Today is depressing for two reasons. The first is that our apartment, along with 14 others, was flooded with water. Fortunately the damage was only to the walls and the floors and not to any of our property, and it all managed to dry now. The management office is going to replace the floors and what not - remember how prompt they were last time?
And the second reason is a conservative minority government. Shit. I did not predict that - I thought the conservatives would gain seats, but I didn’t think they’d take the lead. I voted for the NDP in my area, but the win went to the liberals (which I can live with). Boy, I’m excited to have a free vote on whether or not people of the same sex can marry though! Maybe next year we can vote on whether or not black people can. That’s progress.
In all seriousness though, I hope that this government doesn’t last too long. Fingers crossed and all that.
P.S.: Canoe.ca’s election tool is fantastic. One of the best uses of Flash I’ve seen yet.
Athena said,
January 24, 2006 @ 12:56 am
The Star’s website uses the exact same flash newsboard.
James Spencer said,
January 24, 2006 @ 2:28 am
Sorry about the water… Is your building management company checking for mold? [That can make you seriously frigging sick.]
As far as the minority goes, as I said on Ron’s blog, “meh”. Actually this panned out differently than I expected… I called Martin stepping down and the minority, but the NDP vote didn’t really wilt (I was expecting them to pick up 5, not 11). That was my surprise… and not necessarily a good one.
If the NDP vote had wilted it would have given fuel to the Chretien (and Youth) wing of the Liberal party in the leadership race… Right now I suspect that the neo-liberal wing of the Liberal party will come out on top in the leadership race.
At least the water will be clearer next time around.
Conservative- Socially ‘not so progressive’, with a regressive neo-liberal economic agenda.
Liberal- Modestly Socially Progressive, neo-liberal economics (Assuming the successor is from the Martin ‘go right’ wing of the party).
NDP- Strongly Socially Progressive, a more traditional ‘keynesian’ approach to economics.
The more interesting thing to watch will be if the Bloc really starts to wilt (AKA- there is real conservative ‘buy in’ in Quebec).
Either way this government will be propped up for at least 12 - 18 months while the knives come out in the Liberal party. Unless the Conservatives engineer their own fall to stage an election in the middle (or just after) a Liberal leadership race (That would be clever in a Machiavellian sort of way).
The things we’ll see for sure is:
-Some sort of tax package with the GST cut (With Liberal and Conservative backing)
-Some sort of ethics package (Broad support, particularly from the NDP)
-Likely some uniformity in who gets the royalties from non-renewable resources (possibly with some adjustments [read: increase] in transfer payments)
-Balanced budgets will likely be maintained in the short term. The Conservatives can’t afford to to ‘bungle’ that (on purpose or not) in the context of a minority.
-Possibly some government / senate reforms (but that’s likely to end badly for whom ever opens up that can of worms).
-The chance for national ‘Quebec style’ daycare is going to be seriously squandered.
Beyond that everything is up for grabs…
_James
James Spencer said,
January 24, 2006 @ 2:36 am
Two footnotes:
1) This minority might outlast the Bush administration in the states (not likely). If the Presidency and Senate go Democratic (as they might), it would have interesting implications for the Conservatives. The Senate has mid-term elections in the states this year, heck that might go before 2007.
2) The ‘Conservative tide’ doesn’t really have anyplace to go in the West… They might be able to sustain this level of support for one more election cycle, but then disillusionment and gravity have to take hold… (This also leads me to believe that the Liberals will be heading right– but time will tell.)
_James (Part Deux)
Derek Quenneville said,
January 24, 2006 @ 3:30 am
I’m wondering if maybe, with the Liberals so close in seats, we might not end up with an oddly balanced government…
The conservatives and the liberals both must make friends and concessions to be effective.