As you are probably aware we had a Federal Election today, in Canada
Preliminary results suggest the conservatives may win the popular vote but will not form a govv't
The liberals seem more adapt at turning available votes into wins for more seats in Parliament
As of now, which is still early as the west coast is still voting and counting votes in central Canada
However, the TV talking heads are projecting a minority gov't with the liberals with the most seats but not enough for a majority
One other thing that seems very obvious is the split between East and Western Canada
In western Canada some very long time incumbents are going down to deffeat to the conservative partty
However, it looks like a minority gov't for Canada with a party with very few seats, that could be king maker depending on who they support in a minority parliament
Our electtion caimpaigns lasts for 40 days in Canada
Of course candidates have been selected ahead of time and then wait for the writ, to begin the caimpaign..
I had a choise of 6 party candidates on my ballot, with 3 major parties and the others were fringe parties
The Parti Quebecois was very strong in Quebec but not as strong as expected with the liberals picking up a number of seats.
As off now we even have an independant leading in one riding
A party needs 12 seats to qualify as an official party to recieve gov't funding to hire staff and other official expenses
Thanks Wayne!
Does Quebec still want to secede from Canada?
There will always be those who wish to secede
But the majority do not want to secede
Actually MM there is more of a push for the west to secede from the rest of the country
The oil patch doesn't think the rest of Canada appreciates their contributions to the rest of Canada, or the bigger reason, a real effort to move oil to refineries
With the oil patch losing jobs, it is very tempting to think they could run their own affairs better than Ottawa 1000's of miles away
That was why so many voters switched parties and incumbents lost out
Some very good talent went down to defeat, but when you lose your job and some body in the east doesn't seem to be as concerned as they should, one can understand their frustration
Calgary used to be a booming city with house and office prices sky high. Now Calgary is not very happy.
Then you get into the west cost and they have different issues
No wonder we have a minority gov't with so many regional issues. Even the vote count was low with approx. 66% of eligible people bothering to go and vote
The common perception was everybody was promising everything and once elected they would have an excuse to not carry out their promises
At least Trump has ticked off one by one his campaign promises, even if some proved to be a bit too hard to accomplish, with the left always trying to sabatoge his efforts
And of course the one thing I hate the most is Canada is poised to get really serious about climate change. This is something that Canada will very likely have a debate in the near future. Maybe the cost will change some people's thoughts. I can only hope but when we have our farms incorporated and the main tax revenue coming from rich corporations it doesn't look so good for our farm. A corp tax rate of 15% was good for us but if they raise that rate, which I bet they will, then what do we do.
I guess we just suck it up and carry on as best we can