Yesterday, after 13 years of Liberal rule in Canada. Canadians have made a choice for change, albeit a cautious change. On January 23rd, 2006 The federal Conservative Party won a minority government by being elected in 124 ridings. The official oposition switches to the Liberal Party, who were elected in 103 ridings. The separatist Bloc Quebecois were elected in 51 ridings; the New Democrat Party have 29 seats and there's 1 independent.
I had previously predicted a Conservative minority government. I thought the NDP would garner more seats. Not that they didn't improve from the 19 seats last election. I figured the left leaning Canadians would support the NDP aside from the scandal clad Liberal group. But I guess the NDP extreme socialist views are too extreme for most left leaning Canadians.
With the Liberal loss, our ex-Prime Minister, Paul Martin has decided not to lead the Liberal Party anymore. Allowing the Liberal Party to move beyond the scandals and other shit which happened during there rule.
Canada's new Prime minister is Stephen Harper. He's the second youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history at the age of 46. He was born and raised in Toronto, but now lives in Calgary with his wife and two kids.
Now with this minority government. The onus is on the Conservatives to make this parliament work and not lean too far right. Which I think they will do. It would be political suicide if the Conservatives start up with an extreme right wing agenda. Plus, they now have to fulfill their campaign promises. Otherwise they'll be lumped in with the Liberal Party and all their broken campaign promises. It's a double standard for the Conservative Party, what works for the Liberals won't work for the Conservatives. The Liberals can break promises and still be re-elected. Where as if the Conservatives follow suit. They're done like dinner.
Harper is also the first Prime Minister outside of Quebec in 27 years and the second Prime Minister from western Canada. The last Prime minister from western Canada was John Dieffenbaker.
Voter turnout increased to 63% from a record-low of 60.9% during the 2004 election.
8 comments:
After doing a little more research closer to the election, I began to realize that this was probably going to be the next government but soemtimes you can never tell.
Good call Clawmonkey.
I believe one of the Conservatives major promises was to clean up government, put ethics ahead of party politics etc.
Wow! took then two whole days after the election to go back on their promise.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060126.wxethics26/BNStory/National/
FUCK stupid blog cuts off URL
Harper failed to meet ethics czar on Grewal
By CAMPBELL CLARK
Thursday, January 26, 2006 Posted at 5:22 AM EST
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — Stephen Harper failed to meet federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro despite repeated attempts over four months to interview him for an inquiry into the Gurmant Grewal affair, Mr. Shapiro noted in a report released yesterday.
Despite a code of conduct that says it is an MP's duty to co-operate with an inquiry by the commissioner, Mr. Harper's office told Mr. Shapiro he could not find time in his schedule to answer his questions between August and November of last year. Instead, Mr. Shapiro spoke to an aide.
The report was ready last Friday but delayed to prevent accusations of political favouritism in the last days of an election campaign. In the report, Mr. Shapiro wrote that he wanted to ask Mr. Harper when he knew about the surreptitious recordings of conversations that Mr. Grewal, then a Conservative MP, had with senior Liberals about switching sides for a crucial no-confidence vote.
In the end, Mr. Shapiro concluded that it is unclear whether Mr. Grewal was really seeking a reward for crossing the Commons floor, or whether he wanted merely to entrap the Liberals -- but that at the very least, his actions flew in the face of the principles of the code of conduct for MPs.
On the eve of a no-confidence vote last May 19 that the Liberals won by one vote, Mr. Harper's office released excerpts of recordings Mr. Grewal made, and asserted that Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy, chief of staff to Prime Minister Paul Martin, offered him and his wife, Nina, also an MP, patronage jobs if they switched sides.
Two weeks later, under pressure, Mr. Grewal began releasing versions of all the conversations -- the first with 14 minutes missing. The last version showed that while Mr. Murphy and Mr. Dosanjh said he would be welcomed to the Liberals and did not rule out appointments, they refused to make any deal.
In his report, Mr. Shapiro cleared Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Murphy of violating the code.
He said there is no evidence that they offered a specific inducement, such as a cabinet post or diplomatic appointment for Mr. Grewal or Ms. Grewal, who was re-elected on Monday. They both corroborated Mr. Martin's testimony that he had instructed them not to make any deal.
But Mr. Shapiro wrote that Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Murphy should have stopped the "conversational dance" with Mr. Grewal -- who did not seek re-election in Monday's federal election -- when he repeatedly asked for a reward for switching sides.
Mr. Dosanjh said in an interview he was "relieved" that Mr. Shapiro found he did not violate the code of ethics, but he charged that Mr. Harper knew about and condoned the taping of conversations.
"It's troubling for me that the decision to actually go public with the tapes was made in the office of the then-Leader of the Opposition, now prime-minister-designate Harper," Mr. Dosanjh said.
uh... yeah.
that was way back when they were the opposition, not the government, and there was no such ethics bill at the time. So to say 2 days after they've broken there promise is false. nice try.
Also, Mr. Shapiro, in this article, doesn't say Harper is guilty of anything. Sure he wasn't able to meet with him and you can speculate all you like. But Mr. Shapiro did talk to an aide. So he did co-operate with the inquiry.
Of course Dosanjh will charge Harper knew. The Liberals also charged the tories of putting soldiers with guns in our streets. Well I've been watching CBC and I've yet seen any story of soldiers with guns.
Dasanjh is troubled the tories would go public with tapes of the liberals trying to bribe yet another MP. That's not suprising.
Does dosanjh have any evidence. No. I'm sure he would of presented it.
Got any other straws you're grasping at?
Oh right,
This was when They were defeating the government over ethics...yeah that's much better. While they were crafting their " commercials " and promising to clean up government. Mr. Harper was too busy finding ways to make government more accountable than to meet with a pesky ethics guy. send an aide. Of course. How could I possibly construe this as hypocritical, I forgot harper's not a liberal.
Talk about a double standard.
Well, he's trying to connect with eastern voters.
They like liberals, time to act more liberal.
One thing that's changed for the time being.
Instead of me saying "there's a god damn double standard."
now you're saying "there's a god damn double standard by."
The biggest difference between you and me monkey, in our political views... You think that the Conservatives are a change. I think they are the same old same old. Bon Jovi summed up my feelings about it ...
" It's all the same
Only the Names have changed"
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