Canadian Election Catch-All

10:30 pm, and it looks like the liberals are leading/elected in about 177 seats, which gives them a majority government. It hasn't been officially announced, but it is almost certain at this point.

BC ended up being the deciders between minority and majority government.

And CBC (and CTV) just declared a liberal majority.

From 3rd place to majority. First time that has happened.

I was hoping for an NDP win, but a Liberal majority is still a massive win for Canada.
Good f*cking riddance, Harper!

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Good stuff. Glad my awful skills at political prognostication continued to deliver. This country really likes to vote in waves.

I heard an interview with Mulroney tonight that was really insightful:

"I (Mulroney) won because I wasn't Trudeau.
Chretien won because he wasn't me.
Harper won because he wasn't Chretien.
Trudeau won because he wasn't Harper."

Harper won over Martin, not Chretien.

Vector wrote:

Harper won over Martin, not Chretien.

Technically? Yes. In practice? Harper won because Sponsorship Scandal, which was all Chretien. Martin inherited that mess.

Harper resigned as party leader. Predictable, but it still feels sooo good to see it happen.

Dysplastic wrote:

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Good stuff. Glad my awful skills at political prognostication continued to deliver. This country really likes to vote in waves.

I think you're in the same riding as me in Ottawa center so yea for Dewar to be voted out. Wow.

Message sent. Big FU to Harper and Mulclair.

Well I got what I wanted. Harper out, Liberals in. I would have been happy with a minority, I wasn't expecting such a total blowout.

The NDP really died on the vine there, a shocking lack of performance.

My Cuban brother-in-law is disconcerted by the Trudeau family's apparent chumminess with the Castros. Thoughts? I kinda settled on "Canada doesn't really meddle much on the international stage."

Well the whole "we don't meddle" thing kind of tripped and fell when Harper got into office. Hopefully Trudeau can reverse the trend and get us out of these pointless conflicts.

jowner wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

Crazy, crazy, crazy. Good stuff. Glad my awful skills at political prognostication continued to deliver. This country really likes to vote in waves.

I think you're in the same riding as me in Ottawa center so yea for Dewar to be voted out. Wow.

Message sent. Big FU to Harper and Mulclair.

I would've been happy with either Dewar or Mckenna but Mulcair was really not impressive as leader... the NDP's chances to govern sadly died with Layton

So, basically the new election system of Alternative vote (similar to Australia, apparently) will probably be the new election routine. Not clear if that is actually better, or just more complicated for little advantage. I guess we will find out, as they certainly don't need to ask for other opinions anymore; with the obvious Majority.

Mousetrap wrote:

So, basically the new election system of Alternative vote (similar to Australia, apparently) will probably be the new election routine. Not clear if that is actually better, or just more complicated for little advantage. I guess we will find out, as they certainly don't need to ask for other opinions anymore; with the obvious Majority.

I'm pretty hopeful this will actually happen. Big fan.

Skeptical about real transparency or electoral reform actually happening now. I don't like majority governments in general, because history has proven that with a majority, governments tend to embrace the ability to do whatever they want without debate or scrutiny. Will Trudeau actually run a government for the people, now that he has been given the same powers that made everyone hate Harper?

Also bummed that Paul Dewar has been tossed out when he was easily the best MP one could hope for and worked tirelessly for my riding.

But, at least we have a government that doesn't seem to carry an open contempt at the idea of government actually doing anything, so for now it's a positive. Good riddance to a hateful, mean-spirited and selfish leader that embarrassed my country on the world stage. If he had gotten back in over a goddamn niqab, I would have been livid over the state of our country.

kuddles wrote:

Skeptical about real transparency or electoral reform actually happening now. I don't like majority governments in general, because history has proven that with a majority, governments tend to embrace the ability to do whatever they want without debate or scrutiny. Will Trudeau actually run a government for the people, now that he has been given the same powers that made everyone hate Harper?

Also bummed that Paul Dewar has been tossed out when he was easily the best MP one could hope for and worked tirelessly for my riding.

But, at least we have a government that doesn't seem to carry an open contempt at the idea of government actually doing anything, so for now it's a positive. Good riddance to a hateful, mean-spirited and selfish leader that embarrassed my country on the world stage. If he had gotten back in over a goddamn niqab, I would have been livid over the state of our country.

Not a fan of majorities also for the same reasons but at the same time 184 is a pretty clear mandate for the Liberals to do what they put in their platform or face the wrath of the voters next time around.

In the same riding and its sad to see Dewar go but I think that's the extent of the backlash against Muclair sitting on the fence. It was clear everyone wanted Harper out but for the Libs to also get to 170 and all the way to 184 the NDP really messed up.

Mulcair's speech was the best he has ever delivered. Both my wife and I feel that if he recorded that on the first day of campaign, and just ran it in his ad slots, he'd have majority today.

