The big election was this week. In case you missed it, our neighbors to the north held their parliamentary elections. Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party maintained his position as Prime Minister with his party winning 143 seats - still 12 seats short of a majority. I wished I had been following this more closely - didn't even know it was going on. I stumbled across coverage on C-SPAN Tuesday night as the results rolled in... pretty cool, eh?
The thing I liked the most, on the surface, about this election was that four parties won a significant number of seats. Finishing with the second most seats was the Liberal Party with 76 seats. The Bloc Québécois won 50 seats (all in Quebec) and the New Democratic Party won 37 seats. Additionally, two seats went to independents and the Green Party managed 6.8% of the popular vote nationally.
The Liberals had the worst showing since 1984 when Mulroney's conservative coalition won in a landslide. This is after they ran the government from 1993-2006. The NDP won its most seats since taking 43 in 1988. The BC maintained its consistent showing as the powerhouse in Quebec since the introduction of the party in 1993 after the Conservatives failed to hold up their end of the bargain in promoting provincial sovereignty for Quebec.
I also think that it is pretty cool that five party leaders participated in the debates (despite some protests of the inclusion of the Greens). I think we could learn some things from our neighbors to the north.
The third party candidates here in the U.S. were supposed to have a debate tonight. In typical third-party dysfunction, it became disorganized and was canceled. Looks like there is hope for later this week.
Tuesday night also saw the third Indiana gubernatorial debate between incumbent Republican Mitch Daniels, Democrat Jill Long Thompson, and Libertarian Andy Horning. We'll be reviewing this race in close detail soon!
Oh yeah... McCain and Obama debated again too. It was the best of the three. Nothing new. McCain was grumpy.
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