Cornwall ON – Stephen Harper is smiling tonight as it looks like he’s getting his majority. In a dark day for Canadian Democracy his spin masters have nabbed the prize.
Jack Layton and the NDP have recorded historic gains, but as opposition in a majority government they will have less ability to improve Canada than they did with much fewer seats prior to tonight. Some of the powerful items in their platform will fall on Mr. Harper’s mute ears as vote splitting have put Mr. Harper in the driver’s seat.
There are some amazing stories unfolding across Canada, but the bottom line is that dirty tricks, attack ads, bullying, contempt for Parliament and how things are supposed to work have led to a Harper Government in a majority position.
Locally MP Guy Lauzon looks to retain his seat with close to 60% of the vote.
Green party candidate and local media darling Wyatt Walsh failed to register with voters, but Green party leader Elizabeth May is leading in her campaign.
Some mighty candidates look to have failed. Michael Ignatieff; Ken Dryden, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, Lawrence Cannon, Joe Volpe, Garry Lunn, and Jean Marc Blackburn, and the list goes on.
Helena Guergis finishes 3rd behind the Con and NDP. Pierre Lemieux retains his seat for Glengarry Prescott Russell.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe resigns.
It should be interesting to see how Canada deals with this news and what awaits the country?
We will be updating this story as it evolves.
What do you think Canada? You can post your comments below.
A dark day for Canadian Democracy?? How is that Jamie? The people have spoken, have voted. I think it a glorious day. We have exercised our democratic right to vote. The Bloc has been all but eliminated in the house. A sign of the time, that the separatist movement is dead.
Len the timing of the election; signs damaged, media like myself blocked from doing our jobs, phone calls trying to mislead voters to non existent polling stations…I could go on, but I think deep down many Canadians will figure it out in time.
Canada lost tonight. Canadians lost tonight.
In the meanwhile I have to pay off some bets, and find a way to survive in a Harper majority Canada…..
Here are the local results courtesy of Elections Canada. The ones who did not win can think about the virtues of staying away from controversy, posters and young adults. Now we have to kiss Guy’s toes. Were all you guys secretly working for Harper? Thanks a lot.
———————
Liberal Bernadette Clement 7,094 17.5 17.5%
Libertarian Darcy Neal Donnelly 145 0.4 0.4%
Conservative Guy Lauzon 25,036 61.6 61.6%
NDP-New Democratic Party Mario Leclerc 7,443 18.3 18.3%
Green Party Wyatt Joseph Walsh 929 2.3 2.3%
Total number of valid votes: 40,647
Now can we all put this behind us and move on…….?
Admin – quit crying in your soup! Excuses, excuses, excuses…The people of Canada have spoken!
Dan 2:21 “And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding”.
” Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Psa 75:5-7).
The Born-Again party has won absolute power. Say goodbye to equal rights, social programs, and protection of the environment. Say hello to mega-prisons, the death penalty and a united North America.
Furtz: You tell me that the leaders of the Liberals or the NDP are not for a United North America? United means = socialism at its best. Canada is already 3/4 way there! Such are already part of the New World order. Whether conservative, liberal, or even green, all will be persuaded to work with Big Brother – Rev 17:17 “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled”.
And besides that, the Conservative agenda does not care for real social issues. We both no that, right!
So some jerk scribbling away back some two thousand years ago could see Canada being sucked into the US?
Alrighty then.
“Canada lost….Canadians lost.” Damn right, admin.
Examine Harper’s priorities (crime, militarism, tax cuts for the rich), his contempt for parliamentary democracy, and his positions on poverty, healthcare, climate change, human rights, education, the arts, difference of opinion—everything to do with respect for life and civilized living— and there is only one conclusion: Canada is sliding back into a dark age, while the rest of the world moves on.
Shocking the way the media—present company excepted—cave in to Harper and his neanderthals. Iconic moment and image in the election just past: Harper standing behind a lectern on a wharf in Halifax, with members of the press penned like cattle behind a steel fence 20 feet away, so that they had to shout their questions. If that isn’t giving into dictatorship creep, I don’t know what is.
We need an Obama or a Mandela to remind Canadians of their best and inspire them to live up to and accept nothing less than their best.
