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I shouldn't have looked.
Sep. 21st, 2008 07:51 pmDemocraticspace is predicting a Conservative minority by a narrow margin. 155 seats are required for a majority government, and they're predicting the Cons will get 150. That is entirely too close for my comfort; they've been wrong by five seats before.
I am NOT happy about this. I'm even less happy that there's pretty much nothing I can do to affect it. My riding is a swing riding, but not between the Cons and anyone else. The Cons are always the third party here. No, it could go either Liberal or NDP here. It really doesn't make much difference if it's a Liberal or an NDP, because the Liberals will be the official opposition either way, and the NDP don't ever hold the balance of power in a Conservative minority. No, the Bloc Quebecois, with 8% of the popular vote, 40 seats, and all of it in Quebec, will hold the balance of power in a Conservative minority, while the NDP's 30 seats, representing 17% of the vote, will be left in the cold as usual, unable to get anything done.
And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need electoral reform in this country. The other reason - the Green Party is apparently sitting at 9.7% of the popular vote, but is not expected to win a single seat. That's just plain wrong.
I am NOT happy about this. I'm even less happy that there's pretty much nothing I can do to affect it. My riding is a swing riding, but not between the Cons and anyone else. The Cons are always the third party here. No, it could go either Liberal or NDP here. It really doesn't make much difference if it's a Liberal or an NDP, because the Liberals will be the official opposition either way, and the NDP don't ever hold the balance of power in a Conservative minority. No, the Bloc Quebecois, with 8% of the popular vote, 40 seats, and all of it in Quebec, will hold the balance of power in a Conservative minority, while the NDP's 30 seats, representing 17% of the vote, will be left in the cold as usual, unable to get anything done.
And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need electoral reform in this country. The other reason - the Green Party is apparently sitting at 9.7% of the popular vote, but is not expected to win a single seat. That's just plain wrong.