Published by Clay Whitman, a lawyer in Vancouver, Canada.
Fixed Election Dates
Fixed election dates are an issue in parliamentary forms of democracy such as Canada, as the governing party often has the ability to force an election at any time it likes. Some jurisdictions have implemented fixed election dates so that elections are held on a fixed schedule set in advance, but the adoption of fixed election dates to a parliamentary system of government does not always work effectively.
Latest Post
Supreme Court of Canada Denies Leave of Appeal in Fixed Election Date Case
20 January 2011
The case launched by Democracy Watch over the calling of the 2008 federal election is now over. The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear an appeal of the Federal Court of Appeal's ruling that the calling of the 2008 election did not violate section 56.1 of the Elections Act (Canada).
That the Supreme Court will not hear the appeal does not come as a big surprise given how briefly Democracy Watch's arguments were dismissed by the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.
The status of the fixed election date law is that it does not prohibit the Prime Minister from asking the Governor General for an election, and it does not prohibit the Governor General from granting one.
This may sound like not much of a "fixed election date" law, but from the very beginning, the purpose of this law was to encourage elections to be held on a fixed date through political pressure, instead of forcing elections to be held on a fixed date by law.
Recent Posts
BBC Q & A on Fixed Term Parliaments - 13 September 2010
Don Newman's Proposal for Fixed Election Date Reform - 15 July 2010
Federal Court of Appeal Dismisses Challenge of 2008 Federal Election Call - 14 June 2010
Democracy Watch Appeals Ruling on Legality of 2008 Federal Election Call - 11 March 2010
Should British Columbia's Fixed Election Date be changed? - 29 September 2009
Federal Court Dismisses Challenge of 2008 Federal Election Call - 17 September 2009