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Canada Election 2011: Canadians Vote

by NowPublic Staff | May 2, 2011 at 09:12 am

11599 views | 0 Recommendations | 10 comments

Canadian Federal Election 2011

Canadians are voting today in a federal election, the fourth in the last seven years. At stake is who will control Parliament following a vote of no confidence in Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government. If you're outside of Canada, the only reason you know about the election is because of a Google Doodle.

CBC Election Center

The Major Players in the Canadian Election

The Conservatives (economically conservative,socially liberal compared to American Republicans)- Led by Stephen Harper, who is seen as arrogant and more conservative than much of his party base. A Canadian George W. Bush.
The Liberals (socially and economically liberal)- left of the US Democrats. Let by Michael Ignatieff (ig NAT-ee-eff), who is seen as out of touch, annoying, and absentee- he has lived south of the border for years.
The NDP (New Democratic Party (socially and economically way, way left)- Led by Jack Leyton, whose policies are seen as fiscally fantastical. Also, he really looks like John Locke from Lost.

The Greens and the Block Quebecois are also players, but Canada's is a parliamentary government, and no one party is expected to dominate the election. Strangely, the Conservatives stand to gain, due to Ignatieff's unpopularity. The NDP will likely be the real players here, as the more seats they seize from the Liberals (their main competitors for votes), the more influence they will have.

Get Your Ass Out and Vote, Canada!

Find your polling place and vote, Canadians. If you don't you hereby lose the right to whinge about domestic politics until the next election. Don't tweet local results, though, or post them to Facebook. That's illegal under current Canadian law, which was made with carrier pigeons in mind.

Canada's elections are characterized by apathy, since none of the major parties are expected to mess with core institutions such as provinical healthcare, gay marriage, or civil rights. While the three major parties are making noises about fiscal policy, this is basically a senior-year popularity contest between Harper, Ignatieff and Layton, which is somewhat strange: in Canada, you don't vote for the party leader, but for the party itself.

Posters around Vancouver encourage young people to "do the unexpected" and vote. Do it- citizens of other countries are killing and dying for this right, so you better exercise it.

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David Reynolds (not verified)

at 09:52 on May 2nd, 2011

This is the most ignorant article I have seen in a lonog time. What proportional representation? Conservative party --socially liberal??? What are you smoking?

Allogenes

at 09:55 on May 2nd, 2011

Small correction: Canada does not have proportional representation. The House of Commons is elected on a single-member-district first-past-the-post basis just like the US Congress and the UK House of Commons. What makes it come out weird is the way parties and their core constituencies are distributed geographically. For example the Bloc Quebecois usually gets lots of MPs with a relatively small percentage of the national vote, because it only exists in one province. This isn't "proportional," quite the contrary, even though it's something that can't happen in the US or UK anytime soon. And some of the Western provinces are so homogeneous that any party, even a third- or fourth- party, can easily sweep all the seats there if it's lucky. This is how, in one election, the Conservatives were reduced to just a couple of seats; the Reform party just swept most of the West and took all the seats the Conservatives usually got. And something called Social Credit managed to govern Alberta and BC for decades.

12345Mike12345 (not verified)

at 09:56 on May 2nd, 2011

Um, no we most certainly do NOT have proportional representation. Where did you get that idea from? Lack of proportional representation is the whole problem with our electoral system.Currently it is representation-by-population, so if you live in an area that leans a certain way politically, your vote ends up having zero affect on the outcome. For example, basically all of the MPs that get elected in Alberta are going to be Conservative. The fact that a very sizable number of Albertans vote non-Conservative will end up not getting reflected in the political make-up of the House of Commons. If we did have proportional representation, then our elected governments would be in line with what Canadians actually want.

LOLWUT (not verified)

at 10:33 on May 2nd, 2011

This article is a complete joke. Are you trolling us NowPublic?

Doug McLeod (not verified)

at 14:43 on May 2nd, 2011

Spot-on sharp observation luluwut, the site itself is the troll...

VoterInAction (not verified)

at 11:09 on May 2nd, 2011

Everyone that is a Canadian needs to get out there and vote!! We need to finish and act regarding this Election thing once and for-all. It too costs a great deal of money to put these Elections together; enough is enough right Canadian?!

AreYouKiddingME (not verified)

at 11:58 on May 2nd, 2011

Two major problems, amongst others:The Conservative Party is NOT by any stretch socially liberal. Perhaps if you measure it against US standards, it may, just MAY be.... and that is because no party is stupid enough to try and mess with the form of social democracy that we have. Secondly, have the decency to get SPELLING correct before you go and spout off drivel like this... it is LAYTON... not Leyton.

Just a note (not verified)

at 13:19 on May 2nd, 2011

The Conservative Party is not really socially liberal. And the Liberal party is not that much to the left economically, certainly it is to the right of the left-wing part of the US Democrat Party.

CC1 (not verified)

at 13:23 on May 2nd, 2011

On a topic relatively unrelated to the article, that has to be the _worst_ Google doodle I've ever seen. What does laundry have to do with elections? Hint, Google, we don't vote in funny boths with sheets hung over the door . . .