Tomorrow, the 23rd of January, is the 39th General Election in Canada. As I am not constrained by Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act, I’ll try to find results as they happen and report them here.
For eastern provinces (i.e. everything east of the Rockies) I don’t care very much, so I’ll be paying attention to the national story. I’ll be watching four ridings closely, those of the leaders of the four major parties: Paul Martin in LaSalle–Émard, Gilles Duceppe in Laurier–Sainte Marie, Jack Layton in Toronto–Danforth, and Stephen Harper in Calgary Southwest.
For British Columbia I’ll be watching a couple of ridings closely: Victoria and Esquimalt–Juan de Fuca. Victoria is the riding I voted in (I voted for Denise Savoie of the NDP), and Esquimalt–Juan de Fuca is the riding Alice voted in.
I don’t think my early predictions are going to come true. The Conservatives have made huge inroads, mostly because people are fed up with the Liberals and only see the Tories as an alternative. The NDP should do better than in 2004, as should the Bloc Québécois, but odds are strong that the next Prime Minister of Canada is going to be Stephen Harper. *shudder*
Luckily he won’t get a majority government, and the Bloc and NDP will have to keep him in line.
#1 by Chad on 23 January 2006 - 10:43 am
I’m fighting serious voter apathy right now, to be completely honest. It’s not that I don’t think my vote will make any difference. It’s more like I don’t think it matters who wins. Ultimately it’s all the same crap all over again. There will be trivial differences in trvial matters of policy, but in the grand scheme of things it’ll all turn out pretty much the same as it has before.
I suppose in the end I’ll drop off my vote and give some party another $1.75/year. But if I cared, I’d make a $20 donation to a party anyways.
#2 by Brad on 23 January 2006 - 10:47 am
Heh. What needs to happen is a government has to be so corrupt, so horrible, so repressive that they drag the country down into a massive depression. That’d probably break the voter apathy.
But then again, the US has a government like that and voters are still apathetic. *zing*
#3 by Geof F. Morris on 23 January 2006 - 8:06 pm
Hey, I vote! ;)
[However, your point is made.]