they even have their own "elections"!

[jazzfish]

21 days for Dreamwidth, #5

How about when you're not on the computer?
I do very little online when I'm not on the computer.

But seriously. Lately I've been doing a lot of reading, in preparation for the Big Move. (Specifically, reading the first 50-100 pages of books and deciding to purge them. I'm amazed at how many recently have made it past 50 pp only to flame out somewhere in the 90-110 range.) I talk to uilos and with other people I soon won't be seeing very often, I cook, I watch the occasional movie or DVD, I laugh at the cats. In the mornings I go running. And there's gaming, and writers' group, and theatre, and concerts. I keep busy.

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So, the perky "Canadians" are having an election on Monday. This is reasonably good timing for me: it means I get to find out what the heck is going on with the Canadian political system before I get up there, so I'm not completely lost in the sea of acronyms, weird names, and strange electoral practices.

If you're interested in a reasonably short and entertaining run-down, I recommend Mightygodking's take on the likely outcome (spoiler: most likely, nothing will change!). Very briefly: the Conservatives are just short of a majority. For a couple of weeks it looked like they might be able to flip enough seats in Parliament to squeak out a majority, but thankfully the voters seem to have come to their senses. The Liberals (squishy centre-left party) appear to be coasting and hoping the Conservatives will all just go away. The pinko commie leftists vote for the New Democratic Party but thanks to the travesty that is first-past-the-post voting they don't have many seats in Parliament. There's no left-wing coalition to oppose the Conservatives because the last major party is the Bloc Quebecois, whose separatist agenda ensures that no one else will want to be seen talking to them.

However, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, or to anyone else for that matter, the NDP has been inching up in the polls, to the point where it's barely possible they'll end up with more seats than either the Liberals or the BQ. This would make me intensely happy: they'll have a lot of new MPs who'll get a chance to learn the ropes before the next election, when (in my ideal dream world) they can sweep to a majority, driving the blue menace into the sea. (Or, more likely, herding them all into the prairie provinces of central Canada. Not for nothing is Manitoba Alberta known as "the Texas of the north.")

(I note with mild disapproval that my riding will almost certainly be represented by the Liberal party, although my prospective MP seems decent enough if a bit clueless.)

It will be Interesting to see how things play out on Monday. Interesting for me, anyway.

Comments

[marcmagus]

My Canadian friend recently posted about the elections with a bit of a rundown for those of us who don't know much about their parties, which included the comment, "[The Conservatives are] the most right-wing party in Canada, which traditionally puts them slightly to the left of the American Democrats."

Although she followed up by saying that they've been moving rightwards.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

A Canadian, Katie West, offers info:

And now the parties in Canada… (http://therealkatiewest.tumblr.com/post/5032259666/and-now-the-parties-in-canada) [But just the five major ones. There are actually 18 registered parties in Canada, one of which is actually a satirical party though.]

http://therealkatiewest.tumblr.com/post/5032267509/stephen-harper-and-the-conservative-party-basic
http://therealkatiewest.tumblr.com/post/5032270646/elizabeth-may-and-the-green-party-platform
http://therealkatiewest.tumblr.com/post/5032275873/michael-ignatieff-and-the-liberal-party-basic
http://therealkatiewest.tumblr.com/post/5032279253/jack-layton-and-the-new-democratic-party-ndp

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's Alberta that's the Texas of the north - cattle, cowboys, oil, a "we're different and better" attitude... plus some fabulously gorgeous mountains and a lot of snow to make it a little more Canadian. :)

I still haven't figured out a lot of the details of the Canadian system, but the Bloc is surprisingly important (but very confusing). I think it's because they are big enough that the other parties need their votes to get stuff done, but their agenda is basically "we're in Quebec and speak French" so they don't have a lot else going for the rest of the country.

I've been disappointed in the commercials this time around. They remind me a lot more of the political commercials in the US - oversimplifying everything and focusing on who is or is not allegedly going to raise your taxes or ruin your health care. I'm not sure if they are worse than the last election here, or if I just didn't see the commercials last time because I don't watch the right kind of TV. This time, the elections coincide with the NHL playoffs, so we've got CBC on a lot more and are seeing more political commercials.

[pictsy.livejournal.com]

WAMU broadcasts the Canadian news/culture program "As It Happens" weeknights at 11pm, so I get to hear about Canadian issues almost every night. Oddly enough, though, they spend a lot of time talking about events in the U.S.