About the Blog:

Guelph Politico is locally sourced and dedicated to covering the political and cultural scene in the City of Guelph. Est. 2008.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Nothing Changes; Everything Stays the Same

So here's what is:

*The Conservatives get a minority government

*The Liberals face a leadership dilemma

*The Bloc finishes with some surprisingly strong results

*The NDP get a few more seats...

*...while the Greens get none


I'm confused, are we talking about the 2006 election or the 2008 one?


Yep, not much shifted on the old toll board last night, except that the Liberals now have fewer seats, the Conservatives have a bunch more and the NDP picked a few new caucus members as well. It breaks down like so, but remember that a few contest may be contested being that they're so close:


*The Conservatives: 143 (+19)

*Liberals: 76 (-27)

*Bloc Quebecois: 50 (-1)

*NDP: 37 (+8)

*Green: 0 (-1)

*Independent: 2 (+2)


Weirdness abound last night as many tight races nationwide yielded some unexpected results. One of those tight ridings was Guelph, whose fate wasn't determined until well around midnight. In the end, it was Frank Valeriote winning the day and the riding with 18,977 or 32 per cent of the vote. Gloria Kovach placed a very strong second with 17,185 votes, or 29.18 per cent. Interestingly, that was Brent Barr's vote share in '06, though Kovach closed the gap between Liberal and Conservative to just under 2,000 votes. And though he finished third, Mike Nagy can't be disappointed having secured 12,500 votes in Guelph.

But Guelph will be lonely wearing red this time, as we're surrounded by Conservative blue in all three Kitchener-Waterloo ridings, Cambridge and Wellington-Halton Hills. Also lonely is the Saskatchewan riding of Wascana, which was the only place in the province to elect a non-Conservative, Liberal Ralph Goodale. And it wasn't all good news for the Conservatives as their Alberta stronghold sprung an orange-coloured leak in the riding of Edmonton-Strathcona. Linda Duncan beat Rahim Jaffer by a little over 500 votes.


Not so good news is that voter turnout reached an all-time low: 59.1 per cent. Boo, Canada. Boo. What's the excute this time? Washing you're hair? Too much homework? Couldn't find a ride? All right, enough sarcasm. What was interesting in watching the CBC's coverage last night was the number of people writing in to advocate the need for electoral reform. Looking at the seat to vote percentage ratio, it's not hard to imagine why. The Conservatives have a near majority even though 63 per cent of voters but an 'x' beside the name of another party's candidate. The Bloc gets 50 seats for their 10 per cent vote share, while the Green party gets none with almost 7 per cent.


There's a lot going on in the minds of politically engaged right now, myself included. I'll have some more analysis over the next couple of days so keep checking back.

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