Spring Break
11/3 Column:Canada Re-elects Conservative Minority Government
Emily Rutherford '12
Issue date: 11/3/08 Section: Opinion
The news probably won't have registered with most Americans, focused as they are on their own very dramatic election, but on Tuesday Canada held a general election of its own.
At the risk of alienating Canadian readers (I assume they're out there!), it does seem as if Canadian politics are similar to America's, just on a much smaller scale. The campaign period for this election lasted just five weeks, instead of two years; it was marred by a few scandals, such as a questionable advertisement and allegations of plagiarism, but certainly nothing like the mud slung south of the border.
And, in the end, nothing changed: the minority Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was re-elected, increasing its numbers in the House of Commons but still not achieving a majority, meaning that there's going to have to be a lot more "working across the aisle" in Parliament than either Obama or McCain promises in this country. According to Joseph Facal on The Globe and Mail's website, this is due to the success of the Bloc Québécois, which took 10 percent of the nationwide vote.
This general election might well go down in history for its utter lack of remarkableness: voter turnout was at a record low--voters, it seems, were disillusioned and uninspired by their choice of candidates--and post-election analysis has already slipped off the front page of the CBC website. Although Wikipedia, of all places, has a good précis of the issues debated by the five parties in the course of the campaign, the results indicate that little will change policy-wise (though Harper is releasing a new economic plan today).
The question now is what will happen to the Liberal party, the Conservatives' main opposition. Given the Liberals' loss of certain seats in British Columbia and Ontario to the Conservatives, the party is questioning whether Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is the right person for that role. The result of the next election may well depend on how well the Liberals reorganize themselves, in addition to the constantly shifting roles of the Bloc, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Green Party (whose leader, Elizabeth May, was featured in the debates for the first time this year). But for the present, at least, the Conservatives seem to be here to stay.
At the risk of alienating Canadian readers (I assume they're out there!), it does seem as if Canadian politics are similar to America's, just on a much smaller scale. The campaign period for this election lasted just five weeks, instead of two years; it was marred by a few scandals, such as a questionable advertisement and allegations of plagiarism, but certainly nothing like the mud slung south of the border.
And, in the end, nothing changed: the minority Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was re-elected, increasing its numbers in the House of Commons but still not achieving a majority, meaning that there's going to have to be a lot more "working across the aisle" in Parliament than either Obama or McCain promises in this country. According to Joseph Facal on The Globe and Mail's website, this is due to the success of the Bloc Québécois, which took 10 percent of the nationwide vote.
This general election might well go down in history for its utter lack of remarkableness: voter turnout was at a record low--voters, it seems, were disillusioned and uninspired by their choice of candidates--and post-election analysis has already slipped off the front page of the CBC website. Although Wikipedia, of all places, has a good précis of the issues debated by the five parties in the course of the campaign, the results indicate that little will change policy-wise (though Harper is releasing a new economic plan today).
The question now is what will happen to the Liberal party, the Conservatives' main opposition. Given the Liberals' loss of certain seats in British Columbia and Ontario to the Conservatives, the party is questioning whether Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is the right person for that role. The result of the next election may well depend on how well the Liberals reorganize themselves, in addition to the constantly shifting roles of the Bloc, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Green Party (whose leader, Elizabeth May, was featured in the debates for the first time this year). But for the present, at least, the Conservatives seem to be here to stay.
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