Wednesday, October 15, 2008
plus ca change...
So, $290 million later, what do we have to say for ourselves?
Not much, apparently. We still don't want to give Harper a majority mandate, but we sure as heck don't want those other guys in there, either. What a mess--the Ceeb is even reporting this election as having the lowest voter turnout since 1898.
Stephan Dion is in a whole heap of trouble. The Liberals' showing in this election speaks pretty clearly to how the Canadian populace responds to Dion as leader. (Which is unfortunate, as he has been fighting an uphill battle this whole time, and I quite like him.) He seems convinced that he will stay on as leader, which is a decision that may end up costing the Liberals quite a lot of money (as it forces them to undertake a leadership review, which their broke party can ill afford). Neither Iggy nor Rae seemed willing to admit to their own leadership hopes last night on camera, but it's got to be on their minds.
The Liberal candidate here, Anthony Rota was re-elected handily; the only one of his party to retain his/her seat in Northern Ontario...Health Minister Tony Clement held on to Parry Sound-Muskoka, turning his 28 vote margin from 2006 into a 10 000+ vote of confidence...and the rest of the north fell to the NDP. Back home in Simcoe Grey, Helena Guergis (who has the dubious distinction of being our country's second sexiest female MP after Rona Ambrose) easily defeated her opponents despite some controversy over Site 41.
The highlight of watching the election results come in, though, was CTV's Craig Oliver, who was wonderfully cranky and crusty, and made sure to ask all of the candidates he spoke to all of the delightfully direct questions that other reporters would just pussyfoot around. You, sir, are my hero.
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3 comments:
The equally delightful and crusty Rex Murphy made a good point last night - Harper *should* have handily won this election, what with Dion not being the leader the Liberals hoped for, and what with all the talk of the "green shift" (which, IMO, never got sold very well). Instead, he was handed another minority government, albeit slightly stronger than the last time. Something went wrong, and Harper should be asking himself what it was.
I'm inclined to think that it was the fact that he called an election that no one really wanted.
Or maybe the part where Canadians aren't entirely convinced that he's not a robot.
It is also the part where the Conservative numbers have stalled at 37% the last two elections in a row... I don't see those numbers moving very much in the near or far future. They have a finite level of support, which means that once again history is about to repeat itself. Forget "unite the right"... it will now be all about "liberate the left" for the 63% who will never vote conservative but can't seem to rally around the other three parties.
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