This is so sad for us Canadians, Harper won again!

[akbacchus_BC]

We just finished voting here in BC, how come the votes were counted so quickly.

Now we are fucked!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I am so sorry. :^( I really had my fingers crossed for you all!

[akbacchus_BC]

4. Thank you, I just want to go cry. This place is going to hell in a hand

basket. The conservatives ran a really smear campaign against the Liberals and the NDP.

Brace yourself Canada, our medical care is going to hell, this is what the Conservatives wanted all along. Why so many of you are so asleep?

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. We're in the same boat here in Maine with our tea bagger guv. He only just squeaked into office.

*sigh*

[Dawson Leery]

2. Sad indeed.

[akbacchus_BC]

7. It's a sad day today for me! Harper is not good for us, have no idea

why Canadians turned so stupid!

[Dawson Leery]

12. 39.5% of voters voted for the Neo-Cons.

With that they get a majority of the seats.

It seems that the US Electoral College is not the only flawed system.

[Jim Lane]

33. The system isn't flawed. Our side didn't adapt to the rules, that's all.

See the explanation in #17. When you have single-member districts with plurality elections, it tends to produce a two-party system. That's because, if one side of the ideological spectrum is united in a single party but the other is split among multiple parties, the side that's united can readily win a majority of the seats with a minority of the votes.

The right was united. The left wasn't. Harper wins. It's not complicated. Quite a few Americans figured it out after the Green Party debacle of 2000, which is why the overwhelming majority of Nader's voters deserted him in 2004.

[akbacchus_BC]

45. We have four parties here. The Marijuana Pary has become useless,

the green party can never gain momentum so we are left with the three others and Canadians are becoming so regressive, it is unbelievable!

[Bluenorthwest]

75. So this is all because the Greens won a single seat?

And that is because of marijuana? How does that work? They won one seat. Wow. Devastating!

[Imajika]

3. He didn't just win, he won an majority government...

Why on earth did the liberals force an election? I just don't get it. I don't know Canadian politics well, but this whole exercise seemed so self defeating.

[akbacchus_BC]

16. Harper was found in contempt of Parliament, hence the election.

[SidDithers]

5. Elizabeth May is leading in her riding...

Looks like a candidate from the Green Party will finally win a seat.

Sid

[akbacchus_BC]

10. She always wanted a seat,,, money for life I suppose!

[redwitch]

6. I am sorry. Know the feeling.

:-(

[akbacchus_BC]

15. I feel so cheated. Canadians are not that political but I was vocal, even

got my daughters to vote. I went through hoops today to vote. I am so disgusted that Harper got back in! Guess I just have to go cry!

[Renew Deal]

8. Doesn't say much for the opposition

:shrug:

[SidDithers]

17. It's vote splitting on the left...

We've got a center right party, a center left party, and 3 left parties.

60% of Canadians voted left or center left, split over 4 parties.

40% of Canadians voted for the center right party.

20 years ago, it was 2 right parties that split the vote and gave us 12 years of Jean Chretien's Liberal government.

Sid

[pnwmom]

24. Okay, that explains it. Makes the 2 party system look better,

despite all the complaints around here.

[Autumn]

25. So the center and right are bad?

seems like 5 parties would suck.

[Jim Lane]

28. Are Canadian candidates chosen in primaries?

Every time I see something like this I wonder why a third party was established. Would it have been feasible for the New Democrats to join the Liberal Party and nominate NDP-type candidates on the Liberal line in many ridings? Then some people who prefer the old-style Liberals grit their teeth and vote for a New Democrat, while elsewhere New Democrats grit their teeth and vote for a Liberal. Many people don't get exactly what they want but it's a darn sight closer to what they want than is a Conservative majority government.

Of course, that depends on candidate selection via a democratic process rather than by party bosses. Does Canada have that?

In the U.S., such a course of action is readily available. I suspect that's one reason that noodle-brained enterprises like the Green Party do so poorly.

[akbacchus_BC]

34. No, our system is very different from yours. We wanted proportional

representation but the people voted against it. Big corporations back their candidates!

[Jim Lane]

37. Proportional representation is a different issue.

How are the party candidates chosen? You can have a reasonably representative legislature with single-member districts if the candidate selection process is open (and, of course, if the campaign finance rules are strong enough and if the votes are counted accurately).

[SidDithers]

49. We elect a Parliament, not a Prime Minister...

we're basically running 308 small elections, each one to select a Member of Parliament for that riding. There are candidates from each party in each riding (well, no Bloc Quebecois outside of Quebec, and I don't know if the Greens ran candidates in all 308 ridings). The party that forms the government is the party that wins the highest number of those 308 riding elections. And the person who gets to be Prime Minister is the Leader of Party with the most seats. The Party Leaders are elected at party conventions, not unlike the Republican and Democratic conventions - except they take place over a weekend, not a year.

