Conservatives Win In Canada
No Canadian election is complete without a joke party of some type, a tradition going back to the Rhinoceros Party of the 1970s. Back then, the system made it impossible to elect anyone without winning in Quebec, and so many Westerners began voting “Rhino” as their votes didn’t matter anyway. My favorite joke party was the 1992 election’s Nation Law Party, led by illusionist Doug Henning. Their party platform was based around Transcendental Meditation and their political pamphlets featured diagrams of how levitating meditators would affect world events. This year’s joke party would have to be the Green Party led by overly kindly natured Elizabeth May. The Green Party, of course, is all about stopping global warming. Although never officially stated, their platform seems to be living in thatched roof cottages and eating twigs to placate Mother Gaia. The Green Party has picked up on another sore point with Canadian voters outside Quebec: election reform.
Canada has a parliamentary system based on the English system. Areas are divided into “ridings,” which elect seats in parliament. Unfortunately those ridings are not demographically even. Quebec is guaranteed 75 seats by the Canadian Constitution no matter what — even if everyone left, only 100 people remained in the province, and Alberta and British Columbia grew to 20 million people. This system has caused a great deal of agitation in Western Canada. There have been some attempts to rectify this unfair arrangement, but it may be some time before Canadians truly have a fair system.
In the meantime, this hodgepodge of parties and divisions on geographic lines has resulted in Conservative wins, but not Conservative majority governments. That has allowed the opposition parties to band together in various configurations to stonewall or block legislation and made it nearly impossible for the Conservatives to govern. In this election, they hope to finally win a majority.
How does this affect the United States?
Canada, of course, possesses massive natural resources, and the majority of its oil and gas exports go south to the United States. Unhampered by the rules preventing exploration in the U.S., the Conservatives are looking to expand those exports and continue to develop new reserves like the Alberta Tar Sands project. In a bid to gain some headway in the polls, the Liberals have jumped on the green bandwagon, so they, along with the N.D.P. and the Green Party, could subject those efforts to all manner of regulatory restrictions. If Harper fails to win a majority, then the Conservatives will continue to have to press with the weakness of a minority government.
The other issue in Canadian politics has been the war in Afghanistan. Canada, unlike many other NATO countries, committed combat troops to the effort in Afghanistan and has been willing to send personnel into harm’s way. Though the 98 Canadians killed may seem insignificant compared to U.S. casualties in Iraq, the number represents a tenth of all coalition deaths in Afghanistan. With each death, the opposition parties have attacked the Conservatives for continuing the mission and the media have latched onto and exploited any fallen soldier’s family who harbor anti-war sentiments.
It was the Liberals who were in power in 2002 when Canada honored its NATO commitment by sending troops to Afghanistan, and it was apparent very quickly that decades of underfunding of the military by Liberal governments was costing lives. Vehicles better suited to parking enforcement were no match for the Taliban’s roadside bombs, and the state of much of the equipment at the onset of the mission would best be described as substandard. The Liberals suddenly had no choice but to increase the Canadian Armed Forces budget and purchase more suitable equipment. Between the last Liberal budget in 2005 and the first Conservative budget in 2006, spending increased by 30%. However, Canada still ranks 16th amongst NATO nations for military funding. Despite their low level of spending, the Canadians fighting alongside the U.S. and British forces while better-funded NATO countries keep their troops in “safer” roles, or in the less troublesome North, is a sticking point amongst Canadians that the opposition parties have attempted to play upon.
Canada’s efforts in the war on terror would also continue to be hampered by a Conservative loss. The media and the left within Canada continue to dismiss the threat of Islamic terrorism, despite the arrest of a group of young extremists who had hoped to carry out London style bombings on the Toronto subway system, along with a more outlandish plan to storm Canada’s parliament buildings in Ottawa and behead Stephan Harper.
In 2007, the Liberal Party, Bloc Québécois, and N.D.P., joined together to vote down the Conservative attempt to restore Supreme Court of Canada-approved measures in the Anti-Terrorism Act, such as preemptive arrest warrants for those attempting to buy large quantities of explosives, or jail time for witnesses who refuse to provide information on pending plots.
Despite the fact that the measures were introduced by the Liberals, Liberal leader Stephan Dion led the vote against extending them on the grounds that they’d never been used.
The Canadian mainstream media can at times lean far more aggressively left than its American counterparts, especially the publicly-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Although polls at the beginning of the election gave the Conservatives the advantage and suggested a majority government was within its grasp, it is now difficult to truly gauge how the endless headlines and opinion pieces attacking Stephan Harper and his government will sway the outcome on October 14.
With Canada and the U.S. sharing interests such as energy, trade, the war on terror, as well the world’s longest undefended border, Americans should pay close attention to what happens up north this autumn.
