Canada Gets It Right...

[Epsilon Delta]

Generally, though, Canada doesn't elect majority governments with majority votes. Majorities are usually won in Canada with 38% to 44% of the vote. In BC a couple of decades ago, if I recall correctly and I may be a little off, Glen Clarke and the NDP won a majority with 35% of the vote while the Liberals won 38%. In one of the elections - I think it was 1997, Chretien won all 105 seats in Ontario as the conservative vote split between the Reform and the PC. The conservative vote split in something like 50 seats, such that had they been one party, they would have won those seats. But it allowed the Liberals to slip through the middle. I think the Liberals won a majority that election of 160-165 seats and 38% of the vote.

I don't think the Liberals will ever merge with the NDP. They are two very different parties. And the Liberals aren't really "left" either. They are more centrists. In fact, in some ridings, it appears that the right leaning Liberals broke to the Tories.

And despite the NDP's great night, they won only 44 seats outside of Quebec. Over the past 35 years, Quebec has given massive majorities to the Liberals under Trudeau, then the Tories under Mulroney, then the Bloc under Bouchard and Duceppe, and now the NDP. None had any staying power. Will the NDP be any different? Probably not, given that the party has absolutely no history in the province.

The Tories, on the other hand, won 161 out of the 233 seats outside of Quebec. That is a pretty solid showing.

I can see a scenario where the NDP wins the next election, but most likely, the Tories will be in power for a decade while the Liberals regroup, as they will.

Well, yeah, I agree, like I said it was a pretty big parliamentary win for the Conservatives in Canada, but I just love how whenever people see a country, or maybe even a group of countries, vote in their own version of a "Right" or a "Left" or a "Center" party, all these people go overboard claiming that it "vindicates the success of [insert preferred ideology] against the failed policies of [insert antagonistic ideology]," when it usually only reflects at best a narrow political reality unfolding in the current context of whatever particular country's being discussed.

In this case, it happens to be that unlike these sort of characters claim there isn't some sort of major right-ward shift in Canadian public opinion but the circumstances of a divided opposition, weak leadership, etc. that give one particular current greater strength electorally but not necessarily broad-based. One could find a number of examples (you mention that in Canada it has happened before, with the Liberals squeaking by through a divided conservative opposition) where the same could be true if a "Left" party won but the majority still voted for "Right" parties.

As far as the Liberals and NDP go, I don't see it as particularly likely either, just heard the idea floating around somewhere. I guess the point was more akin to the idea that, like you say, the Liberals (or the "Left" - agreeing that we're using the term here veeery broadly here, but at least "Left" in relation to the Conservatives's "Right") are going to need to regroup one way or another like Conservatives had to do in order to break the long years out of power, unless the NDP manages to "prove" to the electorate that it can really deliver or something makes the Harper government implode before the next polls [NOT likely]. But it could likely be just a fleeting moment for the NDP. When you put it the way you just put it (about Quebec giving majorities to different successive parties), it now makes sense why nobody could give me a straight answer when I would ask "How do the Quebecois vote?" (not like I prodded too far into it). Well, we'll just have to wait and see how next time.

 

[strollingbones]

canada has more than 2 parties...

 

[Dr.Drock]

Lol fun watching people excuse the Canadian version of republicans support of universal healthcare.


Those same excuses will be coming here to the states when the next batch of republicans also supports it here.

"They have to!" "Political suicide!" bla bla bla

I got a crazy idea.............STICK TO YOUR PRINCIPLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Oscar Wao]

canada has more than 2 parties...

That's one of the VERY few things of Canada's that I wish we could emulate.

 

[auditor0007]

canada has more than 2 parties...

That's one of the VERY few things of Canada's that I wish we could emulate.

I hear this so often from people belonging to both the Democratic and Republican Parties. The problem with the US having three or four major parties is that we would have to change the way our government runs. In Parliamentary governments, coalitions must be built that bring about a ruling majority. We would have to allow for the same in order to determine who received committee chairmanships in Congress, and which party would control both the House and Senate. Also, in the event that no Presidential candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the President would then be selected by the House of Representatives. This could leave the election of our President out of that hands of the voters on a regular basis.

While one can make an argument for the preference of the Parliamentary system over our own system, having multiple parties under our current system could easily become a nightmare that nobody would be happy with.

 

[grunt11b]

Where is Canadia, exactly?

Right above America dumbass.

 

[grunt11b]

Let's see, the GOP/conservatives campaigned on creating jobs and not rasising taxes in 2010 and managed to win back the House. What's the first thing they focused on? They managed to change the definition of "rape".

Unemployment also went down ~1% since they took the House. If they had taken the Senate.... well, we might have gotten it down 2%.

But not to worry, people all around the world are learning that socialism is the dumbest idea next to communism and will no longer tolerate it.

This should be rich....please list the specific legislation passed by the HOUSE that you are crediting the 1% decline in unemployment to.

The Democrats hold the senate and the white house still, it's virtually impossible for any conservative legislation to pass right now, with 100% of the ideas being threatened by a presidential veto. After 2012 we won't have to worry about that anymore.

 

[grunt11b]

Hmmm you mean the people of canada like their healthcare?

Even the conservatives.


I guess universal heaalthcare must work well

Yeah, it's so good they travel to America for life saving treatments such as cancer treatments and what not, it rocks up there!!!! UHC is so awesome it's unbelievable!!!!!

 

[Epsilon Delta]

Hmmm you mean the people of canada like their healthcare?

Even the conservatives.


I guess universal heaalthcare must work well

Yeah, it's so good they travel to America for life saving treatments such as cancer treatments and what not, it rocks up there!!!! UHC is so awesome it's unbelievable!!!!!

Hey, just wondering, got any figures to back up your claims or do you just "feel it in your gut"?

Results from Canada. Several sources of evidence from Canada reinforce the notion that Canadians seeking care in the United States were relatively rare during the study period. Only 90 of 18,000 respondents to the 1996 Canadian NPHS indicated that they had received health care in the United States during the previous twelve months, and only twenty indicated that they had gone to the United States expressly for the purpose of getting that care.

Phantoms In The Snow: Canadians’ Use Of Health Care Services In The United States

And yet...

Brooks, 48, is one of millions of Americans who have turned to Mexico and other countries in search of bargain drugs. [...] Mexico, Canada and other countries have become the discount pharmacies for many Americans, those looking simply to save money as well as the uninsured struggling to pay for their medications. [...] Customs estimates 10 million U.S. citizens bring in medications at land borders each year. An additional 2 million packages of pharmaceuticals arrive annually by international mail from Thailand, India, South Africa and other points. Still more packages come from online pharmacies in Canada.

Millions of Americans Look Outside U.S. for Drugs - washingtonpost.com