The election, tho, is a bit like the House of Representatives, if you had 4 or 5 parties in each congressional district, and the Speaker of the House got to be the Prime Minister.

Sid

[dionysus]

77. vaht? how did you get to ontario? did you drive or did you flew?

[sufrommich]

78. lol. Perfect. nt

[Renew Deal]

32. Can't the 60% bind together?

:shrug:

[akbacchus_BC]

36. Prior to the voting, the Liberals and the NDP were advocating a

coalition but it seems that Harper won a majority!

[SidDithers]

40. Unfortunately, it's not Proportional Representation...

Each riding elects a Member of Parliament in a first-past-the-post election. Even though the Conservatives only got 40% of the total votes, they were the winning party in ~165 ridings, giving them majority representation in a Parliament with 308 seats.

Sid

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

56. Not really,

They really, really hate each other. The NDP shitheads for instance were campaigning just as hard against the Liberals as they were the Conservatives.

[akbacchus_BC]

23. The opposition worked hard but the conservatives started their

smear campaign and NDP is not well liked federally. Ignatieff got smeared as soon as he came back to Canada.

I am so sorry, am so angry right now.

Thanks everybody for the support. Let me go cry and come back.

[LiberalAndProud]

9. So much for hope, I guess.

Sorry Canada.


Maybe we should work out a deal wherein you send all your cons down here and we'll move all our libs and progressives up there. Seems like a reasonable solution to our shared problems.

[akbacchus_BC]

47. Sounds like a good exchange but we want only the liberal ones. I am

really angry you know!

[LiberalAndProud]

51. I do know.

I cried for days when Bush Jr. was (s)elected. Found out that I was more right than I knew not too much later. I guess you know what you're in for. And I really do share your grief.

Edited because * was never elected.

[Autumn]

13. We Americans know that feeling well.

Good luck.

[akbacchus_BC]

52. We beginning to find out how you feel. Your country exported democracy

and did not keep any!

[roody]

14. So sorry!

[akbacchus_BC]

64. Well, am sorry too but we all know why certain people elect certain

people!

[SPedigrees]

18. My condolences to Canada. nt

[akbacchus_BC]

53. Thank you, we will need your condolences in the days ahead. Apart

from the condolences, anybody care what we should do? Politicians lie, bin ladin killed and dumped in the sea, anybody believe that shit?

[chollybocker]

19. But it's not "the Canadian Government,"

...it's "the Harper Government." So sez Emporer Steve.

Non-confidence vote, here we come....

[akbacchus_BC]

55. That is why we had an election and the fucker won again. We sort

of knew he might win but not with a majority! The smear campaigns that he ran against the Liberals and the NDP were disgusting but people like fucktards and harper is one!

[Terra Alta]

20. that sucks.

I just hope Harper and the Cons have sense enough not to mess with your health care.

[bobbolink]

21. It begins to look like the only democratic countries will be Arab ones.

Wouldn't that be a switch?

[akbacchus_BC]

31. Bobbo, after America finish exporting its democracy, it wont have

any left. And your administration buried Osama in the sea. Since when Muslims buried their own in the sea ... that is pollution!

[bobbolink]

76. *MY* administration??? When did I become president????

:wtf:

[pnwmom]

22. Did the conservatives win a majority or only a plurality?

Were progressive votes split among more than one party?

[akbacchus_BC]

27. The media is saying that the Conservatives won a majority, am so

surprised. How can they call a majority when we just finished voting an hour and a half ago?

I am really angry. I campaigned for the Liberals but after the smear against Ignatieff, I knew the Libs won't win, so changed my support to the NDP. Some of us Canadians just don't want change! I have a feeling if the bloc quebecois was not running in Quebec, the NDP would have won.

[iwishiwas]

26. I feel for you, I really do. We, here in Wisconsin voted in a guy

worse than Harper. I still am stunned by it-and sad.

[akbacchus_BC]

29. I feel for you too, however, you have no idea how much this guy wants

to be a mini-Bush! We are now fucked, we have been fucked when Canada refused to take US soldiers who did not want to fight an immoral war.

It is so sad. I never thought that asshole would get elected again. Believe you me am devastated!

Please bear me with you all, am really sad.

[iwishiwas]

I never thought we would re-elect Bush but we were stupid enough to

just that.

[akbacchus_BC]

50. After 9/11, Bush got a lot of support and he squandered it. Same like

Obama when he got elected. But if you only say this, his supporters want to eat your head out.

