POLITICS: Canadian Election Today!!

Wonder how well the Liberals-NDP coalition will work out, and how long it'll last.

Well.... teh NDP candidate in my riding has been re-elected No Cons here!!!

I may have supported the NDP but I wont cry about the Lib victory, just as long as the Cons dont win, I loathe them too.

Like Rick Mercer said on TV a little while ago: Canadians don't use their vote to reward, they use it to punish. He's also excited about a minority government because he can't remember ever seeing one and he thinks it would be neat to see one... ...just like seeing a rhino.

Just as long as we stay non-con I'm happy

Now to oust the provincial Conservative government next time...

[edit on 28-6-2004 by Ranger]

That is exactly why I am here, to learn new things, and I thank you for teaching me about your govt.

I'm also not in favour of the conservatives. I really not keen on Stephan Harper at all. He seems to have some extreme views from what i've heard. Aparently he talked about building a wall around Alberta to keep people out

I was wanting Liberals to win, but the Liberal guy in my town sucked, so I voted NDP. But the conservative guy (Randy White) won.

Well, now that the dust has settled and the Canadian public has voted there are several interesting elements that came to pass this election.

1. This is the first minority government Canada has had since the 80's; however, this government has the potential to be effective. The Liberal agenda can move forward, but it will be held much more accountable now than it has in the past.

2. The NDP made a strong showing. However, I'm not sure this is due entirely to Canadian's belief in the party or it's agenda, but more a vote to keep the Conservatives from power and to limit Liberal power.

3. The Bloc Quebecois came back in a major way winning as many seats in Quebec than they ever have before by winning 54 (EDIT: previously 55 wrong number) of 70 seats. Will this set Canada up for another Referendum? It certainly does improve the chances; however, the question will be answered at the next Provincial election. If the Parti Quebecois wins the Provincial election and unseats the Liberals Provincially I think we will see another vote for independence (Let's pray no, it's bad for the economy and it's bad for the country).

All in all it was an exciting night for Canadians. We wills ee what the end results are over the next couple of months, but I for one can say I am so very happy Canadians weren't duped into electing a Bush-esque Prime Minister.

Peace,
Lukefj

[edit on 29-6-2004 by Lukefj]

Originally posted by Lukefj
3. The Bloc Quebecois came back ina major way winning more seats in Quebec than ever before by winning 55 of 70 seats. Will this set Canada up for another Referendum? It certainly does improve the chances; however, the question will be answered at the next Provincial election. If the Parti Quebecois wins the Provincial election and unseats the Liberals Provincially I think we will see another vote for independence (Let's pray no, it's bad for the economy and it's bad for the country).
Lukefj

Interesting point. In his acceptance speech Dueseppe gave honor to "a noted seperatist, Jaque Parazeau." Spelling, sorry. I don't know if he was just tipping his hat or sending a message.

A soverenty vote will not happen until the Bloc regains Provincal power in Quebec. They have a Liberal Priemer now and there willl not be a vote for at least 2-3 years.

Forgive me, folks, but I would like to point out that elections are nothing other than a polite fiction designed specifically to provide the electorate with the warm fuzzies, in that they participated in democracy! You know, the stuff your grandfather fought and died for! How sad...

Elections allow the electorate to choose personnel, but not influence or shape future policy. This is one of the reasons why politicians are not required to abide by the things they pledged during the campaign. Even signing the Taxpayer Protection Act on TV, and making great political hay out of the spectacle, did not not in the end mean that Dalton McDoofus was bound by the provisions of the document in question.

And you wonder at the apathy? At the suspicion? How many times do you need to hear things to the effect of "Well, we know what we said during the campaign, but now that we've had a closer look at the books, we're in worse shape than we thought, so.... I guess you the taxpayer are once again SOL", before it occurs to you that something fundamental is wrong with this system of ours?

If a politician, of any stripe, at any level, told me the sky was blue, I go out and check to be sure.

Wait til the electorate finds out what their vote is really worth.

The question is, will they care?

Here is a before and after shot of the seats making the previous and current Gov't.

PARTY BEFORE NOW
Liberal 168 135
Conservative 72 99
Bloc 33 54
NDP 14 19

Note: Some results are preliminary. Ridings in which a candidate wins with less than 0.1 per cent margin trigger an automatic recount.

Source Toronto Star

Personally I really thought the NDP was gonna get more seats than this, I was banking on them getting at least 25 seats if not 30+ oh well... BTW This is a great day for Canada since most of our historic legislation came from a minority gov't, This one is just gonna be as historic as previous Minority Gov't.

Bailey,

A lot of your argument is missplaced here. I responded to your earlier dissillusioned post about elections. Not sure if you've had a chance to look at it.

I do agree the Dalton betrayed the Ontario public; however you are mixing provincial and federal politics here. Are you sure you understand what you are talking about. I'm not sure you do...not completely anyway.

