Canadian Federal Election 2015: Canada Votes -- Liberals In, Tories Out

[hockeyfan1]

Canada has a new Prime Minister.  Justin Trudeau, the son of the late former Prime Minster Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and his Liberal party outlasted and swept Stephen Harper & his Conservative Party out of offfce.

Colour the country a sea red, as Canadians from coast to coast voted for change, inclusion, conservation, newness, vigor and a better Canada, in giving the reins to the Liberals and their young 43 yr. old newly- elected Prime Minister in Justin Trudeau.

The majority of the Liberal voters could be seen as emanating from Ontario on to Quebec and  Atlantic Canada, including Central, the B.C. interior and a smattering in Alberta though most.t Alberta remained Tory blue.

It is expected that former PM Harper, who won his seat in his Calgary Heritage riding, will step down as the leader of the now official opposition.

The final results:

Liberals                184
Conservatives      99
NDP                        44
Bloc                        10
Green                        1

The biggest surprise was how the NDP & their leader Tom Mukair lost a large percentage considering that, at one point in the race, they were challenging both the Liberals and then the Tories on the charts.  However, their supportdwindled especially in the province of Quebec, where many took issue with Mulcair's stance on the Niqab issue.

Elizabeth May, Green Party leader, re-elected in her riding of Saanitoh (B.C.) and is the lone Green Party MP.

There were numerous upsets in ridings across the country as this election voiced the dissatisfaction Canadians had with the Harper Conservatives on key issues, especially during the course of the campaign.

This election campaign, by the way, was one of the longest in Canadian history. 

More details:
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/topstories/canada-election-2015-voting-results-polls-1.3278537

 

[hockeyfan1]

Harper stepping down:
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/topstories/canada-election-2015-voting-results-polls-1.3278537


Mulcair stays as NDP leader despite losses:
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/politics/topstories/canada-election-2015-voting-results-polls-1.3278537

 

[hockeyfan1]

Party                      Elected Seats      Popular Vote

Liberals                            184                        39.5%
Conservatives                  99                          31.9%
NDP                                  44                          19.7%
Bloc Qu?b?cois              10                          4.7%
Green                                  1                            3.5% 
Other                                  0                            0.8%


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/federal-election-2015/

 

[Boston Leaf]

Good job Canada... Now I hope the U.S. follows suit

 

[Madferret]

Excellent!

 

[Kin]

Tough night for Tom Mukair.

 

[bustaheims]

Tough night for Tom Mukair.

I'm surprised he didn't step down as leader. Under his leadership, the NDP basically lost everything they gained in the last election.

 

[Heroic Shrimp]

I'll enjoy this one last time:

 

[Kin]

I will say that as someone who doesn't have much time for politicians regardless of their stripe but who also has a deep and abiding hatred of the proliferation of political advertising, last night's result seemed like a cosmically just result.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I get that there's bad apples on each side, but man the things that I'm seeing on social media sites from Harper-supporters right now just re-affirm my decision to be on the other side of that.

 

[Frank E]

I get that there's bad apples on each side, but man the things that I'm seeing on social media sites from Harper-supporters right now just re-affirm my decision to be on the other side of that.

You're supporting a party based on not liking a few idiot supporters of a different party?

 

[L K]

Tough night for Tom Mukair.

I'm surprised he didn't step down as leader. Under his leadership, the NDP basically lost everything they gained in the last election.

Seeing as pretty much all of the gains from the last election came off Jack Layton sentimentality and a Liberal party that self-imploded, yeah.  He really ran an awful campaign. 

I can't say I'm thrilled with the Liberal government as a whole, although my beef comes more with the provincial Liberals, but Harper and the conservatives had to go.  I'm glad that happened.

 

[bustaheims]

I get that there's bad apples on each side, but man the things that I'm seeing on social media sites from Harper-supporters right now just re-affirm my decision to be on the other side of that.

Yeah. There's a lot of sore losers out there right now. The thing about a lot of the Conservative supporters is that they're very passionate and entrenched in their position, so they feel really out of place in Canada right now, and they're lashing out. The left did the same thing when Rob Ford was elected in Toronto and to Harper over last 5 years or so - it's just that it was more spread out, based more on actual policy (which the Conservative supporters don't have as ammunition yet) and, in the case of Rob Ford, on very legitimate character and personal issues.

