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What is Pierre Polievre waiting for? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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What Bill is he trying to pass that requires him to be Prime Minister? Why couldn't he have put any legislature forward in the last 20 years?

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[–] 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

When referring to MPs, "in government" refers to being part of the governing party. He is a career politician, landlord, and attack dog, but the Canadian electorate has only chosen his party to lead three times. He has spent a majority of his career yelling from the sidelines.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    attack dog

    Calling him an attack dog suggests that he has a bite. He's all yap and as tough as wet paper-towel.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Attack dog is an unofficial role in political parties:

    An “attack dog” in politics is a person, usually a politician or a political operative, who is designated to aggressively challenge and criticize the opposition.

    ...

    They are often tasked with the responsibility of delivering negative messages or criticisms that a candidate or party leader may not want to deliver personally, in order to maintain a more positive public image.

    He has done this in the past and been effective at it. His successful (unjustified) criticism of the Liberals carbon tax implementation is a great example of that: he managed to frame public perception of the rebate, despite heaps of evidence to the contrary.

    Shitting on Poilievre is fine and fun, but it ignores the reality that his party has successfully framed a number of debates in the past. Assuming Carney wins the Liberal leadership, it's a significant obstacle to him winning the next federal election.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "in government" refers to being part of the governing party

    It most certainly does not. Outside of campaigns, there is no such thing as "liberal" government, or "conservative" government. There's just "the government".

    The official opposition is a part of the government. And ESPECIALLY in a minority parliament, all parties negotiate and compromise to get shit done because no one party has the votes to pass something on their own. That's literally how government works.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    The official opposition is a part of the government.

    From the House of Commons website:

    • The leader of the party having the support of the majority of the Members of the House of Commons is asked by the Governor General to form a government and becomes the Prime Minister;
    • The party, or parties, opposed to the government is called the opposition (the largest of these parties is referred to as the “official” opposition);
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