Originally posted by: sybeman
Pretty much exactly the way Gundark said it. A party tries to call an election when it feels it would be in that party's best interest. Usually, one party holds a majority of the seats in the government, so they pretty much hold the election when they feel the polls suggest they would win (within reason, of course...each term being three to five years).
In the last election (last spring), however, the Liberals, who held a majority government from 1993-2004 (four terms) were held to a minority position, where they had the most seats, but not a majority of the seats. Since then, they've been making alliances to get one party or another to vote with them so that they can form a majority. Now, after revelations of corruption during the Liberal reign of the 90's, the three opposition parties are looking to pass a vote of non-confidence in the government and force an election. Now, whether that election happens in December or February or April depends on what the leaders of the three parties decide. One of the big "no-no's" is a Christmas election, because the primary view is that the public wouldn't want that, so whoever calls a Christmas vote would fall in the polls.
I hope I didn't make that too confusing. I'll be honest, I left out a lot of stuff that you "should" know if you wanted to know the whole story. Canadian politics is so hard to follow, but it sure makes one amazing soap opera!
To sum it up, our elections happen when the government thinks it can win.
If you do want to know more, Warbler, I'm more than willing to try to oblige.
But, what would happen if the Government never called for an election? Sounds to me like the Government in power has too much power. They should not decide when elections are to take place. Thank you for your explanation Sybeman.
And no, the right isn't trying to control what people think. That's a liberal thing,
Chaltab if you want to say that the conservatives aren't trying to control what people think, that is one thing. But saying that the liberals are trying control what people think, is B.S. They are ones always defending the 1st amendment. The liberals merely wants to keep the government from controlling what people think. And there is a big difference between calling some one an idiot or a bigot and controling what some one thinks. One could argue that the conservatives call anyone who doesn't think their way an evil godless sinner. 
*shakes head*
