Fixed Election Dates in Canada

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:

    A fixed image of the future is in the worst sense ahistorical.
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    This universal exhibition in Canada of the tools and sinews of war reminded me of the keeper of a menagerie showing his animals’ claws. It was the English leopard showing his claws.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)