January 23rd, 2006

Filed under:
Politics
7 Comments »

I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Overlords

People of Canada, I give you our new Prime Minister. From one paragon of charisma to another. A few random thoughts on tonights election, before I get back to work:

  • Check out Roland’s photos from the Library Square Pub, which was overflowing with election watchers–thanks to everybody for coming down.
  • This government is going to make for some strange bedfellows.
  • I predict that it’ll be at least two years before another election. All the parties will recognize that the Canadian people are a little fed up with
    elections.
  • Harper is the first non-Quebecois Prime Minister since…who? Kim Campbell?
  • This election was kind of a no-win situation for me. I really didn’t think
    the Liberals deserved another term, and I don’t care for much of the Conservative
    Party’s platform. Hopefully the CPC will have to govern toward the middle.
  • Jen says it’s
    all my fault    .
  • For a few exciting minutes, the CBC showed the
    Green Party with a seat    .
  • My childhood riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, a Conservative stronghold, went Liberal for the first time in over 30 years.
  • The Liberals need to clean house (or at least offer the appearance of cleaning house). Bring on Belinda Stronach as party leader. It’d never happen, but I think it’d be a ballsy declaration of intent.
  • Peace out, Sam Bulte. From a pro-user zealot.
  • Rob makes an interesting observation about share of votes compared to share of seats.
  • James writes about his experience counting ballots.
  • Roland’s fancy, new phone captures some decent video quality (I can’t say much for the content).
  • A reasonable explanation of why Vancouver Centre took so long to report in.

I’m headed down to Seattle for Microsoft Search Champs v4 tomorrow, so blogging will be light and heavily NDA’d over the next three days.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Rob Cottingham
January 24th, 2006
12:21 am

Sounds like a great time; I’m sorry we didn’t make it. We just plum ran out of steam, and for the first night in way too long, I got to curl up on the sofa with the woman of my dreams and watch the results roll in.

[Reply]

double-plus-ungood
January 24th, 2006
10:46 am

Harper is the first non-Quebecois Prime Minister since…who? Kim Campbell?

Paul Martin was hardly Quebecois. He grew up in Windsor and Ottawa, and English was his first language.

[Reply]

Lindsay
January 24th, 2006
12:26 pm

Darn, I missed all the fun! I watched the results roll in with my cousin over the phone. We cheered when the Green Party had their little seat too. Liberals won in my riding, no surprise there — has Vancouver Centre ever elected a non-Liberal? Anyone have stats on that?

[Reply]

double-plus-ungood
January 24th, 2006
4:35 pm

Liberals won in my riding, no surprise there — has Vancouver Centre ever elected a non-Liberal? Anyone have stats on that?

Kim Campbell, Tory Prime Minister, was MP for Vancouver Centre. She took the seat over from Pat Carney, cabinet minister in Mulroney’s government.

[Reply]

Jeremy Wright
January 24th, 2006
5:03 pm

Y’all don’t know the meaning of the word stronghold. Out here there are ridings that have been red since CONFEDERATION!!! (literally, blew my mind when the announcers said it)

God bless the maritimes, eh?

[Reply]

Rick Vugteveen
January 25th, 2006
1:01 am

I predict that it will be at least two years before another election. All the parties will recognize that the Canadian people are a little fed up with elections.

While I agree that there is a high probability happening as there is little public interest, I think that there is too much to gain politically for one of the parties not trigger an election at some point in a year or two.

Say the Liberal’s elect a new leader and experience a “forgiveness” bump in the polls, what’s going to stop them from tossing out a possibly un-popular Conservative Party?

At the other end of the spectrum, what if the country starts warming up to Harper and he is in majority territory with the Liberals MIA?

What this election has shown is that the electorate does not punish those who trigger an un-popular election - a few weeks into the campaign and all is forgotten. Throw in a volatile minority where it is one right wing party in power against the left leaning house majority.

I love the post, I just thought that I would throw in a little bit of cross analysis. Either situation is possible, making Canadian politics exciting once more!

[Reply]

double-plus-ungood
January 25th, 2006
7:00 am

What this election has shown is that the electorate does not punish those who trigger an un-popular election - a few weeks into the campaign and all is forgotten. Throw in a volatile minority where it is one right wing party in power against the left leaning house majority.

I’m betting that Harper calls an election right after the Libs pick a new leader. Better to hold an election at that point before everyone’s sick of the Tories, and before the leader can look effective in opposition.

[Reply]

Add a comment