Election Post-Mortem

Well, another Canadian Election is come and gone and while it's not good news, it could have been much worse. Yesterday Canadians decided to follow the American example and re-elect a neo-conservative despite a terrible record on everything. But thanks to a combination of Newfoundland, Quebec, Northern Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver and multi-partisan groups such as AnyoneButHarper.ca, voteforenvironment.ca, Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada, avaaz.ca and departmentofculture.ca Harper was denied a majority.
So, party by party here is how things broke down.

The Liberals: Ran a terrible campaign. Stephen Dion is, no doubt, a great guy and very smart. I think that he upped his credibility over the course of this election. I also think he is done as leader. He simply let Harper pound on him for too long before fighting back and will not ever be PM as a result. His votes with the Conservatives, during the last parliament and his constant abstentions turned away alot of Liberal supporters and rightly so. Personally I'm disgusted that 40% + of Canadians opted not to vote yesterday, but Dion's Liberals did not set a good example. Remember if you don't vote you can't complain. Bright spots for the Liberals include the addition to caucus of Gerard Kennedy and Justin Trudeau. Trudeau will help bring in young Liberals and Kennedy is the best leader available to the Party. Dion is almost certainly gone, Ray will hurt the Liberals in Ontario (and they don't need to be any weaker here), and while Stephen Harper cannot call Michael Ignatieff on his support for the occupation of Iraq, Gilles Duceppe certainly can and will which will hurt the Liberals in Quebec.

Kennedy who was running food banks when Adscam happened is youngish (but not too young), energetic, charismatic and fluently bi-lingual. He has ties to most of Canada: He was born in The Pas, Manitoba but went to school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He ran the Edmonton food bank from 83-86 then moved to Toronto where he started and ran the Daily Bread food bank. While he is not a Francophone, his wife is Jeannette Arsenault-Kennedy is a day care professional and Acadian from Prince Edward Island. The Kennedy win is sad on the one hand because Peggy Nash (NDP) was a great MP and did nothing to deserve the loss, but Kennedy's win means the Liberals may have a chance at rebuilding.

The NDP: Ran a better campaign than the Liberals, but not a great one. They picked up some seats, but they primarily took these from the weakened Liberals, not the Conservatives or the Bloc. They did however win a seat in Alberta, which is probably the biggest coup of the election for the Center/Left.

The Greens: Ran a good campaign, even if it was shy on resources. Elizabeth May should have chosen a riding that was winnable. May clearly did the best of any of the candidates in the debate, unfortunately for her this seems to have translated into votes for the Liberals or NDP and not the Greens. The fact that the Greens got 6.8% of the vote and no seats shows, yet again, the urgent need for electoral reform in Canada.

The Bloc: Ran a great campaign and, if they would finally give up the separatist ghost could play a much more significant role in National politics. A merger between the Bloc and Liberals would be tough to beat in an election. A merger between the Bloc and NDP could conceivably form a government. There are many signs that Bloc voters are ready to abandon separatism, but so far no political party has been able to make the right appeal to lure them from the separatist party. It may be that only the Bloc itself can do that.

The Conservatives: Ran a weak campaign, but won by default. Low voter turnout certainly helped them, as did the fact that no other party was able to effectively show people an alternative. Ok, when I say no other party I mean the Liberals. The Greens showed people an alternative, but couldn't convince people that the Greens would wield any power. The NDP showed an alternative but couldn't convince people they were a realistic possibility for government. The Liberals simply spent most of the campaign on the defensive and were unable to persuade voters to bother leaving the house on voting day. Given all of that though the Conservatives showed a great weakness. There was no reason why they shouldn't win a majority, they failed because (given their current policies) they have reached their limits.

In the aftermath of this election, publicbroadcasting.ca will return to more arts and culture stuff, but will continue to be somewhat political. I am also moving so it will be quieter than usual for a bit. Do stay tuned though, details of the Unparty to come.