If it's anything like Australia or the UK there's a rush to declare as soon as the result is able to be inferred from early results.
Canadian Elections!
- Thread starter Wrymouth3
- Start date
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Wow NDP lost way more than I expected 
Liberals won way more than I expected too. Glad the CPC lost a lot. THe next election will be really interesting JT goes through with dumping FPTP.
Liberals won way more than I expected too. Glad the CPC lost a lot. THe next election will be really interesting JT goes through with dumping FPTP.
Makes sense. I can't tell ya how frustrating the 2008 US coverage was, given they wouldn't officially call the election until 11 PM when the West Coast put Obama over 270 EVs. It was obvious it was going to happen, but they just kept wasting time with ludicrous scenarios.
Maybe that explains it. NDP really cratered tonight.
Why would anyone who got elected by a broken voting system want to fix it?
I do find it interesting that despite also having FPTP systems, the UK and Canada manage to have party systems that contain 2.5 national parties along with regional ones, while the US is strictly two-party even when the majority of the population dislikes both of them. I'm not really sure why this is.
I do find it interesting that despite also having FPTP systems, the UK and Canada manage to have party systems that contain 2.5 national parties along with regional ones, while the US is strictly two-party even when the majority of the population dislikes both of them. I'm not really sure why this is.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
From what I've heard changing the voting system would benefit urban votes more than rural ones and the Liberals get a lot of urban votes.
Probably because your system is built around primaries and a strong directly elected executive.
warpus
In pork I trust
Why would that be the case? Apportionment of seats has nothing to do with how votes are counted.
Agreed.
The country would have been very different if he'd survived, and the NDP certainly wouldn't be in third place now.
Yes, this is normal. Unless something weird happens, it's usually all over at the Ontario/Manitoba border... unless the Conservative numbers are down, and then they just shrug and wait for the Alberta polls to report and they go up quite a bit (except when we went Reform instead of Progressive Conservative). But in this case they were hesitating somewhat, due to the BC ridings having just closed. That isn't such a predictable province.
This is one promise people are going to nag him about. He didn't commit to proportional representation, but at least he's willing to consider a change.Wow NDP lost way more than I expected
Yeah, that's the problem. No party wants to risk changing the system that got them in.
But Trudeau has to realize that part of the reason he won isn't because some ridings liked him/his party. It's because they hated Harper more and weren't willing to go along with the NDP.
Now there's speculation on whether or not Harper will resign. If he'd lost more seats, it would be more likely. We don't know about Mulcair; he just finished his concession speech. He won his seat, but the custom is that if a party loses a significant number of seats it indicates a loss of confidence in that party's leader, and he is expected to resign.
It's fairly easy to account for that. And Canada's population is >80% urban, even if we're giving rural voters disproportionate influence, urban areas should be dictating policy.
He'll resign as leader, he won't resign as MP.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Yeah he just gave his speech, didn't say anything about resigning as leader but he's already said he would and CBC read off a message about him having talked to someone to find an interim leader and get the campaign for a new CPC leader started.
You'd think there is a powerful self interest argument in the Liberals changing the system to preference voting. As the nominally centrist party oy would shore them up wherever they can outpoll one of the NDP or Conservatives and draw preferences from them to beat the other one.
Just wanted to point out that Canada actually has 3 major parties, and since the Bloc gained more seats, the number is back to 5. Even though the Greens have never had any more than 2 seats, they still run in every riding, and so I consider them a main party.
Well, that's certainly true in Alberta. They only get votes in Edmonton and Calgary, when they get any here at all.
Quite a number of people on the CBC.ca comment pages were saying that if we could vote directly for a Prime Minister, they'd choose Elizabeth May. I would support her without the slightest hesitation.
The Conservatives re-drew the boundary ridings each successive election to maximize their chances of winning. Red Deer used to be just one riding, and now we're two... both with Conservative MPs, no surprise there.
Yep, just heard it from Mansbridge. He didn't say anything in his speech, but he's going to resign as leader.
He won't pull a Prentice; the next Alberta politician to pull that stunt is asking to get figuratively lynched.
It's one thing to cross the floor, but outright quitting for anything other than health or "to spend more time with my family" (politician-speak for "I got caught with my hands in the cookie jar") is not taken well. It's likely a huge reason why Olivia Chow lost her seat.
Well, at least my avatar partly came true: Steve has been HEAVED!
And now Justin Trudeau is speaking... damn, his voice is hoarse from 11 weeks of making speeches...
I'm not surprised. I haven't align with his policies, particularly lately, but I've never doubted his commitment to Canada.
Same as Dion. My most memorable event from the 2008 election was in the French debate, where Dion talked about how much he loved Canada.
Both of the LPC candidates I'm connected to in Calgary are losing narrowly... I'm going to be fairly disappointed if I don't have anyone to hassle about their electoral reform promises.
His French is surprisingly stilted.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Eh afaik the governing party has very little influence over the ridings created, they are pretty evenly distributed population-wise in each province, the splitting of the North Island riding on Vancouver Island resulted in two NDP MPs and the turfing out of the CPC MP who had narrowly won the last two elections. BC and AB both got six neat seats, 3 in Quebec and 15 in Ontario. I'd say it benefited the three main parties but especially the Liberals.
Changing/increased population does make boundary changes necessary in some cases, but some of these changes were just blatantly intended to increase the number of Conservative MPs.
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