Riveting Canadian election discussion.

You might be surprised. People are a lot smarter than you might think.

Maybe I am selfish but I'd like to think my views are a fair balance between personal wants and the country's needs, even if my ideas/beliefs are flawed and incorrect. Anyway, time to keep receipts from stuff like piano lessons, soccer practice, and tutors like Sylvan and Kumon. It'll help

Gilles Duceppe stepped down from politics. Wonder what's going to happen to the Bloc in the future.

No, Kevin, your views arent a fair balance between your personal wants and what the country needs. Your views on politics are like your views on everything else: completely biased towards your own perspective. You'd be lying to yourself if you thought otherwise.

In my opinion, the Conservative majority is not caused by the fall of NDP support, but rather by the downward trending of the Liberals and Bloc. The NDPs kept most of their seats from last election, and added a major bulk of seats from Quebec to their numbers. I've said before, that I didnt do much research for the election this year, so I may be off, but I get the impression that people werent voting Conservative to vote Conservative. They were voting Conservative out of "not wanting to vote Liberal". The attack ads clearly pit the conservatives against the liberals, so many voters will feel the need to vote for either one. And it's not hard to choose the conservatives over liberal, like choosing fine dining over fast food. If anything, I see the NDP as gaining momentum and trending upwards, not to mention that the NDP seems to appeal to the younger generation.

I don't feel as strongly as Sarah does against a majority Conservative government, but I'll say this: If the Conservatives f'uck up Canada as bad as Sarah and a few others think they will, then the NDP will be waiting in the wings, jaws salivating, ready to take control. The NDP is in a good position, and their threat alone should do something to keep the Conservatives in check, as they should know that one mess up might be all it takes for the NDP to win the next election (of course, that one mess up might be all we need to live in hell for the next few years too...).

I can't say that I'm surprised the Conservatives got their majority government, but I'm also not extremely disappointed by the position the NDPs are in. They put up a good fight, and have a promising future ahead. I feel its a matter of time before they come into power, and I hope when they do, they won't let those of us who voted for them down. However, till they give me reason not to vote for them, they will continue to have my vote.

My riding has generally always been Bloc, and now it's NDP. Which is actually pretty amazing. I'm pretty shocked at Giles Ducep losing his incumbent seat. I've never really seen the Bloc as a threat to Canada's integrity, more like a nagging party that kept minority governments in check. Because as far as policy goes, they're very left wing.

I'm disappointed in a Harper majority, because this just means opposing his decisions is so much harder. I hope Layton is up to dealing with him.

I AM looking forward to the next election where a NDP majority actually seems possible.

Whilst I'm completely interested in this thread, I can't help but wonder two little things. Is voting compulsory in Canada? And according to a site mentioned earlier in this thread, Conservatives got 40% of the votes. How did they even get more than half ot the seats with that result?
Sorry, I don't know too much about foreign voting systems.

Whilst I'm completely interested in this thread, I can't help but wonder two little things. Is voting compulsory in Canada? And according to a site mentioned earlier in this thread, Conservatives got 40% of the votes. How did they even get more than half ot the seats with that result?
Sorry, I don't know too much about foreign voting systems.

Most likely I'd imagine it would have something to do with different areas having a diferent number of seats, but I know nothing about it either.

Whilst I'm completely interested in this thread, I can't help but wonder two little things. Is voting compulsory in Canada? And according to a site mentioned earlier in this thread, Conservatives got 40% of the votes. How did they even get more than half ot the seats with that result?
Sorry, I don't know too much about foreign voting systems.

To the first - no, it's not compulsory. ~61% voted.
To the second - the seat goes to the majority of votes in that area. So for example (hits close to home, I voted in this riding)
Conservatives - 36%
Liberals - 33%
NDP - 26%
Green - 5%
This seat goes to the Conservative MP.


And what you can look at is the trend from last time, too.
Conservatives - (33%>36%) +3%
Liberals - (39%>33%) -6%
NDP - (18%>26%) +8%
Green - (10%>5%) -5%
The NDP picked up a lot of votes from Liberals and Green, but not enough to beat the conservatives.

Oh yeah, I forgot to post this last night because I was so upset but here is a direct quote from a friend of mine talking to one of his friends on Facebook during this last night

Her status: "go conservative majority!"
Him: "Please explain to me why you would want that"
Her: "personally, i dont really care either way, it would just be interesting to see a majority government after so long with a minority. and i like the colour blue too"

So yeah, people are idiots.

And there goes the faith for humanity that I had reacquired when it was reported that the youth vote rose.

I have almost no experience in Canadian politics - barely know what a Parliament system is. Did Harper, this guy I have heard terrible things about left and right - eg broken promises on EVERYTHING - really just win a majority...?

Yup. Because he's really good at making people think he's right. He's also really good at making his opponents look really bad.

Nice to see that it's not just Americans who vote like retards then.