Congratulations! Are you the potted plant that I heard was elected? 
What has one got to do with the other?
Not really, unless it was the sole source of funding. Fed funding only to groups who have a minimal support level doesn’t encourage startup parties but it certainly doesn’t freeze them out.
Polling being what it is, chances are we got a pretty good representation of how the other non-voters would have voted anyway.
Straight from today’s 308 update:
That’s incredible, he made a mistake while admitting a mistake. This guy should find a different job.
There are several major problems here. First, this would be working on the honour system. That’s a terrible way to run a democratic institution. Second, absent a constitutional amendment there is no way to remove a Senator before they hit the mandatory retirement age. Senators would not face any accountability. Third, what do you do about the current, unelected Senators? They will have a vote for a long time. Fourth, the current allocation of Senators to provinces is absurdly unbalanced. The composition of the Senate would need to be reformed(via a constitutional amendment) before it should get any legitimacy.
The honour system, enforced solely by precedent, has long been exactly how we ran our country. It’s only been in the last couple decades that we’ve moved to a more codified system.
The rest of your points are valid though.
And let me be the first to say Iggy resigns.
And he flits off into the night. 
Not much; I was just stating a preference if I had to only get one passed.
No, that’s not the general consensus. Voters are overrepresented among the older demographic, who tend to vote conservative. They are underrepresented among the young (under 30) demographic, who tend to vote more to the left of the spectrum.
Low turnout is usually thought to favour right-of-center parties.
Why do you think the Conservative lawyer had a problem with voting at the University of Guelph? (yes, I’m sure that they just wanted the proper process followed, and they would have done the same thing if it had occurred in a retirement home. Riiiight.)
I was watching a critique of the results. They said the results are weird. The Quebeckers got swallowed up by national politics. THe Liberals got knocked down . The corporate party got a majority of the seats but only 40 percent of the vote. The second place party is equivalent to the Green party in America passing up the Democratic party here.
Can you translate this for an American? Is public health care under fire now?
They did! I was watching them from 9:00 to about 9:26 here in Ottawa, until mid-sentence they got cut off with a “technical difficulties” message.
I have a lot of lefties on my Facebook, and I’m saddened by their level of disrespectfulness. If Jack Layton won a minority government, I sure as shit wouldn’t be wishing death on him. Get over yourselves…
Regardless, you are basically implying that Harper should run his government based on what a bunch of people might have wanted if they had bothered to vote, rather than on the election results.
I guess the conclusion we can draw here is that the older you get, the smarter you get.
The infraction was actually for the “fuck off” post, so the post from this morning could just as easily have been your second. I’m assuming Canada will continue to have a political system for some time, so like I said, in the future please keep your feelings in check during these threads.
That’s one way to look at it.
Or, the older you get, the more cynical and venal you get…
Hey, the Conservatives now have carte blanche - they control the House of Commons and the Senate. The only difficulty about constitutional issues is the consensus required from the provinces.
Well, thankfully we don’t have to do this again for 4 years.
Of course Ontario has an election coming up in the fall. But that’s OK. We know the Liberals will be kicked out of here too.
I’ll be a good boy.
Not quite. I would ask him to bear in mind that although he does have his majority government, it may not benefit him in the long run to behave as if he had carte blanche to jam unpopular legislation through Parliament.
Cutting programs for poor families and youth and then using the savings to build more prisons for poor people and youth is one example.
nm.
I’ll just get another warning…
No. Or at least, not in the sense I think you mean. None of our parties would campaign on a promise to eliminate our universal health care system; that would be political suicide.
Opinions differ sharply on the benefits of what the different parties propose under the aegis of ‘improving’ or ‘protecting’ our universal health care system, and you will often hear any party’s proposal attacked as being ‘the death of medicare in this country’.
The Conservatives may suggest proposals which will open the door to more private sector involvement in the system of delivery of our health care system. I don’t agree with that idea, but my party just lost the election in a resounding manner.