See all that orange? That’s the NDP sweeping over 100 seats in the House of Commons, shattering their previous record of 43 seats back in the 1980′s when Ed Broadbent was leader. See all that blue? That’s a Conservative majority. I’m staggered at the decimation of the Bloc (Duceppe, their leader, lost his seat to the NDP) — as of 12:30 on Monday night, they had 2 seats and were leading in a third (in a tight race with the NDP candidate). The Liberal vote completely collapsed, falling to a new record low, and there’s some surmising (I think correctly) that a lot of right-leaning Liberals voted Conservative at the last minute, perhaps in reaction to the sudden rise of the NDP. I’m very pleased that Elizabeth May won her seat — she’s the first Green Party MP to be elected, and hopefully this will give the Greens some more legitimacy in the eyes of the country and the press.
It’s late, and I’ll have (much) more to say about this later, but while I’m thrilled that my party did so well, and that for once my vote actually helped elect someone (in a former Liberal stronghold, no less), I’m very, very worried that our petty would-be dictator now has a majority which he can use to decimate the country. This is going to be a rough four years for Canada to weather.
I hear you! I think there should actually be a real and serious push now for proportional representation though…
I always sorta resented the green party for splitting the NDP vote, but I adore Elizabeth May and am so happy for her- she’s such a great and authentic speaker.
I’m from Montreal- it’s incredible, the city is almost entirely NDP suddenly!
60% of Canadians who voted did not vote Conservative. Democracy fail.
We voted on ranked voting in my city’s last election, and the arguments people gave against the process were infuriating and sometimes just plain wrong.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone all Giant Squid of Anger on our stupid, outdated, undemocratic voting system. I care about a lot of aspects of politics, but that’s probably the one I get the most fired up about, because there’s no way that ~40% of the votes should correspond to ~60% of the seats.
The UK is voting in a referendum today to decide between something like representational voting and a First Past the Post model. Here is an extremely useful and adorable link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiHuiDD_oTk
I saw this the other day! Love it!
Sigh. Agreed. Great to see the NDP do so well, but I’m pretty sad and sacred about the conservative majority. Looks like we’ll be spending money on fighter jets and prisons, while cutting funding for affordable housing and women’s programs.
Things are so up in the air right now in Quebec. I’m sad to see Duceppe go – he always brought a little fire to the debates. I do feel proud to be living in the one orange province, but feel very apprehensive about what will become of this country 4 years down the road.
It is also sad to me that all the NDP popularity in the polls didn’t quite translate into the voting results. Was it the lower youth turnout than projected, or just our representation system? I wonder…
I disagree vehemently with his politics, but I really like Duceppe as a person and a politician. He’s a class act and snappy on his feet, and I’m sad to see him go. We need more politicians like him in the House, and less of the contemptuous sort that’re currently running the place.
I’ve not seen any breakdown on the voter turnout, but I’m pretty sure that our stupid voting system has a lot to do with why the NDP didn’t get more seats outside of Quebec.
I’m so proud of the NDP and Elizabeth May, but really shocked and frustrated at the results. It reminds me of the 2004 US election, where myself and everyone I knew was sure Bush wouldn’t get reelected, and yet he did. I am happy, however, to see that the place I love and called home for many years is a spot of red in a sea of blue.
Yup, these are our Bush years.
I agree! All that NDP is good but it’s so scary that Harper and his souless eyes have a majority. I really hope that Canada can get through this by caring for each other …
I feel like an American who did not vote for Bush. And I was so upset at the Conservative majority that I barfed. I’m kind of a delicate flower but I’m glad that Layton isn’t.
I remember that feeling well.
Layton’s really what pulled this whole thing into a cohesive movement, which is great in that it got pulled together and the NDP’s done fabulously well, but I hope we can maintain that cohesiveness and strength beyond this term. We’ll see, I guess.
Also, you totally don’t come across as a delicate type on The Internets, though a Harper majority’s enough to make any progressive’s stomach turn.