CTV's gotten to BC by now, so I'm gonna say we're good to talk...

Looks like the government is (at least as of this minute, its floating a bit on CTV as they get better numbers out West):
166 Con
103 NDP
34 Lib
4 BQ
1Grn

Also notable is both Ignatieff (Lib Leader) and Duceppe (BQ leader) have lost their seats. The lone Green Party seat is being won (still counting) by their leader May. Most of the Conservative cabinet made it through the election.

Gotta say Ignatieff had a good speech at the end where he spoke about the results, very old school and very well done.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...elect ion2011

Chime in? Looks like quite a few things have changed - the opposition's different, and two leaders were unable to even win their own seats.

Damn NDP stepped up

Originally Posted by RememberTwce

Damn NDP stepped up

The NDP surge also forced life-long Liberals such as myself to vote Conservative.

Originally Posted by britb

CTV's gotten to BC by now, so I'm gonna say we're good to talk...

Looks like the government is (at least as of this minute, its floating a bit on CTV as they get better numbers out West):
166 Con
103 NDP
34 Lib
4 BQ
1Grn

Also notable is both Ignatieff (Lib Leader) and Duceppe (BQ leader) have lost their seats. The lone Green Party seat is being won (still counting) by their leader May. Most of the Conservative cabinet made it through the election.

Gotta say Ignatieff had a good speech at the end where he spoke about the results, very old school and very well done.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...elect ion2011

Chime in?

Duceppe's speech trumped Ignatieff's. Who the hell wants that blundering idiot still around? He should have resigned and been a man.

Originally Posted by Rudiger

The NDP surge also forced life-long Liberals such as myself to vote Conservative.

Usually it goes the other way: Liberals fear monger on-the-fence NDP voters into voting for them. This time around, Conservatives got Liberals to vote for them.

Really liked Iggy's speech. One can only hope that the NDP manages to moderate the Conservative government a bit.

The rumours of a 'Liberal Democrat' merger are simultaneously interesting and disheartening - more the latter. The destruction of the Liberal party would signal the end of a uniquely Canadian brand of politics and the beginning of our adoption of American-style politics. To see leftish voters more accurately represented, I'd rather we have a representative (not first-past-the-post) system than a dissolution of the Liberals and NDP.

Meh. Back to my apathetic attitude towards politics.

Originally Posted by Mahratta

Really liked Iggy's speech. One can only hope that the NDP manages to moderate the Conservative government a bit.

The rumours of a 'Liberal Democrat' merger are simultaneously interesting and disheartening - more the latter. The destruction of the Liberal party would signal the end of a uniquely Canadian brand of politics and the beginning of our adoption of American-style politics. To see leftish voters more accurately represented, I'd rather we have a representative (not first-past-the-post) system than a dissolution of the Liberals and NDP.

This is what scares me too. Choosing between the extreme left and the extreme right does not appeal to me, and I hope it doesn't appeal to most Canadians.

Originally Posted by Rudiger

This is what scares me too. Choosing between the extreme left and the extreme right does not appeal to me, and I hope it doesn't appeal to most Canadians.

I seriously doubt it will happen. A think a coalition, if anything, will be what we see.

Originally Posted by britb

I seriously doubt it will happen. A think a coalition, if anything, will be what we see.

I don't know if serious doubt is justified. Why? Look back at the 'mirror image', so to speak, of the NDP-Liberal split on the right - that is, the former PC and Reform / Canadian Alliance parties. After the PCs (to use our analogy, the Liberals would go here) were destroyed in election and the Reform party seriously contested their role as the voice of the Canadian right/centre-right, the two parties began seriously tending towards a merger.

The same thing has happened in this election, except on the left / centre-left. The PCs were the 'Red Tories', and formed the centre/centre-right to complement the Liberals' centre/centre-left before a stunning defeat drove them away from the spotlight - in came the Reform party on the far right (by Canadian standards), and we ended up with a new Conservative party headed by the former Reform party leader (now our PM). I can see the same thing happening with the Liberals and NDP, and I don't think it looks good in the long term.

most significant event of the night was green's one seat

orange crush!

i dont know much about politics .. but can someone explain to me why having conservatives is so bad? hasnt stephen harper done a good job with our economy ?

Originally Posted by macbaby07

i dont know much about politics .. but can someone explain to me why having conservatives is so bad? hasnt stephen harper done a good job with our economy ?

i'll try to explain it in a non-biased point of view. harper has done a good job with our economy, yes. before and during the election however, people were citing harper's "negative impact" (depending on how you view the issues) on social issues (i.e. gay rights and women's rights), the fight that he was found in contempt of parliament and his general "sneakiness" (for lack of a better word). that's it in a nutshell. to find the true extent of it, a lot of research will have to be done. and it's not that they're arguing that it's bad (at least the majority of them), it's that they are calling them out for their secrecy. it's more directed at harper, though and not so much the party as a whole.

Originally Posted by Rudiger

This is what scares me too. Choosing between the extreme left and the extreme right does not appeal to me, and I hope it doesn't appeal to most Canadians.

Uh... Extreme left is Communism. Extreme right is Fascism.

Conservatives are right. Liberals are -supposed- to be center-left. NDP is left, but less left than before.

Also, voting reform has its pros.

Originally Posted by Mahratta

Really liked Iggy's speech. One can only hope that the NDP manages to moderate the Conservative government a bit.

The rumours of a 'Liberal Democrat' merger are simultaneously interesting and disheartening - more the latter. The destruction of the Liberal party would signal the end of a uniquely Canadian brand of politics and the beginning of our adoption of American-style politics. To see leftish voters more accurately represented, I'd rather we have a representative (not first-past-the-post) system than a dissolution of the Liberals and NDP.

Why don't you get out of this country.

Canada has to adopt the style of British Politics. It's traditions and a symbol of alliance between the major nations of the Commonwealth. You speak of heresy.