Canadian Politics Explained

Listen up because I'm only going to go through this once.

The Canadian prime minister -- Paul something -- lost a non-confidence vote in parliament, which means his fellow parliamentarians think he's not sufficiently confident to lead the country.

He'd only been in office for, like, six weeks.

His lack of confidence is traceable, in part, to a funding scandal that had something to do with the former prime minister giving away golf balls in Quebec.

The new leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois is a confessed cokehead. (This has nothing to do with the collapse of the federal government, but I feel it adds some much-needed colour to an otherwise drab political crisis.)

Canada will now embark on the longest election campaign in its history, which will probably end in a minority liberal government like the one that just fell.

Any questions?

(Above right: Blurry photo of what may be the Canadian prime minister)