Cynicism and Calculation

Britain is still basically the same, as is Australia and I assume the few other parliaments have similar circumstances.  In most countries, they have a clear separation of legislative and executive branches and thus the government does not face the legislature like they do under Westminster style.

Remember, it is only because we are in a minority government that we really notice these sorts of things.  

Typically, under majority governments, this would be much more business as usual as the governing party tends to hold the majority on the committees and usually get their way in the legislature within their time frame.

Usually, its the opposition parties trying to use their limited powers to stall the governments legislative agenda.  

We see that with fillibusters, or I remember a few years ago the Texas democratic legislators fled the state and locked themselves up in a hotel in the next door state to delay a electoral redistricting measure.  

It is only in a minority situation where the government is forced to maneuver against a hostile commons that such things happen.

In BC, we have had a minority government since the 1950s, but at that time the government managed to delay their budget by months and months until they were organized enough to face a possible general election.

Most countries accept coalitions, so in those countries there is a much bigger shared governing experience, and  with proportional representation there is not such a tactical precision at which parties woo and try to win over swing voters via narrow casting.

One of the big problems we have is so little of our government procedures are properly codified.  Remember, we still live in a monarchy, where the sovereign has powers that have been eroded through concession and convention.  

Manipulating a political system through its own loop holes is neither illegal, nor unusual, nor new.  

If you want to see our current system look normal, read the biography of George Brown or some of the pre-federation text.

http://tinyurl.com/yb5p3gt

You may actually be surprised that very little has changed in a 150 years.  Those years of responsible government prior to confederation were times of almost constant minorities and coalitions and back and forth between the governor general and the various governments who were trying to serve out more than a few months.

Confederation itself only came about after the government lost a confidence motion, (about the third in two years) and MacDonald scrambled around with the GG for a delay in an election, until he could get Brown and the grits to prop him up on condition they were able to hold a constitutional conference. Remember the early years were full of scandals.

Wartime coalitions in the 1940s gave Canada some respite, but the 1950s and 1960s were a time of about 7 elections in 15 years due to minority government, so our current volatility is nothing new.

I think, though, the biggest change has been in the media coverage of politics, and the lessening of the role of the individual MP.  

Parliament has lost the role of the elder states person, on all sides of the house.