I heard Charles McVety cackling with glee this morning on our (soon to be gone) CBC radio.
It made my blood run cold.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_McVety
We need proportional representation so that the dog can finally wag its tail and not the other way around. With only a 60% voter turn out for this election and only 38.6% of that supporting the majority Tories, well under half, it translates to less than 25% of eligible voters actually supporting the Harper regime. So please, saying the Canadians have spoken is more than a little misleading. 75% or 3 out of 4 eligible voters did not support Harper’s Government. Imagine if you will that the Toronto Maple Leafs consistently lose to other teams 4 – 1 and are rewarded with the Stanley Cup anyway. Maple Leaf fans may be extremely jubilant, but imagine how the other teams’ fans would feel. Probably cheated; well that’s the way many of the rest of us Canadians feel. Cheated!
There was no vote split here. The Cons got way more than everyone else put together. The Cons are now secure. Everything is great.
Unfortunately, no government, especially a majority one, will introduce any form of proportional representation. Why would they mess with the system that let them grab power?
GRAB POWER!
Furtz – you must be kidding – Harper worked long and hard – stayed on message – to secure his majority which has been presented to him by the people of Canada, and they have given him 4 years of their trust to carry out his vision for this great country of ours.
Joe, I said NO government. That includes Cons and Libs. A little sensitive are we?
Furtz is having brain-furtz again…
left-or-right gets it: proportional representation is the answer. It works (Europe, New Zealand), it’s fair, and it’s overdue in Canada in the 21st century. Instead, following a 19th century system, Canada is now stuck for four years with a government which 60% of the country did not vote for. Call that Progress?
I like the brain-furtz idea. It happens a lot!:)
No government in Canada, provincial or federal, has attempted to introduce proportional representation. That half-assed referendum we had in Ontario a few years ago was designed to fail. The only party that supposedly supports the idea is the NDP, and they’ve never brought it in provincially when they could have.
I hear the argument for proportional representation but I’m not there. The argument for it comes out of decisions made because of riding boundaries and voter turn out. Riding boundary disputes and changes can be vast arguments and I think perhaps it is more relevant to the bigger cities than the country space.
So we’re discussing tossing the system of voting because of clear and obvious irresponsibility that may be shared with several groups; the potential voter, school, parents. We graduate students out of our schools literate and alliterate but at least they know the alphabet. There would be a huge roar if 40% of our students didn’t know the alphabet. Our answer would probably not be, to close the schools or turn out the students. Voting is the basis for democracy. The alphabet is the basis for reading. Voting requires one step. The alphabet requires 26.
We are graduating and congratulating too many people who are politically illiterate, which is the opposite of the people who settled here and created a society from the old world in the first place. We don’t think it important enough. Political awareness is deemed less important than anything, if you are part of that 40% that didn’t vote.
Proportional representation may just reinforce such abstaining attitudes, taking away the sting of being irresponsible. The system here, is not the failure. The nervous Nells who shudder at the thought of reinforcing methods, that bring about political responsibility, shouldn’t consider voting to be controversial. They could do a vastly better job than they are doing now, rather than churning out this many un-learned proles.
For Joe Gunn’s comment: The people of Canada have given Stephen Harper 4 years of trust to carry out “HIS” vision for this great country. How possibly, is his vision good for Canada. Is it by more of helping the rich only to get richer with tax cuts, contempt for parliament, Supporting all his partisan crook friends in the Senate, working to keep the Senators (not the hockey team) in Ottawa.His unaccountable spending to only increase the $155B deficit.Buying stealth jets and building prisons we do NOT need and Allowing our food to be poisoned instead of helping our farmers to grow fresh.What next? Draft and Boot Camps? I know why they are called Cons after conning 39% of voters to support them just to avoid another election.Damn Right People Canada lost.
Charles McVety, Harper’s spiritual adviser, will make sure he does what’s right for Canada and God.
We should all just relax for the next four years, and be thankful that Steve and Jesus are at the wheel.
can’t wait to see y’all small town hicks eat crow *lol*
its cornwall Joe, somewhere down the line all of them have the same DNA
Gary you sound like them sour grapes!
