[Canadian Election] Conservatives finally win majority government

I am going to get some poutine and Molson to celebrate.

 

Actually I do have a real question / comment. I had heard that the conservatives might scale back Canada's health care system. Do you think that might happen?

 

I’m sure they would like to privatize parts of what is now covered by medicare, but that’s dangerous territory for them. Most of the people who voted for them favour medicare essentially as it is. Even in Alberta where the Conservatives have been in power for 30 years, ever time they start making noises about privatizing parts of medicare there’s a big backlash and they back off. This is their first federal majority government, however, and if they get too bold or too arrogant they may try something, and it could easily cost them the next election too. They didn’t really win this election as much as the Liberals collapsed and handed it to them, and they only got 40% of the vote. It will be interesting to see how they handle this majority.

 

The collapse of the BQ was very surprising and a huge development as well. You have to dig below the surface to understand what happened there, but I think the BQ’s support was softer than most thought it was before the election, and it’s probably not as weak as it appears now.

 

I volunteered for Mulcair.

quick dirty little secret---three of the NDP MPs are actually current or recent McGill University students. and one of them is the youngest ever MP ever elected. I'm an acquaintance of all of them. It's a bit...odd...

I'm a bit scared tbh---Harper has a majority, and the official opposition---is, well, an interesting mix of people who I think never expected (well, which I know actually) to be voted in.

It's exciting stuff though. Shows nothing can stop you in politics if you have the right message and platform. Obviously, as a social democrat, I'm very happy about the NDP's surge---just as I am equally as scared about the Conservative majority.

incidentally, NDP Mcgill just possibly became the most powerful student political organization in the world---which is just lolololol.

Quebec pretty much trolled the election. I love that. and sovereignty is dead!

 

It's aboooot damn time...

 

That should stave off any talk of a civil war.

 

I still cant get over the NDP winning Quebec. It just seems so ridiculous when you think about it. An anglophone party that has never done anything in Quebec all of a sudden destroys a party that has dominated politics in Quebec for years.

As someone who's pretty heavily involved in campaigns here in America I'd love to hear exactly what they did strategy wise to pull this off. I realize the method of elections in Canada certainly helps create these types of sudden shifts (I see it in other parliamentary systems all the time) but I always figured Quebec would be a special case where at the very least being identified as a party of Quebec would be paramount.

Either way good stuff. Glad your work paid off.

 

There's still the possibility that Quebec will vote provincially for separation in the next year, since the provincial Liberals are very unpopular right now...and there's not exactly a federalist alternative.

 

The NDP's victory has actually very little to do with the NDP itself.

Mulcair, being the party's only standing Quebec MP at the time, had a very well-run machine. We had about a hundred or so volunteers, and they were really well organized with zone houses and a central office. We had lists of people who we knew were going to vote NDP based on face-to-face questioning and phone interviews, and on election day, there were many of us rushing to and fro to get those votes out, and also to audit the polling stations. While the Liberal candidate in the riding had a strong reputation, we ended up crushing him---by a very large margin.

I had the pleasure of auditing results, and of seeing the xs tick up for Mulcair.

This, however, was expected.

How the unexpected happened is a bit tricky to pin down. I've identified a few reasons---

1-Quebec loves Layton. Man is a Montreal boy who does quite well in French and scores right with all the Quebecois. However, he never really promised Quebec that much---but he never really had to. Quebecers love everything he stands for.

2-Quebec has always been socialist. In fact, a large part of the sovereignty movement has been about how Quebec is a far-left state in a centrist nation. The Bloc has always run on ideals of social justice and democratic socialism.

3-Quebec was tired of launching "protest" votes to support a party that could never take over the reins of government. As a few former Bloc ministers put it while they were urging supporters to vote NDP, "the doors of Parliament are finally open to the ideals of socialism. Do not waste this opportunity." The NDP has a good chance of producing a future prime minister in Layton and perhaps even a minority/majority government, something the Bloc could never aspire to do.

as for the strategy---hope you weren't looking for some Sun Tzu masterstroke. The NDP ran very many candidates that many would term under-qualified. One was on vacation in Vegas...and can't even speak French! I joined the campaign a bit too late, but me and a friend (who actually was going to submit candidacy forms, but decided not to---boy is he slapping himself on this one) noted that hell, we would have been elected, were we given these ridings!

The student candidates were told not to speak to the media and not even to actively campaign. They did not expect to win. One of them managed to get 60% of the votes in his district.

Well, you can't exactly say the youth are apathetic anymore---we have 4 youths in our Parliament. One is nineteen! damn

I guess the one lesson you can pull from this---with the right message, and the right leaders, all things are possible in a democracy. Layton built a very positive, Obamaish "Change and Hope" campaign that resonated well with the people. He focused on cooperation for the future (his slogan being travaillons ensemble or work together) and kept attack ads to a minimum. I guess a rising tide raises all ships. You might term the voters as stupid or ignorant based on the info I've given you guys, but I have to say Canada is a nation where truly every barrier has been broken. We've elected record numbers of women, youth, and immigrants in this election, and proven that there is nothing that can stop a good set of ideas from blossoming into action.

 

Canadian posters thanks for the info. I am wondering how this will affect relations with the US at a time when the Canadian dollar is as strong as the US. Are the Conservatives proposing anything that will affect trade with the US?

Also any possibility of Canada every giving up the monarchy?

 

Cool story NS!

We coulda had clutchfan's first MP.

I tend to the think the NDP support in Quebec is very soft, and could easily disappear by the next election. Love the story about the bar manager who doesn't speak french, and spent part of the campaign on holiday. And now she's in the house!

Funny thing is....the NDP had much more power nationally before the election.

Final score (from a tweet)

Fascists - 167
Commies - 102
Visitors - 34
Traitors - 4
Hippies - 1

 

^ Is the hippy a Minister from Vancouver?

 

Judoka:

wouldn't expect much to change for US/Cdn relations. The party that won is the most open to trade, and the most likely to toe the line to US interests.

There is a movement afoot to repatriate a little bit of Phoenix, but it's doubtful anyone over there would notice.

And the exchange rate is just facilitating buying property in the US. This whole global warming thing is just taking too long.

 

I think the more interesting story is how much the Liberals have been destroyed in this race. For a once dominant party, they have pretty much been pushed into irrelevance. Selfishly, I hope this is a harbinger of a weakening of union power. The Canadian unions in my business are way too strong.

 

Green Party's very own Elizabeth May, the leader and sole MP EVER elected for the Green Party. She can now stop hanging around the visitor's gallery and head down to the floor, as well as have a seat at the leader's debate (which is restricted to parties who have seats).

She also happens to be a woman who proposes legalizing mar1juana and taxing it.

to anyone who says Canadian politics is boring---y'all need to check this s*** out.

 

Wes, I'd be cautious, the official opposition is now the most pro-labor party there is in Canadian politics---us good ol socialist NDPers. If I were a betting man, I'd also say that the man most likely to be the next prime minister is Layton (barring an ADQ-like collapse from Quebec)---and well...

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Conservatives won? Score for Wilders, just in time for his invite-my-friends-only event!

This dude is doing some serious damage to the Muslims who are trying to impose sharia on humanity. I mean really, he's blowing they're cover and they hate it. They've kept it secret for so long, now suddenly this guy swoops in and tells the world about the plan.

Thank God the conservatives won and are now privvyy to Mr Wilders' consultation. After all, it's clear Canada is fed up with Islam and sharia is imminent. There has never been a semblance of multiculturalism or tolerant diversity there. It's time to do something about it.