ciroccoj: (Default)
ciroccoj ([personal profile] ciroccoj) wrote2006-01-24 11:21 am
Entry tags:

Numerology

Final tallies, for those who are interested in that kind of thing:

Nationwide (308 seats)
PartyElectedVote Share
CON12436.25%
LIB10330.22%
BQ5110.48%
NDP2917.49%
IND1.52%
OTH05.05%


Ontario (106 seats)
PartyElectedVote Share
CON5439.93%
LIB4035.08%
NDP1219.44%


My home riding
PartyNumber of VotesVote Share
John Baird (CON)2560743.13%
Lee Farnsworth (LIB)2024434.09%
Marlene Rivier (NDP)956916.12%
Neil Adair (GRN)29324.94%
John Pacheco (IND)9051.52%
Randy Bens (CAP)1210.2%


And, for non-Canadians who are a little lost as to what all of this means, here's a brief summary of our political system:

The government is whoever has the most seats. If the party with the most seats has more than half of the seats, they are a majority, which means that pretty much whatever bills they propose will become law, because, with rare exceptions, Canadian pols vote by party lines. It also means that the biggest party gets to stay in power for up to five years, when the next election is called.

If the biggest party does not have more than half the seats, that means that in order to get bills passed, they have to work with the other parties to get them to vote for the bills too. It also means that, if there's a big enough stink raised about anything, the other parties can gang up and call a vote of no confidence, at any time. And if the leading party loses that vote of no confidence, they have to call a new election.

That's what happened with the Liberals. They were a majority government for ten years, then held a general election and became a minority government. They cooperated pretty well with the NDP (socialist party) and with the Bloc Quebecois, for about 1.5 years. Then the results of an inquiry into major corruption came out, the Bloc, NDP, and Conservatives held a vote of no confidence, and the Liberals lost. Hence our current election.

Which has been won by the Conservatives, as a minority. Which is not great, but not the end of the world, either, because they won't be able to ram through whatever they want whenever they want, because if they try to do that they'll face a vote of no confidence too.

And yeah, my home riding elected a Conservative. Who is apparently a really decent guy, very principled, honest and hard-working, says a friend of mine who knows him but did not vote for him because she was voting Green.

Oh, and: Prime Minister Paul Martin is resigning.

(Anonymous) 2006-01-24 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Who do the Conservatives traditionally buddy up with? I assume he's going to need BQ support to form a government so is this going to mean more handouts/concessions to Quebec?

daf (whose old browser dictated by her refusal to upgrade her operating system will currently not allow her to log in to lj)

[identity profile] officerjudy.livejournal.com 2006-01-24 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a good question. Maybe it's just me, but I think the Conservatives would be least likely to give concessions to Quebec. And the NDP is so left-wing.

I honestly have no idea. : /

[identity profile] ciroccoj.livejournal.com 2006-01-24 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I could see either the Bloc or the Liberals. A lot of Liberals are really pretty small-c conservative at heart. E.g. I don't remember how many of them voted against the gay marriage law, but it was a significant number.

(Anonymous) 2006-01-25 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
I never thought Liberals but upon reflection I can see that makes a lot of sense. And I checked. 32 Liberals. 9/9 of the ones I checked were reelected. :(

daf

[identity profile] linaelyn.livejournal.com 2006-01-24 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for the excellent election coverage and the concise description of the electoral system in Canada. I'm actually going to use it in my homeschooling this week, because as a Poli Sci major myself, I have trouble distilling the issue down, and tend to get bogged in minutiae when describing political stuffs to the kids. They don't need a college course at their ages; they need five clear paragraphs!

[identity profile] ciroccoj.livejournal.com 2006-01-25 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
Hee! I'm going to be an educational resource! Coolio!