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Goldman Comments On The Canadian Election Results
Conservative Party wins outright parliamentary majority, with New Democrats now in role of official opposition. Liberal Party has its smallest representation ever and Bloc Quebecois dwindles to just a few seats.
KEY POINTS:
1. Last night’s election marked a major shift in the Canadian political landscape, confounding the results of many pre-election polls. The Conservative Party rolled to an outright parliamentary majority, winning 167 of the 308 parliamentary seats, a better showing than had been expected.
2. Perhaps more stunning was the reshuffling of the opposition. The election saw the Liberal Party, the dominant political party in Canada through much of the 20th century, reduced to a third-place showing, losing more than half of its seats and leaving it with its smallest electoral representation in history (34 seats). The Bloc Quebecois was reduced to a mere four seats, and its leader resigned. The leaders of both parties failed to win their own ridings (districts). The New Democratic Party gained at the expense of both (particularly the Bloc), surging into the role of official opposition party.
3. In terms of implications, the Conservatives have pledged to avoid tax increases and generally favor more devolution of power to provincial governments. They plan to propose a major revision of Canadian crime laws early in the new session. One industry-specific implications concerns defense, where the Conservatives have supported greater military spending (including a recent order for fighter aircraft from the United States) than other parties. Another is the possibility of looser foreign ownership restrictions in the telecommunications sector. The party platform includes a return to budget surpluses by the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Souce: Goldman Sachs
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@CPL
If you are reading this, please give us your take.
The Liberals and the Bloc decided to snap an election. After MANY years of a minority government the voters simply punished the Liberals and the Bloc. The liberals because their leadership is a bunch of raging douchebags and the Bloc was punished because Quebec now understands that it wasn't achieving anything except whingeing and further alienating themselves.
The conservatives (which in American terms of politics is more liberal btw) won because Harper had a couple of things going for him. One, our banks didn't go tits up. Two, there are still jobs to do (mainly because of demographics and Canada's population being old). Third, and I'm reaching here, I think OBL getting whacked was a big election night push, the conservatives entered the battleground in 2001 with our Southern Cousins. The decision to enter into the fray wasn't popular, but with things being what they were, it was a necessary evil.
The Green party, I'm happy to see, won a seat. As far as experiments in parlimentry democracy that is awesome. The NDP (commies) are just there to act as the friendly reminder that people need shit at the cost of robbing others.
All in all, a good election.
Otherwise...it's business as usual. Nothing changes much in terms of the running of the country. The CAN/USD will put more pressure on the exchange will end up fucking us all in the end. Oil/Food/Resources come from Canada en mass, the stronger Canadian dollar won't many it any easier for people around the world to get by.
Didn't one of the pollies get busted at a rub & tug?
It came out that the new leader of the NDP opposition, Jack Layton, was "found" in a place that had been busted by the police, he was found naked, but professed ignorance of the true nature of the establishment, and no charges were laid. Happened in 1996. Apparently either didn't matter or had a positive impact on some voters.
Career death by hookers and blow is more of an American/British thing. We adopted the habit of the French side of things. People can do what they want with their junk with whoever they want to.
Hear hear. The Tories doing blow and hookers got canned by Harper, not the voters.
Good point about the freedom to wave your privates at whoever you like in private. Speaking of which, were the "Velvet Touch" owners charged with anything, or did it all have a happy ending (was it merely 'suspected' of being a 'bawdy haus')?
Guilt by association bitchez!
That whole 'first past the post' system is a travesty. Look at the province of Saskatchewan (birthplace of the NDP) results:http://enr.elections.ca/Provinces_e.aspx
Cons 256k votes= 13/14 seats
Liberals 39k votes= 1/14 seats
NDP 147k votes=ZERO/14 seats
The NDP's sweeping of Quebec plus becoming the official opposition combined with a solid Conservative majority indicates serious political polarization in Canada.
Bonne Chance CPL
Et toi aussi mon chum,
As usual it was a news worthy shit storm for a week then vanished with the rub and tug. The man has cancer, maybe his wife hasn't touched him in years. Who knows, hopefully she had strong hands and soft skin. (fap fap fap).
The election counting method is suspect as usual. There is always the attempt to shake a vote or fifty from the nonsense of localized voting. I should explain to the other folks around the globe how this works in Canada to determine representation.