[GreenPartyVoter]

68. I keep checking on your thread in some hope that the announcement was premature and he somehow lost

after all. :hug:

It sounds like you are having the exact same sort of night many of us down here had when Kerry "lost." Your shock and devastation are absolutely understandable!

[seabeyond]

30. i am bummed, too. i am bummed for you all. nt

[akbacchus_BC]

38. You only, soon Canada is going to attack Pakistan, our asswipe

of a PM is itching to get involved. Canadians just as dumb as some Americans!

[roamer65]

35. Sadly, Canada has 4 years of hell with a Con majority gov't

Only positive I see is the surge of a true left NDP and the near elimination of the Bloc.

The Libs are going to have to discuss some sort of coalition with the NDP for the next election. The Cons are picking up way too many seats in Ontario off from the vote split on the center-left.

[akbacchus_BC]

41. The Bloc needs to go as Quebec is huge and the NDP made a lot

of inroads this time, but somehow the Bloc is maintaining its base, the NDP not so much federally.

Needless to say, am pissed off, I could a swear that Harper would be history but man, Canadians are fucked up and we are regressing which is very sad!

[Zorra]

39. Oh, so very sorry. I'm so sick and tired of conservatives.

Was really hoping you were going to get an NDP miracle majority.
:-(

[akbacchus_BC]

44. Me too, we have our own teabaggers here and the fuckers are racists

as well. I thought Canada was different from America, well that was a thought. No wonder a liberal or a democrat party could not win here!

[Dappleganger]

42. Oh dear, I am sorry.

:hug:

[Fool Count]

43. Did you try, like, not voting for him?

I bet that would have changed the outcome.

[akbacchus_BC]

57. Are you kidding me? I got as many people to vote as I could. Very surprised

that Harper won!

[SidDithers]

60. Only about 0.25% of Canadians voted for Harper...

he only got ~35,000 votes out of 14 million or so votes.

So, no, not voting for him wouldn't have, like, changed the outcome.

Sid

Edit: typo

[akbacchus_BC]

63. Hey, we have teabaggers too and they identify with Harper! The NDP

is too much pro-union and our people are being brain washed by their neighbours.

We have our own racism here too! Ask me and I will tell you.

[Odin2005]

46. Fuck, you guys are so screwed!

:-(

[akbacchus_BC]

54. Pretty much now with Harper!

[SmileyBoy]

48. I live in Canada (Toronto) now.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

I'm only on a study permit, and I'm not a legal resident, so any domestic policy changes most likely won't affect me much.

I don't even qualify for their health care system.

[akbacchus_BC]

58. You can get health care in Canada for a minimal amount especially

if you are a student. Canada is one of the most progressive country in the world. Just Harper is backwards!

[Armstead]

59. Many sympathies

But at least the NDP did well, and may lay the groundwork for an electoral resurgence of progressivism down the line.

And your new official opposition party is better than ours here in the US.

[akbacchus_BC]

62. The NDP did well after the smear campaign against Ignatieff, but as

much as I knew that the Liberals was not going to win and started campaigning for the NDP, I thought Canadians would wake up and vote for NDP, but no, they love the conservatives, so Harper the asshole got back in.

You have no idea how angry I am!

[fishwax]

61. damn :(

[akbacchus_BC]

66. Damn ... could not even say how I feel. Am still confused and dazed that

Harper won again! Shows how narrow minded Canadians have become, kinda sad, we are regressing!

[Mnemosyne]

65. How many electronic voting machines do you have in Canada? Harper = Jr.** n/t

[akbacchus_BC]

67. We have early voting but no electronic voting machines as far as I know!

I went personally and voted as I had a change of address and went through the hoops to ensure I voted!

[Mnemosyne]

73. Wasn't sure if machines had infiltrated Canada yet or not. Thanks and so sorry about Harper/Bush. n/

[SidDithers]

69. All paper ballots, all hand counted...

this is what the ballot I marked today looked like:



Sid

[akbacchus_BC]

70. I know, I voted earlier today. NDP the opposition but am still sad that

Harper got in, he is a failure! Just like Obama and his fucking campaign promises! Close Gitmo, single payer health care, etc. Politicians are using us!

[Mnemosyne]

74. Thank you, Sid. Couldn't remember voting methods of Canada. n/t

[KT2000]

71. I am so sorry

Things were looking good so I was not expecting this. You have my sympathy.

[DonCoquixote]

72. condolances

Between the French going nuts over arab immigrants, the USA still in teabagger trance, and Canada, it looks like humanity may need Asia, Africa and South America to pick up the slack of civilization. I do not think they will.