Canadian Federal Election

[Actor87]

Dang!! I had no idea there were so many Candians in here.....

[darraholic]

Should be interesting to see who goes for Leader of the Liberals. Belinda is a sure bet.

[Evan]

I'm not an expert on Canadian politics, but it seems the Liberals shot themselves in the foot and probably got the result they deserved! I bet Bush will be happy, now he's got a buddy to play with!

[Hartless]

I'm pleased with the results. It's basically the best outcome we could've hoped for. I would've HATED if the Liberals won again, Martin did a piss poor job as PM and was weak. I'm glad he resigned (and I agree, classy of him). Harper is just as stupid, but at least he's got a minority government! This means he won't get much power.

Hoping the NDP and the Liberals pick up more seats, Liberals get a stronger leader or NDP just becomes a very strong candidate.

Now let's all welcome Prime Minister Harper (ick)

[ericlizafan]

The Liberal's didn't get in, so I'm happy!

[darraholic]

Alot of what Harper wanted done most likely won't happen. He'll have a really hard time passing the Vote for Same Sex Marriages, Getting rid of the Kyoto agreement & Private Healthcare. The Liberals, Bloc & NDP are all against it.

[Toups]

Good to hear.

[crc]

Wow! Let me get this straight. Canada has a multi-party system, as opposed to the U.S. two-party system? I wish we could go in that direction or at least make it easier for third-parties to exist in our government.

[darraholic]

Yes but only 2 parties have ever been in power Liberals or Conservatives. NDP & Bloc have never been in power.

[SpiritualJunkie]

Well...me, my sister, and parents voted NDP.

And NDP's only 4th in the number of seats they have in Parliament. Yeah, that's the thing that counts but if you look at the results by popular vote, they came in 3rd with around 17% of the total votes and obtained 29 seats. The Bloc might have obtained 50 seats..but they only got 10% of the total votes. Just goes to show you how much representation they get in Quebec.

As for a Conservative government..I saw it coming but like I predicted, it's a minority government..in fact, it's an extreme minority government. Combine the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc together and Harper isn't going to be able to reach all his goals...unless he turns out to be a "You can kiss my a--" type of guy. I guess we'll see.

It was very classy of Paul Martin to step down like that. But like some of the commentators said last night, he's like that guy that can lead a group of men over the trenches but you wouldn't want him leading the war. The Liberal Party became fractured because of him so it's good that he realized it was better to step down and let the Party start regrouping itself.

[Adam]

Last nights election results I really think is the best the Liberals could have hoped for. The reports that they were going to get wiped off the map and be reduced to a "smoking hulk" were obviously grossly exagerrated. Now the party can take some time to step back and elect a new leader and try and unify the party which really has been divided since 1990 when Jean Chretien defeated Paul Martin for the Liberal leadership. Paul Martin in my honest opinion has been one of the worst Prime Ministers this country has ever seen simply due to his indecisiveness on many things and his failure to keep the party together. This party needs time out of power to get its act together. It is not a strong minority and yes it will be difficult for Mr. Harper to get alot of his ideas through but I don't think any 3 of the opposing parties are going to be chomping at the bit to defeat them. Liberals will be searching for a new leader, the Bloc does not want another election until the Quebec provincial elections early next year and well the NDP had the best showing they've had since 1988 so no one will be in a hurry to bring them down. What it will do though is keep the Tories in check and they will have to find support on an ad-hoc basis.... that being said I am absolutely thrilled that this country has stepped back slightly from the far left direction it has been taking over the past few years. We are shifting back to the centre which is where Canada has always been governed from. Harper won't govern from the far right because he would simply not be around in power for very long. The Conservatives are far more closer to the centre than the Liberals are right now. They need to figure out what they stand for and get united on those fronts, get a new leader and come back as Canada's centrist party, instead of veering dagerously into the far left which is not a place I want to see this country go.

[SpiritualJunkie]

Ehhh...I don't mind Canada leaning a bit to the left. In fact, with the way university tuitions have been on the rise in the last few years, I wouldn't mind it at all.