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[starsrift]

Guess what? I don't give a shit. Our system isn't proportional representation, and there's nothing that will change the way my provincemates vote. If I was anywhere else in Canada but here I probably would.

If the other 45% of your province got off their ass and voted, it might not have been a Tory sweep.
In fact, it probably would have been close to 0 Tory ridings - Tory voters are typically older voters who feel it's their national pride and duty to vote and don't care about bullshit discouragement or laziness, so it's not a stretch to say all who would've voted Tory did vote, and any other vote would've been for something other than Tory.
Voter apathy hits the younger, more idealistic politics first.

I'm just angry because I fear they might pull some stupid shit now like reconsider capital punishment, abortion, and homosexual marriage. These Tories are whackadoodle America-worshippers who shit over our governmental system and retcon documents. I don't trust them an inch.

[PowRTocH]

I got rid of my post because I agree with you mostly. It was just a knee-jerk reaction. Though, I don't think your profile of the typical conservative voter is necessarily correct, the attitudes they reflect are pretty common (even among youth) in rural Alberta. The large pockets of people who would vote for anything other than them are probably the universities, and even they aren't big enough to sway the outcome in the cities that they're in.

I'm just angry because I fear they might pull some stupid shit now like reconsider capital punishment, abortion, and homosexual marriage. These Tories are whackadoodle America-followers who shit over our governmental system and retcon documents. I don't trust them an inch.

 

[PowRTocH]

Another thing I think is a problem that I brought up in my earlier post is the fact that there are 3 main parties: 1 "Right" (which makes them relatively left by American standards (see: elderly care and education election promises), but heading more right as time goes on) and 2 "Left". It comes across as completely imbalanced to me, almost ensuring the Conservatives power by splitting the left votes depending on how socialist one feels that day. In an ideal system there would be more parties of course, but we probably won't ever get there without changing our electoral system, which probably won't ever happen. So yeah.

[starsrift]

Post redacted I was tired and drunk sorry.

I totally think you should not have redacted that post. I don't think anyone was sober in Canada last night except straightlaced Tory voters. And maybe that poor bastard, Duceppe. He's gonna get soused tonight, though, I'll bet you.

[starsrift]

Another thing I think is a problem that I brought up in my earlier post is the fact that there are 3 main parties: 1 "Right" (which makes them relatively left by American standards (see: elderly care and education election promises), but heading more right as time goes on) and 2 "Left". It comes across as completely imbalanced to me, almost ensuring the Conservatives power by splitting the left votes depending on how socialist one feels that day. In an ideal system there would be more parties of course, but we probably won't ever get there without changing our electoral system, which probably won't ever happen. So yeah.

Blah, posted while I was posting.
I dunno. The split between the PC and Reform was a good one, but remember they teamed up to form a bloc against Chretien's massively popular Grit government, because he was getting an insane number of seats. I don't think they'll hold together forever, this Wildrose Alliance provincial stuff is the first crack in the glass.
With the Grits getting so thoroughly destroyed this time around, I think they're gonna revitalize and go rightward to skim off some of the CPC votes as well.

[im9today]

you did the right thing canada. soon you will be almost as conservative as us and maybe god will smite your enemies too

[adam_smasher]

[im9today]

yeah i was just kidding you guys are already more conservative than us

[PowRTocH]

I dunno. The split between the PC and Reform was a good one, but remember they teamed up to form a bloc against Chretien's massively popular Grit government, because he was getting an insane number of seats. I don't think they'll hold together forever, this Wildrose Alliance provincial stuff is the first crack in the glass.
With the Grits getting so thoroughly destroyed this time around, I think they're gonna revitalize and go rightward to skim off some of the CPC votes as well.

Very true. In fact I'm actually pretty excited about the prospect of a slightly-more-right liberals personally, and the Wildrose Alliance business is nice (I like extremes to be represented too) even if it only just shakes up the Albertan votes a bit. At least I'm a little more optimistic now.

[FrankieSmileShow]

Yeah, the biggest mistake this election was how the NDP and Liberal party refused to either merge or split further apart. It skewed the election results at two levels towards the conservatives. Splitting the individual votes for the ridings themselves (this being particularly bad as many, many ridings were close calls), and splitting the seats distribution at the end.

If the two parties had merged before the elections, we would have got the EXACT OPPOSITE, a majoritary NPD/Liberal government, which would probably have got much more experienced political candidates coming from the liberal party instead of the inexperienced kids and grannies who won all over Québec, who were running without expecting to win and were little more than political placeholders. As I understand it people here massively voted for the party and Jack Layton, not for the individual candidates. We got kids who just came out of college in there, people who have absolutely no experience in anything.

Now we are stuck with a COMPLETELY UNRESTRAINED Harper government who won a MAJORITY government despite getting only 39.5% of the votes in a ~60% voter turnout. And now, public funding for elections will be taken out by sleazebag Harper, and political parties will have to rely on making deals with big corporations to get any funding at all, a pretty useful situation for Harper whose platform is all about cutting taxes to big corp.

I expect our finances to go even further down the shitter after they already took em down from no deficit to the biggest debt in Canadian history, I expect abortion and gay marriage to be attacked, I expect increased spending on war and the Canadian Forces, I expect a renewed war on drugs, I expect Canada to keep its standing as one of the worst offenders in environmental issues, I expect Harper to continuously avoid talking to the media and keep us all in the dark, I expect sleazy political tactics to undermine democracy, and I expect the NDP will not be able to have much of an impact if any at all in decisions taken in the parliament.

[Kramlack]

Doesn't Harper want to scrap the gun registry too? I haven't heard much of that since the debate, but it sounds incredibly stupid to me.

EDIT: Not to say that's the most important issue, but I'm going to be disappointed if this happens. I don't want to see Canada get as gun crazy as the USA. No offense to the guys in the US, I know most of you are sane but you get a pretty bad rep for this sort of thing.

[PowRTocH]

It's also times like this where I wish the senate was elected in...

[emacs]

I don't live in Canada and my opinion doesn't matter at all in this, but I'd choose NDP.  Also, why not make this topic a poll?

[PowRTocH]

Because that would be salt in the wound at this point.

[Mattbert]

Definetly not the result i wanted to wake up to. 
Wish i could've voted...

[emacs]

Oh wow, I didn't even realize they already took place.

[The Monster King]

we'd have different results if every vote counted apparently

[gnat]

There's going to be two results from this: A) Voting reform or B) It will turn into a two party system aka American style aka garbage and corrupt.

All of the right-wing parties in Canada merged a decade ago.

STV seems too complex for some people to fully trust.

I propose we use Approval Voting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting

It's a system most of us have experience with from kindergarten, is extremely simple and eliminates the issues with a first pass the post system (vote splitting).

[Soulliard]

Damn it, Canada! Now where will I immigrate to if America elects Donald Trump?

[Kramlack]

@Soulliard: Britain a go-go baby!