Wither Canada?

30 June 2004



Canada Re-Elects Martin as a Minority Leader

The whooshing noise that came south across the 49th Parallel was the sound of a speedy Canadian election. In just a few weeks, Canadians held a national debate about their country's future (in two languages), and decided that the Liberal Party could stay in office but denied the Grits a majority of the seats in Commons. With the Bloc Quebecois tying its best result ever and the lefty New Democrats increasing their seats, the future for Canada is interesting to say the least.

On May 23, Prime Minister Paul Martin left the Prime Minister's official resident at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa to visit the Governor-General to ask that parliament be dissolved and an election held. It was the last time he did anything decisive or practical in the campaign. Meanwhile, the Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, saw his party continue its exile in the western provinces, unable to break out in Ontario (24 seats compared to the Liberals 75) and Quebec (no seats at all) where the population and Commons seats are.

The Bloc Quebecois, the NDP and the Greens all did well, but their moral victories all had a tarnished lining to them. The separatists won 54 out of Quebec's 75 seats, but they don't hold the balance of power. Without that, they remain reluctant Canadians with no way to change their situation. The NDP doubled its vote and seats it won, but the party's vote was off 5% from the previous election. The Liberals ran such a miserable campaign that some of the NDP supporters voted tactically to keep the Tories out, but wound up weakening their own leader in Commons. The Greens got 4% of the vote, which means they qualify for public funds, but they didn't win a single seat, remaining irrelevant in Ottawa.

The final apportionment of portfolios has yet to occur, but it is likely that the Liberals will govern with the tacit, vote-by-vote support of the NDP. Another election can't be far off, and the NDP stands to gain next time around if the Liberals make a hash of things over the next year or so (and Mr. Martin is exceptionally gifted there).

Canada appears to be a fairly divided nation at the moment, and Canadians have elected a parliament that reflects those divisions. Critics of the parliamentary system will argue that they have chosen a weak government, and so they have -- at a time when they cannot agree on what a strong government should do.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


Home

Google
WWW Kensington Review



Search:
Keywords: