Canada is in the midst of their "snap elections: with voters going to the polls on Monday May 2. The current government is run by the Conservative party, with the Liberals being the official opposition. Previously, the Liberals held power in Canada for over a decade, losing power in 2006, with Stephen Harper becoming Prime Minister at the head of a minority government.
But, now, a week before the next countrywide election, the New Democratic Party (NDP) is outpolling the Liberal party and could potentially form a government in coalition with the Green Party. Conventional wisdom has been that "NDP could never win" so most non-Conservatives outside of Quebec have generally been forced to vote for the Liberal party while holding their nose. This is a similar situation to what happens in the United kingdom with the three parties being the Conservatives (Tories), Labour and the Liberal Democrats. In last year's elections the Conservatives and LDP formed a Coalition government to replace more than a decade of Labour-led British governments. This was the first time in generations the perennial third party LDP had a meaningful role in government. Now it looks like that story may be repeating in Canada.
MadProfessah spent some time in Canada earlier this year and am something of a Canada-phile. I'll be looking at their election results next week with great interest!
2 comments:
But I thought on Debate night how amazing Layton was and I sensed a certain je ne sais quoi about him. He seemed vibrant and strong and sharp. I thought then maybe there was going to be "something" big about him. He's my pick for winner of the election. Even if he only gets Opposition, he's still the winner. Even if he only grabs a few more seats in Quebec, he's a winner. I've been amazed by him this campaign.
Though the NDP might be polling better than the Liberals, it is highly unlikely that they will get the proportional number of seats that corresponds with those numbers.
The NDP have been making strong inroads in Quebec, but the Bloc still hold a firm grip over the province, and because of our First-Past-The-Post system, the Bloc only needs to get a plurality of the vote to gain a seat over the NDP.
Additionally, though I would like to see the Greens gain some seats in Parliament - a Green supporter here myself - it is highly unlikely that they will gain any at all - again the fault of our electoral system. The greatest potentiality for the Greens to gain a seat in this election would be in the Hamilton ON ridings, though the NDP and Conservatives hold these seats strongly as well.
In the end, public opinion polls are very much skewed and not necessarily representative of how Parliament will end up. That is the fault of our electoral system...for instead of a Proportional representation system, we are instead stuck with a system where a candidate with 30% of the vote in his riding has the ability to become that ridings Member of Parliament.
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