Did you vote today?

[rawb]

Originally Posted by starbright

why why why!?
(please use comforting words)

IMO i felt this during the election process:
.cons were never going to be unseated as the ruling party
.very real chance of "anybody but harper" mentality splitting lib/ndp votes allowing cons to gain majority
.this was less of a 'real election' and more of a sanity-check to see where momentum is shifting, as there are no issues really polarizing the nation, it was planned to prey on the apathy of Canadian Voters right now. the political pendulum is swinging to the right at the moment and we get to see where it will apex.

results IMO:
+cons didn't get majority
+liberals lost seats, which IMO is a good thing since the entire left-center needs an overhaul/makeover which wont happen without a wakeup call like this. i think the liberals have been laurel-riding for far too long and took a huge hit to the gut, but are not in an unrecoverable position.
+NDP gained seats which is great for our political ecosystem

-cons in power
-while not winning seats,
-people who contributed to the 58% voter turnout
-bloc gets ~9% of the vote, ~50 seats, frustrating

This all sets us up for the next election, which i think is going to be Really Different(tm)

[rawb]

also superlolllls on cbc right now, showing the NDP BC headquarters and interviewing some BC bigwig.

behind him some oblivious student-type volunteers are drinking beer and badly rapping along to "Paper Planes", making guns with their fingers and everything.

[wishbone]

no one on the corner has swagger like the NDP

[Revolver]

ok,

basically,

great thread....or greatest thread?.

[Erin]

Not a big fan of the conservative party...

[miss.myra]

wow, in times of economic uncertainty harper forces an unwilling country (yet again) into an election.

300 million dollars to change about a dozen seats. waste of money, waste of time. fuck you harper.

/election hangover.

Maaan, Ignatieff (sp) should have won the libs leadership.

[b0ld]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

wow, in times of economic uncertainty harper forces an unwilling country (yet again) into an election.

300 million dollars to change about a dozen seats. waste of money, waste of time. fuck you harper.

/election hangover.

Maaan, Ignatieff (sp) should have won the libs leadership.

2nd lowest voter turn out in canadian history. And the 3rd consecutive minority government. The same story will unfolded on the floors of parliament, bickering and insults being traded instead of dealing with real issues that canadians care about.

[Grapes]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

wow, in times of economic uncertainty harper forces an unwilling country (yet again) into an election.

300 million dollars to change about a dozen seats. waste of money, waste of time. fuck you harper.

/election hangover.

Maaan, Ignatieff (sp) should have won the libs leadership.

Or Bob Rae, or anyone but Dion.

His days should be numbered now.

This does set the table for a new, charismatic Liberal leader to rise up and take the party where it needs to go in the next election.. perhaps someone with a familiar last name?..

[rawb]

DION SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA-MAN BUT HE HAS THE CHARISMA OF A WALL SHELF l

[shift]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

300 million dollars to change about a dozen seats. waste of money, waste of time. fuck you harper.

That's one of the things that bugs me the most about this election. There's all this concern about recession ect and Harper blows 300 million because he want's more power?

Also, 58% is pretty pathetic. I guess that's a reflection of public view that the election wasn't really necessary.

[mojo]

Originally Posted by Grapes

Or Bob Rae, or anyone but Dion.

His days should be numbered now.

This does set the table for a new, charismatic Liberal leader to rise up and take the party where it needs to go in the next election.. perhaps someone with a familiar last name?..

who could that beeeee?!?!?!?!?

[Wood]

Originally Posted by shift

Also, 58% is pretty pathetic. I guess that's a reflection of public view that the election wasn't really necessary.

may be true, but thinking it isn't necessary is far from a justification for not participating. All the more reason to vote imo, do your part to unseat the morons who called the thing.

I was in Thailand during a federal election a few years ago... i've never taken my right to vote for granted but if i had, what i saw there would have cured me right away. We were on a bus leaving Bangkok for Chiang Mai on election night, we boarded the bus in the city somewhere but it stopped at the northern bus terminal on the way out. It took the bus a full 2 hours to get in & out of the terminal because there was a mob of what must easily have been 100,000 ppl trying to return to their home towns up north to vote. It was nuts, just a sea of people as far as you could see, folks banging on the sides of the bus as we slowly made our way through the crowd. There's no way there could have been enough busses to accomodate even a tenth of those ppl, but they still put their physical well being at risk trying to baord one, just for the opportunity to have a say in who would govern their country. And these are very poor people, in a developing country where the monarchy still plays a big role in government and military coups are not unheard of. Makes me sad to think of that and then think of 42% of Canadians who couldn't even walk a block or 2 to check a ballot.

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by Grapes

Or Bob Rae, or anyone but Dion.

