(no subject)

[dexfarkin]

Post election thoughts while I have them.

Better in some cases then I thought, and worse than I hoped. The PQ picked up a lot more than I anticipated, and the PC a lot less.

Obviously, Martin's anti-NDP message worked in a lot of ridings, and the Liberals cashed in on the fear of the right to snag an extra ten seats or so. However, the NDP still hold the spoiler cred in this government, which should see some inventive legistlation in it's time.

This could be a disaster for Canada, or exactly the kind of wakeup and bipartisian coalition that the country has needed for years.

Comments

[iamgerg.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the fact that all things being equal, the Liberal and NDP Coalition sits at 155 seats. Once you take out the speaker of the house we have a Liberal/NDP=154 Bloc/Conservatives=153 Independent with Conservative leanings=1 This is still far from settled. Let us not forget that "Jolting" Joe Clark was only a few seats from a majority. The only plus is that the greens polled at 4.7% which qualifies for almost a million a year and is more than the Reform party got in their first serious showing.

I am a little disappointed, but not bored.

[doqz.livejournal.com]

Not to get into another legthy debate about it, but this is an illustration of why I am rather content with a two-party system. A resurgence of the conservatives is resulting in the governing coalition dependant on the fringers. In a two party system NDP and Bloc would have been safely marginalized within a larger conglomerate instead of playing power brokers with influence that by far outweighs their national support.

[d-benway.livejournal.com]

The 'fringers' in this case managed to get almost 1 in 5 votes. If we'd had proportional representation, the conservatives would have greater representation in Ontario, and the fact that most Canadians are Centre Left would have been represented in the Parliament. There would be less inter-party squabbling with majority governments, which wouldn't happen very often (if at all) with PR. Then again, Germany seems to do quite well with it, even if Italy doesn't.

[dexfarkin.livejournal.com]

Considering that the NDP garner almost 25% of the vote and less than 10% of the seats, there position is currently far beneath thier national support. However, that's why I support proportional representation and voting reform, an arguement for another day.