Canada is fucked

[Scooter]

So it looks like four years of Conservative majority rule.

The Liberal vote collapsed. What was once considered to be Canada's natural governing party has been supplanted as the official opposition by the New Democratic Party (a social democratic party) which has won over 100 seats, well over double its previous best showing (in 1988). Unfortunately the NDP surge allowed a number of Conservative candidates to sneak up the middle in previously safe Liberal seats, reducing that party to just over 30 seats. Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader, is losing in his own constituency.

Canadians have shown that they are prepared to re-elect a government that has repeatedly flouted Parliament, that has lied, committed forgery, breached freedom of information and privacy laws, and will be spending tens of billions of dollars on new prisons (which they plan to fill by following U.S. trends in sentencing) and on new stealth aircraft whose price tag will probably end up being twice as expensive as the gov't has claimed. Canadians have responded positively to a campaign of sleaze run by the Tories, who have continually hammered the Liberal leader over the time he spent out of the country teaching at Harvard, questioning the citizenship of his wife, and other tactics designed to paint him as something other than a "real" Canadian.

If there was a bright spot to be seen, it was the complete decimation of the Bloc Quebecois, a separatist party that runs candidates only in Quebec. The NDP has overtaken them as the largest party in the province, and the BQ has been reduced to only 3 or 4 seats, which means they lose official party status (meaning they get no research budget or seats on any Commons committees)

Anyone interested in following election coverage can find some here.

[dgs49]

Knowing less than nothing about Canadian politics, I can only say...

Here are the thoughts of a typical liberal: The majority of Canadians have emphatically voiced their preference about what direction they want their government to take over the next four years...

...and it really doesn't matter because Canadian voters are just too stupid to understand what's good for them.

About the same as Liberals in the U.S. said when they got their asses whipped last year in our congressional elections. "Democracy" is fine, as long as the masses agree with Us. Otherwise...

[quaddriver]

isnt it about time all the provinces in canada applied for statehood (except for quebec of course)?

[Sue U]

Knowing less than nothing about Canadian politics, I can only say...

Yeah, 'cause there's nothing like an opinion formed completely by ignorance.

[quaddriver]

Knowing less than nothing about Canadian politics, I can only say...

Yeah, 'cause there's nothing like an opinion formed completely by ignorance.

oh? you are in politics then?

[dgs49]

Wrong side of the bed, sue?

What I said had nothing to do with Canadian politics, but rather the liberal mindset - which crosses borders quite easily.

[Scooter]

The majority of Canadians have emphatically voiced their preference about what direction they want their government to take over the next four years...

Actually only about 40% of Canadians - the Conservative majority is the consequence of first past the post in a multi-party system. Most Canadians didn't want the government we are stuck with but we got it anyway.

Time for another look at proportional representation....

btw Dave, I never figured you for a "the majority is always right" kind of guy...I'll have to remember that when the discussion turns to the election of Obama...

[Lord Jim]

Most Canadians didn't want the government we are stuck with but we got it anyway.

Isn't that nearly always the case in Canada Scooter, (just as it is in the UK) ? How often, in your multi-party system, does the governing party actually get over 50% of the vote in a national election?

[Scooter]

It's fairly rare that any party gets over 50% of the vote, but it is also very rare for a party to win such a solid majority with barely 40% of the popular vote. And in this case the level of repulsion for the government by the remaining 60% is also pretty unprecedented.

[Andrew D]

...and it really doesn't matter because Canadian voters right-wingers are just too stupid to understand what's good for them.

Which is, of course, the key to all right-wing electoral victories everywhere.

[Beer Sponge]

Hey Scooter, in what way is Canada fucked? I just don't see it. Please elaborate, if you will.

[Scooter]

Well let's see. We will continue to have a government that:

• will completely ignore evidence in favour of governing based solely on emotionalism and ideology
• will spend billions of dollars on useless initiatives without any regard to cost (cf. new prisons and fighter jets referred to previously)
• will smear honest and hardworking bureaucrats so as to evade their own responsibility for positions they have taken (e.g. Linda Kean, Kevin Page, the Auditor General, the Chief Elections Officer, the folk at CIDA, just to name a few examples of the past five years)
• will support ministers of the Crown who have admitted to committing forgery (Bev Oda)
• will continue to increase sentencing for drugs, prostitution, and other victimless crimes while fighting against any initiatives that could support people in trying to get out of that life
• has refused to take any action to reform pensions when a substantial number of seniors lives below the poverty line
• will have free rein to rig the electoral system to advantage itself (as it already tried to do before)
• has absolutely no plan to deal with health care after the expiry of the current accord in 2014, including a refusal to even contemplate any type of cost sharing program to make drugs more affordable for those with huge drug costs

to name a few

[@meric@nwom@n]

Where do we send the KY Scoot?

[Scooter]

To the Office of the Prime Minister with a big barbed stick.

[@meric@nwom@n]

Wouldn't that cause me a visit from the Mounties?

[Scooter]

He's on the Mounties' shit list as well, for wanting to abolish the long gun registry, so no worries.

[quaddriver]

Servo:
Oh, I wish I was back in old Canada,
A land which I never shall lampoon!
How I pine for the ice covering Lake Manitoba,
And the beauty that is Saskatoon!

Mike:
Oh, I wish I was stuck in the hills of Alberta,
Drinking beer with some big dumb guy trapping fur!
As he scraped and chiseled all the moose dung off his boots,
I would learn that he's the Prime Minister!

Spoken:
Tom: Oh, stop that!

Crow:
Oh, I wish I was in the land that gave us Peter Jennings,
Alanis Morissette, Mike Myers, too!
No, I take that back, I wouldn't go there even if you paid me,
Oh, Canada, you are a place I must eschew!

Spoken:
Tom: Now, this is NOT in the spirit I intended!
Mike: Oh, come on, give in! I mean, after all, they gave us Ed the Sock and Rush!
Crow: Yeah, what are you defending? They're such feebs!'
Tom: Okay, I'll try!'
Mike: All right! Good man!

Servo: (harshly)
Oh, I wish I was blowing up Prince Edward Island,
And going on to bomb Ontario!
The destruction of Canada and all of its culture,
Is by far my fav-o-rite scenario!

Spoken:
Mike: Okay, well that's a little strong....
Tom: No, no, you were right Mike, this is much more fun!

Servo (maniacally):
Just where the hell does Canada get off sharing a border
With countries far superior to it? (Crow: Yikes!)
Why, you lousy, stinking, francophonic, bacon-loving bastards,
Your country's just a giant piece of sh...


Spoken:
Mike, Crow (ab-lib): Whoa! Okay! Whoa!
Tom (sobbing): Sorry! I have no sense of proportion! I'm a disgrace to my uniform!
Mike: That's ok. Calm down. Mustn't hate, mustn't hate...
Crow: At least so overtly.
Mike: Exactly. Must disguise our hate. We'll be right back. S'ok...
Tom (sobbing): Pardonnez-moi, pardonnez-moi...

[@meric@nwom@n]

I believe that they have some MST3K episodes on Hulu.