# The Canadian Election Thread. (Or maybe not...) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 21, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419 "2011-03-21T00:51:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 43
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/841 "2011-05-02T03:26:38Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I wish we could say the same here. It looks like the Conservative will get in, but he’s refused to attend all-candidates forums, he’s apparently played up (if not outright falsified) his educational qualifications, and nobody knows what he does for a living. The local paper’s letters page has been mostly “don’t vote for this guy” for the past week. Apparently, he spent much of his time courting Mormon voters in this heavily-Mormon riding; which in a weird way, makes sense, as he is a Mormon. But he completely ignored the rest of us, and seems to want nothing to do with the rest of us or the issues we might raise. When you throw in the NDP candidates who’re off in Vegas and have no connection to their ridings, you start to wonder… … How can a national political party with millions of dollars and decades of time to establish a national organization not be able to find ONE decent human being to run in every riding in the country? One who lives there and has a job? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/842 "2011-05-02T03:28:39Z")
Final DemocraticSpace projections: CPC: 149 NDP: 79 Liberal: 55 BQ: 24 Independent: 1 A majority remains possible, if not terribly likely. The Liberals’ chances look really bad. 308 hasn’t updated their projections but I don’t think they will much differ. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/843 "2011-05-02T03:37:38Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Final DemocraticSpace projections: > > CPC: 149 > NDP: 79 > Liberal: 55 > BQ: 24 > Independent: 1 > > A majority remains possible, if not terribly likely. The Liberals’ chances look really bad. > > 308 hasn’t updated their projections but I don’t think they will much differ. Interesting - 308 still has Portneuf-Jacques Cartier with the NDP leading the independent Andre Arthur 31.5 to 28.9 %. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/844 "2011-05-02T04:16:29Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > … How can a national political party with millions of dollars and decades of time to establish a national organization not be able to find ONE decent human being to run in every riding in the country? One who lives there and has a job? A Mormon friend told me that once this (Mormon) guy applied to be the candidate for the Conservatives, he got all the local Mormon CPC-member support. And they outvoted the non-Mormon CPC members to select this guy as the CPC candidate. It’s the way candidate selection works in all ridings for all parties; but still, I’m not happy that religion is playing a role in our riding. :mad: I’m worried that his religion will affect how he deals with us when we need to write our MP–will he ignore all but Mormons who have problems? ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/845 "2011-05-02T04:24:49Z")
At risk of stating the obvious, the news about Bin Laden is going to help out the Conservatives a ton (and potentially the Liberals, too.) Even before that, I would bet on the Liberals ending up with more seats than the NDP. Either way, there could be a merger coming… ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/846 "2011-05-02T04:32:58Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Awww, ya bunch of hosers. > > [awkward man hug](http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2255880875) > > ETA: Everyone go vote! In all fairness, that only looks awkward for one guy. 🙂 Yeah, go vote! We live in a democracy, dammit! Use it! ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/847 "2011-05-02T04:36:22Z")
> [@straight\_man](#): > > At risk of stating the obvious, the news about Bin Laden is going to help out the Conservatives a ton (and potentially the Liberals, too.) > > Even before that, I would bet on the Liberals ending up with more seats than the NDP. Either way, there could be a merger coming… I’m at a bit of a loss for how the bin Laden news is going to swing any votes at all. Nor do I see how or why the Liberals and NDP would merge. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/848 "2011-05-02T04:53:55Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > I’m at a bit of a loss for how the bin Laden news is going to swing any votes at all. > > Nor do I see how or why the Liberals and NDP would merge. Quick answers: Bin Laden will be on _everybody’s_ minds as they vote tomorrow. It will have an inherent pro-incumbent effect, on top of which, the NDP has been strongly against the Canadian presence in Afghanistan, and this news will affect public opinion of that presence. You could see Harper trying to play for that effect in his press announcement (possibly a bit too blatantly.) There’s been increasing talk about “unite the Left” over the last couple years. Particularly if the Conservatives get their majority, but even if they merely get an insurmountable minority, that talk will become a roar pretty quickly. There could also be an effect on the intraparty dynamics —but of course, we’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/849 "2011-05-02T05:06:55Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Final DemocraticSpace projections: > > CPC: 149 > NDP: 79 > Liberal: 55 > BQ: 24 > Independent: 1 > > A majority remains possible, if not terribly likely. The Liberals’ chances look really bad. > > 308 hasn’t updated their projections but I don’t think they will much differ. 308’s projections: CPC: 143 NDP: 78 Liberal: 60 BQ: 27 Green/Independent: 0 Close to DemocraticSpace - mainly 308 calls for 5 more seats for the Liberals and 6 fewer for the Conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/850 "2011-05-02T05:07:40Z")
> [@straight\_man](#): > > Quick answers: > > Bin Laden will be on _everybody’s_ minds as they vote tomorrow. It will have an inherent pro-incumbent effect, on top of which, the NDP has been strongly against the Canadian presence in Afghanistan, and this news will affect public opinion of that presence. You could see Harper trying to play for that effect in his press announcement (possibly a bit too blatantly.) > > There’s been increasing talk about “unite the Left” over the last couple years. Particularly if the Conservatives get their majority, but even if they merely get an insurmountable minority, that talk will become a roar pretty quickly. There could also be an effect on the intraparty dynamics —but of course, we’ll see. How about the opposite effect? “Osama’s dead, so now we should listen to the NDP and get out of Afghanistan?” ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/851 "2011-05-02T05:27:12Z")
