> I was utterly shocked to find that nothing had been posted yet regarding the Canadian election which was today... In particular, I expected Spacebar to have something to say about it. Anyway, here's my comment to get the ball rolling.

> I found the election process to be very quick and easy. How quick? The span of time from when I left my house and when I got back to it was eight minutes (according to my roommate) or ten minutes (by my estimate). How easy?
> 1) Hand in my voter card.
> 2) Get them to fix my middle initial for future use in the permanent voters list.
> 3) Get my ballot.
> 4) Spend ten seconds pretending to come from Florida and trying to decipher the ballot.
> 5) Realize that there is a list of names on ONE side, perfectly lined up with a set of circles, and that the desired method of marking your choice is to mark an "X" in the appropriate circles with a pencil.
> 6) Realize that there is a pencil in the voting booth.
> 7) Pick up the pencil.
> 8) Mark my choice.
> 9) Resist the urge to steal the three inch HB pencil from the voting booth.
> 10) Return to the voting station with the completed ballot and put it into the box.
> 11) Go home.

> OK, that looks complicated, but I added a few (perhaps unneccesary) steps to my description. Seriously, though, getting to and from the polling station was harder than voting. I had to parallel park AND make a three-point turn, for cripes sake. (Not in the same maneuver. I'll have to try that sometime, though.) Anyway, I think ten minutes is my personal best for the amount of time taken to decide my country's future. I was also in a highly contested riding, so my vote should have meant something. I say should have, because when the results came in, the race was actually pretty one-sided. So my vote meant nothing. But at least I voted!

> I like rambling. Anyone else care to join me?

> Don

Well, we're done here, and it's still election day! There are a few seats still being contested, but we know who's leading the government, who the official opposition is, and what parties get to keep official party status. Essentially, our government hasn't changed much; the Liberals under Jean Chretien are still in charge with a majority government and the Canadian Alliance under Stockwell Day are still the Official Opposition.

Voting was exactly the same here as it was in Calgary, apparently, right down to the bit about the three inch pencils. I didn't spend the ten seconds faking a Florida voter, but I did joke about it with the ballot-collector-official person ("We'll have the results for you in a couple of months!"). I'm not sure, but I'd guess it took us about ten seconds as well.

So...we're done. Recounts are being completed in close ridings (like Edmonton West), but we don't have any ridings as big as the state of Florida so they'll be done within about ninety minutes. Furthermore, the Liberals have a huge majority -- over 170 out of 301 seats in the house of commons -- so there's no doubt about the results. On the CBC coverage of the election, they did a segment showing e-mails that they were receiving about the election; one e-mail from California read "Congratulations, Canada, on knowing who your leader is!"

As in the United States, we can form a majority government without the leading party winning a majority of the popular vote. Although 170-ish out of 301 seats is one of the biggest majorities we've ever had in Canadian history, only about 40% of Canadian voters voted for the Liberals. That is, more people voted /against/ our "majority" government than /for/ it. Lots of people on the aforementioned e-mail segment of the CBC coverage of the election were complaining about this; however, Sam's arguments in favor of electoral college hold true for our system as well -- Canada at least has the useful illusion of solidarity; furthermore, the Liberals will be able to lead the government with a strong mandate, allowing our government to be more directed and efficient over the next few years.

I have, if not high hopes, then at least no major fears of our government over the next few years. The Liberals are in their third consecutive term in office, so they are reasonably experienced. Paul Martin, Alan Rock, and the rest of our cabinet have proven themselves quite capable and in my opinion as able as anyone to form decent policies. As for our Prime Minister -- I don't think he's the best /speaker/ we ever had, but watching him on the news, I get the impression that he's at least a decent /person/ and that he's trying to do his best for our country. Furthermore, the Bloc Quebecois (the Quebec separatist party) has a greatly reduced presence in parliament; hopefully, therefore, separatism will be one less issue that we have to worry about for the next few years!

So what changes shall we expect over the next few years? Jean Chretien summed it up, with his characteristic verbal acuteness, during his victory speech -- he said, to the best of my memory, "Our balanced approach is and will continue to be a balanced approach that is balanced". In other words -- I guess -- stuff will happen (or not) just as it's always happened (or not). I'm not expecting any major changes.

I would have posted more about our election, but I have a major philosophy assignment due tomorrow and it took longer than I thought it would to finish. Now it's late at night and I'm tired.

Goodnight!

-SB