29 June 2004

The Election and It's Aftermath

It’s finally over. After five weeks of seemingly endless campaigning, which I also refer to as back blading, the Canadian people have made their decision and now has the privilege of spending the next five years living with it.

We had something of a challenge this time around. The Liberal Party, which had been in power for more than ten years, was recovering from an almost crippling sponsorship scandal and trying to get used to the management style of their new party leader. The Conservative party, on the other hand, had just completed merger talks with the Canadian Alliance and elected their party leader, and now they found themselves in the unique position of being able to do something that they had not been able to do for more than ten years: steal seats from the Liberals. The NDP had a good shot at doing the same thing and campaigned hard to win the hearts and minds of Canadians from coast to coast.

In general, I think that I can say with a clear conscience that I am reasonably happy with the way that the election worked out. The Liberals under Paul Martin will be forming the first minority government in a generation. This means that, despite the fact that they managed to take the largest block of seats in the House of Commons, they do not control the majority of seats in the House. This means that they may not have the political clout necessary to push through some of the legislation that they want entered into the law books. As a result, they will be forced to cooperate with the other political parties and come up with legislation that covers the interests of all the various political blocks. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does make for some interesting politics.

The Conservative Party of Canada, under the leadership of Stephen Harper, will be the official opposition. They will be the ones charged with the responsibility of calling the Liberals onto the carpet for the decisions that they make. This provides us with an element of oversight in the government, and I view it as a good thing. Successful democracy requires oversight, and our brand of it has that oversight built into the system. As for the appropriateness of the Conservatives forming the opposition, I think that job is better suited to them at the moment than forming the government. The merger of the Progressive Conservative party with the Canadian Alliance party had the effect of creating a rather large block of politicians who were more than willing to campaign on a reform platform. The more moderate conservative elements of the united party were largely silenced in the merger. The result is not a truly politically conservative party as much as it is a nation wide reform party. I’m rather pleased that they’re not forming the government. Stephen Harper told Canadians during the campaign that we would not recognize Canada when he was done with it, so I think that he’s gotten his just deserts.

Perhaps the most troubling part of the election is the sheer volume of seats held by the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc was intended from the beginning to represent the interests of the Canadian Francophone community in the Federal Government, and since the French are mostly clustered in Quebec then that’s where the vast majority of their campaigning took place. From the beginning of the election the Bloc politicians insisted that the election wasn’t about Quebec sovereignty, it was about a stable federalism that represented the best interests of all Canadians. The Bloc took 54 seats, all of them in Quebec. The leader of the Bloc gave an interesting victory speech, the primary topic of which was Quebec sovereignty. The pundits all think there is a possibility that the Bloc will use their power in the House to push forward a new referendum on a sovereign Quebec. Personally, I think this would be a bad thing. I believe very strongly in a united Canada. We’re stronger when we’re united. To the French I send this message: if you want a country of your own, I would like to point out that you already have one. It’s called France, and if you hate Canada so much then I encourage you to move there. We don’t want you if that’s the case.

The New Democrats, otherwise known as the Socialist Party of Canada, took twenty some odd seats in the House. That puts them in a position to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, a coalition that would instantly give the Liberals the majority in the House of Commons. Will that actually happen? I don’t know. That remains to be seen, I suppose. Personally, I wouldn’t bet on it. I think that the two main opponents the Liberals have to worry about are the Bloc and the Conservatives. The NDP is, quite simply, irrelevant.
Belinda Stronach of the Conservative Party won her seat. You may recall that she also ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada and lost that election. Her victory in her riding just goes to prove that Conservatives really are as horny as I think they are.
The Conservative Party of Canada won most of their seats in Western Canada, especially Alberta, where they earned 62% of the popular vote. Big surprise, that. Albertans are generally Conservative by nature, as well as reformist, so Stephen Harpers cohorts would seem very popular to most of us. Incidently, Stephen Harper was schooled in politics by Deb Grey, one of the architects of the original Reform Party. This explains elements of his election platform. I also believe that it will pervade his performance in the House of Commons. Best to keep an eye on that fellow, yes?

Question: With Stephen Harper cast as the voice for the official opposition, how long do you think it will be before we start seeing a separatist movement here in Alberta that’s at least as vocal as the movement in Quebec? I have no answer for this and I look forward to hearing the opinions of my Canadian readership on the issue.

The bottom line is this: The electorate sent a message to the Liberal Party. We told them that we weren’t happy with elements of their government, and that we expected them to do better. Then we gave them the chance to do better by allowing them to continue to act as the ruling party of Canada. We also demonstrated that we can elect them out any time we want to. Did Paul Martin get the message? According to his victory speech he did. Will he listen to the electorate and clean up the act of the Liberal Party? Well, that one remains to be seen.

No matter how you slice it, we are in for interesting times.