Post-election quick thoughts

It's been a few days now, and I've been able to collect some of my thoughts now:

1) The elephant in the room is the fact that the Conservatives have increased their vote share in each of the three consecutive elections since their 2004 debut (29.6% in 2004, 36.3% in 2006, 37.7% in 2008, and 39.6% in 2011). Regardless of finger-pointing and blame being tossed about between NDP and Liberal supporters, Conservative support has been growing steadily (at least the eligible voters who actually take the effort to vote).

2) The NDP has also increased its vote share in every election since at least 2004, with this election being the most spectacular increase (30.6% now, up from 18.2% in 2008). This, in conjunction with increasing Conservative support, seems to be a clear sign that Canadian politics is becoming more polarized, with the overall "average" slowly shifting rightward.

3) First-past-the-post sucks, and strategic voting was the last best way to prevent vote splitting between left-of-Conservative candidates, especially with the advent of social media and online projects dedicated to strategic voting. Obviously, it didn't work.

4) Can the Liberal vote be considered left-of-centre? Previous Liberal governments have taken up progressive causes if they became politically expedient, but in recent years the Liberals have been slightly right-of-centre. How about the Green party, which aside from environmentalism seems more centre-right than centre-left? The positive spin is that 60% of Canadians didn't want a Conservative government. The negative spin is that over 60% of Canadians voted for parties that were right of centre (with the Conservatives being much further to the right than the Liberals or Greens, of course).

Do I realize that I sound negative? Absolutely. My politics fall left-of-centre, and I am thoroughly disappointed in the election result. I realize that there needs to be a re-thinking of strategy and find a more effective way to connect with voters.

At the same time, I suspect the answer to all of the frustration and brain-racking is simple: at the moment more and more Canadians simply don't have same values as myself or other left-of-centre individuals (of which there are clearly many... just not enough). That's alright (people are free to have their own beliefs), but nevertheless, I still wish the election had turned out differently.

Of course, things can and do change, so the work continues.

Peace and long life.

Canadian Election 2011 result: Conservative majority

I'm not entirely sure what to make of the overall result, but I have a few thoughts to jot down:

1) The total vote share of the Conservatives is 40% (giving them about 165 seats), which is up from last election, so this isn't just a matter of vote-splitting weirdness. For whatever reason that I don't really want to speculate about right now, more people voted for the Conservatives than before. Certainly, it's a disappointment to me that the Conservatives didn't lose any seats for their conduct but rather gained enough seats to form a majority government.

2) The NDP came in second, with a vote share of 31%, giving them about 105 seats. I had been hoping that the NDP could have lead a more effective opposition against a minority Conservative government, but it is all for naught. The opposition in a majority government situation is basically useless.

3) A key point to remember is that the NDP fed on other progressive incumbents for most of their seat gains.

Given that the shift in seats was mostly amongst opposition-held ridings (with many falling to the Conservatives), there needs to be a major re-think in political strategy and campaigning amongst all opposition parties (seeing that the Conservative majority government is unlikely to introduce proportional representation measures... just a guess).

I'm too tired to continue tonight... I'll continue later if I manage to think of anything.

Peace and long life.