Not a fandom post

[petronia]

I think I'm the only person on my flist not utterly upset by the Conservatives getting in. ^^; I didn't vote Conservative (I make my choice by candidate since it's a formal gesture in my riding of Mont-Royal, which used to belong to Pierre Elliot Trudeau and has been staunchly Liberal since the 1930s), but I did feel that a change of governing party was necessary. Not inevitable; but there is a sense that the electorate felt it could make a difference, and that the results are representative of their informed choice (even voter participation is up by a few percentage points, after having slipped steadily through the - I think - deservedly complacent nineties). In other words I feel lucky to be part of a lively and participatory democracy. ^^

Harper has an extremely cautious mandate from Canadians, as represented by a minority even smaller than Paul Martin's previous. The Liberal leadership campaign will give him a chance to show his governing chops, and much of that will have to be conciliatory: with nearly 80 seats between the Bloc and the NDP to balance power I don't believe steps to the right on social issues will be taken. Call me an optimist but I agree with Kim Campbell just now on TV that so-called social conservatism is an untenable stance for a ruling party practically speaking, in Ontario and eastward. It's one of the reasons I'm happy to live in Canada. As for Quebec itself I'm actually somewhat glad of the Conservative seats, because 1) it ensures the province will be represented in the next government and 2) it demonstrates that Quebecers are willing to cast a protest vote or a vote for change that is not sovereignist by default. Of course the Bloc still holds the vast majority of seats but no one expected them to lose any at all, the sentiments of disgust re the Gomery Report running as high as they did.

To put things into perspective, personally I remember back to Meech Lake but my nearly voting-age sister has no memory of there being any Conservative MPs from Quebec ever. She is really weirded out. XD

Comments

[cynic-in-charge.livejournal.com]

My reasons for voting Liberal are slightly more, "I'm not voting FOR the Liberals, I'm voting against the PC." That seems to be the general consensus this time around (i.e. voting against someone rather than for) since the Liberals screwed up pretty badly this time around, and the PC will be pretty much pro-Bush and pro-gas price uppage. Which yeah, sucks for regular drivers. Even so, my family is pretty much Red Liberals Rulez! tho' I think that's more out of a misguided sense of loyalty than, you know, actually agreeing with them half the time.

My sister used to work for the Liberal party on provincial and then later, federal level. I heard stories all about Parliament Hill, man. They also give shitty pay, not to their MPs, but to the people working for them MPs. But that's a story for another day.

(Judy Sgro, by the by, was actually really nice until she was appointed Minister of Immigration, and then turned out to be this bitch on high heels and wheels. XDXDXD)

PS: If you buy stocks, I hope you bought a load of oil stocks in the last few weeks 'cos prices will skyrocket and so will share prices. XDXDXD

[iatros.livejournal.com]

I agree with your assessment of the Conservative victory being a cautious mandate. The interesting question I think is how much of the Conservative platform will be able to be advanced given the state of Canadian parties right now.

Man...I barely remember Meech Lake ^^;;

[astrael-nyx.livejournal.com]

I only remember Meech Lake as it was heavily emphasized in my Canadian History textbook from grade 11 and I cannot forget Brian Mulroney.

I'm cautiously upset. Not optimistic, not completely cynical, but cautiously so. Wait and see is my motto. The way my flist has been reacting virulently to Stephen Harper somewhat unsettles me because there is some serious black and white painting of Harper. In some ways I take some satisfaction in seeing an overturn of government because I wasn't satisfied with how Martin was running things, but at the same time, I wonder if this marks the start of a trend of minority governments that will go through a series of fairly quick turnovers.

[(Anonymous)]

And *I* remember back to the Joe Clarke government. Don't like the way the Liberals are acting, non-confidence vote, give the PCs six months, throw them out, back to the devil you know. Canada, please repeat. What I'm afraid of is Harper making a good impression, winning a majority next time, and *then* comes the Alberta Agenda.

(It's something to have so much clout with lj that you override their 'disable customized comments page' option. How did you manage that one?)

PS

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

That was me, not noticing lj had logged me out. Again.

Re: Customized comments page

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Okay, try it again now? I disabled them completely for myself and everyone (it would appear that at low resolutions something doesn't work no matter which layout I choose. >_>)

Re: Customized comments page

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Works now. Resolution can override lj overrides? This computer stuff is scary.

[marej.livejournal.com]

see, i'd be lying if i said i'm displeased with the results of the election, because i'm ecstatic that NDP gained votes and attained (almost *g*) national representation. while i don't think Paul Martin was the bad guy or even bad for the Liberals, i think it's a good move for him to step down now. i have high hopes for Michael Ignatieff, but i guess we'll have to see how that goes.

having said that, what truly scares me is that Harper--and oh man, i have nothing good to say about him--pushes forward a quick sell (GST comes to a fevered fretting mind, instantly) gets backed up by the Bloc, calls for re-election and rides the wave of utter stupidity popularity into conservative majority, which is almost exactly what Mike the Devil Harris did in Ontario. We have completely destroyed health care system and disastrous cuts in education to show for it as proof.