We just had an election. And with that came a fairly significant change in the political scene. Prior to the election, there was a minority Conservative government, and now, after voting day on Monday, we have a majority Conservative government. Truly a step backward. Coupled with the win of Rob Ford, the new right wing mayor of Toronto, it feels as though there has been step to the right in the Canadian political scene. In a certain respect, that is the case.
However, the fact that the New Democratic Party won 102 seats is important and historic.
The approach for the NDP in this government will have to be different. Instead of being a smallish group of MPs that can push for or prevent legislation in a minority government, they are a largish group of MPs who will bring a different, less direct, type of influence in a majority government. With a majority, the Tories can pass legislation on their own. However, the fact that 102 left wing MPs are arriving on parliament hill is extremely relevant. Furthermore, the fact that a bunch of them are super young is very cool. We need a bunch of young people running around parliament hill stirring the pot, and then we need to take that energy and continue to organize.
Perhaps an MP who is young and energetic will bring a new and interesting perspective to Ottawa.
Any election brings a mixed consciousness, people happy and people sad, and people like myself a bit confused. I suppose that is the contradiction that may be inherent in people living today, in a complex modern society. We can feel different ways about the same issue. And hence with an election, the electorate is greatly affected by the media, the mood, the economic conditions, geography; hence results like this can be so diverse.
I kind of feel that I might as well be optimistic, as that is a hell of alot more fun that feeling sad and bitter.
The weather is nicer too, which helps.
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The fact that the popular vote for the Tories only went up half a percent means there was no big shift to the right - they were just lucky on the vote concentration and there is clearly an issue in Ontario. But the rest of the country went more left...even in BC we were up 3 NDP and down one conservative.
ReplyDeleteThat may be the case; the end result, though, is that there is in a fact a shift to the right: there is a majority Conservative government. Perhaps we are feeling this more in Ontario with Rob Ford mayor of Toronto and the Tories polling well provincially (there is a provincial election here in the fall).
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