The irony? If Stephen Harper finally does get his long sought-after majority and the Democrats prevail in November, Canada may be the only country in North America with a Conservative government.
I am reminded of the threats in 2004 of many liberals to move to Canada if Bush was re-elected. I’m not going to move to Canada if Obama wins, but I might visit more often.
Last time I looked, Mexico was in North America and had a conservative government. If Harper wins, it will be two for three for the continent as a whole – and it is not inconcievable that McCain will pull it out in two weeks and run the table.
Dan
HOW ARE MUSLIM NEIGHBORS TO THE NORTH DOING.
The results of the upcoming Canadian election will have little or no effect on American politics. The probable result looks like another minority Conservative Govenment.Therefore nothing much will change politically.
It’s the result of the U.S. elections that will determine the future relations between Canada and The U.S. An Obama win will cause a deterioration in Canada-U.S. relations. A McCain presidency will strengthen the relationship.
Daniel, we’re fine.
I’ve got a copy of the Koran in French, it came with French instructions on bomb-making and I got all the parts delivered to my igloo!
Seriously, it doesn’t seem like Canada has much effect on American politics, but given enormous necessity resources we sell to the US, there’s a lot of leverage that often goves unnoticed.
Chistopher:
Is it true that voter turnout in Canada is almost 100% because all the polling places are inside of Tim Hortons?
Wow, I almost feel Canadian. As a conservative in NY, I’m voting for the RINO, even though my vote won’t count…
You simple minded fools. Once The Obama wins, all nations will recognize him as their President. That election up north is a dog and pony show. The Obama will decide who he wants as their PM aka, the Canadian Ambassador to the United States of Obama, just as he decides on which days the sun will come out. Resistance is futile. All hail the Obama. World Peace will break out Nov. 5th 2008….just look for the rainbow and at the end will be a Pot of Obama as Obama is worth 10x more then gold.
Paul from Hamburg. It’s not the least bit true that Canadian polling places are all inside Tim Hortons.
But it’s a great idea.
Picking up a toasted bagel and a double-double while voting would push the turnout to 100% at the very least.
Northern Light: At least in Ontario the polls should be in the Beer Stores….Get a 24 and a ballot: At least then there would be an excuse for electing anyone but Harper….
I am just glad voting in the States does not yet, just wait …..the left is slow, take place at welfare offices. Then we would have 120 % voting. Heck the voting from the Crypt is bad enough. You can drive a stake thru a vampires heart and they die. Try that on a liberal and they vote three more cycles. Plus they each bring two dead conservatives who vote for Obama on the promise said dead liberal will just STFU for a while.
Northern Lights: Thanks for the clarification. I don’t live in Canada, but there are two Tim Hortons within 2 miles of my house and 3 within 2 miles of my office, so I was hoping I could vote a couple of times.
Oh and by the way, start sending over the Coffee Crisps or guess what country we invade next.
“My favorite joke party was the 1992 election’s Nation Law Party”
Sure it wasn’t the Natural Law Party? We had them in the UK that year too; astonishingly, contesting the fourth largest number of seats after the “big three”. Which must have cost them a fortune, incidentally: each candidate has to stump up a deposit of £500 which gets refunded if you pull in more than 5% of the vote. None of theirs did, needless to say.
Unbelievably though, they came back for more in 1997, actually managing to halve their 0.2% share of the vote to 0.1%
Canada’s elections have about as much relevance and impact on the US as Mexico.
Canada’s political parties are both slightly to the Left of Schumer.
Just to clarify, the Rhinoceros Party started in the 60′s, in Quebec. Wikipedia has a reasonable write-up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Party_of_Canada
The Natural Law Party was actually a serious party (well, I guess a serious as yogic flying can be)that originated in the States, and created by the followers of the Marharishi Mahesh Yogi. Henning wasn’t the leader of the Canadian branch(Dr. Neil Paterson was), he was just its most notable candidate.
Paul from Hamburg – you sound seriously deprived; perhaps after the election perhaps Canada can set up special aid to create a more Tim Hortons in your area…
Seriously though, an Obama win in the States is going to be problematic for both countries; Obama wants to renegotiate parts of the FTA (if not do away with a good deal of it altogether). But you can’t do that without opening up things like oil & gas as well, which are currently quite favourable to the US. Banking as well could be a significant issue, last time I checked 3 of the top 6 money center banks in the US were Canadian.
Canada’s parties are left and lefter. Nothing will change with their election. That’s how it is with parliamentary systems… no power, so no real change.
The issues I care about in Canada is if they are ever going to really close their danged borders, and their development of tar into oil.
