Sorry about the headline. Just trying to liven up the other news of the day. I think it’s fair to say the death of Osama bin Laden has reduced U.S. coverage of today’s Canadian election from 0 percent of network airtime to 0.0000 percent of network airtime. So, in the interests of driving down Corner traffic to near undetectable levels, I thought I’d provide an update:
Canada’s Conservative party has been returned to office, and for the first time Stephen Harper’s ministry will enjoy a parliamentary majority. Always good to have one nation on the North American continent with a Conservative head of government.
On the other hand, the NDP (that’s Canadian for the Socialist Loon Party) has near tripled its representation, thanks to a last-minute revelation that its leader, Jack Layton, had been found naked with a “masseuse” during a police raid on a bawdy house. One never knows what will finally cause a party to make a breakthrough with the electorate, but Mr. Layton’s was the money shot heard round the world.
Meanwhile, the Liberals, the most successful electoral organization in any Western democracy and a party that governed a G7 nation for an unprecedented 70 years during the 20th century, has been reduced to third place for the first time in Canadian history. And a very distant third, too: 33 seats versus 168 for the Tories and 104 for the Dippers. As things stand right now, Michael Ignatieff, former Harvard prof, my sometime BBC colleague and Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, is on course to lose his own seat in Parliament — thereby conveniently accelerating his return to Harvard and/or the Beeb, and a speedy end to his ill-advised foray into Canuck politics.
Mr. Ignatieff’s only consolation is that the Bloc Québécois, the separatist party, suffered an even more catastrophic repudiation by the voters, being reduced to two (or possibly three) members. Its leader, the agreeably insane Gilles Duceppe, lost his seat. Not as bloody as a SEAL assault, but, upshot-wise, pretty much the same.
I believe the White House plans to release a dramatic photograph of Obama, Biden, and Mrs Clinton sitting around in shirt-sleeves anxiously watching Canadian election results in the situation room.
I know little to nothing about politics is Canada, but caught a lot of the CSPAN coverage the day the no confidence vote occurred. (I know... what was I doing watching that!!) By the Canadian Press coverage that day, you would have thought there was hardly a reason to have an election. Liberals would win in a landslide. American's, apparently, can learn a lot from our neighbors to the North. Keep up the fight!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...thanks to a last-minute revelation that its leader, Jack Layton, had been found naked with a “masseuse” during a police raid on a bawdy house."
So there I go to google, and I find....nothing.
Which, today especially, convinces me that what you say is TRUE! Maybe secret true, maybe twisted true, but true in some effable, ineffable way.
So, please provide a link!
In any event trying to sort out "inside Canada" stuff is very difficult. What, for example, is a "grit"?
Nevertheless, I infer that Canada has simplified things, a bit, and is now more like the US. Split basically 50/50 between the center right and those who'd like to get stuff for free.
The final battle of the ants and grasshoppers may be approaching.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHappy to see the party that wants to break up the country turfed from Parliament...courtesy of the NDP, which prefers to run the country into the ground in one piece.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI live in Sherbrooke, Quebec where the NDP wave took out the 5 term Bloc MP, Serge Cardin. I would guess that very few people here realize that they just elected a 19 year old student to represent them in the Canadian Parliament.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMark, how could you forget to mention the Green Party? Canada is also, strangely, the one nation on the North American continent with a Green representative. (The Green Party being different from the NDP in some way indiscernible from this vantage point.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a small-c conservative living in the heart of Vancouver (aka Canada's Left Coast), this is a loooooong overdue event. I'm ecstatic that the separatist Bloc Quebecois has been decimated and I'm very happy that the Tories have finally won a majority.
Now I will sit back and observe whether much real change will come to Canada. Will our insane public spending increases be stopped? Will the despicable Free Speech tyrants be fired? Will CBC News (aka Pravda de Canuckistan) have all of their public funding ended?
Or will it be simply another replay of Brian Mulroney's CINO regime?!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd yet, nothing will change?
The Conservatives are not going to roll anything back are they? And their socialized medicine remains in place even with a Supreme Court ruling striking it dead?
We are doomed.
Congratulations to them anyway.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSorry, but *YAWN*. I love Canada, but does anything truly interesting or dramatic happen in their politics?
At least our previous troubles regarding the U.S. and the Canadian "soft wood" industry made for some fun headlines. :)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMark.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI keep telling you, 'NDP' stands for 'Nutty Delusional Party'.
To remember that, just think of the US, where the "(D)'s" are *also* the Delusional Party.
And Iggy is as dead a doornail as OBL! Yahoo!
Well, good news. Now, how about how they are going to handle Canada's Thought Police Agencies?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is their first crack at governing with a majority, and they have a host of rollbacks and vote-ready legislation that they can bring to the table immediately. I'm willing to give them another chance.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@CT NRO man, Which Supremes are you talking about? Yank or Canuck. Not aware that our Supremes have stuck down any part of the Canada Health Act. As for being doomed, well yes, we are all doomed but not by socialized medicine, but by uncontrollable spending on your side of the border.
Ya, I know about your defence of the free world so that we can spend our money on doctors, but I'm not aware of any US Army bases on Canadian soil. So that argument is getting real old. Right now our federal debt is 560 Billion. Your's is 14 Trillion. The term unsustainable comes to mind. Doomed indeed.
PS: Maybe this comment of mine will get posted, because for some reason alot of my other, very civil posts don't.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs for NDP supporters, they're celebrating tonight, but it's hilarious that, at least for now, no leftist party can grow without cannibalizing the other leftist parties. When the country sees that they are just as ineffectual as the Liberals, their seat count will shrink, probably in direct proportion to the Liberal advance.
Unless the Conservatives pull a Mulroney, they will become Canada's natural governing party of the 21st century.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs one Mark to another and one that cares about my fellow North Americans, I think this is a great column. I love the headline. To the other commenters, I think Stephen Harper now gets to do some serious reforms. You have to remember that he was a majority-minority government until now. Thus I think that you will see some substantive things come from Ottawa. Be patient, my friends. Be patient.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCongrats Mark! And to my friends who've suffered through life in Canada for the last 50 years. May a new day of freedom and faith dawn over the frozen tundra.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a former resident of Montreal, I'm always happy to see the Bloc Quebecois go down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's about time. Now maybe the Conservatives can actually DO something without having to get a bunch of leftists to agree with them. When everything you try to do can literally be stopped by the other parties and you are constantly at risk of having your government brought down, you simply cannot do anything bold to get the country back on track.
The big question is - do the Liberals bounce back or do they wither on the vine, with the more moderate bunch joining a centre-right Tory party and the left side of the party heading off for the Dippers?
Good riddance to the BQ. If Quebec is going to stay within Canada, it was long past time for the province to stop electing a bunch of nationalists. Although I still wonder if the rest of Canada shouldn't just cut them loose.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat is it with some people? Why does an election have to result in change in order to be meaningful? In Canada, we had the opportunity to vote for change, in the form of the left wing NDP party. Unlike the USA, we decided against it. I guess we are not yet so deeply mired in self pity that we would vote for the 'hope and change' ticket while living in one of the richest, most civilized nations in the world. How's that working out for you folks down south by the way?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I'm always happy to see the Bloc Quebecois go down."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's what Jack said!
"Jack Layton, had been found naked with a “masseuse” during a police raid on a bawdy house."
No kidding?
Sorry, Cheney's Assassination Squad's kinectic action on the man who caused man-caused-disaster had driven the MSM's Canadian coverage down a few more decimal zeroes.
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