Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Springtime in Canada

I must acknowledge a typo in my last entry. When I said that this was the most boring federal election in Canadian history, I really meant to write most interesting.

Ha, ha! But seriously: what a turn around there has been in the last couple of weeks! Suddenly the NDP, the quasi- demi- hemi-socialists have rocketed to nearly the top, and the electorate has woken up, going to advance polls in record numbers. (Remember that distant past day when Americans went to advance polls in record numbers to vote for Obama? The turnout was highish that election, and maybe we can take advance polls as in indication that it will be so in this election.)

So what's going to happen? Suppose the Conservatives, the Liberals, and the Bloc each lost twenty seats, and the NDP took all of them. (Impossible, but just suppose.) Then the NDP would have nearly one hundred seats, a lot more than the Liberals at 56, but the Conservatives would still have more than either. However, the Libs and NDP could almost form a government without the help of the Bloc. If Layton were PM, would Ignatieff be Foreign Minister? But who would be Finance Minister? A decimated Liberal Party couldn't claim that post, surely?

A game changer in Canadian politics?

No comments: