Today, Stephen Harper announced he is quitting as Prime Minister. The Conservative minority has been dissolved by the Governor General. While that is definitely a good thing, the concept of a Conservative majority scares the heck outta me. In a snap election like this, a lot of voters get caught off guard. Here's an article: LINK I never claimed to be impartial. Jack Layton and the NDPs FTW! (!) Here's a video LINK to Jack's speech.
I'm not sure I'm ready for Jack to be PM. Not sure I'm ready to have Dion PM either. And I'd rather be rid of Harper. I guess I'll have to make up my mind by the 14th...
Gotten any closer to that decision Jim? Just came back from an open forum at my local university. They held a debate there for parties (with seated members of parliament) running in the major university districts. Thus some grassroots parties were omitted from the debate such as the NL "First" Party. Largely unpopular but eh, what can you do? Both St. John's South Mount Peal and St. John's East candidates were present. While i was largely undecided who was the best candidate for my riding, I am now for the most part decided that New Democrat, Ryan Clearly is best suited. Green candidate Ted Warren just did not sway me toward the party at all. He seemed indecisive and all over the place. While i adore Elizabeth May i don't believe in her team here in NL.
Here in America, we choose to avoid learning about other cultures and governments. It's our generally closed minded way of looking at the world. Unless we're conquering you, we're not much interested in you. And I'm only half kidding. >sigh< I wish I was born in Ireland.
It's all over folks. Conservative minority, ten short. A few ridings are undecided still but nothing of interest. Sigh. I knew the seats wouldn't change much at all. Although i had that fools hope that they might lose seats instead of gaining. As i'm watching now it's as follows (out of a 308 seat Parliament): 145 - 75 - 48 - 38 - 2 That Tory (Conservatives), Liberals, Bloc, New Democrats and Independents respectively. It's a shame, Harper has won quite a few seats. Makes me sad. But the slight gain in seats for the New Democrats makes me hopeful. Dion has caused the Liberal party quite the downfall. I don't say he'll make it far before there's a leadership convention. He's the kind of guy you'd trust to be the designated driver, not with a country. Poor Greens got a beating. Lost their only "seat" and then 'Libby May lost in her own riding. McKay was a tough guy to run against though. She seemed so discouraged . I wished she'd of taken at least the two she deserves. She's earned at least that. Anywho enough of my ramblings. Lets hope for some form of coalition government. Can't deny a man of his hope.
I am so glad the conservatives did not get a majority government (though this probably means another election fairly soon (maybe I can vote next time!), unless Harper actually follows his own rules), I was really worried last night for a bit though... The systeme frustrates me a bit because the greens got 6.8% of the total vote but they do not have any seats, where as independents got 1.2% and 2 seats. Mind you the bloc, the liberals and the tories pretty much have proportional seats to percentage representation... It's unfortunate that dion presented his green shift thing the way he did, the ideals and concept are really good and would be SO beneficial, but the way he presented it I think turned many people off... Gah, I don't really like the liberals, but I sure hate the tories.
