so the election has come and gone.
amidst a flurry of slander and scandal the conservative party of canada led by the infamous stephen harper has won a minority government.
here's how it broke down:
Party Elected Seats in 2004 Vote Share Vote Share in 2004
CON 124 99 36.25% 29.61%
LIB 103 135 30.22% 36.71%
BQ 51 54 10.48% 12.40%
NDP 29 19 17.49% 15.69%
IND 1 n/a 0.52% n/a
OTH n/a 1 5.05% 5.6%
for you non-canadians out there:
to form a majority government the elected party must have 155 elected seats
CON-conservative (led by stephen harper)
LIB-liberal (formerly led by paul martin...there will now be a leadership race to appoint a new leader)
BQ-bloc quebecois (a quebec only party led by gilles duceppe)
NDP-new democrat party (led by jack layton)
IND-independent
OTH- other. (includes green, marxist-leninist, etc...)
also yeah for us canada! voter turn out was a whopping 64.9%. that's up from last year's 60.9% which happened to be the lowest turnout since 1898! 64.9% isn't great but it's better than last year so that's something...
for more information and results go here (the cbc)
so yeah. that's that. i've been thinking about this all day and wondering what was going to happen to us, to canadian, now that harper is prime minister. it's sort of scary thought, right-wing christians in positions of governance are always a scary thought (george bush anyone?). the previous liberal government made some really positive changes in the past little while and i'm worried that the positive steps forward might be undone. not that the liberals were without issue but...
anyways, i'm bad at writing about politics. i go off on leftist idealist tangents and my true colours fly. i'm not in the mood for that this afternoon. i'm tired and still reeling from the apocalyptic feelings i was having this morning.
so read up on the results, the campaigns and when something happens (when harper does something) that you're unhappy with make an informed stand against him. don't let our rights to marriage, sex, our bodies, peace, etc...be smushed on. if i were a betting woman i'd say there will be an election within two years but don't count on that.
keep standing up! (i plan on standing up taller and speaking louder than i've done in the past when it behooves me to do so...)
xo michelle.
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You said:
it's sort of scary thought, right-wing christians in positions of governance are always a scary thought (george bush anyone?). the previous liberal government made some really positive changes in the past little while and i'm worried that the positive steps forward might be undone. not that the liberals were without issue but...
However, Harper cannot undo anything positive or negative done in the past without appeal to either the Libs or the Bloc -- two left-wing (sort of) parties. In fact, this minority government situation is the best. We've had 2 elections in about 18 months. If the Tories screw up, they'll force another election, something that voters don't want.
They have to make this work, and to do that, they need to come up with balanced solutions for ALL Canadians. Yeah, Harper's a creep, but the sitch we're in right now, it ain't so bad...
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