Canadian Election

Whichever way it goes, Canada's political landscape is in for dramatic change. Even if the Liberals defy the polls and eke out a win with a minority government in the 308-seat House of Commons, Prime Minister Paul Martin will remain weak. If Harper doesn't win a majority -- he would have to increase Conservative seats from the current 98 to 155 -- he will need support from opposition parties to get any legislation through the House, always a tough haul.

But if Harper succeeds in building a majority government, he could have the power to make sweeping changes to Canada's bureaucracy-laden social welfare programs, fulfill a pledge to cut the national sales tax from 7 percent to 5 percent and give more autonomy to the country's 13 provinces and territories.

He is also pledged to improve relations between Canada and United States, which comprises the world's largest trading bloc and conducts some $1.5 billion in business each day....

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OTTAWA - Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won national elections Monday and ended 13 years of Liberal rule, giving Canada a leader who was expected to move the country to the right on social and economic issues and bolster ties with the United States.

Prime Minister Paul Martin conceded defeat after official results gave the challengers a near-insurmountable lead. However, it appeared likely the Conservatives's victory margin would be too narrow to avoid ruling as a minority government, making it difficult to get legislation through a divided House of Commons....

YAHOO NEWS

 

Not a Conservative majority though - what sort of horse-trading do you think Harper will have to do, DHK?

 

Praise the Lord for the results in the CA. election. It's a good start. Some day the conservtives will have the majority on BB also. If not we will keep trying till Jesus comes and then after that the lib's can have it.

 

A little shameful results from Ontario.
Among 23 seats in Toronto, Liberal 20, NDP 3, no seats for Conservative.
Neighboring area of my residence (Mississauga) elected Liberal represented by Muslim. When he was nominated as a candidate for Liberal, he declared that this is a victory for all the muslims! This means the expansion of Islam in this country. When the reporters tried to confirm, he denied what he said, saing though I am proudly Muslim!

I pulled up his sign planted in my lawn yard without my permission the other day.
The riding where my church is located elected Liberal as well, and they won by very little difference.

Liberals are slick and tricky whenever they encountered the Same Sex Marriage, Marijuana, etc. Both Paul Martin and Jean Cretiene had the same voice, saying " I am Catholic, but I have to respect the freedom of others" Typical way of Catholic's doing! Look at Catholic dominating countries like France. Do they oppose to Abortion? What about Same Sex practices?

Now it is better than before at least, even though it is not majority yet.

Canada is far less justice oriented, less faithful to God, than USA, IMO.

 

If American conservatives are any indication I hold little hope for the people of the great country of Canada.

 

Victory for Islam

We had a discussion about this candidate a month ago. He denied it because he never said it. It was the Markham councillor who spoke before Alghabara that made the offending statement.

I did keep an eye out for this riding though because of this news.

I voted Conservative in my riding (Richmond Hill) which was won by the Liberals but was really tempted to vote Liberal because the Conservative candidate was simply not in the same league as the Liberal one. I like the US system where you can cast one vote for your local representative and a separate vote for the President. In Canada your local vote is also your vote for the Prime Minister.

I was hoping for a Conservative majority for one simple reason: I don't want to have another federal election for at least four years.

 

This present heavens and earth will cease to exist when Jesus comes, so the liberals can't have it then.

 

If Harper truly wants to get stuff done he ought to consider setting up a coalitiongovernment with one of the other parties.
Running a country as a minority government is usually an exercise in frustration.
A Conservatives-Bloc Quebecois coalition would give him a nice majority government.
Even a Conservatives-New Democratic coalition would make his work a bit easier.

 

Do you think the new govt. will repeal the law (I believe it is called C250) which makes it illegal to say that Sodomy is sin?

Kind regards to all

Bob

 

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The answer? Deny power!!! Decentralize these gov'ts and any corruption that might occur will be relatively in consequential.

As it is, a defeat of American conservatives (yes including Bush) will mark the end of the shift of the SCOTUS to the constructionist view point. With Stevens approaching 90, it sure would have been nice to have kept "conservatives" in control of both the exec and legislative for four more years. Unlikely though.

Probably the best "plausible" thing that could happen for conservatives is for the GOP to take on the chin in 2006, purify, and come back strong in 2008... starting with getting rid of McCain as a prez contender.

The absolute best thing would be for the liberals to bolt the Democratic Party leaving open a power void for libertarians to either take the Democrats back to their Jeffersonian roots or have one of their parties step into the slot.

 

DHK
"The NDP is further left than the Liberals in their ideology."
"
Making them unsuitable as coalition partners for the Conservatives.

"The one main purpose of the existence of the Bloc Quebecios is Sovereignty, that is, Quebec's sovereignty. They continue to push for the separation of Quebec from the rest of the nation. Harper has little in common with the Bloc or their agenda."
"
A perfectly suitable partner for a coalition government it seems. Harper wants to give more autonomy to the provinces anyway. The Bloc get's more autonomy for Quebec and supports a number of carefully picked Conservative goals in return.

 

True and that looks like what is going to happen. Although it will give a lot of ammunition to the Liberals and NDP that Harper supports the PQ and "doesn't believe in a united Canada". I think catering to rural Quebec and building on the gains in Quebec to be the strategy to go for the Conservatives to win a majority in the next election.

While this sucks for me as an urban Ontarian, I don't think the effort put into appeasing urban Ontarians will actually result in more seats for the Conservatives.