The Conservative Party winning a majority in the House of Commons a portend of things to come in the November 2011 US elections?
Last night the historical Liberal Party was almost nearly written off into extinction at the gain of the NDP. And the Bloc Quebecoiss?? Well the separtist movement is all but dead??????
The Conservatives hold a firm majority and will govern from the center right for at least the next four years. The CP platform is pretty close to that of the Tea Party - balanced budget, lower taxes, more efficent government, federalism.
Is Canada's future looking brighter than that of the US?
Your thoughts ?
Originally Posted by Whirlaway
The separatist movement has been dead for a while. What killed it was coming extremely close to what they wanted - meaning big business ran screaming from the province. It also made it clear to Quebec that France didn't want them (which made them a laughing stock across Canada), and that they didn't have the infrastructure to support their own country. They wanted to keep our dollar, our bank infrastructure, our passports.. Well guess what kids, you can't move out of Daddy's house and keep his credit card. When that hit home, it wasn't something worth lusting after anymore. Of course there is always going to be a pocket of whack jobs that don't let reality get in their way, and politicians willing to cater to them. However, it is nice to see that they are no longer an official party and can no longer get Government support. Even in my travels into Quebec, I have found social tensions far less obvious and ever decreasing.
Fascinating to see the Liberals plummet, who for 30 years were the majority government. The Liberal leader LOST HIS OWN SEAT, loosing by 1000 votes in his own riding, and announced his resignation.
The NDP has NEVER been official opposition, and I'm not sure what that will mean for Canada. Conservatives will keep their wild spending desires in check. However having the NDP and the Conservatives facing each other in Parliament will make for interesting news for the next four years.
Side Note: The NDP leader was found in a massage parlour, naked, in the 1990's. That made news headlines nearing the election for a couple of days but it seems the general public was uninterested.
This will be a unique chapter for our political history and no one is sure what it means. I do know that most who were voting felt they were really "not" voting for someone else, trying to choose the least of evils available, they were not supporting someone they believed in.
I loath Harper's social conservatism. It's uncommon to hear our leaders talk about things like abortion rights - usually that is left out of their political platforms, preferring that individuals made their own choices. It is most unfortunate to see political conservatism mixed with socially conservative values - historically that has never been the case for us. That is one "Americanization" I don't believe anyone is particularly thrilled with, and he went out of his way while campaigning not to address such issues and insist that they were insignificant. Obviously, it didn't hurt his support.
I don't think I would really compare them to the Tea Party, our Conservatives aren't as extreme.
It has been neat to see the underdog Green Party win a seat.
Everyone's feeling a bit tense, waiting to see where this path will take us. I hope if forces the Liberals to pull up their socks.
Another interesting problem with the elections is a swath of people that probably don't belong in parliament. A third of the seats of gone to rookies, some that never even ran... and some University students. This could be very good, or very bad.
The truth is, I feel intelligent talented people have stopped going into public service.
For those that give a damn:
Jeffrey Simpson on the lessons of the 2011 election
With 100 rookie MPs, Parliament faces ‘the proverbial herding cats’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2008204/
The Liberal Party: What went wrong and where to next?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2008011/