I never thought I'd feel so good about finishing second.

[ClusterFreak]

Seriously. Harper's power has been held in check. The Bloc has lost some traction. Even the NDP improved their fortunes. And the Liberals will have a chance to take a long hard look at themselves, and hopefully clean a little house at the top.

All in all, not a bad day's work.:P

[tuvor]

1. Agreed.

Could have been a lot worse.

But I'm still pighoued that our Conservative candidate got elected for the 38th time. x(

[eve_was_framed]

18. mine did too...I think they said mine had been in office since the 80's?

[tuvor]

27. Groovy. I was mistaken!

NDP took his job away!

[dsc]

2. unless you are one of the people who benefitted from Liberal

governance. Gays got screwed tonight. No government will ever grant gays rights again after this.

[ClusterFreak]

3. Well...free vote or no free vote....Harper won't be able to overturn

same sex marriage.

[dsc]

6. He has 124 votes already

and probably the independent. That is 125 and it appears he only needs another 31. I assume the Bloc isn't monolithic in support and the Liberals and NDP can't make their members toe the line like they did last time. This doesn't look good unless I am way off on the Bloc, he only should need about 20 defectors from the Liberal and NDP.

[kevinbgoode]

9. I don't think all Conservatives would vote to overturn marriage equality

do you?

[dsc]

11. Yeah I do

This isn't the old PC party but instead the Alliance. Maybe one or two might defect but I honestly doubt any kind of mass defection.

[kevinbgoode]

12. Then I hope the country is in for a rough and tumble

next few years. . .because if there is anything a wingnut loves, it's divisive politics. And Harper already has a history of outrageous statements.

[HuffleClaw]

21. it won't matter what they do.

the supreme court has decided this issue. the charter of rights and freedoms trumps any legislation.

[Canuckistanian]

25. The Supreme Court has already said that gay marriage is protected

Any legislation can be challenged as going against the Charter.

[daleo]

31. Notwithstanding clause?

Sure, he said he wouldn't use it.

[Spazito]

32. If Harper even dares whisper that he will use the NWC, notwithstanding

clause, he will go down in a non-confidence vote and will lose big in the next election. He knows it so you can be sure that will not be in the picture while he is in this minority position. What will be interesting is to see if he can keep on the duct tape he put on his radical base for the length of his minority government, I suspect not! They will want blood and he won't be able to deliver, it is positively delicious.

[daleo]

34. It will be a huge temptation for him and his party

So, that will be interesting. Privatizing health care (at least partially) will also be a great temptation for them, as will sending troops on a new American adventure.

I don't think Ralph Klein is really that happy about Harper's success. The Alberta Conservatives were in grave peril near the end of the Mulroney term. It was only the defeat of the federal Conservatives that saved them, as they need that federal-provincial tension to exploit with voters here.

Manning has to be annoyed too - he so wanted to be PM himself. So Harper may have lots of enemies in the background, even from his own side.

I guess what I am saying is that all sorts of unknowns come into play now.

[Spazito]

36. Yep, and don't forget Peter McKay, he is very much working

in deep background to unseat Harper, of that I have NO doubt. All in all, sitting back objectively, it is going to be a fascinating year, imo. Who supports Harper on what bill, will his base keep the duct tape on their mouths for the duration of the minority government, who will be the next Lib leader. As you stated, all sorts of unknowns come into play.

[Posteritatis]

33. I desperately hope he tries to

Ohhh, the image of the smackdown that would ensue...

[Canuckistanian]

38. Ohhhh, boy. Let him TRY to use it...

I'll quit my job and work full-time to try and stop him.

[IntravenousDemilo]

35. No, the Bloc is *relatively* monolithic in its support for equal marriage.

Not 100 per cent, but fairly close. I wouldn't worry too much. A bill limiting equal marriage would be voted against by the NDP, the Bloc, and (should the party brass decide to whip them anyway) the Liberals. It would have to go through three readings in the House, which would take a lot of time (no one's going to fast-track a private member's bill when there's government legislation to put through), and after that it would either be handily defeated by the Senate. And if it even got through there and was given Royal assent, the Supreme Court would almost certainly strike it down immediately, especially if there had been a close, acrimonious vote in the H of C.

[HuffleClaw]

20. what?!

what do ya mean? harper's 'promised free vote' is DEAD now. he'd LOSE it. and he's not gonna win any friends by pushing his bigoted views on the issue. and besides, the supreme court has decided the issue.

[dsc]

30. Not according to his chief lt

he was on CBC last night saying there would be a free will vote.

[enigmatic]

4. I agree with you

I think the NDP will benefit the most, and that's fine w/ me...

