On September 7th the current Prime Minister Stephen Harper called our 3rd election in 4 years.

Under Canadian Law the election must take place 36 days after it is called and must take place on a Monday, if Monday is a stat holiday it must take place on the Tuesday.

Canadians go to the polls on October 14th.
Parliament will resume in February.


Here is a list of the major parties vying for parliament seats:

Conservative Party of Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
http://www.conservative.ca/ (http://www.conservative.ca/)

The Conservatives are the devil we know and besides their dismal record on the environment and digital rights they haven’t bungled anything up majorly yet. The conservatives have historically pulled the party line of the American Republican Party but up here in Canada we refuse to allow religion to enter into the political fray. I have come to the determination over the years that a conservative here in Canada is like a right leaning Liberal in the States. There really aren’t any true liberals in the U.S. in the sense that I understand liberals here in Canada.


Liberal Party of Canada
Stephane Dion
http://www.liberal.ca/default_e.aspx (http://www.liberal.ca/default_e.aspx)

The liberals lost the last federal election on the heals of a big scandal that cost tax payers a lot of money. The liberals had been in power for about 10 years so Canadians were ready to make a switch. The new leader of the party Dion, while I am sure he is very intelligent and has a keen political mind has one of the worst optics I have seen in modern Canadian politics. After the liberals lose another minority government to the conservatives he will be ousted as party leader.


New Democratic Party of Canada
Jack Layton
http://www.ndp.ca/ (http://www.ndp.ca/)

The NDP is the socialist party. Worker rights, family values, blah, blah, blah. The NDP consistently make up about 15% of the house, they really haven’t gotten past that number and I suspect they never will. A relatively small portion of the population back their policies.


Bloc Quebecois
Gilles Duceppe
http://www.presentpourlequebec.org/accueil.aspx (http://www.presentpourlequebec.org/accueil.aspx)

The Bloc is the federal party of Quebec and is the party behind both separation referendums asking Quebec residents to separate from Canada. Both times the referendums failed by narrow margins. The Bloc has no other participation from the other provinces, so calling it a federal party is very misleading. When Quebecers have no confidence in any of the other major parties they tow the provincial line and vote Bloc. Once again the Bloc will take most of the seats in Quebec, however the Conservatives have been making in roads into Quebec over the last couple of years.


Green Party
Elizabeth May
http://www.greenparty.ca/ (http://www.greenparty.ca/)

The Green party have been around for a couple decades but currently only have 1 seat in parliament. That will defiantly change this election. Many people are pissed off over the lack of action on the environment and want to vote Green party members into seats to give this party a voice in debates.



The conservatives currently hold a minority government. Once Mr. Harper gained the office of Prime Minister he enacted a bill to ensure that elections would take place in a static fashion every 4 years. Mr. Harper however went against his own legislation and called a new election. Do as I say not as I do. What a joke, shitty thing is he is leading the polls.

Look for another minority government, that’s my prediction. Mr. Harper will stay in power, Dion will be booted as Liberal leader, the NDP and the Bloc will keep most of their seats but watch out for the Greens, they are going to make in-roads. They have my vote!


Cheers,

Great, more candidates to read up on!

In all seriousness, thanks for posting. Some interesting reading here, and a nice break from some of the US political nonsense.

With the resources Canada has I am really dumbfounded at the lack of Green representation; not that I am a tree hugger, but it is not hard to imagine the loggers turning the forests of Canada into flatlands and desert as they have been doing in Brazil, without some serious controls.

No worries the Mountain Pine Bettle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle) is in the process of doing that.

Cheers,

Ouch, we have that guy here too, where I grew up. Driving the forest service nuts.

Canada is not North America, it's British America!! :D

I think Canadia should have a Beer Party.

Eh! Vote Molsen's in '08, you hosers!

I think they should have an Hockey Party too. The Hockey Party would work well with the Beer Party, as both go well together. The Hockey Party could help with global warming by sending a Zamboni to the ice caps and have them fill in the cracks and smooth out the ice.

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://www.freewebs.com/beerparty/myblog.htm
http://hockeypartyofcanada.ca/ (looks like a URL squatter)

And before anyone asks, yes there is a pot party too.

Now get out there and vote eh! you hosers!


Cheers,

I can't vote in Canada you silly Canuck!

The first set of debates were last night. The first debate is the "French Debate" meaning that the entire debate is spoken in French. The English coverage of the French debate uses seperate translators for each candidate and vice-versa when the English debate happens tonight.