Truthfully, in the long-run, this loss could be the best thing to happen to the Conservatives. If they're smart, their leadership will move away from the old Reform party side of things and move back towards the centre and the PC elements of their party. A more progressive Conservative party with someone more likeable than Harper could have a very real shot in the next election.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

You're supporting a party based on not liking a few idiot supporters of a different party?

Well no, I mean I voted yesterday right.

Although I will say that a lot of what I've seen in that regard has been anti-Muslim and that's a theme that was very much in the Conservatives campaign that I disagreed with.

 

[Kin]

Seeing as pretty much all of the gains from the last election came off Jack Layton sentimentality and a Liberal party that self-imploded, yeah.  He really ran an awful campaign. 

I can't say I'm thrilled with the Liberal government as a whole, although my beef comes more with the provincial Liberals, but Harper and the conservatives had to go.  I'm glad that happened.

Yeah, I don't really see last night as really all that ringing an endorsement of even the campaign Trudeau ran. Sure it's a majority, but it's still a majority with less than 40% of the vote.

Basically people voted to turf the Conservatives and the Liberals were the way strategic voters went this time around.

 

[bustaheims]

Yeah, I don't really see last night as really all that ringing an endorsement of even the campaign Trudeau ran. Sure it's a majority, but it's still a majority with less than 40% of the vote.

Basically people voted to turf the Conservatives and the Liberals were the way strategic voters went this time around.

I get a similar impression. I do think that Trudeau ran the best campaign out of the 3 major leaders, but that's really not saying much. Really, he just made the least mistakes. I do think that once the public got to see how he handled himself over the course of the campaign, he won people over - but, a significant portion of those people were hoping to be won over and were really only supporting the NDP as a fallback option to defeat Harper. What Trudeau did well was to get the traditional Liberal voter base mobilized and to bring back some voters from the fringes of the NDP and Conservative bases. Not in massive numbers, obviously, but enough. He now has 4 years to convince those still on the fence that he was the right choice.

 

[Frank E]

Seeing as pretty much all of the gains from the last election came off Jack Layton sentimentality and a Liberal party that self-imploded, yeah.  He really ran an awful campaign. 

I can't say I'm thrilled with the Liberal government as a whole, although my beef comes more with the provincial Liberals, but Harper and the conservatives had to go.  I'm glad that happened.

Yeah, I don't really see last night as really all that ringing an endorsement of even the campaign Trudeau ran. Sure it's a majority, but it's still a majority with less than 40% of the vote.

Basically people voted to turf the Conservatives and the Liberals were the way strategic voters went this time around.

Yep,  I think this was Trudeau's to lose from the start.  He ran a pretty safe campaign, and people were tired of Harper's Conservatives.

Once Harper had decided that he wasn't going to step down before this election, you started to see the writing on the wall.  Some of the young bigger players started resigning, and support started to wane.  I think Kenney will take a run at the leadership, and I think maybe MacKay comes back in and make a run as well.

Having Trudeau in that chair honestly scares the hell out of me...but, fingers crossed.

 

[bustaheims]

Having Trudeau in that chair honestly scares the hell out of me...but, fingers crossed.

Of the 3 leaders, he's the one that scares me the least, to be honest. I feel like he's shown the most willingness to accept advice from others. I think he recognizes his limitations in a way that Harper certainly didn't and I'm not convinced Mulcair does either. He's not going to be a controlling leader like Harper is said to have been, and he's a much more inspiring leader than Mulcair. I don't think he'll be his father in terms of support/success/whatever you want to call it, but I don't think he'll be anywhere near the disaster people make him out to be. He'll be a perfectly acceptable, fairly ordinary and, likely, an ultimately forgettable PM that does more good than harm - even if only marginally so.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Some Conservatives are trying to get Doug Ford to run for leadership. That'll be fun.

 

[bustaheims]

Some Conservatives are trying to get Doug Ford to run for leadership. That'll be fun.

Are they really, or is this really based on him saying he'd want to? I have a hard time believing anyone connected to the Conservatives would support someone who only has municipal experience as a federal party leader.