His days should be numbered now.

This does set the table for a new, charismatic Liberal leader to rise up and take the party where it needs to go in the next election.. perhaps someone with a familiar last name?..

paging Larry Campbell..

[miss.myra]

really nice post wood, and you're right, it's only a few blocks and a few minutes out of our day. our employers are also legally obligated to give us time off to take the trek, so really it's all in our favor.

and for anyone who isn't a white male, you also really have to consider how many people risk or lost their lives/family/friends, etc. to get people like women, ethinic groups, etc. the right to vote. Not exercising that right is like spitting on their graves imo.

[shift]

Originally Posted by Wood

may be true, but thinking it isn't necessary is far from a justification for not participating. All the more reason to vote imo, do your part to unseat the morons who called the thing.

Oh, I wasn't justifying, just speculating as to why so many people who voted last time around didn't in this election. I voted in this election, and the two previous, and encourage others to do the same.

[Ragga_Wh0re]

i thought dion basically goaded harper into an election?

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by Ragga_Wh0re

i thought dion basically goaded harper into an election?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha no.

Harper basically waited to a time they looked ok in the polls and then created false conflict with Dion to place the blame on him, even though Dion did not call a vote of non confidence when he was expected to (after all, that's a dirty trick people like Harper play).

if Harper is good at anything it's wasting our tax dollars on elections that nobody wants to happen in the first place, and that includes the party leaders. If anything, Dion would have liked to wait to have an election because he's not even established enough as the leader of his party to lead them in an election.

[Ragga_Wh0re]

ahaaaa.the last thing i read before the election was made official was something like "he started it" remarks from both parties.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

wow, in times of economic uncertainty harper forces an unwilling country (yet again) into an election.

300 million dollars to change about a dozen seats. waste of money, waste of time. fuck you harper.

/election hangover.

Maaan, Ignatieff (sp) should have won the libs leadership.

You are extremely naive. If I was Harper this would be exactly what I expected, and one of the best outcomes imaginable. The Cons gained seats, the Liberals lost seats. Basically this is the next best thing to a Con majority. The Cons pushed the Liberals around like little bitches, making them vote with the Cons in fear of an election(the Liberals had no money for an election, nobody is donating to them). When Harper called an election, the Liberals had to take a huge loan out to fund it(and still not enough). Now they lost votes,a lot of them, and seats. That's more money the Liberals DON'T receive. Now you combine this with the almost certain leadership election the Liberals are going to have, and basically the party is going to be Bankrupt. The Cons on the other hand remain the power to dissolve parliament whenever they want, and continue to have more than enough money in the bank. The liberals are going to bend over, and vote along with the Cons, because if they don't, their party won't be able to support another election meaning if one is called they are royally screwed.

[Alex]

Furthermore, this election is good news and was good timing for anybody who IS a Conservative supporter whether they understand it or not. The only people who didn't want this election were the supporters of the other parties. Why would Harper pander to the enemy parties and supporters?

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by Alex

You are extremely naive. If I was Harper this would be exactly what I expected, and one of the best outcomes imaginable. The Cons gained seats, the Liberals lost seats. Basically this is the next best thing to a Con majority. The Cons pushed the Liberals around like little bitches, making them vote with the Cons in fear of an election(the Liberals had no money for an election, nobody is donating to them). When Harper called an election, the Liberals had to take a huge loan out to fund it(and still not enough). Now they lost votes,a lot of them, and seats. That's more money the Liberals DON'T receive. Now you combine this with the almost certain leadership election the Liberals are going to have, and basically the party is going to be Bankrupt. The Cons on the other hand remain the power to dissolve parliament whenever they want, and continue to have more than enough money in the bank. The liberals are going to bend over, and vote along with the Cons, because if they don't, their party won't be able to support another election meaning if one is called they are royally screwed.

hahaha, i'm naive? i'm not even going to touch this one because what's apparent to me is also incredibly apparent to everyone else on this board.

you're totally right, spending 300 million on an election nobody really wanted in the first place to change a whole 13 seats is all puppy dogs and rainbows!

[Alex]

saying 'no one really wanted' is very vague and presumptive. I thought it was a good time to call an election, strategically anyways. Kick the Liberals when they're down.

[rawb]

I THOUGHT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT AN ELECTION AND APPARENTLY WERE TALKING ABOUT THE WWE l

[wishbone]

i seriously think rawb gave the best post in this thread that this election should shake up the libs to make some radical changes, both in leadership and fine tuning policies.

alex and myra, cool your jets.

[b0ld]

I find it amusing how today harper holds a press confrence and reveals a "6 point economic plan".... 5 of them which is the spitting image of the liberal "5 point economic plan" that they had in there platform agenda during the election.