Monday, January 23. 2006
This evening, we have witnessed the demise of the Liberal Party of Canada, thus ending more than a decade of their rule. The CBC has an article summarizing tonight's election developments. In either case, the Conservatives have won a minority government. Right now, the seats are as follows: 124 Conservatives, 103 Liberals, 51 Bloc, 29 NDP, and 1 Independent.
Biggest plays tonight in my opinion:
- Paul Martin resigns as Liberal party leader.
- Conservatives breakthrough in Quebec.
- Liberals completely annihilated in Alberta.
- Bloc loses support and seats in Quebec.
- Belinda Stronach (Liberal, former Conservative) survives and gets re-elected.
- Dr. Keith Martin (Liberal MP - Esquimalt, Juan De Fuca) survives and gets re-elected.
- Svend Robinson (NDP) defeated in comeback.
I don't have time to give the analysis of each of the points above as I'm too sleepy right now, but more will follow tomorrow.
While I was watching the CBC coverage tonight, they had Don Cherry (7th Greatest Canadian) make a few comments about the election. Interesting that Don Cherry flirted with the idea of going in politics, and he made a few interesting points about what he would do as a leader.
I think one of the most amusing things tonight was the notion that the election will be determined by British Columbia, because the pundits kept saying that over and over again. At 7pm tonight when the election result blackout lifted, I turned on the TV, and the first thing that flashes on the screen is, "Harper wins minority government." The polls just closed here for crying out loud!
Oh well, whatever. I'm happy that Canada is sending a Western Canadian to Ottawa as Prime Minister. Hopefully that will shift some of the power westward.
Savour your victory Mr. Harper, and don't let power get to your head, remember your roots and where you came from.
The big winners tonight, the Conservatives and the NDP. The big losers tonight were the Liberals and the Bloc. Although, I think maybe the NDP might be in a weaker spot now because they don't hold the balance of power, so they will wield less power and clout despite having more seats. Ironic no?
Saturday, January 21. 2006
Well, we're at the end of the election campaign, and on January 23, 2006, the leaders are playing for all the marbles. There's really not much more to say as each leader has more or less finished releasing their ads, platforms, etc. This is a time to sit back, review, and finalize your vote.
So, to conclude this election, here's an excellent article from the CBC that highlights the 20 key developments that happened in this campaign.
See you at the polls on Monday. God keep our land.
Tuesday, January 17. 2006
Well, we're on our final week of election coverage. This week has been relatively quiet so far, but it is supposed to heat up in the last half of the week as the parties make their last stands. In either case, there appears to be a large number of undecided voters. To aid in that group's decision, I have found this Canadian election quiz from Politics Watch.
The quiz asks 18 questions about policies and values, and in the end, it'll tell you which party fits closest to what you believe in. Quick, easy, fun.
The quiz does carry the following disclaimer:
This vote selector quiz is intended only as an exploration of the campaign issues. At PoliticsWatch, we hope you will make your informed vote after fully exploring each leader and party's vision, platform, policies and integrity, as well as any other values you judge to be important qualities of a Canadian Prime Minister and governing party.
The party that I intend to vote for appears to be a 100% match with what I entered. A match made in heaven  . The second place runner up in the match was quite shocking for me.
I'll end with a friendly reminder that the vote is on January 23, 2006. By law, employers have to give you time to go vote, so you can't make an excuse that you're too busy to work because of work.
It'll be interesting what the voter turnout will be this time around. I'm predicting that it'll be higher than last election as this election has been quite exciting.
Friday, January 13. 2006
The campaign for Paul Martin is going from bad to worse. As he was announcing a new fund for firefighters, a new controversy erupted in B.C.
From the CBC article entitled, " Liberals axe candidate accused of offering job to opponent":
The Liberal party has dumped one of its B.C. candidates following allegations he offered an NDP candidate a job to drop out of the race and support the Liberals. [...]
In the affidavit, [NDP Candidate] Hansen-Carlson says that [Liberal Candidate] Oliver and his campaign manager Gordy Kahlon came to see him on Tuesday night.
"I was shocked when Mr. Khalon spoke, 'I hear you have civic aspirations?' Immediately I knew the meeting was set up to bribe me, but for what I was not sure," he said in the affidavit.