There are, say, 10 million people voting in a Canadian general election, the numbers are just an example. In Canada we have six parties that run (it's actually more but I'm not counting the Yogic Flyers party). OUt of 20 million people the real voter per party looks like this.
2 million conservative votes
2.5 million liberal votes
3 million NDP votes
50,000 communist party of Canada (yes there is a Commie Party here)
300,000 Heritage Party (Canadian nazies basically)
1 million rhino party (promise to repeal the law of gravity)
And then there is the other 1,150,000 people that couldn't be bothered because of work, kids, it's raining, have a hang nail. Whatever, they don't show up.
This is where it gets weird. The Distribution by weight of each riding (the Member of Parliment's area, like congress critters have a district) is equal no matter the location. It sounds reasonable until you understand some ridings people win in a landslide or by single votes. So this severely whacks the scale of who can win. So the conservatives focus on rural areas, liberal fucktards live in Toronto and the communists live in Quebec and both coasts. Further break it down on voting patterns of ethnic backgrounds and most new visitors to Canada are either Conservative or Liberal since they already know that Commies are useless twats.
How they hoped it would even the playing field is the government said that they would stop the "hate". So they give the political parties $1.75 per vote. Again...this is where it gets really, really stupid...since the government was giving away money it put severe limits on how political parties could be registered which pretty much fucked the Libertarian Party of Canada, the Rhino Party, Yogic Flying Party). Only five that qualified were Conservatives, Liberal Party, Bloc, NDP and Green because they were/are increadibly well funded regardless of them claiming otherwise.
Then add in another layer of stupidity. We have a Senate, like the US, and in just so happens that our Senate is just as effective as the US...it seemed like a good idea at the time because we were trying to avoid the nonsense of the upper house of lords and the lower house of lords in the UK which is a totally ineffective way of governing a cat fight or politics.
I would go on but I believe there are a tonne of political science courses available online...plus I don't feel like writting a book. lol
We need proportional representation:
The results (if we had PR - proportional representation) would have been: CON 122, NDP 95, LIB 59, BQ 19, GREEN 13 (not a Harper majority at all; instead we get 167 Conservative seats!)
Edit: Adding link
http://www.fairvote.ca/en/Canadians-cheated-again-by-voting-system
Canada's four Western Provinces is the safest quadrant on our Planet..
http://seenoevilspeaknoevilhearnoevil.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-canadas-f...
When TSHTF in the US, they may find some lame excuse to invade Canada for all their resources.
I don't think we have enough fast food drive thrus yet to sustain much of an influx of Americans.
there is already a plan in hand, laid out.. complete! to invade Canada..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red
1. Canada has the Population of California.
2. Arizona on a bad day could take over hippy, tree hugging, commie california.
We already own canada why would we shoot anyone over something that is bought and paid for? unless they dont honor our ownership rights, maybe then I can see the secret U.S. / Canada Cross Border Millitary Pact coming into play.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:trVixuTAGXkJ:wikileaks.ch/wiki/Canadian_counterinsurgency_manual_reflects_US-Canada_%2522synergy%2522+us+military+operations+manual+for+canada&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
http://goo.gl/wNji8 U.S. and Canada sign cross border pact for times of insurrection! Military may cross to help Government(s)!
What do you people do all day? sit around watching Judge Fucking Judy? getting Fatter and Stupider by the second?
@CPL
Thanks. Always appreciate your take.
No problem. Saves people the time of traveling to a Canadian city and drinking in a pub. ;)
The world is turning conservative.
I would prefer it turn libertarian.
But in any event kiss your socialism goodbye.
Depends on your definitions of the words. The Conservatives in Canada increased their vote from 37% to 40%. The socialist party went from 15% to 31%. The so-called conservatives are all about giving welfare to banks.
Good observation, democracy by definition cannot lead to more Libertarianism, sooner or later it bogs down into socialism/communism (by whatever local name it goes by)
+1
+10.
I think you may need to learn how to count tct.
Political polarization Bitchez!
The Conservatives got 40% of the popular vote (the NDP got 30%), of 60% of eligible voters that showed up, which means that a measly 25% of the eligible voters determined a majority gov't... hardly supporting your conclusion about a "mandate from the masses", more like a "farcical aquatic ceremony"
Besides, like BobbyP noted, that Conservatism is only their cover to reel in the populace, they are all about welfare, but only for the banks.
