Canadian Federal Election 2011

[AlexanderDitto]

Quick two cents... the polls during the campaign show that people who voted conservative did not vote for Harper. Opinion polls on him in general were very low. People generally vote conservative for their riding candidates or in this case, simply did not want to vote Liberal. I know I don't agree with their social policies but they did manage to get us through the worst economic crisis since the great depression as one of the strongest economies in the world.

Second... no average Canadian has any clue what the fuck 'contempt of Parliament' means. Trying to explain it to them would have been counter productive. Layton knew this and ran a totally different campaign. Ignatief didn't. Also contempt of Parliament even on a political scale means nothing. It gives to opposition the right to do two things, censure and vote non-confidence and leave it in the hands of the people. They did that.

Incidentally I did not vote conservative, I'm just trying to be objective.

Every time I think I understand Canadian politics (or English Politics or Japanese Politics, for that matter) something comes and kicks me in the face and I realize I know nothing.

So, given that Harper's polls are in the shitter, would the Cons put Harper in charge again? How does PM get selected? It's chosen by the representatives together, right? Could a different Con be better than Harper? Isn't there a cabinet or something? Do they all get changed too?

And, really? People don't know what contempt of Parliament means?! Augh Canada you are supposed to be smart and hip and beautiful and in the know! I look up to you as America's non-stupid cool older brother!

What's the breakdown for party based on age bracket? Why don't people want to vote Liberal? And, I know Cons aren't as socially conservative as the GOP in the United States... but how socially conservative are they?

[theDreamer]

...Harper refused to get dragged back into an Abortion Debate.

And since we're talking an abortion debate, and he's the conservative leader, guess which side they're on for that.

[Metcarfre]

Socially? Eh. They're all for status quo on that front. Won't repeal gay marriage, but won't strengthen it either. Have tried to weaken gun registry laws several times. But nothing TOO bad, I suppose. They're more the economically conservative end of things (and Canadian conservative, at that).

[Tapir12]

Replies to Ditto:

- So, given that Harper's polls are in the shitter, would the Cons put Harper in charge again?

I think he will be the leader for quite a while yet. He basically rebuilt the Conservative party after it collapsed so they won't be throwing him out.

- How does PM get selected? It's chosen by the representatives together, right?

The parties have leadership conventions at intervals to elect a leader for the party. It's elected by all the members of the conservative party, not just the MPs, I believe.

- Could a different Con be better than Harper?

Maybe from some perspectives, but as I said, I don't think he's going anywhere soon.

- Isn't there a cabinet or something? Do they all get changed too?

There is a cabinet, and they will probably be shuffled around nw since there are new people and some old ones gone. So there will be a new cabinet when the government resumes.

I won't answer the more opinionated questions though.

[sdhonda]

...Harper refused to get dragged back into an Abortion Debate.

And since we're talking an abortion debate, and he's the conservative leader, guess which side they're on for that.

Ya, I mean, they all vehemently hate abortion right? So they'll like, totally ban it all. I mean, why would they NOT do that, if they all hate it so much?

[zfubarz]

*sigh*

I really don't understand how people can give Harper a majority, and yes it is Harper with a majority, not the conservatives, the way he runs things.

[Tapir12]

So, for the first time in Canadian history I can say that my new MP is GREEN. I am very curious how this will play out and what May will be able to accomplish as the lone Green in Parliament.

I was really surprised at the majority result. I thought we would have a minority again. I guess Canadians wanted anything but more of the same. We couldn't have ended up with anything much more different than we got.

I thought the Libs would go down, but this much is shocking. I don't think the Liberals are dead though. Just like the Conservatives came back from the dead, I think the Liberals will survive. This will be a big lesson to them. They didn't offer Canadians anything but negativity about Harper. Let them come back when they have something real to show us.

And the Bloc. Wow. I am glad to see them dying. The fact that the bloc even exists has always been an enigma.

[Gollom]

Eh, it sucks but it'll be very interesting. In same ways, a majority will be harder to control than a minority is. Conservative isn't Conservative across the country after all. The CPC has always been an uneasy coalition...sorry, an uneasy alliance between two similar but divergent parties. And now Harper has to carefully balance the demands of Ontario Conservatives with those of his core back in Alberta.

[Tally]

Drunk. Angry. Tearful. Horrified. Argh.

Eh, it sucks but it'll be very interesting.

Pretty sure "May you live in interesting times" was a curse...

[sdhonda]

It was.

[Gollom]

I'm trying to stay positive.


At least until I can get to the LCBO.

[Littleman 64]

First time being able to vote, and this is what happens. All I hope is that they have learned from Pinkie Pie that, "You gotta shaaaaaaaaare, you gotta caaaaaaaaaare. It's the right thing to dooooooooooooo!"