The Canadian system is one of the best in the world. A minority federal government will do nothing but enhance credibility and follow through on election promises.

To the other poster (sorry, forget the name),
The number of seats this year vs previous election is somewhat misleading in that during the previous election the conservative party was two seperate parties. Just for clarification.

Cheers,
Lukefj

Lukejf, I know it's a bit misleading, but I could't find one that included the PC and the Alliance. I just posted it as a referance so people can see just how different this Gov't is compared to the last one. BTW How many seats did the green party end up with? I've heard that they did pretty well in B.C. but havn't heard what they've done nationally.

The Green Party didn't win any seats in the House. Nada.

However, they did garner 5.47% of the populations vote, just not enough to win in any ridings.

Lukefj

Man that is depressing since I voted for them 5.4 % Nationally is spectacular tho and it is a good sign since they will be getting alot more money next election since each vote = $1.75 toward next election so maybe theyll get there message out more next time.

The reason I supported them is they are the party that most represents my political viewpoints.
Environmentally Green, Economically Centerist with some Right tendancies(ie Revenue Neutral Tax shifts). Socially i'm not too sure of but I'd say they are Liberal on that, if not outright socialist.
They just need a more charismatic leader, since they have pretty much rooted all the stoned hippies out and the Party is now made up of mostly Political Scientists and Economists. Now we need more PR experts. We are growing and as us greens say "We aren't a bunch of tree-hugging hippies anymore!!" And what says that the most? Well we reconize the need for Seal culling in the Territories since they eat up so much Cod stock we just aren't in favor of Clubbing Baby Seals since that is just plain wrong. We also see how certain Tax Cuts/Shifts can be very beneficial to the Economy...you just have to implement it correctly and think long term.

Without any MAJOR environmental catastrophies(even then it's unlikely), I doubt the Green Party will achieve official Party status anytime soon. There name is tainted, perhaps with a name change and a new leader and a little less of an extremeist view they might have a chance.

They do have some very valid ideas though. Perhaps as their vote shares increase the leading parties will take notice and begin to incorporate some of their views...thsi is much more likely than actually obtaining a significant portion of the seats in the House.

Lukefj

Perhaps as their vote shares increase the leading parties will take notice and begin to incorporate some of their views...thsi is much more likely than actually obtaining a significant portion of the seats in the House.

This is what I actually hope will happen, I don't want the Greens to attain significant power, because then they might just forget why they are doing what they are doing.

You talk about the Greens being tainted, and I would like to know who,what, where, why and how because I havn't really heard of anything(Unless it has somthing to do with the German Greens or Nader).

I think they should keep the name but change the Logo


Pretty Cheesey IMO And yeah a new Focused Intelligent Charismatic Leader would be nice.

Green Party Platform in 1 Page

I agree with about 70-80 % of thier platform which is alot more than the Liberals because most of thier promises tend to be broken(which hopfully the NDP and BLOC wont let happen this time around) And yeah I am kinda giving the GPC the benefit of the doubt as I give the NDP the benefit of the doubt as well. Why? Because I've never really seen either party as a big part of the National stage before and I think the next 4 years are gonna be very interesting.

Two things:

1. The Green Parties logo looks liek a crop circle...credibility out of the window...LOL

2. As you stated earlier because of their extremist/radicalist views (or appearance as such) their credibility with the public is tainted. They are viewed as hippies incapable of providing significant leadership r direction to the country. I feel they are viewed more as a lobbiest group than an actual political party.

Lukefj

I hope someone voted for the underdog...er...wait....HAHA

Actually Canada is a far more adept country with a government that actually cares and I'm just a closet Anti-Americanist making subtle Canadian jokes to help booster my poor self image!

Seriously, I am interested in the results...but I have a sneaking suspicion that ol' Danny O'Rather ain't gonna be broadcasting them later this evening.

I may not agree with Layton on most issues, but democratic reform is needed as shown in this election.

The liberals get 135 seats and 36% of the popular vote in contrast the NDP get 19 seats and 16% of the popular vote. Some change is seriously needed, if one party can get 2.25 times more votes, but has almost 7 times more representation

What system would you propose? I for one would not stand behind any form of proportional representation. It would quickly deteriorate, because of a complete lack of regional representation. I would argue that the current system is the best choice we have, because it ensures that no region loses representation. We would end up with a liberal government formed entirely of the east's MPs, because thats where all the liberal support lies.

f16falcon,

here's a good article related to what you were speaking about:

�If Canada had been using some type of proportional representation, like most other major democracies, the election results would have been very different,� said Larry Gordon, executive director of Fair Vote Canada.

If seats had been awarded to parties on the basis of the votes they received, the Liberals, Bloc and Conservatives would have had fewer seats and the NDP and Green Party more seats. For example, rather than 135 seats, the Liberals would have received about 113. The NDP, rather than 19 seats would have had about 48. The Greens, rather than no seats, would have had about 12 seats.

What We Said Is Not What We Got