Well now...

[sabotabby]

Things aren't looking very good, are they?

In my riding, Lazy Tony Ianno and Olivia Chow are running neck-and-neck (as I type this, she's ahead by 85 votes). Some of the polling stations have huge line-ups and at one, the return officers were telling people to go home. Yay electoral democracy.

Overall, the situation is ugly, with a Conservative lead and predicted minority. That's okay, I wasn't really using those civil rights anyway.

Comments

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

now she's ahead by 500...it's getting better. it's got to, that might be the only good news all night.

[sabotabby]

Certain people may or may not have been attempting to drum up last-minute support by going door-to-door and announcing, "Hi, we're Shlomo and Rivka from Hebes for Chow. Please do a mitzvah by voting NDP." It might have made all the difference, but you didn't hear it from me.

[billie0.livejournal.com]

In my riding there is only a 1,000 vote difference between the Liberal and the Conservative. Even though I voted NDP I'm now rooting for the Liberal to pull it out..., one less Conservative is a good thing.

Go Olivia!

[human-loser.livejournal.com]

Well, at least it's a *minority* govt.

That way there'll be someone to say "HEY! That's MEAN!" as rights get trampled.

Silver linings, man. Silver linings...

[sabotabby]

Hey, I'm hoping for a non-confidence vote and crushing humiliation. Or, you know, just a coup or something. That would be a silver lining.

[billie0.livejournal.com]

She has done it, Olivia won

[sabotabby]

That's some good news, at least.

[incendiarymind.livejournal.com]

I have a question. How are her and her husband in different ridings?

Other than that, Huzzah Olivia. At least you've still got a strong enough minority to keep Harper from being truly Bush.

[(Anonymous)]

Representatives don't necessarily reside in the ridings in which they run, which is how you can have a native Saskatchewaner representing some fishing outpost in Nova Scotia. They do have to set up an office in their riding, and spend some time there.

It's weird, I know.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm not sure I know enough about the Canuckistani parliamentary system, but what happens if the Tories can't get enough support to form a government? I mean, the BQ and NDP aren't bastions of right-wing nut jobs. Even if they were tempted, I can't see a Grand Coalition with the Liberals.

(I have to admit, Paul Martin always seemed to me like a character in a Royal Canadian Air Farce skit. Of course, the RCAF has many times been my primary source for Canadian political news.)

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

LOL @ "Canuckistani"! :D

[(Anonymous)]

They will govern as a minority.

I'm aware that most people reading this are probably on the far left of the political spectrum, but on the scale of Canadian politics, not everyone in the conservative party is a socially conservative right-wing nutjob in the mold of Stockwell Day. I expect there will be considerable tension within the party, as well as without.

Interesting times, interesting times..

[wlach.livejournal.com]

That was me, by the way.

[sabotabby]

This is true. The problem is that, for all his gloss, Stephen Harper is a socially conservative right-wing nutjob. I think a lot of the Joe Clark Red Tory types have been alienated from the party mainstream.

[sphinctourist.livejournal.com]

from what i just read, the conservatives have won, albeit only a minority government. not that i think that everything is going to remain peachy-keen but i somehow doubt that they are going to realize their dreams of building a pseudo-american christian state up here.

[sabotabby]

I think they'll be kept in check somewhat. This isn't the US, after all.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Are you still against voting? Just curious.

I'm predicting that the status quo will continue as usual in Canada. The Conservatives just aren't in the position to make any radical changes: they're one vote of non-confidence away from another election. Really it's the best result one could have reasonably hoped for. As far as future prospects are concerned, I'm much more worried about the movements of our benevolent southern neighbour, particularly in Iran.

[sabotabby]

Well, my views on the usefulness of electoral politics are fairly similar -- they give people a false sense of ownership over politics, and that's ultimately counterproductive. But I think there's a clear difference between corrupt corporate lackeys and corrupt corporate lackeys who are also religious fanatics. Any participation I might have in terms of voting (or even, as I did in this case, helping out Chow's campaign) isn't a substitute for real political participation, but it's an acknowledgment that no one cares if someone with very fringe beliefs refrains from voting on principle.

My concern is that, had Harper been in power when Bush asked for our support in Iraq, we'd be there now. I think Harper will go along with anything Bush wants, and hopefully the opposition will have enough of a spine to stop him.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's pretty much my view of electoral politics as well. I think peoples' everyday lives (the products they buy, who they work for, what causes they volunteer for) has much more of an impact than who they vote for every four years. I agree with the anti-voting folk that an election more spectacle than anything else, but there's enough substance behind it that I feel obligated to participate[1] despite that.

I'm curious about Olivia Chow. I know she did a great job on city council when I was living in Toronto-- are you expecting anything special from her now that she's elected?

[1] By voting for the NDP candidate in Westmount. Heh.

[sabotabby]

I'm mostly hoping that she'll play the same voice-of-reason role she seemed to have on city council. And that she'll speak up for the rights of immigrants, being one herself.

Hee. You didn't vote Bloc?

[wlach.livejournal.com]

I like some of the Bloc's ideas, but I just can't get into Quebec nationalism. It seems like a complete dead-end and utter waste of time to me. It would take something pretty crazy to make me change my mind on this.

[uberbitsch.livejournal.com]

Right. Apologies but I've been wrapped up with enough political madness this end of the world that I'm well behind Canadian politics. Care to give me a quick summary?

[sabotabby]

My boneheaded fellow citizens seem to have elected a baby chimp as our next prime minister. I suspect that it's less out of ideological conviction than as as reaction to the corruption of the Liberal Party, but the result is that we are about to have a PM with an extreme social conservative agenda and frightening international politics.

The only plus (as people have pointed out) is that it's a minority government (it's a difference of about 20 seats), so his more radical tendencies should be kept in check, and hopefully they'll be a new election soon.

[uberbitsch.livejournal.com]

Ye-eesss. I've been reading up on it during my lunch break. So far nobody this side of the Atlantic has been making a big deal about him being some kind of right winger and the words "tenuous victory" or "narrow victory" seem to be turning up quite frequentlyl.

[sabotabby]

I saw "fragile minority" today and that cheered me up a bit.

[uberbitsch.livejournal.com]

Well. Hopefully the fascists will be gone by the time I get around to emigrating to Canada.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

Lazy Tony is gone, as you now know, and good riddance to him. But I can't help feeling more relieved that he's out than glad that Olivia's in.

[sabotabby]

Oh, tell me about it. I like her better than Layton, but she's not that great. The fact that I won't need to deal with Tony's illiterate 18-year-old office assistant cheers me up, too.

[lemur-man.livejournal.com]

Why would you have had to deal with Tony's OA anyway?

I guess now we may get to see what he actually does for a living other than lying, being weaselly and yelling at his constituents.

[sabotabby]

At one point, I had to get a security clearance from the federal government for a certain contract. This, of course, involved e-mailing my local MP. His office assistant was beyond useless, and Lazy Tony didn't get back to me himself until after our chance to win the contract was up.

He apparently used to have a roofing business.