Oh. Canada?

Crossposted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Canada kinda kicks off their election today eh?, and I’m hesitant to speak about it since I don’t know much aboot Canada except they have great beer and it’s called back bacon (and it’s not ham, eh?).

Scott Harper is reliably reported to be a right wing asshole of the Reagan variety (it is Canada, eh?), but his Conservative Party is likely to be the leading party at the polls (Palimentary districts are called ‘Ridings‘ and there are 308 of them).

Victory in each seat is a first past the post plurality and for years and years the Liberal Party (think of them like Third Way Democrats) have been the opposition party.  This year that will change.

The NDP is pretty sure to eclispe the Liberals by dozens of seats

There’s a slim possibility the New Democratic Party (Social Democrats) and the Bloc Quebecois (those cheese eating French secessionists) will be able to put together a majority.  Far more likely is that the so-called Liberals form a majority with the Conservatives (who’d a thunk?) BUT it’s also probably the end of the Liberal Party as a force in Canadian politics.

It’s not just the UK Liberal Democrats austerity thing that kills them, it’s because there are fiddly little advantages to being the #2 party like appearing second on ballots which will advantage the NDP the next time around whether the Liberals sell out or not.

Some links-

• The Canadian Election, by Ian Welsh, 2011 May 2
• Canadian 2011 federal election, April 30th update, By: trthomas, MyFDL, Saturday April 30, 2011 5:54 pm
• Canadian Election Monday – voting is IMPERATIVE! (Also: Tory majority IMPOSSIBLE! YAY!), LostClown, Corrente, Fri, 04/29/2011 – 8:26pm
• Canada’s Left Wing New Democratic Party Surges in Polls; Is Electoral Reform Near?, By: Jon Walker, Firedog Lake, Wednesday April 27, 2011 4:32 pm
• On the NDP Surge in Canada, by Ian Welsh, 2011 April 26

308 the Canadian 538, eh?