Now HERE'S a mandate.

[theweaselking]

Poll shows that more than half of the people who voted Conservative did so not because they wanted a CPC government, but because the CPC were the only option that was not the Liberal party.

It's also worth noting that, when polled, these CPC voters said they liked parts of the CPC platform, but wanted other parts, like national child care, to be replaced with the Liberal's version. More than 2/3 of CPC voters said they wanted Harper to break his promise to "revisit" same-sex marriage. Only 44% of CPC voters expect the CPC to be good for the economy, while 47% expect them to be bad for it.

===============

Pardon me while I giggle.

Comments

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

So in other words.. he has a "Mandate ala Bush?"

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

And look how well that turned out for the U.S.!!!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Don't be silly. We haven't imported Gannon yet.

[cmseward.livejournal.com]

To his credit (/spit), Harper has already said that he realizes it's not a mandate, and that the Canadian people want the parties to work together.

The Tory leader acknowledged that although Canadians voted for change they have not given any one party in the House of Commons a majority.

"They have asked us to co-operate, to work together. And to get on with tackling the real concerns of ordinary working people and their families. I look forward to working with all of the parties."

I'm hoping the Liberals give him just enough rope to hang himself with, then bring the government down so we can go back to the good ol' days.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I hope he surprises the fuck out of us and does a good job.

No, really. I'd *like* to see a viable non-Liberal option in elections, and I've personally always leaned towards the conservative/smallest necessary government side on fiscal matters. I just have a wider base of what I consider "necessary" than, say, the Libertarians or the Republicans.

So I'm hoping that Harper ditches the capital gains tax repeal, goes with his 1% GST cut and then compromises by cutting income taxes on the lowest few brackets instead of the highest, ditches a few of the more outlandish and expensive planks of his platform (military bases in the Artic circle? American missile defense? Iraq?), and shows that in general you might not agree with him 100% but that his plans are not nearly as crazy as people say they are.

That's what I want.

And I also want a pony.

But I'm allowed to dream.

[cmseward.livejournal.com]

I kind of include that in the "enough rope to hang himself" part. If they give him enough rope, and he *doesn't* hang himself, bonus.

I wonder if people would have been more or less likely to vote the Liberals back in if they'd said from the beginning of the campaign "Yes, we screwed up, we shouldn't have done that. However, we *did* manage to run eight years of budget surplus, reducing the amount of debt Canadians have to pay off in the future."

It would be an awfully arrogant approach, but the cynic in me figures that if you can have eight straight federal surpluses *and* still manage to funnel $100M to your closest friends, maybe you aren't as bad as the alternative.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I look at this. And I see it as an open letter.

Something along the lines of "Dear Mr. Harper, you have now been elected. We realize you are not a member of the Liberal party. Please try to behave like one."

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

heh.. you whacky canadians... you elect a crazy conservative and don't want him to act like one .p

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No, we elect a self-proclaimed conservative and we expect him to act like one.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

[thormation.livejournal.com]

The "only option that was not the Liberal Party"???

How the fuck did they come up with that conclusion?

Even I know that you have 5-6 major parties on all the ballots, plus a score of freakshow parties scattered about, and I'm a narcissistic, navel-gazing USAian!

ATTENTION CANADIANS COLON
FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMA
PLEASE REMEMBER TO EAT DASH NOT SNORT DASH YOUR POUTINE STOP
FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS COULD LEAD TO IMPAIRED POLITICAL REASONING COMMA
AND MAY REQUIRE IMMEDIATE SOUTHWARD DEPORTATION COMMA EH STOP

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

We do have 4 parties on every ballot, a fifth major regional party, and a pile of freakshows.

Of those, however, the Green party has absolutely no chance of making a government. Their entire campaign this time was geared around "Give us our first MP. We'd like to have an MP or two." This means that they're not forming the goverment, meaning they're not a non-Liberal option.

The Bloc Quebecois are that regional party. Again, not Government, and incapable of making a government. Besides, they already *had* most the seats they were running for.

The Liberal Party have a really decent chance of winning, but you're voting *against* them.

The New Democratic Party had one of their best showings ever, and came up with 29 seats, compared to the outgoing Liberal's 103. Dump those 50% of CPC voters into the NDP, and most likely you'd have another Liberal Minority. You *might* get an NDP Minority - which is, frankly, one of the most terrifying things possible, since the NDP are well-meaning but complete fiscal idiots. As a protest vote, the NDP are a bad choice because *if* your protest is successful and they win, you're going to really fuck the economy until you throw them out. When your options are NDP or Liberal, most of the country will immediately jump into strategic voting mode and go back to Liberal on the "holy fuck, not them, I LIKE having a working economy" principle.

This leaves the CPC, who did a really effective job of muzzling their racists and loonies, and pretending they were the PC party and not the Reform party at heart. This made them appear inoffensive and unlikely to do serious harm, while not being the Liberals, while having a larger base of support than the NDP and hence a chance of actually winning.

And so, if you're voting against the Liberals because you feel the current Liberal leadership are corrupt and you want a change, any change, the CPC were your only option that had a chance of winning.

The American comparison would be "Well, we hate Bush, so we want to vote against him. Should we vote for Kerry or Peroutka or Badnarik?" Kerry is the only one with a chance of winning, and so your only real non-Bush option was Kerry.

Make a little more sense?

[torrain.livejournal.com]

...and to illustrate your point, who the hell are Peroutka and Badnarik?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Libertarian and Constitution party candidates for US presidency.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

ATTENTION CANADIANS COLON
FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMA
PLEASE REMEMBER TO EAT DASH NOT SNORT DASH YOUR POUTINE STOP
FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS COULD LEAD TO IMPAIRED POLITICAL REASONING COMMA
AND MAY REQUIRE IMMEDIATE SOUTHWARD DEPORTATION COMMA EH STOP

Great, I just spilled my morning coffee I was laughing so hard.

Jerk.

-K

[matgb]

The only viable option, as John said. In FPTP elections, you get 2 parties and a bbunch of also rans. In each district, you can get different parties, but districts with 3 or more viable parties will diminish over time.

I wrote up a lot about this in the British context awhileback here, but essentially Google for Duverger's Law. Frenchman who thought America was great. Something wrong there...