I can’t believe Jack Layton killed Osama Bin Laden with such a rough happy ending! Incidentally, my speadreading regiment is going great! No comprehension loss whatsoever! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/852 "2011-05-02T05:28:04Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > How about the opposite effect? “Osama’s dead, so now we should listen to the NDP and get out of Afghanistan?” Definitely possible. I don’t think it will happen too much, unless some very public figures start talking “mission accomplished”. I mean, in reality (and I assumed this was where **Gorsnak** is coming from) getting bin Laden has little to do with the success of the Afghanistan efforts, and indeed the efforts there increasingly have less and less to do with terrorism anyway. It’s just that people’s opinions of the Afghanistan mission have to be as high as they could ever possibly be at this moment, even if that’s not rational. (It could also make people feel better about the US/Canada GWOT cooperation that Harper loves to push, again not out of rationality.) ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/853 "2011-05-02T06:28:03Z")
308 has officially called my riding for the Conservative party, by a 0.2% margin that translates to approximately 120 votes. I’m torn between supporting the following: 1. A candidate whose incompetent law firm represented the other side in a lawsuit against my father (who settled favourably). He also implies a desire to close down the factory where I work. 2. A former member of the Canadian Alliance party who personally seems to share very few of my values. (Though he doesn’t exactly make that public – he’s very much a stand-in because Stephen Harper can’t run here too.) He can’t be bothered to make his views known at candidate forums, the internet, or even grant interviews to major local journalists. 3. A social worker, about whom I can learn nearly nothing, and whose party’s platform just doesn’t quite add up. How can we double pension payments just as a huge cohort of Canadians are entering retirement age? How is this not just a blatant vote-buy? 4. A party that, in addition to promoting an expensive and economically regressive agenda of nonsense, explicitly wants to put me out of work. (Gee, don’t they sound swell.) 5. A university student with no oratory ability who received all of 77 votes last election, and wants to, with a 60% increase to minimum wage, a) destroy a lot of low-paying jobs and b) greatly increase the cost of essential purchases. 6. A candidate for a party that seems to exist solely to support other parties, and wants to outlaw a valuable natural resource because it’s cute. 7. A candidate who is literally a homeless man, who spends over half the year living in a foreign country, running for a party with a single platform plank. 8. A candidate who I literally know nothing about, and doesn’t even appear to live in the riding. * * * The top two are the only two who realistically have a chance of winning. At this point I can’t expect either to do much in the way of being a vocal presence for my riding in Parliament, so I really should vote for the parties. Do I vote for the idiot who’ll put me out of work, or run the risk of a risk of a majority government implementing policies I can’t abide? ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/854 "2011-05-02T06:49:15Z")
Personal vendetta trumps ideological standoff. At least that’s my two cents. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/855 "2011-05-02T07:08:01Z")
> [@antonio107](#): > > Personal vendetta trumps ideological standoff. At least that’s my two cents. 🙂 Well, gee, if we go there… Candidate #2’s staff tried to steal a ballot box and shut down a special poll. He’s also had his staff engage in intimidation tactics at advance polls throughout Liberal-voting districts of the riding. I guess that’s not as directly personal, but it’s been to the detriment of people I personally know. And that plus his failure to show up to most of the debates (he claims his campaign is more focused on canvassing – funny, nobody I know has met him) also shows him to be rather uninterested in the democratic process as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/856 "2011-05-02T07:40:54Z")
> [@Baffle](#): > > Well, gee, if we go there… > > Candidate #2’s staff tried to steal a ballot box and shut down a special poll. He’s also had his staff engage in intimidation tactics at advance polls throughout Liberal-voting districts of the riding. I guess that’s not as directly personal, but it’s been to the detriment of people I personally know. And that plus his failure to show up to most of the debates (he claims his campaign is more focused on canvassing – funny, nobody I know has met him) also shows him to be rather uninterested in the democratic process as a whole. That’s… some very, very good reasons not to vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/857 "2011-05-02T12:41:31Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > I’m fortunate, in that the candidates for the three main parties in my riding are all good eggs, and the two that are dukeing it out for the win are acquaintances of mine. Its nice to know that whichever one gets elected, he will do a good job at representing my riding. Agreed. One of them gets to help this city no matter what. My side of town, not so much. I will have a bit more to say after the polls close. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/858 "2011-05-02T12:55:34Z")
Does anyone have specific information about discussion of regional results on internet message boards? I’m just wondering if, as I believe, we are supposed to wait until **8 PM PDT** before any talking about the election results… ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/859 "2011-05-02T13:42:29Z")
I can’t see how a message board broadcast would be treated any differently than tweets, blogs etc. Have a read [here.](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-02/canada-election-result-bloggers-face-fines-under-1938-law.html) > [@](#): > > Kennedy’s advice to tweeters, bloggers and Facebook users on Election Day is: “They should be aware that it is an offence.” As for freedom of expression, “Certainly people can express opinion without contravening section 329,” she said. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419/860 "2011-05-02T15:05:42Z")
> [@Baffle](#): > > Well, gee, if we go there… > > Candidate #2’s staff tried to steal a ballot box and shut down a special poll. He’s also had his staff engage in intimidation tactics at advance polls throughout Liberal-voting districts of the riding. **I guess that’s not as directly personal** , but it’s been to the detriment of people I personally know. And that plus his failure to show up to most of the debates (he claims his campaign is more focused on canvassing – funny, nobody I know has met him) also shows him to be rather uninterested in the democratic process as a whole. Well, there you go! 😃 Seriously though, i’d say that’s an argument for third party voting/not voting at all. Do you really want to weigh the options between two candidates, and see which one causes you less grievances? If you vote for the one who wants to put you out of work, seems to me you should get out your resume! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419.md?page=42) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadian-election-thread-or-maybe-not/575419.md?page=44)