Canadas official languages are English and French so that is why we have two seperate debates.

I tuned in for about 20 mintues to get a feel for the debate and to say I was impressed was an understatment. The candidates + 1 moderator sat around a circular table in a studio, no audience, no podiums, no soap boxes.

The debate was ACTUALLY a debate, it seemed more like a sophisticated conversation about the issues facing Canada. Even the attacks on other candiates was civilized and comprehensible.


Here is the quick break down on the score card:

Conservative Party of Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Of course all the other candiates singled out Harper every chance they could so he was pretty much on the defensive for the entire debate. You could see the impatience growing behind hose thin lips pressed into a fake smile that Harper has. He held up but neither lost ground nor made ground in the debate.

French is a second language for Harper and while his French has dramatically improved over the years he is still out classed in this debate in terms of language by Dion and Duceppe.


Liberal Party of Canada
Stephane Dion

A instant poll last night declared Dion the winner of the debate though I am sure this could be argued against. He scored some points against Harper and Layton, it seems he made some in roads with the Quebec crowd (which has a huge amount of seats in parliament) so all in all he came out a winner in this debate.

Its a good thing too, his polls have been going down for a couple of weeks now so this debate may help him gain back some ground.

Dion is from Quebec City, Quebec and French is his first language. A poor showing in this debate would have wrapped up his run in the election very quickly, he now has some breathing space.


New Democratic Party of Canada
Jack Layton

Layton has been making some in-roads into Quebec voters and cutting into the Conservative lead so this debate was crucial for Layton. The consensus was that Layton came out a loser. He failed to captilize over the Blocs weakness as of late and didn't really sock it to Harper like he should have.

Laytons first language is English. Besides learning French and using it on a day to day basis his wife is from Hong Kong and Layton is said to be very proficient in Canontese.


Bloc Quebecois
Gilles Duceppe

This was Duceppe's time to shine and make up some badly needed ground in the election. Both the NDP and the Conservatives have been taking up ground in Quebec and since the Bloc can only really count on votes from Quebec this was troubling times for the party to say the least.

Duceppe held his ground and gained a few points off of Harper. All in all the consensus is he made back a bit of ground.

Duceppe's first language is French of course.


Green Party
Elizabeth May

Finally we got to see the Green Party in action. May got a few good shots in on Harper and all in all made a very good showing for the parties first national debate ever. There was a big possibility that she could flop and really put a tail spin on her election run, but she held up in the debate and I don't think she will lose any of the support she currently has. The Green Party is still the dark horse in the race, but I think they will manage to get at least a few seats come election night.

May's first language is English and she has not been speaking French for very long. At times her French was quite elegant, at other times she was mangling the grammer, needless to say she won't be making much in-roads into Quebec anytime soon.


So tonight will be busy. The English debate goes on tonight plus we have the Palin / Biden Clusterf**k going off on all the american stations. I foresee alot of channel flipping tonight.


Cheers,

Curious, is Layton from B.C.? While Vancouver is in fact one of the largest west coast cities in North America am I wrong in thinking it pales in comparison numbers wise to the Eastern Provinces? If so that would seem to be a tall order to make in roads against the Quebecois(sp) in general.

While I am completely ignorant of the Greens and thier overall platform views. in general would May's strong (or unweak at best) showing bode well for the overall in Canadian politics? as in getting the Greens a few more seats give them enough of a voting Bloc to force more consensus dealings from the dominante parties?


plus we have the Palin / Biden Clusterf**k

LOL, come on man are really gonna choose intelligent well thought out debate on relevant policy Issues over that?

Curious, is Layton from B.C.? While Vancouver is in fact one of the largest west coast cities in North America am I wrong in thinking it pales in comparison numbers wise to the Eastern Provinces?

Layton was born in Montreal and stayed there until he moved to the Toronto area for university. His political career started in Toronto. A good percentage of Montrealers and even many parts of western Quebec have large Anglephone (English) populations, this is why it is not surprising his French isn't better than it could be.

The three largest population centers in Canada based on 2006 census data are:
Toronto 5,113,149
Montreal 3,635,571
Vancouver 2,116,581


The three largets provinces by population based on 2006 census data are:
Ontario 11,897,600
Quebec 7,397,400
British Columbia 4,078,400

* Canadas population based on 2006 census data is just over 31,000,000.

