Elegiac of Election Night.
And it goes like this:
So we've got another Conservative minority on our hands. The other parties didn't really move either. The Liberals lost about 20 seats but are still the Official Opposition. The Bloc Québecois holds the same number of seats as they did before. The NDP made nominal gains. And, where's the justice in this: the Bloc won 10% of the popular vote, and they got 50 seats; the Greens won just under 7%, and they got no seats. This country needs proportional representation badly. That's not how democracy is supposed to work. 7% of the population has no voice, apparently, while 10% has too much of a voice, especially considering they're a bunch of racist separatists.
Yes, I contend they're racist. Party leader Gilles Duceppe didn't exactly dispel that suspicion in his speech when he got going on how Québec is a nation (as in a unique people within Canada), and its language is French. Why don't you just tell all the immigrants that come to our country, choosing your province to begin their wonderful new lives, to get the fuck out? I mean, you can't voice shit like that knowing it's getting translated to viewers across the country (especially noting the rest of the country speaks English). Even if it wasn't getting translated, quite a few people know enough French to understand what he was saying.
Another scary thing? Look at the number of votes the Christian Heritage Party got. I mean, if it was the Marijuana Party, I could understand. But the CHP? Jeezus, people. I know overall it doesn't seem like a significant number, but somewhere in my country there are 26,722 people who would like Canada to be like the Bible Belt. That's fucking frightening. Sanctimonious proselytizing bastards.
So the Conservatives win again. And I'll tell you why. This election didn't grab people. That turnout of 59% of the eligible electorate? The lowest turnout in our history. On the other hand, Conservative voters tend to be older, wealthier, and more conscientious of these things, whereas younger, poorer people are more easily disenchanted. And, given the Greens' excellent yet disappointing performance, you can see why. There's serious discontentment this time around with our electoral system among us young'uns. There's a sense that young people don't have a voice in our archaic, monarchical system. We need some serious reform, but as with everything else, old people will oppose it because it's just different. Ontario had a chance to adopt a "mixed proportional" system (blending the old riding system with a new proportional system, modelled on a New Zealand change and resulting in the addition of seats) in a referendum last year, but no, it got voted down. The old-timers' justification? "We don't want to pay even more representatives to sit in Provincial Parliament doing nothing." Yeah, they're doing nothing for you, and that's all that matters. My own parents voted against it.
$300 million this election cost, and we're in the same rut we were in before. In fact, the Cons are a little stronger, even if they didn't get the majority they lusted for. But the failures of this election might bear out in some party upheavals. Stéphane Dion for sure is toast. Harper might not have the legs to keep going, but as Prime Minister he does have some ballast, at least. Elizabeth May is probably secure, but she failed to win her seat (she did well, though, against the Conservative powerhouse douchebag Peter Mackay in his stronghold riding of Central Nova). Jack Layton was talking a big talk for the NDP, so who knows what's gonna happen there? Though the NDP won a seat in Quebec for the first time ever in a general election, in the Montreal riding of Outremont, so that's viewed as a very significant accomplishment, and the party did get a few more seats than last time.
For the record, the last election was 2006. Apparently we've had four elections in eight years now. Yum! This is our third straight minority government.
Just as a closer, in CBC's coverage last night, belovedly loquacious commentator Rex Murphy confounded star anchor Peter Mansbridge while talking about Dion's failure to restore the Liberals by whipping out the word "elegiac". Mansbridge actually called "time out" to ask him what the hell that meant. I've never seen that before. Rex said something along the lines of "melancholy at the prospect of departure". Meanwhile, I guessed at the spelling and Googled it. It seemed to get some laughs around the lobby at the CBC Building. Rex is really too badass for comfort sometimes.
So now I'm elegiac that another Election Night has passed, and nothing has happened. Every party blew it... except arguably the Greens, who were simply victims of a bullshit system.
So... yeah.
Nighto.
So we've got another Conservative minority on our hands. The other parties didn't really move either. The Liberals lost about 20 seats but are still the Official Opposition. The Bloc Québecois holds the same number of seats as they did before. The NDP made nominal gains. And, where's the justice in this: the Bloc won 10% of the popular vote, and they got 50 seats; the Greens won just under 7%, and they got no seats. This country needs proportional representation badly. That's not how democracy is supposed to work. 7% of the population has no voice, apparently, while 10% has too much of a voice, especially considering they're a bunch of racist separatists.
Yes, I contend they're racist. Party leader Gilles Duceppe didn't exactly dispel that suspicion in his speech when he got going on how Québec is a nation (as in a unique people within Canada), and its language is French. Why don't you just tell all the immigrants that come to our country, choosing your province to begin their wonderful new lives, to get the fuck out? I mean, you can't voice shit like that knowing it's getting translated to viewers across the country (especially noting the rest of the country speaks English). Even if it wasn't getting translated, quite a few people know enough French to understand what he was saying.
Another scary thing? Look at the number of votes the Christian Heritage Party got. I mean, if it was the Marijuana Party, I could understand. But the CHP? Jeezus, people. I know overall it doesn't seem like a significant number, but somewhere in my country there are 26,722 people who would like Canada to be like the Bible Belt. That's fucking frightening. Sanctimonious proselytizing bastards.
So the Conservatives win again. And I'll tell you why. This election didn't grab people. That turnout of 59% of the eligible electorate? The lowest turnout in our history. On the other hand, Conservative voters tend to be older, wealthier, and more conscientious of these things, whereas younger, poorer people are more easily disenchanted. And, given the Greens' excellent yet disappointing performance, you can see why. There's serious discontentment this time around with our electoral system among us young'uns. There's a sense that young people don't have a voice in our archaic, monarchical system. We need some serious reform, but as with everything else, old people will oppose it because it's just different. Ontario had a chance to adopt a "mixed proportional" system (blending the old riding system with a new proportional system, modelled on a New Zealand change and resulting in the addition of seats) in a referendum last year, but no, it got voted down. The old-timers' justification? "We don't want to pay even more representatives to sit in Provincial Parliament doing nothing." Yeah, they're doing nothing for you, and that's all that matters. My own parents voted against it.
$300 million this election cost, and we're in the same rut we were in before. In fact, the Cons are a little stronger, even if they didn't get the majority they lusted for. But the failures of this election might bear out in some party upheavals. Stéphane Dion for sure is toast. Harper might not have the legs to keep going, but as Prime Minister he does have some ballast, at least. Elizabeth May is probably secure, but she failed to win her seat (she did well, though, against the Conservative powerhouse douchebag Peter Mackay in his stronghold riding of Central Nova). Jack Layton was talking a big talk for the NDP, so who knows what's gonna happen there? Though the NDP won a seat in Quebec for the first time ever in a general election, in the Montreal riding of Outremont, so that's viewed as a very significant accomplishment, and the party did get a few more seats than last time.
For the record, the last election was 2006. Apparently we've had four elections in eight years now. Yum! This is our third straight minority government.
Just as a closer, in CBC's coverage last night, belovedly loquacious commentator Rex Murphy confounded star anchor Peter Mansbridge while talking about Dion's failure to restore the Liberals by whipping out the word "elegiac". Mansbridge actually called "time out" to ask him what the hell that meant. I've never seen that before. Rex said something along the lines of "melancholy at the prospect of departure". Meanwhile, I guessed at the spelling and Googled it. It seemed to get some laughs around the lobby at the CBC Building. Rex is really too badass for comfort sometimes.
So now I'm elegiac that another Election Night has passed, and nothing has happened. Every party blew it... except arguably the Greens, who were simply victims of a bullshit system.
So... yeah.
Nighto.