Ahh Canadian politics..

[theducks]

I tend not to write about politics, because often it's not that interesting. Canada is one exception.

For those not in the know, there was an election this week, where the ruling leftist party, the Liberals, got thrown out after 12 years. At least, that's what the new PM, Stephen Harper of the Conservatives, would like you to think. The Conservative party in Canada is a collection of far right nutjobs, and they seem to want to align themselves with the US in many many ways. Yes, they now have the most seats, however, they don't have more than half. Which means, to get anything done, they'll have to form a coalition with one of the other parties, or count on enough members of the other parties going along with them. This will hopefully keep their right wing agendas well and truely in check.

Let's have a look at how many seats each of the main parties got: (out of 308, 155 needed for a simple majority)
Conservatives: 124
Liberal: 103
Bloc Quebecois: 51
NDP: 29
Ind: 1

You see, the party with the next most seats is the Liberals, who have a centerist leftist platform and were the previous sensible government. They're pretty unlikely to be much help doing things they themselves wouldn't agree with. Sure, they may have been a bit dirty, but why do people get in to politics if not to line their pockets with gold.

Then next, we have the Bloc. Who are also, for the most part, leftist. They could probably be convinced to go along with the Conservatives crazy agenda, if the Conservatives give them another referendum on seperation. And on that day Lister, Satan will be skating to work..

Then we have the NDP, who are frankly a bunch of hippies compared to the Bloc and the Liberals, and are less likely to go along with right wing agendas than the Liberals.

You'll also note that the Bloc + Liberals = 154 seats. Add in the NDP and you have enough to screw up anything the Conservatives want to do, and in fact continue with business as usual, but with a different party's leader as PM.

I find the Wikipedia article on the next election rather interesting too. The price of any of these right wing actions will be another election, and the next vote of confidence that could trigger another election is later this year, after the federal budget (but this is unlikely, due to campaign funding limitations and the fact they've already had two elections in the last 18 months).

I actually find the whole situation quite funny, because I like it when bad things happen to bad people, like Stephen Harper :)

Comments

[scapersuse.livejournal.com]

I like the way you think. I feel much better now! ;)

[jphoenix.livejournal.com]

Just a little correction - you need 155 for a majority. At least for a government to be declared a majority government in Canada.

This information is according to all the election coverage I watched last night. I guess 154 would potentially result in a tie-vote.

[jphoenix.livejournal.com]

I just re-read and saw that you said "simple majority".

I guess you can disregard what I said. Perhaps I misunderstood what you were trying to say :)

[theducks.livejournal.com]

No, I meant 155, my bad :)

[lonejaguar.livejournal.com]

Well I think the NDP is a little more than a bunch of hippies. The marijuana party... now THOSE are a bunch of hippies ;)

A lot of people on CBC are saying that they're likely won't be another election for at least 18 months since the Liberals need to find a new leader, etc, etc. Apparently the longest minority government was almost 4 years and the shortest was 9 months.

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Haha, well yes. I meant that compared to the other parties, they are :)