[Riffi]

7. NDP and Block are the big winners

If the Conservatives get a minority government, nothing will get through unless either the bloc or the NDP go along with them. I really don't see much of a difference.

[Mnemosyne]

5. I knew you folks had enough

more people with sense than we do down here for Harper to win a *mandate* Do you think * would share Jeffy with him? Ha.

Congrats on it being not as bad as it was here in 2004! :hi:

Peace
V

[ClusterFreak]

8. Yeah I'm pretty proud of my country tonight!!

I think it was a just verdict. Paul Martin may have been a crackerjack book balancer when he was Finance Minister, but as a Prime Minister, he has been a complete dud. Harper is held in check, the Liberals can clean a little house, get their shit together. I'm a happy guy.

[Emops]

10. How soon do you think he'll give up being the leader of the Liberal party?

Who's looking to succeed him?

[ClusterFreak]

14. I think there's a scheduled leadership review this spring....

....it's a mug's game to guess who might run to try and knock him off, if he weren't to resign first. I do doubt he will remain as leader if he tries to hang on. Possible names to run, if I could be that mug, maybe Belinda Stronach...maybe Michael Ignatieff (Harvard prof., intellectual type)...maybe some outsiders too. Way too early really to guess.

[eve_was_framed]

19. if it were Bellinda there's no way in hell I could support her

[Roho]

13. i agree 100%

well said

[HuffleClaw]

22. i concur.

i wish we still had chretien.

[Mnemosyne]

24. I'm glad for you CLS, now I

hope we get lucky down here and 2006 lives up to your DU nick!

V

[ClusterFreak]

26. Wouldn't that be sweet??!!

I would soooo LOVE to gas my nickname and come up with a new one!! But I'll hold on to the little bastard as long as the other little bastard remains in the White House!;-)

[Mnemosyne]

28. We're working on it! I would so love to

see you gas that nick also!! :hi:

[tuvor]

15. Well, maybe just barely.

Who knows what we'd've accepted if Diebold had been..."contracted" to help out?

You guys don't have less sense, as you put it. WAY too many voting irregularities mitigating that theory.

[Mnemosyne]

23. I live in red central in NW PA, they DO have

way less sense here, seriously. It's "We're fighting them over there..." bullcrap regularly in the local rag coward call-in line. Until gas is $6 a gal. and there is 10 loaves of bread on the shelf at the grocery and 30 people in line, they will not get that * is a dictator that did this to them to help his base.

And PA just embraced Liebold across the state it seems. Argh. It is getting harder to live here all the time.

I wish you all great luck with the new bunch.

I hope Canada is not considering going electronic? Please say it isn't so!

V

[glarius]

16. I too breath a great sigh of relief.....NO MAJORITY FOR CONS!

[eve_was_framed]

17. that's very much how I'm feeling

[CanSocDem]

29. I'm OK with this result.

Here in the 'land of the living skies' the NDP was shut out again, but there was an overall gain nationally..........Obviously, the good of the collective trumps my personal disappointment.

Being 'buried' in right wing media might be having an effect. We really are smarter than this.....honest!!

[IntravenousDemilo]

37. I'm very disappointed with my home province

for the second election in a row. It's scandalous that there are no NDP MPs from the home of Canadian democratic socialism. Nice to see, though, that the popular vote was higher than that of the Liberals, although I would have preferred that to translate into some seats.

[tlsmith1963]

39. If I Were Canadian...

...I would probably vote NDP. The Liberals seem like they have some real problems, & I would never vote Conservative. But what are "riders"? I was watching the CBC coverage last night on C-Span, & they kept mentioning them.
Are they like voting precincts in the US?

Tammy

[Telly Savalas]

40. Ridings

And yeah, they're like Congressional districts in the U.S. Each riding is represented by an MP (Member of Parliament). And to ignore a bunch of nuance that usually doesn't apply, the party with the most MP's forms government and their party leader becomes Prime Minister.

[tlsmith1963]

41. Thanks For the Info

And I also discovered last night that I had been pronouncing "Regina" (as in Regina, Saskatchewan) wrong. I thought it was pronounced "Reg-ee-na", not "Reg-eye-na".:P

Tammy

[IntravenousDemilo]

42. "Ridings", actually...

According to answers.com, a riding is an administrative division or electoral division in Canada. Originally, it was "any one of three former administrative divisions of Yorkshire, England", and then we adopted the word for our use, but now even the English don't use it anymore, just us Canadians. The etymology of "riding": Middle English, alteration of trithing, from Old English thrithing, from Old Norse thridhjungr, third part, from thridhi, "third". Given the nordic derivation of "riding", it wouldn't be that much out of place if we were to refer to the House of Commons as the Althing.