[zfubarz]

see that's the biggest problem with the current right, there is no space for different ideas, pretty much everything is squashed under the crown of harper.

at least they'll probably break up again in 10 years or so.

[Lord Chrusher]

I do not think the Conservatives are going to do anything too outrageous. They want to be reelected remember.

Unfortunately I think the days are number on Canada's lax treatment of copyright law. Expect the Conservatives to bring in their own version of Digital Millennium Copyright Act as part of their crime omnibus bill.

[Metcarfre]

And as someone whose employment direct employment rests on political policy, I'm worried. Research funding has been getting tighter and tighter, and Im sure that'll only increase.

Well Harper gets what he always wanted, a majority. It will be interesting to see what he'll do with it.

[cathou]

honestly, i dont know what to think. I didnt expect the Bloc to do a spectacular failure like they did, but the general feeling in Quebec was : hey, we voted for the bloc for 20 years, let's try someone else.

But if the NPD cannot deliver, the orange wave will be obelirated in 4 years. Let's face it, now the NPD have more than half of it's seat in Quebec, and some or their candidate are... let's say they might have a rough time.

I'm thinking of Ruth Helen Brosseau, in Maskinongé (it's between Montreal and Québec city. She live in ottawa, she didnt told her boss she was a candidate. She went on vacation in the middle of the campain, she didnt even put her feet in her riding in the whole campain. They didnt put any publicity. She cannot held a simple conversation en french, one of the local radio station try to interview her, but her french was so bad that they didnt put her on the air because nobody was able to understand her. Let's just point out that she's in a 97.7% unilingual french riding, so she will need a translator to talk to the people in her own riding, that she probably cannot even found on a map... There's other exemples,

i'm watching comments on the net today saying that with the bloc defeated, the separatism is dead. But the bloc role was never to held a referendum, and the PQ in Quebec, is most likely to be the next provincial government, and that might be bad for canada especially if Harper try to force too many thing on us.

for myself i'm ready to give layton and harper a chance, but a very small one...

[epocalypse]

Eh, it sucks but it'll be very interesting. In same ways, a majority will be harder to control than a minority is. Conservative isn't Conservative across the country after all. The CPC has always been an uneasy coalition...sorry, an uneasy alliance between two similar but divergent parties. And now Harper has to carefully balance the demands of Ontario Conservatives with those of his core back in Alberta.

... you do live in an interesting land. Your conservatives don't try to unite as an extreme hammer of what they picture justice to be to be while trying to force through philosophically incompatible economic and social policy?

[Gollom]

Eh, it sucks but it'll be very interesting. In same ways, a majority will be harder to control than a minority is. Conservative isn't Conservative across the country after all. The CPC has always been an uneasy coalition...sorry, an uneasy alliance between two similar but divergent parties. And now Harper has to carefully balance the demands of Ontario Conservatives with those of his core back in Alberta.

... you do live in an interesting land. Your conservatives don't try to unite as an extreme hammer of what they picture justice to be to be while trying to force through philosophically incompatible economic and social policy?

They put on a public face of it, as any party does, but no. There are a lot of internal disagreements. The party is very much fractured into factions. The only reason the party even holds together at all is because Harper rules it with an iron fist.

A lot of the seats they just picked up are mostly in the Greater Toronto Area; seats that are typically Liberal. So there will be a lot of fighting about that. Harper needs those seats to hold his majority, but if he's seen as capitulating to "Toronto elites" by his rural constituents (or vice versa), he'll lose support. Some MPs might even cross the floor and become Liberals, since the "danger" of the NDP isn't an issue.

[theDreamer]

I would just like to point something out:

WHAT THE FUCK?!

HOW DID HE GET A MAJORITY?!?

ARE THE PEOPLE IN MY RIDING SO FREAKING DUMB?!

...This can also be extrapolated for all of Canada, but MY FUCKING RIDING!!!

I'm glad I don't live here most of the year...Who won at my school's riding?

I'ma che-OH FOR FUCKS SAKE?!

Fuck you NDPers. You prevented the liberals from winning there, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS WORRIED ABOUT. GRAH BRAID IS AN IDIOT!

[theDreamer]

...Oh, and this ALSO happened in Aubergine's riding, which is crazy, cuz that was hardcore liberal.

[auberginequeen]

According to my dad, my riding was Liberal for ~44 years prior to this.

Well, so much for that.

I'm disappointed in you, riding.

[zfubarz]

How about the fact that fucking bev oda got re elected, that is the most disappointing thing I've heard in this entire election. It's a democratic disgrace.

[Metcarfre]

For serious?

Cripes.

[Matt]

Democratic Disgrace is a good term to encapsulate my feelings on these results.

-m

[sdhonda]

Bev Oda, or the just the results in general?