"If I was to sell out the NDP they guaranteed me a win in the next local general election and they also said a job in Ottawa would be waiting for me if Mr. Oliver did in fact win the riding," Hansen-Carlson said.
"They also discussed that I would be a 'hero', that the option to join the Liberal Party would always be there, and that they would be prepared to bill this political move as being my own, to net me even more respect from within the Liberal ranks," he said in the affidavit.
Hansen-Carlson says he listened to what the Liberals had to say, and then immediately went to the NDP to tell them what happened.
Hansen-Carlson said he was in shock after he received the offer.
"Here is a friend of mine – I consider David Oliver to be a friend – here's a friend of mine who has cornered me in the most awkward way, making me to be one of his political pawns."
"I don't care to gain from this. What is important and why I came forward is that what Mr. Oliver and Mr. Kalon did is completely inappropriate, and coming forward was a matter of principle."
Thursday, January 12. 2006
Well, looks like every party has had a bad day today on the campaign trail. There was controversy today about a Conservative BC candidate under investigation for smuggling a car and booze across the US border. Stephen Harper was on damage control by saying the candidate will not be allowed to sit as a Conservative in government until the investigation is cleared up. The NDP ran into troubles as well when it was discovered that Jack Layton had used private healthcare in the past for a hernia surgery. Quite ironic considering the NDP is the self-proclaimed defender of the public health care.
But the thing that has taken the cake has been the Liberal attack ads against Stephen Harper's stance on the military. I've heard a lot about this ad, and I went out to find it and watch it to see what all the controversy is about.
I found a copy of it at Stephen Taylor's blog. Click on the "Watch the military attack ad and Duffy vs. Duffy" link on that blog to view the video. (Windows Media Player required)
Monday, January 9. 2006
Tonight was the last leader's debate on television. Unfortunately, I got home late from work, so I only caught a few portions of it. I'm not going to bother dissecting the debate, because I didn't see the whole thing. I'm also not going to bother saying who I thought won the debates because it's honestly in the eye of the beholder.
There was one thing that did catch my attention though. In the debate, Paul Martin promised that he would scrap the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian constitution.
From the National Post article:
The prime minister then dropped a constitutional bombshell, promising to introduce an amendment to remove Ottawa's right to use the notwithstanding clause, which provides the power to overrule court rulings on charter issues.
The clause has never been used by the federal government, but the Liberals have suggested the Tories would wield it on controversial social issues, such as gay marriage and abortion.
Martin charged that the Conservatives would undermine the charter on social issues and challenged Harper to match his pledge. The Tory leader ignored the challenge and aimed to rise above the fray.
Sunday, January 8. 2006
Just a heads up that there will be a leader's debate for the upcoming Canadian election. It will be aired on CBC Newsworld (channel 20) on January 9, 2006 at 5:00pm, 8:00pm, and 11:00pm (PST). The debate goes on for about two hours, and I encourage eligible voters to watch it.
I think it's going to be interesting to watch because the Liberals and Conservatives are more or less tied right now in the election race. It's anybody's game which makes it interesting. It'll also be interesting to see if the debates will shift anybody's vote.
There are many interesting end game questions for this election:
- Will NDP voters strategically switch their vote to the Liberals on election day if they believe the Conservatives will win?
- Will Liberal support continue to drop more, or will they be able to recover?
- How nasty will this campaign get?
- The Conservatives appear to be tied with the Liberals in Quebec, will this translate into seats? (They've never been able to get any seats in Quebec.)
- Will the Conservative momentum continue, or is it a temporary thing?
- Could any party pull off a majority government even though we're all expecting a minority government?
- Will any more Liberal scandals erupt before election day?
Anyway, this election has been quite interesting to follow. For those who are apathetic about politics, this might be a good election to get involved in. Every party has a pretty interesting policy platform that will affect you. Here's a few things that can affect you depending on who wins the election:
- How much GST will I pay?
- How much will I pay for gas?
- How much money will I pay for mass transit?
- How much will I pay in taxes this year?
- If I'm in need of a medical procedure, how long will I have to wait to get it?
- What kind of loans can I get for higher education?
- Will textbooks be tax-deductable?
- How will the government help me out when it comes to child care?
- How
crappy great will our military and peacekeeping forces be? - How much foreign aid are we going to give out?
Those are just a few things that may be of interest to students. The CBC has a concise summary of the party platforms. The best source to look is obviously the different party's webpages.
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