Canadian Elections: Done for Another Year

[bjarvis]

Canada held a federal election yesterday after 37 days of campaigning. And the results are... pretty boring. CBC Radio got it right a few weeks ago: this election really wasn't Clash of the Titans so much as it was Revenge of the Nerds.

The Conservatives won a second minority gov't, increasing their seats from 127 to 143. They need 155 for a majority. The Liberals lost a handful, 95 to 77. The Bloc Quebecois gained a seat (now 49), the New Democrats gained seven (now 37) and two independents were elected.

This election really wasn't about anything except attempting to break a Parliamentary logjam, and even that didn't work. Harper had no reason to call an election but to gain a majority and he failed; Dion had only his Green Shift plan to campaign on and that wasn't enough with the economy taking hits. Everyone else was running on a we're-not-the-Conservatives platform. None of this had to happen.



Stephane Dion. He's one of the smartest guys in Parliament but his political instincts suck and his ability to connect with voters just isn't there. It's time to go, Stephane. If you announce your resignation in the next day or two, you can write your own ticket; if you insist on holding on, you'll be shown the door directly. Don't expect a tip.

Stephen Harper. He must be disappointed. All he wanted was a majority to rule the country and run a puritan neo-con agenda without having to care about appearing to care... is that too much to ask? All that time, energy and money just to pick up 16 seats to be a slightly larger small party. It wasn't worth it.

But really it's worse than that. The opposition was ineffectively lead, badly organized and terribly fragmented. Seriously, Stephen: if you can't win a majority against such a feable opposition, how could anyone think you're capable of handling the keys to the kingdom?

Gilles Duceppe. A nice guy, very consistent, very experienced and a competent party leader. Too bad he's with the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Still, he's 61 years old, an MP for 18 years and leader of the BQ for 11. He's lead his little group through four elections. He's paid his dues and could retire gracefully if he wished. After all, why stay? By the nature of his position, there's no room for advancement: he can't ever be prime minister and it's unlikely his party will even get a crack at Official Opposition. There's only one promotion left to him --premier of Quebec-- but if he wants that, he'll need to make the move relatively soon and there are no guarantees.

Jack Layton is in a good position currently, and still one of the better-looking MPs available, especially since Garth Turner has lost his seat. Still, I wouldn't mind dinner and a movie with Chuck Strahl if the opportunity arose.

Comments

[ruralrob.livejournal.com]

I think calling this election will have a lasting negative impact on the conservatives that folks won't forget. So that, with a new leader (whoever it is, and it doesn't really matter) the Liberals will be a shoe-in.

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Isn't that civilized? It follows the UK model of course - six weeks between announcement and general election. No fuss, no time for attack ads. It would never fly here of course.

[pectopah.livejournal.com]

You are right about Duceppe. The buzz has been that he will retire from politics soon. During the last provincial election, there was talk that he would become party leader of the PQ, but he decided he could do more good in Ottawa. Many people took this as a swipe at the PQ. Also, he now has to contend with Pauline Marois, who fought tooth-and-nail and kept getting passed over for the top spot at the PQ. She wants to be premier and she won't step aside for Duceppe.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on the (non)-necessity of this past election. Stephen even broke his own law to call it. Fixed date elections, every four years. "the prime minister should not be able to call an election for his own political advantage". except when it's stephen's advantage, apparently.

that said, the talking heads were saying that we should get used to minority governments for the next while. We have five credible parties in the country now, and with the Bloc taking large chunks of Quebec's 75 seats, a majority is going to be very hard for anyone to get. makes sense to moi.

You talk about the Liberals losing "a handful"... 95 down to 77 is more than that, it's close enough 20% of your seats. I realise that 20% losses in financial circles at the moment don't sound like much, but in parliamentary representation, it's huge. Unlike ruralrob, I don't think that a new Liberal leader would automatically sweep the tories out of office. I would wish that it did - heaven knows, M.Dion has all the charisma of a boiled potato, and that's a lot of the problem, but it's not gonna be that simple.