"...and Lord knows he ain't got the smarts"

Who can place the above quote? Anybody? bast2? Anybody?

So yeah, OK, probably nobody who's gone to university outside of Ontario will get why this is so funny, but I'm LMAO here. Because when I went to Queen's, Waterloo was widely thought to be the home of the most brilliant but most pathetically socially challenged persons this side of Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.

Also chuckling at some of the other smart cities on the list: Cleveland (hi, bear!), Ottawa-Gatineau, Nunavut, Sudbury, and Calgary.

( Waterloo, Ont., in battle to be named world's most intelligent community )

Election Day 2006

So by tonight we'll see if Canadians are capable of showing we're dumber than a sack of snow by electing a majority government that has campaigned with the promise of celebrating homophobia re-opening the gay marriage debate, screwing with the rest of the planet and fouling our own nests repudiating Kyoto, stealing from children to feed rich businessmen ending tax breaks to middle and lower income families and replacing them with tax breaks for businesses, and a host of other short-sighted, selfish and greedy (IMHO) questionable promises.

No, I'm not blinded by my biases, why do you ask?

At least I don't feel like I'm going to throw up, as I did during the American election. I figure our politics don't have quite as much of an impact on the rest of the world. It's still depressing, though. Because I have a terrible sinking feeling that by tonight we'll have a Tory government that will stay in place at least five years, and that's really... ack.

Bring on the Maalox

Just voted. bear, I feel like you, when you were saying things like "Please please please don't let Ohio fuck this up" before the American election. Because it's disheartening to know that your home is instrumental to putting a total a****** a leader you find unpalatable into power.

See this pretty little page called Marginal Seats in 2006 Canadian Election? Ridings where, in the last election, the candidate won by 5% or less? 58 seats that may determine whether Stephen Harper gets a minority seat, or a blank check to sell us all down the river? Ottawa West-Nepean, that's us!

On a cheerier note, I've never seen so many Green signs. And I personally know at least two people who are voting Green this election. They're projecting 1 million Green votes nationwide (remember we've only got 32 million people) - although unfortunately, not a single seat, as per usual. Maybe next time; the vote either doubles or quadruples with every election, I forget which.



Edit: And they picked a great day for the election, too. At least, according to this page, linked to by linaelyn: January 23, the saddest day of the year.

As the votes are counted...

CBC.ca has the running tally. There are 308 ridings, and the Conservatives need 154 to win a majority government.

Total Elected and Leading so far...

Party	Elected	Leading	Vote Share
CON	12	75	35.01%
LIB	19	56	38.28%
BQ	1	30	1.61%
NDP	3	18	21.94%
IND	0	1	.34%
OTH	0	0	2.82%

And OK, this is depressing. In my own riding, we're apparently electing a Conservative. The good thing is, apparently he's a really nice guy and an honest politician. The bummer of it is, he's a Conservative.

And as a further bummer... well, here's the breakdown:

DISTRICT: Ottawa West-Nepean
(15 of 245 polls reporting)
Candidate, Party, Vote Count, Vote Share
John Baird, CON, 1072, 42.69%
Lee Farnworth, LIB, 887, 35.32%
Marlene Rivier, NDP, 387, 15.41%
Neil Adair, GRN, 116, 4.62%
John Pacheco, IND, 45, 1.79%
Randy Bens, CAP, 4, 0.16%

So John Pacheco, whose one and only campaign statement seems to be "Preserve Traditional Marriage: Elect John Pacheco", has 1.79% of the vote. Granted, that's only 45 people so far. Still depressing. I mean, his e-mail address is johnp@march4marriage.ca and his website is www.march4marriage.ca. More depressing is the fact that I finally realize why the name sounds so damn familiar. He's a 36-year old B.Comm. from Queen's University. My Alma Mater, probably from my year, and he's chosen to devote his life to protecting the sanctity of Canadian marriage. Cha gheill, cha gheill, cha gheill.

Actually, I happen to agree that traditional marriage is a very important thing, and of great benefit to society. It's just that to me, traditional marriage = two people promising to love and cherish one another, and take care of each other in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, and all that other stuff. The shape of the genitalia of the two people involved are of less concern to me than their intentions and actions.

...and the votes keep being counted...

CBC.ca has the running tally. There are 308 ridings, and the Conservatives need 154 to win a majority government.

Total Elected and Leading so far...

Party	Elected	Leading	Vote Share
CON	83	37	36.32%
LIB	56	42	32.23%
BQ	40	10	8.16%
NDP	12	13	18.39%
IND	0	1	.42%
OTH	0	0	4.48%

For a while there, there was a riding where the leading candidate was from the Green Party. Didn't find out where the riding was before they lost their lead.

Harper wins Tory minority government

No, not all the votes have been counted, but the election's pretty much done.

Total Elected and Leading so far...

Party	Elected	Leading	Vote Share
CON	94	30	36.32%
LIB	73	29	31.22%
BQ	45	5	9.50%
NDP	14	16	17.67%
IND	1	0	.47%
OTH	0	0	4.73%

Here's the post on CBC.ca:

Harper wins Tory minority government
Last Updated Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:52:48 EST
CBC News
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada's next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.

Nationwide, the Tories are currently leading or elected in 121 ridings, the Liberals in 101, the Bloc in 50 and 28 for the NDP.

( The Tories appeared to make significant gains in Ontario and Quebec, leading or elected in at least two dozen seats in Central Canada. )

... and I am so freaking relieved.

No, I don't want a Tory government. But a minority has to work with the other parties in order to stay in power, so they actually can't steamroll their way through all obstacles, safe in the knowledge that they've got five years to do as they wish.

And in some ways, the Liberal fall from power is not a bad thing. There is such a thing as too much corruption in government. As a friend of ours pointed out, this at least puts in new politicians who will have to spend a few years getting to know their way around the system well enough to be able to be corrupt. Small mercies, you know?

Now I just have to get used to saying "Prime Minister Harper."

Gack. ::choke:: That's not going down so well.