Its easy to figure out the percetages and determine that Eastern Canada holds the most power in terms of number of seats assigned to the house.

Ontario and Quebec hold the most seats in parliment and subsequently are the hotspot provinces for elections. If a party can win the majority of seats in Ontario and Quebec they are almost ensured of a majority government and passing legislation that are on their agendas.

Would May's strong (or unweak at best) showing bode well for the overall in Canadian politics? as in getting the Greens a few more seats give them enough of a voting Bloc to force more consensus dealings from the dominante parties?

When parliment sits there are two sides to the house. The official party in power (the winner of the election) and the official opposition (the party with the 2nd highest amount of seats or a colition of opposition parties).

The greens don't stand a chance at becoming a major voting bloc, but in a minority goverment (which is again very possible in this election) every vote counts and some bills are passed on the thinest of margins. So in those cases the Greens could have an effect on Candain policy if they come down to the deciding votes. Small parties in certain governments can hold a lot of sway over the other parties and can captialize on that position.

Personally I want to see the Greens obtain more seats. Right now the Greens only have one seat in parliament. From my perspective the Greens need a voice in the house for environmental issues that are largely going unchecked by the current Conservative minority.

In addition, the more parties and independants represented in the house the better diversification we have in our government which in turn represents a very healthy democracy imo.

I couldn't imagine having only two names to choose from come election day like you do down in the states. No wonder Americans are so polarized on well, every issue imaginable.


Cheers,

It really is amazing that 1/3 of your population lives in just 3 cities.

It really is amazing that 1/3 of your population lives in just 3 cities.

The percentage is much higher Kel, 81% in the chart that I found. The U.S. isn't that far behind us with 79%.

http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/topic.jsp?i=66


Cheers,

The vote is in and as predicted by yours truely its another Conservative mintority, which begs the question, why did we just spend $300 million on an election that more or less produced the same results that we had going into the election?

Here is the breakdown:

143 - Conservatives (37.63% of vote) ** Minority Governmetn **
076 - Liberals (26.24% of vote)
050 - Block Quebecois (9.97% of vote)
037 - New Democratic Party (NDP) 37 18.20
002 - Independent (0.65% of vote)
000 - Green Party (6.80% of vote)
000 - Other (0.51% of vote)

308 - Total Seats

59.1% of all eligible voters made it to the polls. The lowest turnout in Canadian history.


A couple of interesting tidbits here:

- If Canada moved to a more progressive system of awarding seats based on the % of the total vote the Green Party would have won 21 seats.

- The Conservatives were voted in by 38% of the 59% eligible voters that decided to turn up. That means 22% of all eligible voters voted in a Conservative minority government

- Go go democracy ---- PFFFFFTTTT !!!!


I was really hoping to see a better showing out of the Greens but with the fracturing of the vote on the left I think it was inevitable.

Well with 3 elections in the last 4 years I guess the next election is right around the corner.

See ya next time!


Cheers,

Well with 3 elections in the last 4 years I guess the next election is right around the corner.

See ya next time!


Cheers,






Starting to sound like Italy up there :)

So, speaking as an American who desperately wishes we had more than two dominate parties, would you rather have a system similar to ours?

So, speaking as an American who desperately wishes we had more than two dominate parties, would you rather have a system similar to ours?

How can I put this politically correctetely?.... NFW!!!!

The only problem a country faces when you have more parties in the mix is that a minority government is very likely if one of the parties is not dominating the house. Like the U.S. though we have two main parties (Conservatives and Liberals) that have historically dominated the house at different times, like a pendulum.

The other minority parties balance out the big boys and in a minority government can actually hold on to a lot of power depending if they are the deciding votes for legislation.

Most minority governments are shackled by their lack of majority votes for legislation that is introduced into the house. But there have been minority governments that have passed more and better legislation due to the fact that the party in power actually has to debate the point and negotiate a deal that makes many parties happy.

The one thing I HATE about our current system is the style of debate when parliment is in session. The party in power and the minority governments sit opposite of one another (similar to England). MPs (Minister of Parliament) stand and deliver their portion of the debate which is all and good. BUT, while that MP is talking the opposite sitting party members are basically heckling the MP that is talking. IT DRIVES ME NUTS! They sound like a bunch of 5 year olds. I would MUCH rather see a debate system like you have down in the U.S. I have NEVER heard or seen the type of bull shit that happens in our debates down in the U.S.

In short, more parties on the national scene can only benifit the health of a democracy.


Cheers,