Our Troubles Are All the Same
The Canadian federal election is over and done with, so I'm here with some post-game wrap-up...
Here is the parliamentary seat count, before and after:
Conservative Party = 127/143
Liberal Party = 95/76
Bloc Québécois = 48/50
New Democratic Party = 30/37
Green Party = 1/0
Independent = 3/2
You read correctly--after all of the problems I described with the Tory government (and others which went unmentioned), they gained seats this time around and will once again form the government. Even as Barack Obama widens his lead over John McCain in the States, a plurality of Canadians went in the opposite direction and said they don't want change in this country.
On a more local note, the Liberals managed to lose two of their three seats in Manitoba (one to the Conservatives, one to the NDP), so I now live in the province's only Liberal riding.
Some birthday present, Canadian electorate. :/ Thanks a bunch.
American electorate, you are clearly on the path to surpassing us.
Of course, a few things need to be kept in perspective here:
There was a new record low in voter turnout, with 59.1% of registered voters casting a ballot. (In Manitoba, it was even worse, with only 56.8% of the population voting.) Out of those voters, the Conservative share was 37.63%, so this government was re-elected with only 22.24% of Canadians behind them.
Our first-past-the-post system allows for that kind of electoral weirdness, where political parties can gain or lose quite a few seats with just a miniscule change in their popular vote percentages, and those parties often end up with disproportionate representation in Parliament as a result. Besides the Tory example I just gave, the Bloc was able to get 50 seats with just under 10% of the vote, while the NDP only won 37 seats despite having over 18% of the vote and the Greens gained no seats at all despite almost 7% of the vote.
(For the uninitiated, the Bloc Québécois only run--as their name implies--in the Province of Québec, as they were formed with the intent of separating that province from the rest of Canada. That goal has fallen by the wayside more recently, but they continue to be popular there, so their votes are concentrated in 75 ridings out of a possible 308. Ironically, most Canadian political quizzes I take tell me that my views are most in line with the Bloc, even though it's impossible for me to vote for them.)
As predicted, the new identification rules caused problems for voters, and I'm sure that the number of voters would've been at least marginally higher without this problem. Then again, maybe the candidates just needed some campaign ads in video games.
The pundits also failed to call this one, with all of the seat projections underestimating the number of seats for the Conservatives and overestimating the number of seats for the Liberals. Even then, they were predicting that Stéphane Dion would have to step down as Liberal leader after losing, so with a worse defeat than anticipated, it looks like that's exactly what he'll be doing.
I feel bad for Dion, as he basically didn't do anything wrong, but rather simply failed to solidify a new Liberal brand in the eyes of the Canadian public, despite making more sense on a variety of issues than Harper (who, having assured Canadians that our economy is better off than the rest of the world, has now announced "his" plan to deal with the crisis). A different leader and a renewed sense of purpose and vision should help the Grits regain power in the inevitable election to come around 2009/2010.
In the meantime, I'll be playing The Political Machine 2008 (which xandersgirl was kind enough to get me in Minneapolis this past weekend :)) and creating my own political outcomes, while hoping that our neighbours south of the border show more wisdom and better judgement than at least some of my compatriots...
Here is the parliamentary seat count, before and after:
Conservative Party = 127/143
Liberal Party = 95/76
Bloc Québécois = 48/50
New Democratic Party = 30/37
Green Party = 1/0
Independent = 3/2
You read correctly--after all of the problems I described with the Tory government (and others which went unmentioned), they gained seats this time around and will once again form the government. Even as Barack Obama widens his lead over John McCain in the States, a plurality of Canadians went in the opposite direction and said they don't want change in this country.
On a more local note, the Liberals managed to lose two of their three seats in Manitoba (one to the Conservatives, one to the NDP), so I now live in the province's only Liberal riding.
Some birthday present, Canadian electorate. :/ Thanks a bunch.
American electorate, you are clearly on the path to surpassing us.
Of course, a few things need to be kept in perspective here:
There was a new record low in voter turnout, with 59.1% of registered voters casting a ballot. (In Manitoba, it was even worse, with only 56.8% of the population voting.) Out of those voters, the Conservative share was 37.63%, so this government was re-elected with only 22.24% of Canadians behind them.
Our first-past-the-post system allows for that kind of electoral weirdness, where political parties can gain or lose quite a few seats with just a miniscule change in their popular vote percentages, and those parties often end up with disproportionate representation in Parliament as a result. Besides the Tory example I just gave, the Bloc was able to get 50 seats with just under 10% of the vote, while the NDP only won 37 seats despite having over 18% of the vote and the Greens gained no seats at all despite almost 7% of the vote.
(For the uninitiated, the Bloc Québécois only run--as their name implies--in the Province of Québec, as they were formed with the intent of separating that province from the rest of Canada. That goal has fallen by the wayside more recently, but they continue to be popular there, so their votes are concentrated in 75 ridings out of a possible 308. Ironically, most Canadian political quizzes I take tell me that my views are most in line with the Bloc, even though it's impossible for me to vote for them.)
As predicted, the new identification rules caused problems for voters, and I'm sure that the number of voters would've been at least marginally higher without this problem. Then again, maybe the candidates just needed some campaign ads in video games.
The pundits also failed to call this one, with all of the seat projections underestimating the number of seats for the Conservatives and overestimating the number of seats for the Liberals. Even then, they were predicting that Stéphane Dion would have to step down as Liberal leader after losing, so with a worse defeat than anticipated, it looks like that's exactly what he'll be doing.
I feel bad for Dion, as he basically didn't do anything wrong, but rather simply failed to solidify a new Liberal brand in the eyes of the Canadian public, despite making more sense on a variety of issues than Harper (who, having assured Canadians that our economy is better off than the rest of the world, has now announced "his" plan to deal with the crisis). A different leader and a renewed sense of purpose and vision should help the Grits regain power in the inevitable election to come around 2009/2010.
In the meantime, I'll be playing The Political Machine 2008 (which xandersgirl was kind enough to get me in Minneapolis this past weekend :)) and creating my own political outcomes, while hoping that our neighbours south of the border show more wisdom and better judgement than at least some of my compatriots...