I also like that Harper is the only one that had to read his speech from the teleprompter. And it was a LOSER speech.

Oh, and my wife got really irked (I'm trying to be polite here) how in his self congratulatory speech (full of lies) he couldn't actually announce that he's stepping down. He actually had someone else release a press release behind the scenes to announce that. Just wow! No integrity to the end.

I'm content. I'm relieved that I never have to hear "Harper government" in the present context anymore, but more importantly if the Liberals can implement even half of what they promised, we'll have a much better country for everyone.

Sidenote to this election business:

I've been a staunch defender of the mainstream newspapers for ages. Nobody is going to pay for long-form, investigative journalism on sites dedicated to clickbait, I said. Getting access to news stories and political opinions that you might otherwise avoid online is good for you, I said.

Well, this election put an end to that, despite some great journalists still working for them. Endorsements for the Conservatives nationwide as written by an editorial board with no choice in the matter by the media conglomerates that own them. A snuffing out of a dissenting column from your actual editorial staff. Front page advertising that crosses an editorial line to a degree we have never seen before. And perhaps worst of all, a lot of p*ssy-footing and apologetics towards a campaign based on demonizing a minority group.

And who did you sell out all this integrity for? A party that got it's massive funding warchest based on portraying you as a liberal enemy out to destroy them, and who deteriorated press access to politicians in a way that may never be fixed.

So, goodbye, Canadian newspapers, I won't be reading you anymore. At a time when you all were struggling to justify your existence, you instead proved your obsolescence.

I wasn't surprised by that kind of stuff from the National Post - it's just the way they do things and I'm used to it by now. The hinjinx at the Globe, especially their fantasy-land endorsement of a Conservative Government Sans Harper, was dumb, though. You're not the only one to comment on it - everyone in my family let out a big WTF on that one.

I think I'll still be sticking with the Globe for day-to-day Canadian news, though, as I find their style to be the most tolerable of the daily outlets. I wish I could like the CBC more, but it's become more apparent that the cuts have really gutted the quality of their material.

I was surprised to see the Vancouver Sun with it's bright yellow front page showing a paid advertisement for the Conservatives on election day. Absolutely disgusting.

How much of this was on Harper's (and the Conservatives') own (de)merits and how much of it was Canadians looking south at the cautionary tale of American dumbassery? I would like to think our horrific example benefited *someone*.

I've gotta think that I'm not the only one who was disturbed by Harper's "American-style" politics. Obviously nowhere near the divisiveness y'all have to deal with, but he's been extremely out of keeping with typical Canadian politic-ing. Don't know whether that's looking at the sh*t that's going on now, or just a more general "let's not be like them in this way".

What is this "riding" concept you guys keep on mentioning?

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

What is this "riding" concept you guys keep on mentioning?

Something something Mounties.

Paleocon wrote:

How much of this was on Harper's (and the Conservatives') own (de)merits and how much of it was Canadians looking south at the cautionary tale of American dumbassery? I would like to think our horrific example benefited *someone*.

It's probably a mix of both.

On one hand, there was an anti-Harper attitude that was stronger than any other elected official in my lifetime for sure, at least since the last Trudeau was in power. Even in some of the post-election articles coming out, there are grumblings from Conservative canvassers who noticed that even some moderate supporters of their party were drifting away because they were finding Harper too distasteful.

On the other, there was a lot of pushback on the negativity, dog whistle words, and attack ads as coming off as close to the American style of campaigning. But it's uncertain how much of that is genuine dislike of the negativity. Being so close to the US and being inundated with their culture means that, for as long as I can remember, part of the Canadian identity is wrapped up in an obsession over what makes us different from the Americans.

Dysplastic wrote:

I wish I could like the CBC more, but it's become more apparent that the cuts have really gutted the quality of their material.

With any luck, they will get some of their funding back I can't speak for the English side of it, but the main radio channel on the French side is usually pretty good.

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

What is this "riding" concept you guys keep on mentioning?

A riding is an electoral district. Each district elects a Member of Parliament.

Paleocon wrote:

How much of this was on Harper's (and the Conservatives') own (de)merits and how much of it was Canadians looking south at the cautionary tale of American dumbassery? I would like to think our horrific example benefited *someone*.

The Parti Québécois tried to run a veiled (I'm being generous) racist campaign in 2014 and it backfired and that was in Quebec which is another entire argument about that province and tolerance.

Quebec general election, 2014

For whatever reason the Conservatives tried to prey on some of that in this federal election and it plainly backfired.

Theres no denying that theres a segment of our population that eats that type of fear mongering up. I hope I'm right in saying though when you try to evoke that type of nastiness in Canada it blows up in your face. Who know's what the ratio is but for whatever 1 vote you are winning over the amount you alienate must be much much higher then 1.

Not trying to say that Canada is more/less xenophobic then the United States or that we react more intensely in our politics when its brought up.