vote of this kind is called when the prime minster and the ruling government are deemed to no longer have the confidence of the Canadian public and the House of Commons. The thing about this mechanism, isn't in its use; it's in its
possibility.
In most cases, the issue of a non-confidence vote is brought up during the budget proceedings. A federal budget that gets voted down triggers a vote of confidence. This is a heavy political burden for both the ruling party and the opposition because triggering an election can have dire consequences. It's all about timing and the details of the budget itself. When voting against a budget, you better have a damn good reason, especially if it leads to an election.
Here's more information on what happened leading up to today in the House of Commons:
Quote:
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On March 9, 2011, Peter Milliken made two rulings on contempt of parliament and found that a Conservative Party cabinet minister, Bev Oda, could possibly be in contempt of Parliament. The second ruling also found the Cabinet could possibly be in contempt of parliament for not meeting opposition members of parliament's requests for details of the cost of proposed crime bills. Milliken ruled that the matter must go to committee and the committee must report its findings by March 21, 2011; one day before the proposal of the budget. On March 18, 2011, opposition members of parliament said they still thought Oda was in contempt of parliament, despite her testimony that day. On March 21, 2011 the committee tabled a report which found the conservative party in contempt of parliament. As such, a motion of no confidence was filed for the government to fall. On March 25, 2011, opposition Members of Parliament voted on a Liberal motion of no confidence finding the Conservative government in contempt of Parliament, passing by a margin of 156 to 145. This is the first time a Canadian Government has fallen on Contempt of Parliament, and marks a first for a national government anywhere in the Commonwealth of fifty-four states.
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Contempt of Parliament - Canada
And the not so funny thing about Peter Milliken is that he's served the House of Commons for most of his career....and he's retiring. What a way too go, eh?