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Canadian Federal Elections 2011

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Chris.S

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Just wondering what the fellow Canadians here think of the election polls. Layton and the NDP are coming pretty close to Harper and the Cons. I wasn't planning on voting, but now that the NDP is getting steamed up, I think I might have to cast my ballot for the Cons. to vote against the NDP. The Cons. are bad, but they're less bad than the others. Iggy and the Libs are getting their butts handed to them, so they don't seem like much right now. And there are no other parties worth speaking of, unless there are any Freedom Party candidates running, which I'm doubtful of (they'll get my vote this fall though in the provincial elections).

What say you?

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So long as all of the mainstream federal parties are committed to violating the individual rights of Canadians and to growing the size and power of government, I do not want any of these parties to win a majority government. I want Ottawa to remain caught in a Mexican standoff. With the parties constantly bickering in a state of gridlock it reveals just how powerful and invasive the bureaucracy has become in Canada.

The more interesting and disturbing development during this election has been the sudden surge in popularity of the NDP. So it looks like we are faced with the moderately brisk walk towards statism under Harper, or the all-out gallop towards statism under Layton. All the choices are horrible, with the CPC only somewhat less loathsome.

Would an NDP government (and the resulting economic apocalypse) bring Canadians to the John Galt Point?

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The Conservatives have achieved their majority. There were huge changes in all parties. Conservatives now have 166 seats. The NDP now have 103 seats and form the opposition, the Liberals were trounced and now have only 34 seats (a historic low). The Bloc Quebecois have been smashed and now only have 4 seats. The Green Party leader Elizabeth May has been elected giving the Greens their first elected MP.

So what does this mean? Canada has opted for stability to a certain extent but think it's interesting that the country has gone to a situation looking more like a two party system. And those two parties are the two with the greatest difference in principles, to the extent that differences in principle between two welfare-statist parties exist. The Liberals were crushed, as were the Bloc, and I think that the cynicism and inconsistency of these two parties led in no small way to their defeat. But it remains to be seen if the Conservatives will do anything to reduce the size and power of government other than some token gesture. I don't see any evidence that the Conservatives will do anything to make Canada more free or to defend individual rights. Harper just said in his acceptance speech that he plans on balancing the budget without raising taxes, and to give extra support to seniors, and to increase transfer payments to the provinces. I hope this means: fire bureaucrats. I hope this does not mean: print money and inflate away the debt.

On the flip side there are lots of disturbing leftists that are now in the Opposition benches....

Let's see what this does the valuation of the Canadian dollar in the next few days...

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I agree with your analysis. It's unfortunate that May got a seat; is this going to be an uphill trend for them? I hope not.

As for the Cons., I doubt they'll do anything really capitalist. They're state-ists all the way.

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