What does it mean beyond Canada? I don't think Canada's reach extends much beyond our own borders, Canada is not really a world leader....I don't believe other nations ask, "what is Canada doing" before making any decisions. What it means in Canada is that we're likely looking at 18 to 30 months before our next election.
Having a parliamentary system means that the Liberals are in power for now, but because they don't have a majority of the 338 seats in our house of commons they need the support of others to pass legislation. 170 is the number that was needed to form a majority gov't, the Liberals have 157, so they need 13 other votes if everyone is present for a vote. The Conservatives are next at 121 followed by a party called the Bloc Quebecois with 32 then the scocialst NDP with 24, the Greens with 3 and finally one independent member.
While this is a minority I don't think the Liberals will have any trouble passing legislation.....if the other parties all joined together and voted against the gov't on a piece of legislation that involves spending its called a confidence motion, and would result in another election being called. All the Liberals have to do is get one of the Conservaties, Bloc Quebecois or NDP to vote along with them and they're good....The Conservatives are now going through a leadership contest, so they're not going to want to defeat the gov't and force an election. The Bloc Quebecois want to take the province of Quebec out of Canada and form their own independent country, so they'll be happy to prop up the Liberals and continue to collect their pay cheques (that's how we spell it in Canada). The socialist NDP is broke and can't afford to fight an election right now.
What will happen in my view is the Liberals will closely watch the opinion polls, and if their numbers get up over 40% then Prime Minister Trudeau will ask the Governor General to disolve parliament and call another election. He won't do it in the first year, but anytime after 18 months puts us in the window as I see it. Even though he won't "need" to do it he will....Stephen Harper did the same thing when his Conservative party was governing twice with a minority....its the way the game is played.