Regards
Canada must not have Diebold yet, just program your election results! Far less messy than these peasant surprises and makes the real rulers, the banksters, job far easier.
Yes, it would be simpler....
US President
Banksta Puppet R
Banksta Puppet D
US Senate
Banksta Puppet R
Banksta Puppet D
add infin.
Pencil and paper! Sometimes old school is better.
I would prefer Libertarian as well. I don't think anyone would be surprised at how fast a "Conservative" will turn to Socialism once he smells the money.
PM Harper is in favour of super prisons, so Obama will like him.
And in true Conservative fashion they will raid the public purse to build them before selling to preferred private (American usually) companies for shillings on the loonie, and they'll be polite about it. It's the Canuckistanian Way!
Meh, the right wing loonies keep the 'spice' flowing south with lots of the more egregious costs 'externalised' nicely onto the backs of the Great White Northern taxpayer, pigeons that they are.
Glad to see a member of the Bilderberg group running my country!
/sarc
Now we can be raped unfettered. Contempt of parliament, the only parliamentary system to suffer. And now they get a majority. You'll hear only limited bleating.
If you're a Canadian who thinks that, by voting in an election, you're part of the solution... you're part of the problem.
How utterly profound.
So the answer is don't vote?
The worst thing to happen to Canada in a long time. These 'Conservatives' are fiscal spend-free liberals, social conservatives. Get ready for deficit increases and police state.
Exactly!!!!!
I will do well under these idiots, but the country will suffer.
I will benefit as a white male wealthy person but as a scientist this will be dark times for my current career.
Liberals got what was coming to them by abandoning the banker roots to the Conservatives. What made them think there was hay to be made competing for the labour vote still puzzles me. I think it won't be long before a lot of folks who voted Conservative are regretting this. We now begin replicating Alberta cronyist fundamentalism in the rest of the country.
Libertarians in Canada should be shitting their pants right now, or at least organizing their resistance cells and support networks.
Without the humour...
Even worse yet, from a USA perspective, the eyes of the all-nude 18 yr-old French-Canadian lap dancers over in Windsor will no longer sparkle when they see a greenback.
I thought the same thing last night. I was bside myself by all the Idiots that voted for Harper again! If i didn't have to take care of my family, i'd leave this country!
Goldman's opinion is more like fortune cookies. Don't take it too serious.
Harper has vowed to get rid of the Gun registry(coming to the USA soon) and is the most Right wing leader Canada has ever had.The other guy (Layton) that got caught is a Rub and Tug in Toronto is a socialist.
When .travelling through southwestern Ontario near Detroit and Port Huron, I have always been struck by the atmosphere and appearance of the land and the small towns and cities. They powerfully remind me of the USA, minus about 20 years. Given the deterioration south of the border, such trips have always been sort of nostalgic.
If Canandian culture is running in the footsteps of the USA, then you Canucks are just entering the George W. Bush era. Maybe your neo-cons can invade Easter Island or something.
Turks and Caicos.
www.cbc.ca/news/background/turksandcaicos/
All sun and sand. No Oil.
No, wait....Just have Turks and Caicos annex Canada. They can justify it as a pre-emptive strike, an annexation by warm and friendly Caribbean people before somebody more menacing covets those oil sands.
being annexed by a population of about 40K people?!? Let them try, i'll go down there myself and beat them with a shovel. They already declined joiniing Canada, so they can stay down there with their coconuts.
bullshit. it matters not what the gov't in Canada is. Canada is a bankrupt corporation and it is owned by hofjuden in The City of London. The canadian peasants are nothing more than collateral for debt. The canadian confetti is worthless. Canadians are spineless Queen worshiping idiots that are clueless about the fact that Canada is not a country. Canada is a legal fiction:
http://tinyurl.com/675rcmb
http://tinyurl.com/6zpxle6
Much of the land here is referred to as Crown holdings,most people don't even give it a second thought.
One could not justly say you hold no opinion on this subject.
Say what you like about the Canadians, but when they have elections, they really mean it. 2 Important Party leaders lose their own ridings! This kind of turmoil is good for politics and the parties. In 1993, I believe the Conservatives were down to 2 seats, demolished as their centrist version was discredited and they had to build themselves back up to a center right (by canadian standards) party.
