The outcome of the election

[james_davis_nicoll]

Party     Number of Seats 
          Before Election      After Election
Lib           36                    184
CPC          159                     99
NDP           95                     44 
Bloc           2                     10
Green          2                      1

As a result, our PM is no longer Harper



but Trudeau.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Nice tattoo!

[drcuriosity]

That's... really rather a large voting swing. You'd almost think that Harper wasn't well liked, or something.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Kinda, in the sense that his opponents were so riled that they took strategic voting seriously in a way they didn't in the last election when it looked like a choice between Harper, Mulcair, and Harper-lite.*

-- Steve was shocked by the magnitude of the shift, too. He seriously didn't expect a majority government this time.

* IMO Ignatieff's greatest weakness wasn't the labels slapped on him by the CPC mud-hosers, it was that he was badly tainted by his past association with the US "movement" Republicans that made it all too easy to see little difference between him and the Conservative leadership.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Carpetbagging torture advocates not doing well in elections is something I think says good things about the general character of Canadians. The only thing I was really happy about in the 2011 election was that Ignatieff lost in a riding that would be expected to elect a carrot if it was a Liberal carrot.

(One before this was Jack Layton, rather than Mulcair, which I think matters for the NDP's numbers.)

[timgueguen.livejournal.com]

I think Ignatieff's lack of charisma was probably more a factor that his geopolitical failings. On the other hand he had more charisma than Stephane Dion, which isn't saying much.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Dione apparently has quite a bit in French.

I figured Dione's major problem was the party operators agreeing with Rae and Ignatieff that the convention had picked the wrong leader.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

When the opposition's attack ads for a general election, aimed not at riling up the base but at the people you expect to vote for you, consist of what you actually said, in context, then you might have a problem.

[kjn]

The joys of FPTP. Though yes, the Liberal pickup in votes is impressive, especially given that they started from circa 20% of the electorate last election (large swings in small parties are much easier to do).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I had seen Trudeau described as Canada's first openly bishonen prime minister.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I had to look that up. Thank you for increasing my knowledge.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

That is a rather pointy chin, now that you mention it.

[magedragonfire.livejournal.com]

The air shimmers and sparkles when he speaks?

[seawasp]

He's also known Rebel scum, though.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

There seems to be a large difference in the total number of seats. New electorates, or did a party disappear?

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

New ridings were created.

[timgueguen.livejournal.com]

The only parties that may have disappeared are the ones who don't get any votes anyway. Wide swings aren't unprecedented. The most blatant example was the 1993 election, when the Progressive Conservatives went from having a majority government, with 156 seats in Parliament, to having 2 seats. Kim Campbell, party leader and first Canadian Prime Minister(brief as her term was) couldn't even win her own seat. (The PCs would stumble on for the next decade before they and the Canadian Alliance Party merged to form the current Conservative Party.)

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

"Kim Campbell, party leader and first Canadian Prime Minister"

I think you mean "first *female* Canadian Prime Minister."

[timgueguen.livejournal.com]

Yep. I posted, went out the door, and then found myself thinking I'd missed the female part.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Wow: I'd never seen a photo of Harper which made him look so much like J.R. from Dallas.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

His secret 1980s fantasy? :)

[solarbird]

I cannot be the only person who is amused by how much Trudeau looks like Molly Lewis.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

His dad is reputed to have gotten around some.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Pierre is just plain known to have got around.

Given how Pierre reacted to their one known instance of out-of-wedlock issue the idea that Justin has surreptitious siblings out there isn't readily supported.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Hell, _both_ his parents are known to have got around.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Searched for a picture with his wife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Trudeau#/media/File:ETalk2008-Justin_Trudeau_Sophie_Gregoire.jpg

Canada, you win the "my PM is better looking than your leader" contest. Let's hope he uses his powers for good.

Green Party

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I was pleased. The liberals got a solid majority with a left-leaning platform that should be strong enough to undo at least some of the conservative mess, and the NDP preserved enough not to get utterly creamed (and my own riding went NDP). So, win-win, I guess.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Question from the south: why is the Bloc Québécois so negligible? I would have thought they'd have a floor of support, unless they do something absurd (like, freebase cocaine on video). Looks like it fell apart in 2011, but Wikipedia doesn't make it clear why.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

The Bloc is the federal separatist party.

Separatism is a generational issue, born of resentment about how English governmental bureaucracy was in favour of culturally integrating francophone Quebec into British Canada.

The generation for whom this was a burning issue is now old enough that age is reducing their numbers and certainly their capacity for political activity, and for anyone younger, it's not their issue; economic issues are much more pressing, there have been major structural changes that make the need for separation much less obvious, and if you were supporting the Bloc out of socialist inclinations, you now have other options. (The NDP last time; the Federal Liberals just shifted way left this time.)