Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The election is over.

It feels good to say that. Whatever happened last night, it's all over and we can move forward. We have another Conservative minority government, and I've decided that (instead of dwelling on how sad I was for Stéphane Dion last night) I'm going to reflect on the election in an Accentuate the Positive list:

  • At least we don't have a Conservative majority; they can't push through whatever they want, but need the help of the other parties. I find minority governments to be really interesting and creative times, particularly if all the parties are willing to co-operate and compromise. (So, political parties of Canada? How about you do that this time around? Work together? I'm particularly looking at the ruling party when I say that, because regardless of all their complaining about the deadlock in Ottawa, they were the primary ones not playing along.)
  • I'm glad the election's over now. I don't think I could handle another week of electioneering, especially since I'm living in a region considered to be a "swing vote" or something; we've been inundated with signs, calls, rallies, and party leaders. If I saw another road side/constantly-crossing-the-road-while-carrying-blue-signs rally that was slowing down rush hour traffic, I was going to throw something.* But it's over now. Early this morning, I watched volunteers take down all those blue signs for the Conservative candidate running in our area.
  • And, regardless of what else happened, my riding stayed NDP. And Ariann and Derek's riding stayed Liberal, even though it was a nail-biter (their PM won by only 68 votes!). I'd been really worried about my riding, because the Conservative candidate's campaigning was so visible and rush-hour-traffic-stopping. But my MP re-won the riding handily.
  • CBC's coverage was lovely. Well, they could've deployed Rex Murphy and Rick Mercer more than they did, but their coverage was good and even-handed (both politically and regionally), and I loved their live-updating interactive map on their website. I could keep it open while I worked on other stuff on my computer and check periodically to see what colour the ridings had turned.
  • Last night, I'd been just looking at the Edmonton map (on a map of Alberta that was solid blue with Conservatives), when Lynnie's riding suddenly turned orange! And stayed that colour! Seriously: Lyn's only lived there for a few months and she's already socialisted the place up. That little dot of orange made me happy.






* I find it ironic that the candidates that were running on a platform of "reduce rush-hour congestion!" were campaigning in a manner that increased rush-hour congestion.

7 comments:

LynnieC said...

I didn't even know!!! I'm so excited!! Jordan and I were talking politics the other day and he suggested that I'm a Conservative voter. I nearly barfed.

And my word verification "uszpah".

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Oh no! It turns out I lied! I assumed that, since you live near UofA, that you lived in Edmonton-Strathcona (which went NDP). But I just typed your postal code into Elections Canada's website, and you're in Edmonton Centre. Still very much Conservative. But right next to Alberta's only NDP riding, at least!

Anonymous said...

Hmm... have we ever talked politics Maryanne? We must not have or I would've remembered more... pointed debates between us.

I didn't watch the CBC tv coverage so I'll take your word that it was balanced. On CTV, Lloyd Robertson seemed to get bored by 10pm and tried to incite a Liberal Leadership controversy during an interview with Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae.

CBC Radio's lead story was "NPD SCORES VICTORY IN BLOCKING CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY", CTV analysts commented that the Bloc were the "majority spoilers." Interesting.

C said...

my riding is the only red dot in a sea of blue. we were kinda hoping it would be the only green dot, but no such luck. you would have thought with a celebrity ndp in tom king he would have stood more of a chance, but he was 4th, behind the green. the green guy actually had such a good campaign they interviewed him on cbc. really, if green was gonna get a seat in ontario, it was gonna be guelph. we're just a bunch of hippies.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Oh Mark, I know that we haven't talked politics. Mostly because I know that we are pretty much diametrically opposed, politically speaking. I also don't tend to get fired up about my political opinions on a regular basis and usually avoid getting into debates like this. But, yes. I am very much not a conservative. I've always been a big lefty of the Saskatchewan sort (not that I've only voted NDP, but I'm certainly not a laissez-faire free market liberal).

Hilariously, your wife and I are talking about this on the phone while I'm writing this!

Christina: I was rooting for Tom King. Because seriously? Tom King! Dead Dog Cafe! Last time we were hoping to be the green dot, but this time we put all our eggs in one basket and rooted for the most likely ABC.

Bronwyn said...

I loved Tom King!!!! So glad.

My riding is still a red dot in a province of blue. Go Ralphie!!!!

Queen of West Procrastination said...

Sorry Bronwyn, but Tom King didn't win! (I was happy that your riding stayed that red dot.)