Imagine Barney Frank losing, or better yet Louise Slaughter losing, you may not have heard of Louise except for her 15 minutes of healthcare fame, but that is kind of the point. Won't happen. Freedom loving Americans apparently never recycle their dinosaurs. I think it probably has a lot to do with the Canadian electoral districts being set geographically rather than districted by partisan commitee, but i dont know how to win that fight here. Gerrymandering seems so ingrained.
Here my opinion from Québec:
- Quebec is more social-democrat than any states in Northern America. And socialist IS NOT communiste. We do many things diffrently here and many works. For example, we approch juvenil criminality with more reinsertion than repression... and stats are there to prove it works better. So the PC (Harper) approch of more repression is not what Quebec wants.
-People around are tired of being in a black and white political ring: you're for independance or you're against it.
- The Bloc isn't bringing anything new.It's been there since 1993 and we were not moving anywhere.
- Quebecers for once remember more then 3 months beyind: the Liberal Party fuc**d us real bad in what is now known as "Le scandale des commandites" (Sponsoring Scandal i guess...) so a Liberal vote was out of the question.
- The PC (Harper) is on the right side of politics and a bit to far into "corporatisme".So they prefer to give suvbvention to the oil industries, breaks for banks and the ultra rich, building more prisons (while our criminality rate is getting lower!) etc etc
I think all this (and other things) make Quebecers vote for the only alternative they had: NDP.
We'll see where that lead us but 4 years of Harper Governement might re-initiate from the ashes the separtism movement since the Harper Gov is so far away from what Quebec want.
Here's my opinion from the Trenches: Québecois in general and Québec in particular are parasitic welfare queens that hardly ever contributed a single cent to the federal budget. On the other hand, why not get something for nothing when all that the Québecois have to do is sit on their lazy asses with both their hands out blackmailing the rest of Canada that if Québecois dont get what they want, they will separate. Canada would have been better off cutting you off and letting you descent to the third world country status - right down there with Zimbabwe. Then, perhaps, you would appreciate what you've got.
Ahah! So generalist for a comment and free. Nice try. Everyone with one brain cell will agree with you...
Maybe you sohould read more carefully before writting.
I'm not even separatist. Not liking Harper Gov doesn't make you a separitist neither it means that i don't apprecitate what we got.
The thing is: Harper like giving money to banks, oil industrie, arms dealers and the ultra richs...
That's not the way i see things.
With the NPD in power, Canada will be bankrupt quickly by to much gift to Unions and wellfare... With the Cons, will be bankrupt quickly by to much gift to the list above...
Since ì'm not in neither list... I still prefer "ordinary citizen" receiving a Gov check then corporation.
If this is the way you see things you can't be looking very hard.
And your 'theories' on what would happen if the NDP had a majority are just that: pure conjecture based on right wing propoganda. The truth of the matter is that Canada has stuff the rest of the world wants, no matter who is running the country.
The NDP would likely be awesome for small, locally owned businesses; not so great for massive multinationals that irresponsibly remove wealth from Canada while ostensibly 'creating jobs'(which they readily hand over to those they import from the third world anyway because they don't have to pay them as much and they have few rights as they are not Canadian citizens)
Here is how I see the Conservative Party of Canada: (I'll stick to the facts rather than disinformed rote)
1. Promised to abolish GST- Didnae
2. Promised to reform the antidemocratic senate- Didnae. In fact they've stuffed it with more of their own at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer.
3. Take credit for strong fiscal policy, but run some of the largest deficits in Canadian history, a la Ronald Reagan.
4.Usurped the rights of municipalities and the provinces (further concentrating power in Ottawa)See:NAFTA
5.NAFTA, GATT, etc. all undermine the ability of Canada to write its own laws. PC's babies.
6.Claim to dislike the principles of Sharia Law while simultaneously cutting funding to the Status of Women program.
7.Allowed the sale of Canadian taxpayer subsidized technology, with no recompense (privatizing gains made by public spending) eg. Canada Arm
8.Would have sent Canada into Iraq, and will send Canadian soldiers anywhere in the world to defend the interests of American oil companies.
9.Polls consistently show the vast majority of Canadians want GMO foods labelled as such, but the Conservatives 'know better', and won't pass the legislation.
