38th General Election

[Aluscia]

Very interesting results... Not the Blue Conservative tight race that was expected, but no clear way to form a majority government either.

For you Americans out there, the current ruling party of Canada, the Liberals, hold 135 seats, 20 seats short of a clear majority. The New Democratic Party, Canada's left of centre, holds 19.
On the other side of things, The Conservatives (the newly united Right) hold 99 seats, with the seperatist party Bloc Quebecois holding 54 out of 75 seats in Quebec. Even if they were to form a colition, they would hold a minority of 153 seats.
How will this government form? The power actually lies with the only independent MP in BC. If he lends his support to the Conservatives (He is a former Progressive Conservative, I believe), then the government truly is in a stalemate. If he joins the Liberal, or even NDP, ranks then a very slight minority will be able to rule (tenuously, but I don't see this government lasting longer than 6 months). This is all assuming the Liberal and NDPs form a colition. I would be incredibly surprized if they didn't, given that this is exactly what the NDP wanted (the ability to shape the next legislature), as the Liberals would have to curb their heavily slanted centrist back to the left. On the other hand, defections between parties are *not* uncommon, so I wouldn't be surprized if there are some bi-elections soon. All in all, the numbers are very disparaging for any form of clear majority, and I anticipate heading to the polls again before the year is out.

For the results, visit http://enr.elections.ca/National_e.aspx ... What saddens me is that this election is representative of only 60.5% of the national registered vote. That means 39.5% are too lazy, not willing to read their newspapers, not willing to support democracy, 'undecided', 'don't like choosing the lesser of 3 evils', etc etc etc (all excuses I've heard). All I have to say is that 39.5% of the country has lost the right to complain about the way this country is governed because they refused to vote, hence refused the right to express how they feel about the nation's affairs.

[Kyrie]

Werd.

I dunno, there IS the possibility that for once, things will actually turn out okay, and the Liberals and the NDP will in fact work well together: the former knows it needs the support of the latter, so they'll probably be quite willing to compromise on certain things.

But I dunno. I'm stupid regarding my own country's politics. I'm just glad that Mr Harper didn't win this thing.

[KitZune]

I wanted the NDP to at least have 20 seats to make up that remaining minority with the Liberals... but if that independant helps out, that'll be good. I voted NDP

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Nice to see that you all have more than two major parties. The Green party is supposedly getting more popular... That is until the Republicans or Democrats take their ideas for their own. :/


I wonder what a day in Parliament in Canada is like though?

[Aluscia]

pretty boring, from what I've seen... the only exciting times are question periods.

[Kyrie]

Originally Posted by Laurelin

pretty boring, from what I've seen... the only exciting times are question periods.

Pfft, as soon as the media's out of there I bet they get JERRY SPRINGER on each other. They're vicious, you know.

[Aluscia]

I bet as soon as the TV crews turn off, they actually all power down and the master puppetteer gets out from behind the Speaker's seat

[Maz]

I voted liberal