…huh?

Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey called the decision disappointing.

“Fifty two thousand people in Etobicoke-Centre followed the rules, cast their ballots and today had their democratic decision thrown into doubt,” he said.

Well, no, Mr. DeLorey. Some of those 52,000 voters in the riding did NOT follow the rules and that is why the election results have been overturned. The judge’s ruling in this case is an intrinsic part of the democratic process.

Got a problem with that?

Bring on the by-election!!!!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Once legal appeals, in this case, at the SC level, are exhausted.

This election will provide a bit of an insight about whether or not the good folks in Etobicoke Centre have been paying attention to the goings-on of that 3 ring circus called the Harper government. And in turn this may provide an indicator about the feelings of Canadians on the broader scale (outside of Alberta, that is).

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

One year ago today, a minority of Canadians elected a Harper majority government.

So, what have I learned?

• I learned that growing pot is a worse crime than being a pedophile.
• That it’s OK to force people to register a car, but an affront to democracy to do so for a gun.
• That the government keeps two sets of books when it comes to reveling the true costs of expensive projects… like fighter jets, for example.
• That OJ is a lot more expensive than I would have thought possible.
• That Harper did NOT major in Canadian history.
• That Vic Toews want to know everything about us!
• That, thanks to omnibus legislation, Parliament has become impotent.
• That conflict of interest rules don’t apply to Cabinet Ministers.
• That planned cuts to seniors’ pensions are not worthy of mentioning during an election campaign.
• Nor are cuts to health-care funding .
• That environmental controls for energy projects aren’t really that important.
• That continuing to spend millions on royal visits is an appropriate use of taxpayers dollars.
• That environmental charities ‘launder’ foreign funds.
• That it’s OK to diss your country, forsake your citizenship, but be welcomed back with open arms.
• That the Grits better do something about selling themselves as a real alternative. And that does NOT mean elected Bob Rae as leader!
• That Jack Layton was a special man.
• Jason Kenney, Tony Clement, Vic Toews, Pierre Polievre, John Baird, Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper are not.
• And possibly (jury still out) that election fraud is only election fraud if it implicates one of the other parties – and not the CPC.

What did I miss?

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… and thinks: hmmmm,… “carousel voting”… hmmm…

Laureen! Get me Vlad on the phone!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… except for one riding – Parry Sound/Muskoka – where they got their votes in the 2011 election the old-fashioned way.

They bought them.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

This is a pretty cool animation showing the before and the (sigh) after pictures of the electoral colours of Canada after Election #41.

Kudos to http://attaboy.ca

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Kinsella’s column in the Sun today pretty much sums up what I and other like-minded progressives have being saying since May 2.

You don’t like the fact that Harper thumbs his nose at Canadian voters in Newfoundland, Quebec who gave the boot to Smith, Manning and Verner? You don’t like what Clement is saying about program cuts after his boss emphatically stated during the election campaign that cuts to the PS would be achieved through attrition? Well:

You get what you pay for, folks. You get the government you vote for. Suck it up.

Gonna be a long four years. But, at the end of it, Harper will be gone and the Cons will be decimated. Canadians had a brain-fart this time. But they will have had a strong dose of antacid by the time 2015 rolls around.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

In spite of the very sad and sombre ocassion that brought subunit #2 and I to Parry Sound (and then to Mississauga in a little while), it is nice to see family again.

And, in spite of the fact that, with 2 dogs and three cats sharing a roof with me – and the resultant eye-stinging and chest constricting effects that said critters have on yours truly – it’s still nice to travel to the place of my upbringing.

But.

Then I saw THIS on the kitchen table, and spun back into the reality that is rural Ontario.

A lot of folks voted for Gazebo Tony in these parts; maybe even (gasp) members of my own clan. This is an incredible reality that this transplanted urbanite progressive has a hard time getting his head around.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I was cleaning out my backpack yesterday morning, when I came across all of my scribbled (and tear-stained – notes on how I went about calculating seat totals.  I hadn’t yet compared where I went wrong provincially.

The pain of the May 2 results was still fresh so I hadn’t the gumption to take another look. Taking a big gulp, I looked at my notes.

Here is what I figgered on May 1 and how things actually went down.So, I really wasn’t that far off. I did predict the NDP success in Québec, but underestimated it because I did not foresee the utter collapse of the Bloc. I also underestimated the degree to which the Liberals would fold in Ontario. The vote splitting among progressives was something I had anticipated, but not to this level.

All in all, a dartboard might have served me just as well.  Accurate polling is becoming more and more difficult as people trade in their land lines for mobiles and only the politically engaged bother to consent to being questioned by a polling firm.  IMHO, Nanos is about the best out there with its rolling daily sample. And aggregators like ThreeHundredEight give some more context. But this election, like no other, showed that the only accurate poll out there is the one held on E-Day.

Courtesy of ThreeHundredEight:

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Fave editorial cartoon of the day, thanks to Brian Gable.

Fact is that Jack is certainly going to have his hands full for the foreseeable future. But, hey! I don’t think he minds this kind of challenge!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario