The 2019 Canadian election

[robkelk]

The leader of the Conservative party is on record as complaining about some high-ranking officials being dual citizens, of Canada and some other country.

Turns out he's one himself.

And his sisters are members of the Republican Party.

A couple of elections ago, his party campaigned - and won - on the Liberal Party's leader at the time having spent a large fraction of his adult life in the USA. Now they're being lead by somebody who could be called up in a US Army draft (if Selective Service re-introduces the draft).

Yeah, it isn't just the conservatives in the USA who have double standards.

[Matrix Dragon]

Oh, I like this guy.

Also, there's a reporter there that needs a slap in the face.

[robkelk]

So, big English-language leaders' debate last night.

They did a good job of not answering the questions they were asked by ordinary Canadians.

Sound bites over substance or communications - not what I wanted to hear.

EDIT: And it looks like I'm not the only one. As I post this, the CBC's page These were the key moments from the federal leaders' debate has as much substance as a stereotypical political speech: i.e. none at all.

[robkelk]

Advance polls this weekend - October 11, 12, 13, and 14.

Voting day is October 21.

Federal rules say you can't decline your ballot, the way some provincial elections allow. If you show up, you're either voting or spoiling your ballot.

[hazard]

I'm not familiar with the term declining one's ballot.

I presume this is showing up and handing the ballot back to the election officials?

[robkelk]

Exactly. It's a statement that you want to vote for "none of the above".

[hazard]

Not sure that's legal in the Dutch voting system. Normally here that'd be a blank ballot, and those are legally just invalid ballots.

Of course, a notable share of blank ballots does send a message, but the fairly wide range of Dutch political parties usually means there's some party that will meet your requirements.

[Black Aeronaut]

I've always been of the opinion that "None of the Above" needs to be an option on American ballots. If a simple majority comes back as NotA, then another election should be held. However, if a 2/3rds majority come back as NotA, or the second election yields the same results as the previous one.... Then all candidates should be automatically disqualified because they obviously don't have support of the American people.

It would send a succinct message to the political leaders that the American public is sick of their shit and want a change. The 2016 primaries would have been an interesting sight to behold had this been the case.

[robkelk]

Advance polls start today.

[Norgarth]

Every time I look at the poll numbers for the PPC (People's Party of Canada) I can't help but recall this bit

[Pyeknu]

Well, I voted yesterday at Port Colborne city hall. Didn't get the voter card through the mail, which is something that Elections Canada clearly screwed up on.

Still, it's over for this round. Let's hope it's a Liberal government even if I voted otherwise. Scheer is too much an incompetent idiot to be allowed to move into 24 Sussex Drive.

[robkelk]

At least at my poll, there are lots of advance voters this year - over 300 on the first day of advance voting (including me). Here's hoping this isn't an anomaly and people are actually interested in voting this year.

(As for 24 Sussex, the building is in such bad shape that even Justin Trudeau, who was born there, won't live in it.)

[robkelk]

Advance polls are now closed - if you weren't in the 5% of the population to take advantage of them, you now have to wait until election day.

The difference in support between the Conservatives and Liberals has been smaller than the margin of error in polling since August 7. Support for both of those parties dropped when the leader of the NDP announced he was open to the idea of a coalition with the Liberals, although not all of the decided electors polled switched to the NDP.

So, yes, every vote matters this time. We're looking at either a minority government or a coalition government - even if you vote for one of the less-popular parties, you could be casting the vote that determines who holds the balance of power.

[robkelk]

Election Day is tomorrow.

The race is still too close to call - if you're Canadian, then your vote matters.

CBC News: Need to catch up before election day? Here are some highlights from the past 6 weeks

[nocarename]

Voted. Nothing left to do on that front but wait and see what happens.

[robkelk]

Polls are starting to close. (Assuming they opened on time, of course.)

[robkelk]

Lots of polls just closed.

Early results show the Liberals losing 1/4 of their seats in Atlantic Canada - with a possibility of one of those going to the Green party. Never mind third-party - the Greens were the fourth party going into this election.

[robkelk]

And the last of the polls just closed. It's all over but the counting.

CBC's projecting a Liberal government, but as yet refuses to say minority or majority.

The Conservatives are almost definitely going to lead the opposition.

The NDP (far enough left that Bernie Saunders would probably be comfortable there) are leading in 10 ridings. The Greens are leading in two. However, the BQ is leading in 20, so the left doesn't hold the balance of power... yet.

As of this posting, the People's Party - the one farther to the right than the Conservatives - have a reported popular vote percentage less than half what the Quebec-only Block Quebecois has, but are polling higher than the independents taken as a whole. They're not leading anywhere. (Sure, British Columbia hasn't started reporting yet, but it isn't just their position on the map that earned them the nickname of the "Left Coast".)

[robkelk]

CBC's calling Trudeau being re-elected - which along with the Liberals being projected to get the most seats, means he gets first shot at forming a government since he's the current Prime Minister.

If the Liberals get a majority, that's a slam-dunk.

If the Liberals get a plurality, things get interesting over the next week or two.

[robkelk]

If CBC's right, things are about to get interesting - they just projected a minority government.

We still haven't heard anything from the Left Coast, so who's going to hold the balance of power?

[robkelk]

I have an early-morning meeting tomorrow, so logging out now.

If you're interested, follow along here.

[Pyeknu]

Liberals now seem to have a comfortable position. Not majority, but close enough that they can pick and choose their allies from the NDP, the Greens and the Bloc (and maybe some red Conservatives) to press through their agenda.

[robkelk]

Morning now...

Politics of divisiveness didn't appear to work - the Conservatives didn't win. However, the Liberal's plurality of seats wasn't matched by a plurality of votes.

The Green Party tripled its representation in Parliament, and elected its first member from outside BC. Still not enough for "official party" status, though.

[nocarename]

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2019/10/vot...n-i-guess/
The Beaverton has had the best headlines of the election that I've seen.

[robkelk]

We still haven't heard anything from the Left Coast, so who's going to hold the balance of power?

The Quebec separatists, that's who. Or the NDP.

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And now that it's all over, I discover Into the Election-Verse