For as long as anyone can remember Parliamentary democracy in Canada has been a shambles. The Conservative Party has governed both as a minority government and as part of various ramshackle coalitions. There have also been long periods where no government could be formed so Canada has been run by the Governor General on behalf of the Queen of England.
This all changed in March 2011 when the Conservative Prime Minister, Stephan Harper was found in contempt of Parliament for lying about the cost of new fighter/bomber aircraft. This prompted the other parties to bring down the government and force a General Election on May 2nd 2011. Although contempt of Parliament is technically a criminal offence that would prevent Stephan Harper sitting in Parliament his Conservative Party went on to win that election and form Canada's first majority government in the best part of a decade.
The main reason for this victory was that the Canadian economy has suffered during the years of chaos and become overly dependent on dirty industries such as oil & gas production, tar sands production and mineral mining. With so many Canadian jobs now dependent on these industries the Canadian voters were never going to vote for a government that was perceived to threaten those jobs by bringing in more environmental protection. So politically and socially Canada is now a lot like the USA was under the Presidency of George W Bush.
Mind you it doesn't say much about the opposition parties that they would agree to a General Election two days after Britain's Royal Wedding when loyalist fervor was at it's highest.
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