The Canadian Election, my 2 cents.

You may not have noticed, but yesterday, the US's largest trading partner had an election. Watching the returns with my wife, I was struck yet again how different Canada is from US. Just like Americans, Canadians get upset at the government, but unlike Americans, Canadians want the government to work and are ready to punish their leaders if they feel like they are getting screwed. About three elections ago, the Liberals were punished for a financial scandal (incredibly small for US standards, but too big for the patience of most Canadians). What was the result? In 2004 Canadians couldn't vote Conservative, because most of the population is just not conservative enough, so the Liberals lost many seats in parliament but held on to enough ridings to form a minority government. The government fell in late 2005 over a vote. In January 2006 most Canadians didn't think that the Liberals had cleaned up their act and so they finally gave the Conservatives power, albeit a minority government. The biggest problem for the Conservatives was winning seats in Quebec. To try to woo, the finicky voters of La Belle Province, the Conservatives pushed an agenda that favored a shift of powers from the federal government to the provinces. Meanwhile the Liberals changed leaders and tried to regroup, but most Canadians weren't impressed. So a few months ago the Conservatives emboldened by recent poll numbers announced a new election hoping to gain a majority. All was going well, Stephen Harper the leader of the Conservatives, had instructed his troops to stay on message and it looked like the Conservatives would win enough seats in Quebec to get a majority. But then the Tories started acting like Tories and tried to cut funding to the arts. Artists were upset, and the Quebecois abandoned the Conservatives to vote for the Bloc Quebecois, a separatist party who were until then on the verge of extinction.

So the end result? No change what-so-ever, Canadians are still upset at the Liberals (who will have to change leadership once again), Quebec is still suspicious of both the Liberals and the Conservatives. Traditionally the NDP, a party left of the Liberals had never won in very left leaning Quebec, probably due to the fact that there are two other left of center Parties (the BQ and the Liberals). The NDP was thus seen as a wasted vote in my home town. BUT last night the NDP actually won a seat in Quebec for the first time during a general election! Now that a taboo of Quebecois politics has been broken, perhaps we'll see a change in the not so distant future.