A Minority is NOT a Mandate
I know, I know… a topic near saturation but if it wasn’t so important I wouldn’t be thinking/writing about it.
I tend to have quite a different slant on the result compared to the press. For all of the polls showing a Conservative MAJORITY??? Ooops. Well I never trust polls anyways, a thousand or two thousand person poll is hardly a template for an election outcome. A window to the future perhaps but like a weather report, wrong as much of time that it’s right.
Looks to me that while the Population was disappointed with a few Liberals but much of Canada voted the SAME? Suprisingly the Liberals have more seats than the merged Conservatives that preceded them. The majority of Canadians still don’t have very conservative views (about 40% of the seats went to Conservatives and more than 40% went to more centric parties - simple math 42% Liberal+NDP and not incl Bloc.) That’s proof positive that there is no “mandate”.
The people have spoken. A minority government that wants to get anything done will need to attend to the issues at hand. Disagreements in the house should be on issues, not just to tear down the government AGAIN. The NDP were quite savy the last go round at forming consensus and it looks like they are key players once again. If the Conservatives are to truly treading on a more righteous path (not doing/saying anything to tear down the government and feed a hunger for power) they’ll have to bridge the nation. They’ll have to show that they respect the values of Canadians. If not they’ll face the same fate they brought on the Liberals. Let’s hope that the bickering is over and that the REAL change is that WHOLE government is more representative of the people, whatever colour or party flavour sits in it.
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I just keep wondering what would happen in another election with say the NDP. It would be interesting to see them rise in prominance. Imagine though a 3 way split of these approx. 250 seats between the Lib, Con and NDP…
Imagine the Government that would come from an 90 Conservative, 80 Liberal, and 80 NDP seated house.
(Plus of course the 50 something Bloc)
OK yes that is not reality but…maybe then proportional rep. or some other way of voting will finally be fully debated.
NDP and the other majors spliting the house? Not too far fetched. I think it will come down to representation. Whomever best presents themselves over the next few months has the best chance for MAJORITY next time around.
Electoral reform? Can’t say I’m too much of a fan. Opens the door to poll takers redrawing the political map. Can this be done in a fair an equitable manner? Talk about politics!!! It’s a controversial topic that’s for sure. Some say, like the case in Quebec, that the seats representing smaller regions outside major centres like Montreal better serve the Province and small communities (others point to the #’s of votes per seat earned) The debate is sure to continue.
Well, the landscape could change remarkably in the next 2 decades or so if Alberta can keep attracting and retaining buisnesses and residents. Especially in the typical Ontario/Quebec tech fields. Then, the amount of seats could rise and the Cons could.. have a quite larger number of seats to ‘typically’ draw on.
Which is sort of like the Liberals have right now in Toronto and Montreal (again typically)