10.Polls consistently show the vast majority of Canadians are disgusted with the 'first past the post' electoral system. And when the conservatives were in dire straights a few years ago and it looked like they might go the way of the dinousaurs (even the kinds Jesus rode)they supported reforming it. Now that it operates in their favour: not so much.
That's a short list. Fifteen minutes of research would cure your credulity with a litany of additional examples, honest.
Harper's style of leadership is autocratic and borders upon dictatorial. So much so, that some critical press reports refer to him as "King Stephen the First."
His 'my way or the highway' leadership will be that much more in evidence, now that he can forget about placating the opposition because of his parties majority.
Watch for unpopular, cronyism, reward style legislation being passed and forced down the citizens neck! Harper has now been crowned with a majority and may do what he wants to do. Long live the king!
From the NYTimes:
"Throughout the campaign, Mr. Harper limited his public exposure to a small number of tightly controlled events. Reporters traveling with him were restricted to a total of four questions a day, although they did not necessarily receive four corresponding answers. Sometimes when reporters asked contentious questions, partisan crowds were whipped up into cheers to drown them out."
Canada’s Election Looks To Defy Early Predictions
When the next election comes around about 4 years from now, people will be flocking back to the Liberals. If Justin Trudeau is still around, he will take over the party and reform it. I hope for his sake he gets rid of Ignatief. No offense to him but he spent way too much in in the U.S. with their political elites down there to have the trust of Canadians. This last election just proved that fact.
I think we will suffer greatly for the next 4 years, and the country will most certainly go in a direction it would not have otherwise gone had this been another minority government. There will be plenty of time to repent people, when you lose your jobs, and are stuck with onlypart time employment, you will think about it hard. I suppose we create our own versions of hell, and learn to like it. I'm bitterly disapointed by my fellow Canadians today...
+1
I should have specified that the "+1" has nothing to do with Justin Trudeau ;-)
... Keep thinking that "pleasant" thought. Don't hold your breath but keep thinking that pleasant thought.
Why would you follow Justin Trudeau? Are you as intelligent as his mother?
Don't worry about Iggie, he is long gone.
The election results were very positive. My recommendation to you is to go out and look for a job. You should be able to find one now.
(facepalms)
Are you seriously saying that had the NDP or Liberals (or anyone else for that matter) formed a majority or coalition gov't there would have been a dearth of jobs in Canuckland as a result? Pull the other one. At oil over 100 US bits and bytes/bbl I`m not so sure that Suncor would just pull up stakes if `anyone but the Conservatives` got in. Non renewable natural resources ain't cheap these days, in case you hadn't noticed.
Heh, you are so effed now, and you don't even know it.
Kiss goodbye what's left of your sovereignty. You obviously have been oblivious to Shit Steven Harper Did. And that's just Harper. How long have you lived in Canada?
Just wait 'til Harper cuts his 'free trade' deals with Europe, hands control and oversight of your main bourse over to the English, implements mandatory min. sentences for petty crime, I hope you don't get thirsty either; this list goes on for awhile I'm told...
Gotta love those Canadians, keep 'em in beer, hockey and blue collar jobs and they'll sell their grandkids' birthrights for a pittance, pay extra for the privilege, clean up any mess left behind and apologize for not doing it sooner. Pigeons to the slaughter; anyone for squab?
Enjoy your Creationist Police State! 25% of the voters can't be wrong, right?
I see many people come to you for advice and guidance.
Put your comments in a context. Name a period and a place when the world operated as you desire.
Basically you are saying... BTFD. It can't get any worse.
I don't know if you're more like talking to my dad or his dog. Both of them have Steve as their MP. I see you have adopted Steve's intellectual prowess in debate: say nothing, repeat talking point.
Well, with a comment like that maybe you should grow up, or go fetch me my slippers...
Harper has said many times that he is going to change the political funding rules. The conservatives will be okay with the new funding rules (duh), the NDP will be fine with the new funding rules (because they are supported by all of the union members by force), but the Grits funding source will be obliterated with the new rules. This will hurt the Grits way more than last nights anemic showing in the polls.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/01/cv-elec...
Not sure if I read all the comments but CPL made a big error on his first comment if I understood him correctly. The liberals sent Canada off to war, not the conservatives. Not that it matters, I'm sure who ever was in power would have sent our soldiers to die and protect poppy fields
The only good thing that could come out of this is if Harper kills all gun control laws.