Stephen Harper Model Essay

Parliament made Bill C-51 through the proposal of the sitting prime minister. Stephen Harper, at that time, was the leader of the Conservative Party, which had also had a majority government since the 2011 election (Leduc 2012). The majority government is when a party wins more than half of the seats in the House of Commons or the legislative assembly, then the party forms a majority government. This allows the party to pass legislation or laws and maintain the confidence of the House of Commons to stay in power (Leduc 2012). Throughout the nine models that were encountered within the course, one model fits the position as the major model, along with another model, which can be seen as a minor model for this policy. The model that best fits

The power that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had automatically given him the ability to go ahead to put a bill like Bill C-51 in motion. This illustrates an example of Gourevich’s argument of power within politics and how with such authority, things can be moved. With all the power Stephen Harper had, an unofficial collaboration with the Liberal Party was created in the voting session upon the bill, although the official announcement was made about a joining between the two parties. According to Gourevitch (1986), policies are developed out of coalition demands. The Liberal Party, at the time with the third most seats in the House, voted in favour of the bill (Whitaker 2015). Even though they felt the bill was at the expense of the rights of Canadians, they felt that such bill was needed for the safety of Canadians. This made it absolutely impossible for the opposition party, NDP, to vote against the bill. If there was not a majority government, the Conservative and Liberal coalition alone would still concur and the bill would be passed as a result. The policy went on to prosper due to the demands of dominant coalitions of politicians in the