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

OMFG! WTF!! IMA MP!! And I was jk!!! GF’s BFF was ROTFL!!!

G2G & chng FB status!

C u in YOW! Woot!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

And afraid about what the next several years will bring.

But now that the initial anger is wearing off, I am more determined than ever to work with like-minded progressives in ensuring that the Harper government does NOT destroy my country over the next four years and does NOT receive a mandate beyond that time.

I won’t sugar-coat it, the next few years will be messy. Public health care will be eroded. The public service will be gutted. And social con measures will be quietly integrated into policy. The evangelical Christians and the like have been Harper’s biggest supporters – and it is payback time.

How to work toward minimising the damage? The first step is to merge the Liberals and the NDP. The divided progressive vote handed the Cons their majority. Just look at the seats they gained in T.O. And this has to be done soon. Inside a year.

And Liberal and Dipper poobahs? If you do this, I will be there with my support, my time and my cheque book.

don’t do it and this country is looking at successive Con majorities.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Tense now. CPC gains slightly higher than I thought. On verra.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=31FFTx6AKmU

Or was that the CBC? Too many damned B’s and C’s!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario