Canadian gals

sushisamba · May 2011

Any thoughts on the election results? I've been so removed from Canadian politics since I moved out of the country, but I'm curious as to what the feeling on the ground is. Especially in GTA, where it seems there was the biggest swing of votes. And also with the big gain by NDP overall.

raynes · May 2011

I'm pretty solidly in the Liberal camp (though not a fan of Ignatieff) so I'm less than enthused with the result. I guess it's good that we've finally got a majority government again?

The Liberal's took a HUGE hit this campaign. It's their worst showing in Parliment since confederation.

I think it's interesting that the BQ took such a hit. I guess separatism is dead now? Also, yay for Elizabeth May (Green Party) wining her riding! I'd say that's a step in the right direction.

ring_pop · May 2011

I'm not a fan of Harper - the way he runs government is pretty scary - and I'm pretty disappointed that he has a majority government. But I can't say that I'm surprised. I was disappointed with this whole campaign from the start. Everyone wants to blame the two left-wing parties for splitting the vote, but the reality IMO is that the Liberals ran a crappy campaign (I can't stand Ignatieff... he's such a whiner!) and there just wasn't a clear choice for an alternative.

It seems that most of the people on my Facebook are Liberal, some NDP, and pretty upset at it all. But, like-minded people band together. Clearly, there are lots of others in the country who feel differently.

I'll admit that I'm a little bit relieved that we have a majority government simply because it means we won't be wasting more money and time on such frequent elections... but then again, a Harper majority might end up being pretty scary. So I don't know.

I *loved* Elizabeth May's acceptance speech... she said something along the lines of, "They said we were up against experience... well, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic!" She's so sassy, I heart her. I'm kind of regretting not voting for the Green Party candidate in my riding. I mean, his name was Sonny Day!

alixzafiris · May 2011

I'm also solidly in the Liberal camp but I DO really like Michael Ignatieff. I think easily he's the most intelligent of all the [former] party leaders. Easily. BUT he's not very personable in front of cameras because of that, so I think some people had a very difficult time connecting with him. I'm sad to see him go and I wish people would research a bit more before writing politicians off. I've said all along that if he had a mini-makeover and some more public speaking lessons he could've owned it and I stand by that.

I'm disappointed in Canadians as a whole this time around, I won't lie. I saw this outcome coming weeks ago but it doesn't make me happier about it. I dislike Jack Layton (I think mostly because his wife terrifies me and he can't be married to THAT and not be at least a bit insane himself - and for wasting all his attack power on a party RUNNING HIS PLATFORM) and King Harper... well... he just plain worries me. I can't stand behind his politics and policies and frankly, think people who can are borderline brainless.

And I also DO think that what killed the left was the vote splitting, same as in our last election. The Liberals and NDP run nearly identical platforms so it isn't incorrect to say that there are going to be split votes there. They SHOULD (but won't) merge into one party. It makes sense. The Conservatives are only competing with parties that differ in political spectrum to them so if you lean right, you have a clear vote. The leftist parties are competing with each other AND with the right. It's bloody stupid and I do blame that as a huge part of this outcome - that and the attack ads. It irritates me election after election that all we see is one Tory attack ad after another. I want to be like FIGHT BACK YOU MORONS! God knows there's enough stupid and dirt on Harper to get some anti-Conservative ads going. The masses (unfortunately) do tend to be uninformed and will base their vote on what they see on television adverts.

I'm just grumpy and disenfranchised this morning. Don't mind me

sushisamba · May 2011

Thanks for the feedback. I had thought that Harper wasn't too well liked, which is why I was so surprised that he ended up with a majority. But good point on the vote splitting with the left parties. This same issue came up in the UK election last year, and they're actually having a referendum tomorrow to change the election system to use an Alternative Vote, where you can rank order candidates.

Anyways, like was said, at least with a majority government maybe something will get done, hopefully for the better. And yes, big props to the Green Party for getting their first seat!

alixzafiris · May 2011

In other news... I'm very sad to see Duceppe go. I think (separatist crazy aside) he's the best politician of the lot of them, hands down.

kaesha · May 2011

Strangely enough, I prefer when everyone has to work together with a minority government, so while I expected a Tory gov't, I was hoping for a minority with them.

I so think blaming vote splitting this time (last time, it definitely happened, this time though, I'd argue it didn't) misses the real issue here which was the failure of a leader to connect with the populace. The Conservatives won a majority. Simply having one left-leaning party wouldn't have changed that. That would give them, what 130 seats? I'd say this election went the way it did because:

a) the albeit intelligent but largely lacking in charisma Liberal leader was roundly disliked by most people. I think it's obvious that most people vote for charisma over platforms and common sense (Take Toronto's election of the truly horrible but outspoken Rob Ford). The Conservatives' attack ads on Ignatieff were particularly effective and he ran a crappy campaign that didn't speak to the issues people really wanted to talk about. I like the Liberals, but what happened last night's spanking was not the fault of anything more than a poor campaign. Regardless about how your feel about his policies, Layton's campaign was much more effective in delivering the message and gathering up a new base.

Their win in Quebec just hammers that home too - because again, those weren't really votes taken from Liberals, but rather taken from BQ. I'm really pleased to see that the separatist party is all but gone, though I'm apprehensive about how Layton will deal with new caucus members who have seperatist leanings.

b) Because Ignatieff was so disliked (though he was not the only one - Ruby Dhallah certainly did herself no favours), there was no middle ground. Right-leaning liberals were certainly never going to swing further left than Liberal. Most of them saw their only option as Conservative. And likewise, left-leaning liberals jumped into Layton's boat. I know one of the teachers at my school has been a die hard liberal all her life, but hated Ignatieff as a person, so voted NDP.

I saw an interview a couple of weeks ago where he said that if Layton was a Liberal, there would have really been a tight race, and I think that's probably true...

Here's hoping the provincial election doesn't go Conservative too... ugh.

rxbeth · May 2011

I just got a chance to briefly skim all the replies here and, as usual, I agree with pretty much everything my Canadian ladies have said!

Liberal vs Conservative - I honestly could not even tell the difference between the platform of the 2 parties. The should just merge

Ignatieff - I believe he was the downfall for the Liberal party. People just dislike him

Harper - he scares me.

One of my friends had a pic up on FB last week of Harper and Chad Kroeger with a caption saying "A Vote for Harper is a Vote for Nickelback". It made me lol.

Canadian gals

Re: Canadian gals

Choose Another Board

Search Boards