Well, that was a waste of time and money. And considering the dismal voter turnout, I'm not the only one who thought so.
First of all I would like to congratulate the people who voted conservative in Cypress Hills-Grasslands. You have once again elected a religious nutbag who believes the earth was created 6,000 years ago. That's definitely the person I want representing my interests in Ottawa. You know, someone who can think critically.
I was also extremely disappointed in Palliser riding. In 2006, the combined votes of the NDP and the Liberals were more than the Conservatives, so I was really hoping that people were going to vote strategically, take one for the team, so to speak, as long as it meant keeping Harper out. Alas, it did not work out that way. Geez people. I would've voted Liberal had I been in a riding where the Liberal candidate came in second place in 2006. And I never vote Liberal. Did nobody do their homework?? It takes 30 seconds to look up the results from the last election. Although at least no one in Palliser wasted votes on a non-existent candidate.
I am also very sorry for everyone in Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar who missed out on having Nettie Wiebe as their MP by 253 votes. Both the Green Party and the Liberals in that riding got over 1,000 votes each.
On a positive note, I was extremely pleased to see Rahim Jaffer have his ass handed to him by Linda Duncan in my former riding of Edmonton-Strathcona.
But all in all, it was very disappointing, and very frustrating, especially for those of us with left-leaning tendencies. In fact, it has many people talking about proportional representation.
Let's look at the numbers:
Conservatives: 38% vote share, 46% of seats
Liberals: 26% vote share, 25% of seats
NDP: 18% vote share, 12% of seats
Bloc: 10% vote share, 16% of seats
Green: 7% vote shore, 0 seats
It's easy to see why people are upset. Stephen Harper gets to be our Prime Minister when 62% of Canadians didn't vote for him. Even without the Bloc or the Green Party, the Liberal and NDP vote share is more than the conservative, yet because of our first past the post electoral system, we get a crappy conservative government for the second time in a row.
But, keep in mind that if we did go to proportional representation, majority governments would be a thing of the past. To see a working example of this type of electoral system, check out New Zealand. They adopted a Mixed Member Proportional system in 1993, and their next general election is going to be held next month on November 8th.
In the meantime, I'm hoping that the Bloc, NDP and Liberals can pull themselves together and cooperate enough to keep Harper from passing the worst bits of legislation. And for goodness sake, let's not have another election. For at least a little while, ok?
