Sadly, this is the best we could have hoped for, but it still sucks pretty badly, and I'll explain why in a second. Here are the numbers, out of 308 seats.
| Election | Liberal | Conservative | Bloc | NDP | Independent/Other |
| 2006 | 103 | 124 | 51 | 29 | 1 |
| 2004 | 135 | 99 | 54 | 19 | 1 |
| Change | -32 | +25 | -3 | +10 | 0 |
This is pretty good. The Bloc lose seats, which is a feat in of itself that few would have guessed - the prevalent theory is that Duceppe was busy fighting the Liberals, and was late in realizing and reacting to the fact that the Conservatives actually were getting Quebec support for the first time. Also the +10 NDP seats is HUGE! With 19 seats in 2004, they were a major player in parliament, so more seats can't be anything but good.
But the downside: while the Liberal minority could survive with NDP and Independent support (if only to maintain government), now the NDP can't successfully defend either the Liberals or the Conservatives. In fact, the only way to be successful on any motion is with Bloc support. Basically, we've now got what should be physically impossible any other way: a SEPARATIST GOVERNMENT! Of course the Liberals and Conservatives could co-operate, but anyone who's even passingly observed the Conservatives knows they'll cooperate about as well as Americans cooperate in the international scene (ironically, America won't have problem finding a Yes man from now on).
So basically, you have a government that'll be financially provincialist, and socially as religious right as a George W. Bush wet dream. Joy.
[[ ed. note: is Bush even allowed to have wet dreams? or is that immoral? ]]
A couple of interesting battles. Landslide Anne has lost her riding of Edmonton Centre to the Conservative contender, fittingly, by a margin of 3500 votes (okay, more funny than significant). Parkdale-High-Park (PHP) was lost by Liberal Sam Bulte to the NDP contender. This is significant considering that Sam Bulte was essentially a bought and paid for lackey of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (== EVIL). She was a rather whiney loser too, good riddance! Two of three Kitchener-Waterloo ridings went Liberal. In particular, Waterloo voted for Liberal incumbant Andrew Telegdi by a huge margin, likely since he's a major veteran with a strong record, while the Conservative candidate was new, and the NDP candidate wasn't that strong. The one Kitchener riding that went blue was by a fairly slim margin.
And for all of you voters who think that voting for the Conservatives punished the Liberals: thanks! Congrats, you punished Martin, so badly that he's giving up leadership. I'll get to think about my punishment while serving my drafted tour of duty in <american-unfriendly-arab-nation-x>.
Okay, I'll lay off the hyperbole. Enjoy your GST rebate!
2 comments:
There's no denying that this will push the federalist agenda, which the Conservatives and the Bloc both love. The only hope now is that the Liberals and NDP can keep them in check. It's really sad when you hear about the election from US media outlets. Let the sucking up begin >:(
The Liberals were caught red-handed for the thieves and liars they are... now we all know politicians are by definition cheats and liars, but what kind of crazy person goes out and votes for a party that has been categorically exposed to have lied and cheated to an extreme degree?
That's asinine.
On the other hand, you've got conservatives. Their social programs resemble a march to the dark ages, but they appear to have become somewhat more moderate and compromising in order to achieve a victory. If they're being two-faced, the other parties will keep them in check, and we know not to vote for them next time.
The NDP are a little bit red... the sort of programs they support would appear to require more taxes, and would further tax the educated people of our society to support the poor even more than we do. I feel badly for the poor, but we already do more for our underpriveleged than many other nations do.
So who do you vote for? Voting Liberal means you knowingly vote for proven thieves of the highest order. Voting Conservative means risking the pushing of an arguably 'anti-canadian' social agenda. Voting NDP means turning the country socialist.
My solution? Fuck it. Go to the gym, bench a few hundred pounds and yell alot. Same level of blood pressure and heart rate increase, but without the aggravation :P
... in case it wasn't obvious, I voted for no one - though I still say anyone other than the Liberals in power is a welcome change.
- The Irishman
Post a Comment