In Canada, some Canadian jurisdictions have passed legislation fixing election dates, so that elections occur on a more regular cycle (usually every four years) and the date of a forthcoming election is publicly known. However, the Governor General of Canada, on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, the provincial lieutenant governors, on the advice of the relevant premier, and the territorial commissioners, on the advice of the relevant premier, do still have the power to call a general election, as is traditional in Westminster-style parliamentary governments, at any point before the fixed date. By-elections, used to fill vacancies in a legislature, are also not affected by fixed election dates.
Famous quotes containing the words fixed, election, dates and/or canada:
“Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used.”
—David Lehman (b. 1948)
“The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, “Where is the best place to go to?” He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages—heaven for climate, and hell for society.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Dates are stupidly annoying—what we want is not dates but taste;Myet we are uncomfortable without them.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)