Election Thoughts; NDP Hype And Frivolous Bob Rae

Because you asked I offer my useless but charming opinion on what transpired last night.

The Conservatives won 167 seats easily surpassing the 155 seats needed to form a majority government.

To say it was interesting goes without saying. For you Americanos reading, picture Ralph Nader coming in second in your election to understand what the NDP as official opposition means.

So. Now the NDP suddenly find themselves in the middle of power for the first time in its history.  "What? You mean I have to actually explain and justify my promises, now?"

How they will perform is anyone's guess. I imagine some of their phone calls went a little like: "Hi Mom, I'm on TV!" and "Cancel that trip to Ogunquit I have to work!" Again, for you Yanks, Ocunquit is a popular destination for Quebecers.

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The new buzzword this election cycle is "cooperation." Every election, we learn a new word like an espisode from fricken Sesame Street. Can you say, "eviction?"

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It has been espoused the new conservative-socialism dichotomy in parliament will function better than most think. Perhaps. However, there's a little wrinkle in that belief. The reality is despite its impressive meteoric rise to opposition, most of the NDP seats (58 in total) came from Quebec all at the expense of the Bloc Quebecois (more on those clowns later). They capitalized more on a "protest" vote than their actually policies. People did vote either strategically or with their emotions but not out of conviction or based on issues.

Quebec has given NDP a hold on power they could never have imagined. For the province, it makes more sense to vote for a party that actually can form an opposition. Better to go with a socialist national party than a regional separatist one as the thought went.

It's now a double-edge sword for thr NDP. As a true national party (which is good for Quebec given they actually have a voice as opposed to a bunch of seperatists sitting throwing useless, rhetorical stones in Parliament), they may find themselves naturally pandering to Quebec's needs.

Strategically, it was simple: People were fed up with the pointlessness of the Bloc Quebecois - the party founded by Lucien Bouchard. In fact, it was an opening for Quebecers - thoroughly sickened by the fact a separatist party earning a Federal paycheck and pension on their dime - to skin them alive.

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I mentioned the NDP garnered 58 seats in Quebec but only 44 (22 in Ontario) in the rest of Canada. In Saskatchewan, the spiritual NDP flatland - they managed no seats at all.

The Conservatives on the other hand conquered British Columbia and Alberta and left Quebec to the wolves.

The Liberals, for their part, roamed around the country asking people if they can you spare a nickel for their thoughts.

Can you spell regional split?

We'll see how this plays out.

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I don't trust the NDP won't pander to nationalists. After all, I wouldn't be surprised if some of their MP's elected are soft nationalists or even separatists themselves.

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Elizabeth May won the first ever seat for the Green party. Canada's Green movement is in its infancy stage. Surprising, no?

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About 62% of Canadian voted. Voter turn out in tiny PEI (pop. c. 130 000) exceeded 70%.

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As for the Bloc Quebecois, Good riddance. It bothered me to no end to have listen to them whine about Canada while earning a cheque from Ottawa. Duceppe's entire strategy was to go to the rest of Canada to provoke and then go back to Quebec and say, "See, what they said about you!" It was such a lame game.

Buh-bye.
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Last but not least, I listened to Liberal Bob Rae after winning his seat somewhere in Ontario. They say conservatives feed on ignorance, but liberals say stupid things too in an effort to win support.

I don't know when the crappy logic of "60% of Canadians didn't vote for Harper ergo he doesn't have a true majority and moral right to govern as he wishes" crept into the country's political vernacular, but it's a shameful one rooted in political ignorance. I even remember websites going up yapping on about "2/3 of Canadians didn't vote Harper."

Bunch of history deficient drones I must politely say.

Rae's own Liberals won the election with 37% of the popular vote in 2004. In 2000, the Liberals won 41% thanks to the right splitting itself between the Canadian Alliance and PC who got 38% of the vote.

In both elections, 60% of Canadians didn't vote Liberal! In fact, it was the case in the 1990s as well when Chretien dominated the landscape with his majorities.

Obviously, when Harper was elected they decided to move the goal posts and speak gibberish.

60% of the population not voting for a governing party is the norm Makes perfect sense with three major parties in the mix and until last night a regional block from a big province. To say nothing of fringe parties and indepdendents who manage to get votes .

Naturally, it's rare a government wins more than 50%. And in the pre-war era, it was generally a 50/50 split between the Conservatives and Liberals.

Only TWO parties have ever won more of the popular vote than the other parties combined and that was in 1958, again with the Conservatives under Diefenbaker and the Liberals in 1953.

It has happened where a party wins an election with less of a popular vote than its opposition but this is not the case with Harper. His percentages are roughly in line with historical averages. Actually, given the amount of parties on the ballots, I'd say hitting close to 40% is pretty damn good.

So for Bob Rae to repeat the ignorant claim says two things about him: Either he's a clown-idiot (which I doubt) or he's being coy in deceiving the electorate banking they won't fact check his claim. I don't know which is worse.

The latter is likely but it shows he's no different than any politician in their attempt to prey on the ignorant.

Let the Liberals wallow in nothingness for crap like this.