To All My Canadian Friends

[TheWatcher]

I don't want to go into a huge diatribe, so I will just keep this simple and short.

I feel a little better after reading all the Posts from those in the know and in the thick of it. I am still very concerned and very worried that these Jackals have even gotten a FOOTHOLD of a say in the way you do things.

BE CAREFUL.

Remember what happened 12/12/2000. And REMEMBER what happened since.

DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

I trust you guys and I BELIEVE in you.

I Love Canada, and I want you to remain the bright and shining star you are. YOU guys are the hope for the future right now, because our country is broken and we have much to fix, so many of us look to you to lead the way to the light. I stand behind all of you.

Perhaps we are being a bit alarmist, but REMEMBER how WE got blindsided with the Fascism we almost didn't see coming.

Be wary of this Beast.

His teeth are sharp.

My heart is with you.

You will prevail.

[ClusterFreak]

1. Appreciate your words....

I'm a small "l" liberal, I voted for the Liberals today, they lost, but it's okay. Harper and his gang are on a short leash, and will remain there. They won a slim minority and are wearing a choke chain. The Liberals - in truth - needed to go to the garage for some retooling, and now they'll have that chance. They'll be voting on a new leader in the coming months (Martin stepped down tonight if you didn't know), and I believe will return in much better form. Also, the "sponsorship scandal" which you may have heard so much about, was a devastating blow from which they never recovered. It had to do with giving government contracts to Quebec ad firms friendly to the Liberal party....in the name of promoting Canada within Quebec. Some crime, huh? Anyway, it was stupid, and illegal, and now the Liberals are paying the price. So in a nutshell....we're going to be fine up here. Had it been a Conservative majority....not so fine. ;-)

[CanuckAmok]

2. It's a good thing.

The Cons got where they are by attacking the Liberal Party (who, in all fairness, are fat and corrupt, and needed a good attack). Now the Cons are going to be the source of the Prime Minister. They're the ones who are going to be in the hot-seat. They aren't going to have the time or the resources to attack, and they don't have the unity to advance a clear agenda. In any event, they're too extremist for most Canadians. The party is full of notjobs from the previous incarnations of the Conservative Party (the Canadian Alliance and the Reform Party).

If they had stayed in the fringes for another few years, they would have continued their attack, the Liberal Party will have been further worn-down and the possibility of a Conservative majority gov't would have been a real possibility.

But now, there will be a non-confidence vote within the year, and (I bet) another election in the Fall, or Spring 2007. After a year of not getting anything done, they will be the goats.

They'll be out. They'll have less seats than a taliban movie theatre.

As it stands tonight, they're going to have roughly 36% of the House of Commons.

That means that the centrist Liberals and leftist NDP will have roughly 30% and 17% respectively. Together, they will have 47% of the House. And the Bloq Quebecois are slightly Leftist (although to regionally-involved to be of any major importance), and they will not compromise with the Conservatives. They don't love the Liberals, either, but they would rather a Liberal Party influincing government than a Con party. They'll sit, content, with 10% of the House. The only way they could influence policy is if there was a huge rift between Liberals and NDP over a specific issue, and the Bloq's 10% could swing the balance.

And the independents (including one Green seat, I believe), for what it's worth, will not side with Harper.

The Liberals will have to work with the NDP, and to a lesser extent with the Bloq, to get anything done.

The Liberals are going to be very busy restructuring their ranks, and redefining their party's mandate. In the meantime, all they will do is block Conservative intitiatives in the House of Commons, and they need the NDP support to do so. Layton (NDP) is no fool; his party is probably the most defined ideologically, and if he can resist being corrupted by Liberal bribery, he will have a previously inimaginable influence in Canadian politics.

[SidDithers]

6. The independant was a Radio Host...

in a riding outside of Quebec City. Don't know much about him, but unfortunately, he wasn't Green.

Sid

[CanuckAmok]

7. ah. Early-on, it looked as if a Green was going to take one of the...

...Northern BC ridings. I assumed it was her.

[Brundle_Fly]

3. thanks Watcher.

appreciated.

:hide:

[TheWatcher]

4. Thank YOU. :)

All Of you.

Know that your brothers and sisters in the States are concerned about you and we care. I know we have absolutely NO room to be complaining to ANY country about it's politics, but we don't want to see the same thing happen to you that happened to us.

Thank You to all of the Canadians on this Board who offered so many thoughtful and insightful Posts to help us understand better, and ease our fears and expand our understanding of the way things work up there.

We Love You.

And we are behind you.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Two things to watch:

1.) The rise of well-heeled Conservative media takeovers.

2.) The quiet introduction of privatized vote counting.

-- a friend

[Lisa]

8. thank you ...

I hope that our opposition parties will have the courage to haul on Harper's leash if he starts trying to implement Bush-type policies -- even if it does mean another election.

The fact that the voters didn't obliterate the Liberals (as they did to Mulroney's PCs) suggests that a) they are still wary of the Conservatives, and b) they like many of the Liberal decisions so far.

I thought it was interesting that the Liberals and NDP fielded far more scrutineers in my polling station than the Conservatives did, even though the incumbent Conservative hung onto his seat yesterday. (They seem to have hauled in business associates and family members who didn't know how to monitor an election.) If they are so powerful, one would think they could have had more people working for them (an important measure of how committed their party members are).

Maybe they will lose the riding next time. The NDP candidate came 2nd, and the Conservative's lead dwindled considerably.


p.s. I'm pleased to say that the manual vote-counting (of paper ballots) went smoothly. If Harper does try to "reform" the system by replacing citizen volunteers with machines, I hope that there will be a storm of protest, in favour of retaining public involvement in the process.