Shut Up And Listen 172

Democracy In Canada

Apparently, at this point, some people actually want to hear my opinion on Monday's election. I know, I'm surprised, too. For those painfully unaware, on Monday June 28, 2004, there was a Canadian federal election. The results were as such: the Liberal Party Of Canada received 135 seats in Parliament, the Conservative Party Of Canada received 99 seats, the Bloc Quebecois received 54 seats, the New Democratic Party received 19 seats and a candidate with no affiliation in British Columbia actually got elected to round out the grand total of seats in Parliament at 308. For the first time in decades, there is a minority government in power. Some explanation: the party with the most seats in Parliament forms the government and a minority government is when the party with the most seats doesn't have a majority of seats. The Liberals have 135 out of 308 and they needed 155 to have one seats more than half.

Given those facts, my thoughts on the election are this: why the fuck couldn't the NDP have won one more seat? Why? As things stand, it does look like there will be some sort of unofficial alliance between the Liberals and NDP as together they total 154 seats, exactly half of Parliament. If the NDP had won one more seat, together the two parties would have had a majority and thus the NDP would have basically had a shitload of power. Let's be honest, being the party with the control in a minority government is about the best the NDP can expect. As it stands, they could still very well have a lot of power over shaping the direction Paul Martin and the Liberals take, but not as much as they could have. Of course, there's the possibility of an alliance being made with the Bloc, but that's unlikely. The Bloc doesn't play nice with others beyond very specific issues where coincidentally they happen to agree.

My other thought is that I wish to hell we'd actually get rid of that first past the post system and institute proportional representation. If seats were given by the actual votes given, the results would be as such (approximate numbers): the Liberals would have gotten 113, the Conservatives would have gotten 91, the NDP would have gotten 48, the Bloc would have gotten 38, the Green Party would have gotten 13, and the Christian Heritage Party Of Canada, the Marijuana Party Of Canada and whatever "independent" means would have each gotten one seat (and yes, that only adds up to 306, but we're working with percentages and such, so there's some fractional errors, you know?). Basically, everyone except for the Liberals, Tories and Bloc would be helped. I mean, look at the gain the NDP would get. Hell, the Green Party would actually be on the map. As much as I hate the idea, the thought of the Christian Heritage Party and Marijuana Party both having a representative in Parliament makes me laugh. Quite a lot.

I'm not happy with the results, but I'm not upset either. I wish things had gone a little better for the NDP, but things could have gone a lot worse. I rather hate the fact that the Bloc Quebecois gets so many seats when they clearly don't deserve so many. I am quite pleased with the showing the Conservatives gave as it is far less than they were hoping for no matter what they say. Together, the Progressive Conservatives and Alliance Party mathematically should have been able to make it a much more even race. I suspect picking Stephen Harper to be the leader did nothing but cause supporters they already had to leave. Hell, the Conservatives' ability to do so well is based on the fact that basically every other party running is somewhere left of them on the political spectrum. At this point, there is only one right-of-centre party in Canada (at least on any level close enough to win). The Liberals are around the centre, the NDP and Greens are on the left, and the Bloc is . . . somewhere. Canada is basically a socialist nation and people need to clue into that.

The NDP's showing was good, but I'm still rather disappointed with the party. I wish they'd learn how to capture the youth vote and start acting like the protest party it should be. But I've said that enough and will leave it at this.

Happy Canada Day.