Lorne D. Thomson is fascist, francophobic Toronto-based writer and musician attempting to adjust his twisted and evil ways to life in Canada after a decade of living in South East Asia where he should return and stop publishing such mean-spirited and dishonest articles.
My family is undoubtedly celebrating that victory. No matter how small, anytime those moron Liberals aren’t in charge of Canada, we be a happy group.
And as far as Quebec is concerned, I hope they do get out of Canada. After listening to the whining for the better part of my 32 years as a Canadian, I just want them to shut the h#ll up and get the h$ll out. But they won’t because they are pusses and know they have nothing without the rest of Canada holding them up.
I see that Lorne D. Thomson did not touch on the persecution of Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, and others, thanks to the Orwellian Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Code.
There is a forum called freedominion.com and the Harper-lead Conservatives were villified for
not lifting a finger to correct that wrong.
Also, when money goes to biofuels as well as the agricultural section (not to mention other
sections), the most conservative a government could be under current circumstances would be what Nixon had. (And this would be too right wing by the crowd known by this statement, “Damn
Americans, I hate the bastards!”)
Fantom, I live in northern Nevada. And my polling place is inside of a welfare office. I’m not kidding. It has been inside of a welfare office for the four plus years I’ve lived at my current residence. (This fact didn’t keep Bush from winning Nevada in 2004, though my normally Republican-voting county was closer than expected. This year the registered Democrats have edged Republicans in the county.)
David Lincoln – It’s going to take a long time to undo Section 13. But Steyn did win his case, mostly by ridiculing it and the Commission (and he continues lampooning it by asking the authors of the case to appeal). But more importantly, both Levant and Steyn are taking the fight directly to CHRC, seeing if they can force the heavy hand of the Commission. (Check Levant’s blog post, http://ezralevant.com/2008/08/i-have-been-hit-with-another-h.html, for an example ).
jvon – As for whether or not conservative Americans will move to Canada if Obama wins – probably not. Most Americans I know are in it for the long haul, know Obamamania shall too eventually pass, and (once again) they’ll have to assist in cleaning up the mess. OTOH, I do know quite a few who are moving significant portions of their money here, as Canadian dollar is cheap these days, and the banks are in (modestly) good shape.
Obamabots to Canadians:
We are The Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
I am a Canadian living in NY state. I mailed in my ballot for Steven Harper. They sent it to me so late that I had to pay 23.00 in postage! Maybe they knew that we headed for America because Canada was drifting so left of center. Harper is a decent politician and I think his gain of 18 seats is part of a trend towards conservatism in North America.
Chris, the Tories will not touch section 13, just like the Democrats will not touch abortion.
Frankly, there are differences between what is still common sense, and what Stephen Harper and cohorts have done (and what they plan to do).
I’m in favour of a new political party that would take a stronger stance in defending free speech, cut out wasteful spending by Ottawa (for
God knows it is needed), put the UN out of its misery, and send a clear message to the likes of Al Gore, Maurice Strong, and David Suzuki that politicized science is debased science.
David – I agree on all your points. I’d also like to toss in CBC, Native Affairs, and a host of other things. But a new party won’t work; if you come to people with the notion that basically they should be responsible for their own affairs, they’ll just look embarrassed & call the guys in the white coats. Reform tried that a decade or so ago.(*) Getting Canada to the current state it’s in has been a long slide, and it’s going to take a long time to get it out. If you figure it takes 15-20 years to bring an individual from total dependence to adulthood, how long will it take 30 million of them? lol…
*that reminded me of a neat party trick that still works, out least out here on the east coast. I’ve got all the “creds” of an ndipper – artist/mathematician/single parent – so folks seem to think I like to hear rants about how horrible (insert favourite target here) is. Let them get really wound up, and then smile & pull out the Tory membership card and watch the reaction. Always good for a laugh, at the very least. (The Reform card worked even better, but alas).
Yeah, but these guys are about as “conservative” as Bernie Sanders! They won’t abolish socialized medicine; they won’t abolish day care subsidies; they won’t abolish so many of the socialist programs up in Canada. They even admit, publicly, that they would never do these things. These guys are phony conservatives. Who cares if they win or lose? Canada remains extremely left no matter what.
Chris, then what about this: those who say that that the political arena is only about politics are accused of being narrow minded. Let them stew over that, and then begin to articulate a new vision, rather than using the same tools that
all other parties have used – and we wind up with
more of the same.
It can be done, and frankly Harper and others deserve to be pummelled like they were at freedominion.ca over Section 13.
BTW, the thought occurred to me: the “gaff” about
arts funding cuts and justice for those under 18
was a manoeuvre to weaken the Liberals. After all, a Tory majority would have given them more time to recover.
Marc Malone. for your info 50% of your oil comes from the Alberta tar sands. Are you sure you want to close it down?