Big Joe’s words merely reflect the state of civic literacy that seems to exist in our Dominion …that a majority of Canadians view voting as an activity wherein we “abdicate” responsibility and send politicians to Parliament to act as they will, rather than “delegating” responsibility to them to be our representatives and do as we would have them.
And if I’m mistaken, I would then suggest that the only other explanation is …not that Steven Harper has been trusted with four years, but rather that he was slightly less mistrusted than the alternative.
Well, Iggy sabotaged the party. I guess he’ll go back to Paris, where he came from. Justin Trudeau is all wrought up because there wasn’t enough enthusiasm from the ground. If the leadership is pushed on him, he might take it. Maybe that will matter. He’s no dummy.
You know, people just aren’t happy talking about marijuana. Sorry. I suppose that will continue. A lot of non-users are going to watch their friends, sons, daughters and parents be persecuted with these prohibition laws, shortly. I guess if you’re not one of them, it’s a form of white-washing entertainment. These prohibition laws were originally enacted to put people of colour in jail. Up until just lately it’s mainly been people of colour and people of the First Nations who do go to jail for pot. That will change in 97 more days.
Justin Trudeau: it’s very difficult to be strongly behind a party, calling itself ‘Liberal’, that wants to put people in jail for this herb, used harmlessly by so many adults making an adult choice. Your parents were famous for it, Justin – things didn’t turn out so bad for you. As opposed to your parents being described as out of control, mandatory jail and their kids taken to be raised by strangers. It’s not all your fault, Justin, I don’t want you to feel that – there’s enough blame for everyone to share. We could still be friends.
It’s just a guess but perhaps the 44% that didn’t vote was partially because 44% figure their M.P.s think of them as vermin to be exploited for a vote, then discarded. Perhaps not, but you know there is contempt on the record and it isn’t in the process of going down. For many Canadian citizens, we are crashing into an era of cruelty, fear, horror, torture and deprivation. That is what a lot of people truly believe is coming. Re-read your Sir Issac Newton for the rest of what must follow. It’s the law. Always has been. It’s sad.
I’ve change my opinion, instead of “Proportional Representation”, I think “Alternative Voting” is a far better option. The UK is holding a referendum for this style of voting system today (May 5, 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiHuiDD_oTk&feature=player_embedded
“First Past the Post” is only truly fair in an American style two party system, which is exactly what Harper wants for Canada. By polarizing the vote it creates that system and unless the left forms into one party the right will probably forever be the party of power, not choice, just power. For all you Cons who constantly try and shove the line “Canadians have chosen” down our throat, get over yourselves. Canadians by and far chose ABC in this election (Anything But Conservative), with under 25% of eligible voters or only 1 out of 4 actually choosing the party of power. The rest of us either did not vote or had our voices muffled.
Majority ABC – absolutely, left-or-right, and especially ABH. Good reality check.
We might be into interesting times pretty soon. There are reports already that some Born-Again mouth-breathers, who were the original supporters of the Reform/Alliance/Reformatory movement, are getting vocal. Now that Harper has his majority, they want payback for their support (financial and votes) over all these years. Let’s hope that Harper will tell these hateful “Christian” nut-bars “Thanks for your support, but I don’t need you anymore.” On the other hand, I am fearful that Harper is actually one of these nut-bars. We’ll find out, one way or the other, after the Ontario provincial election.
soo what do you all think about all the controversy about hte NDP missing Mp’s and hiding a rookie *l* socialism at its best…” give the public what they think they need”
Jamie comments please or are you going to hide this post too
Smee, if you said something that was comprehensible then I’m sure Jamie might comment. Try using the spell checker and grammar checker in a word processor and write complete thoughts before pressing submit. The orange line under a word doesn’t mean that the computer agrees with you.
Old Mafiosi it’s not sour grapes it’s disappointment. Canada made their decision on Monday so now I move on and watch to see what happens. The Bloc and Libs are gone and Jack is again the working opposition. I strongly feel Canada deserved better than a Harper majority. The true test of the voters decision will be seen by the Cons actions over the next four years. Locally, I see that there will be no changes or improvements on social issues in this riding with Mr Lauzon.