Election 2008 The good, the bad and the ugly.

The good,
1. Mr. Burns was denied his majority. We can all breathe a giant sigh of relief. The CBC lives, the Canadian Wheat Board lives, gay people can still walk the streets and artists wont be sent to the guillotine.
2. Harper is dead in Quebec. Good old Quebec, they saw through Harper's sweater an stopped the majority. I love the irony of people voting for a separatist party in order to save Canada. Good old Quebec, the only people in Canada properly horrified by the prospect of putting 14 year olds in prison for life. Out here in the west the only thing people see wrong with that is that we're not giving them the death penalty. Does it bother anyone else that Harper thinks it is okay to make an exception in Quebec (where it is politically unpopular) and raise the age to 16 before you can be thrown into jail for life? If Harper really thinks his law will make Canadians safer why does he not want Quebec to benefit? On the other side why should my kid be subject to this punishment but not some kid in Quebec? No Canadian kid should be subjected to this fascist nonsense.
3. Rahim Jaffer loses his seat. A different colour finally then Blue in Alberta! A speck of orange in the middle of Berlin. I wonder if Helena Guergis will drop him now. I have this dream where her and I and Ruby Dhalla are drinking margaritas and ........ but I digress.
4. The Liberals are back in the game in Quebec. If not at least they have stopped the bleeding. The much maligned Stephane Dion can take some credit for that.
5. Harper still has zero seats in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. He also has zero seats in NFLD. I wish every province had a Danny Williams working for us.
6. Best of all I am hearing a lot of talk about a coalition. This is of course the only answer. Throw out Harper tomorrow. Alas were probably all gonna fight amongst ourselves instead but hope springs eternal.

The bad
1. My home province of Manitoba has fallen under the shadow of the empire. Anita Neville, my MP, is the last Liberal left standing in Manitoba. ST Boniface, my parents riding, went to the dark side last night. More on this in " The Ugly"
2. The greens failed to win a seat. Their voice deserves to be in the house. It is very unlikely that anything will get done about climate change of any value in the next parliament.
3. The Libs are back in disarray. Down 19 seats more and right back in the middle of a leadership contest. The right wing is mad about Dion and the green shift. The left wing is mad about Afghanistan. Both wings are smaller and feeling pissy. How do you avoid a costly election and leadership battle and still maintain your principles? COALITION people.
4. Vic Toews was re-elected. I guess the people of Provencer (Steinbach) can forgive adultery, babies out of wedlock and divorce from a Conservative cabinet minister. How many single moms and families have they run out of town for similar behavior? Fucking hypocrites. After all we all know Jesus is a Conservative.
The Ugly

1. Stephen LeDrew. With friends like him who needs enemies. Honorable mention to that dumb-ass Ontario finance minister who thought the election was a good time to trash the green shift.
2. CTV. Duff's conservative cheer leading reached all time highs and the back stab on Dion was beyond contempt.
3. As mentioned before my parents riding of ST Boniface, my childhood home has gone back to the Tories. They are now represented by a get tough on crime, ex police spokesmen named Shelly Glover. Where has my country gone? In Quebec Shelly Glover would be laughed at. In my pathetic town they put her in Govt.
4.Vote-splitting. This was the ugliest of all. Red Tory mentioned this example. Three
thousand idiots in Saarich-Gulf Islands voted for an Ndp candidate, Julian West, who was no longer eligible. This handed back the seat to that little weasel Gary Lunn. Also why would anyone vote for the NDP in Central Nova when they could have voted for Lizzie May, made history and best of all, kicked Peter McKay out of office? You know how good Rahim Jaffer losing feels? Peter McKay would have been twice as sweet. Ditto John Baird. A ridicules vote-split in his riding gets this screaming fool back in the house. All over Ontario Liberals lost close races where only a small amount of the NDP votes would have pushed them past the Cons. The reverse is true in Saskatchewan and BC. In many riding's the Liberals should have voted NDP if only to stop a Tory. We have got to start working together people!
Having said that I am also guilty of voting stupid. I really had trouble supporting the Liberals because of their position on the war in Afghanistan. In the end I couldn't and voted for the NDP. I did this out of principle and because I was pretty sure Neville was gonna win anyways. So I understand not being able to vote for a party out of principle. I get it , I did it but I could have regretted it. A little co-operation can go a long way. Next election more of us need to look into vote swapping and riding co-operation. In the meantime, COALITION PEOPLE.

Pimp my vote

I have never been a very prolific blogger, averaging only 1 post every 2 weeks in my first year of blogging. However lately I haven't been writing at all. I just haven't had the zest for it. I attribute this mostly to Dion's capitulation on Afghanistan and the crime bill. This same malaise has come over me regarding the election.
I live in Winnipeg South Centre represented by Anita Neville and I voted for her last election. This has traditionally been a safe Liberal seat. This year however it is being targeted hard by the Conservatives. Neville is leading by about 5 percent according to a poll done by the Winnipeg Free Press. The Tories are running an ex-Blue Bomber place kicker named Trevor Kennard and feel they have a real shot. The NDP have a lot of supporters in this riding and usually do very well also. If there was ever a time to support Ms Neville this is it . I don't think I can do it however and look myself in the mirror. That's right, "themilitantliberal" won't be voting Liberal.
I watched live as Ms Neville cast her vote to extend the Afghanistan Nightmare and it was my personal worst moment in politics. I cannot in good conscience risk putting blood on my hands again by voting for a Liberal Party that still contains way too many Ignatieffs. I don't however want to put another Con in the House of Commons by splitting the progressive vote in my riding.
Until recently this was my dilemma and the source of my depression. I think I may have discovered an answer though. There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere and in the media over the last few days about a Facebook group called "Anti-Harper vote swap Canada." For those of you who don't know what it is about, it is basically a site where those of us on the broad left can swap votes from different ridings to try to assure that the party with the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate gets enough support to do it. For example, an NDP supporter in a riding that has no chance of an NDP victory could swap his vote with a Liberal in another riding where the Liberal has no chance of winning. This way your vote can count somewhere where it makes a difference. I think this is the greatest idea ever. I haven't joined the group because I'm not on Facebook and really don't want to be on Facebook but I thought I could express a similar notion here.
I have decided in this election I would like to support the Green party. A Green party vote in my riding won't do anybody any good. However, I am still willing to cast my vote for Anita Neville in my riding if there is a liberal in Central Nova who will vote for Lizzie May in my name. There must be many Liberals in the riding who would like to vote Liberal but are unable to because of the arrangement between Ms May and Mr Dion. I can give you that Liberal vote in a riding that could really use one. It is win,win. We get to vote our conscience and hopefully keep the Tories out of two seats. Now truthfully there is a pretty good chance Ms Neville will win with or without my support and there is a pretty good chance Ms May will lose with or without your vote. Obviously it would be much better if the idea caught on with other individuals in the same boat as me. It also may be very close in my riding and as for Central Nova, I can think of no better way of making my vote count than unseating the evil and treacherous Peter McKay.
So if you live in Central Nova and are willing to vote Green and want me to vote Liberal let me know. I will also consider trades with Liberals in a dipper riding. Like I said it's win,win. Vote strategically and follow your heart.