Whispering in the Wind (WITW 94) October 21, 2015
The votes have been counted and in the good old fashioned
Canadian tradition, the results and impacts are uncertain:
Voter Support Seats Canada Canada Alberta
Conservative Party 32% 99
29
New Democratic Party 19% 44 1
Liberal Party 40% 184
4
Green Party 3%
1 - -
Bloc Quebecois 5% 10 -
-
Other - -% - - -
-
The Leaders
– What Went Right, What Went Wrong?
October 19’s general election is now a part of Canadian
history and for the major players, it was a shocker. For Justin
Trudeau there was total elation – not only did he win an election using a much
more confident, positive campaign strategy (something the general public
desperately needed), he is now prime minister-elect with a “majority” Liberal government. For Stephen
Harper there was disappointment and embarrassment – the Harper Way of
governing was rebuffed by a good portion of the country’s electorate. After a respectful concession speech, Mr.
Harper later admitted his failure and said he would resign as party leader. When the incumbent prime minister realized that
his fear and division strategy wasn’t working in the minds of the electorate,
he got confused and then desperate in his tactical decisions (e.g. matching up
with the Ford bros two days before the election). Thomas
Mulcair proved himself as a very principled leader of the Official
Opposition and demonstrated it well in his confrontations with Stephen Harper
in the House of Commons on the Mike Duffy scandal. At the end of August (still early in the
election campaign) Mr. Mulcair and the NDP had a 40 percent approval rating from
the Canadian electorate, well above his rivals.
Nevertheless, Mr. Mulcair’s more confrontational tone (something that
might work in a courtroom or the House of Commons) was what did him in with the
general public, particularly in the province of Quebec. How Mr. Mulcair handled the niqab issue was
his “poisoned pill” in the province of Quebec – what was such a disaster for
Mr. Mulcair ended up to be of great benefit for Gilles
Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois.
Gilles Duceppe more than doubled his party’s presence in the new House
of Commons. As to Elizabeth May and her single seat win on Vancouver Island there was
disappointment for the Greens and the environmental movement in Canada. Nevertheless, Elizabeth May should not be
counted out of the political picture when it comes to being more involved with developing
Canadian environmental policy – that is, if the new Liberal prime minister
lives up to his campaign words of being more inclusive.
Harper’s
Defeat
Stephen Harper’s decision to step aside as leader of “his”
Conservative Party of Canada is going to have a profound effect on the future
of the conservative movement in Canada.
For Mr. Harper the results of the October 19 election were
disappointing. My assessment, Mr. Harper
was not able to coalesce the “Red” Tories in eastern Canada with his “Blue”
Tory base on the prairies. Now that Mr.
Harper has stepped aside, does it mean that the fusion of the Alliance-Reform
movement with the long standing Progressive Conservative Party in December of
2003 was/is a failed experiment – made more complicated by Mr. Harper’s more
aggressive, controlling management style?
No doubt in my mind, the Conservative Party of Canada is in turmoil and
now that Mr. Harper is moving on, who will be going to replace him?
No comments:
Post a Comment