One week later - Canadian National Election

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Well, it's almost a week after the Canadian National Election, and having mulled it over for a week, I think this is the best possible outcome given the current circumstances.

A Reform... I mean 'Conservative'... Party majority would in my opinion have set Canada back as a country way too much. Yet of course, the fear was (and clearly justified) that no other party had sufficient support to form a government. Despite Harper's majority-government-victory-like words, I hope he and all of us remember that whilst he did win the most seats of any party (143 of the 308 up for grabs), did increase the number by 19 over the pervious election, and thus wins the privilege (and that is in reality what it is) of forming the government, the majority of the electorate voted against his party. The Reform... I mean 'Conservative'... Party garnered only 38% of the popular vote. That means 62% of those who voted said to Harper last Tuesday, "don't want you or your party in power."

As I said in my forum post Canadian Leaders' Debate, Dion was a disastrous choice for the Liberals, and clearly the party paid for that choice in this last election, reducing their number of seats in parliament by 27. This is particularly bad given Paul Martin at least had a scandal to point to for the prior rousting of his party. Dion doesn't even have that to blame. With a lower voter turnout in this election than in the last and the lowest in Canadian election history with 59.1% of the electorate actually voting, one of the interesting statistics is that the LIberal party lost the most number of votes compared to the other parties. "All federally-funded parties except for the Greens attracted fewer total votes than in 2006; the Greens received nearly 280,000 more votes this election. The Conservatives lost about 170,000 votes, the Liberals 850,000, the Bloc 170,000 and the NDP 70,000." (Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40th_Canadian_federal_election).

Dion clearly has to go, and the Liberal Party must be shrewd in choosing its next leader. Another flop could not only render it inconsequential to the Canadian political scene, but would also likely allow the Reform... I mean, 'Conservative'... Party to gain the majority it so covets.

Good on Jack and the NDP for doing well. Eight more seats than in the prior election, and an uptick in the popular vote too by almost one percent. Keep up the good work, Jack. While the Liberals get their house in order, you'll have to be watchful and keep Harper honest... well, as honest as you can keep him.

I do have to feel thankful for the Bloc, as indeed without them, Harper may have crept over the threshold for a majority government.

And finally, I'm glad to see a marginal increase in the popular vote for the Greens, even though they still didn't gain any seats in the House. This time I did in fact vote for the Green Party. I just couldn't bring myself to support the Liberal mess, and as I stated in my forum post, I liked how May handled herself in the debate, and what she had to say.

So there you have it. We have another minority Reform... I mean 'Conservative'... government for the time being. It will keep Harper hopefully in check (Canadians will be pissed off if he calls another election, and I believe will see through his "everything is a confidence vote" crap), and provide the Liberals some time to fix their problems. I hope.