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Post-Election 2008 Post (post)

October 16, 2008 - 01:10 — gauntlet
OK, in numerical list format. Here we go.
  1. Uppal-Gate 2008 (The Finale)I am shocked that James Ford got over 30% of the vote in Edmonton-Sherwood Park. Shocked. My cynicism with regards to independent candidates in this country has been severely shaken.I would be more comfortable that this was a good sign for democracy, however, if I hadn't attended a forum which featured about 400 old white people who were protesting the nomination of a young brown guy with a turban and a beard. Whether we know it about ourselves or not, we are biased toward people with whom we can superficially identify. And that is a bad quality.Ask yourself this: if the tables had been turned, and Jacquie Fenske had won the nomination in the exact same manner over Uppal, would someone else have run as an independent? Would anyone have paid any attention? I don't think so.Also, a little lesson in math: If the conservatives pull in more than 66% of the vote in a riding, you need more than one person to split the conservative vote. Good to know.
  2. Linda DuncanGood for her, but it does not mean what the newspaper editorialists are going to tell you it means. Albertans have not stood up for themselves against an absentee Prime Minister who takes their loyalty for granted. Some hard work paid off, and a few more people voted NDP this time. That's all. We weren't a monolith before this, so this doesn't remove our monolith-ness.
  3. Stephane DionHe is right on the issues, and wholly unsuited to the task of retail politics in this country. He can't fix the country, or the world, and he refuses to recognize that there's anything seriously wrong with the party, so he should leave gracefully with our thanks. (Did anyone else notice an eerie similarity between David Swann and Michael Ignatieff last night? "Everything should be on the table.")
  4. 58%I over-estimated turnout for this election. I was right that it would be lowest-ever. In the face of a collapse of world markets, we had an argument between "everything's fine" and "I'll call meetings," with a little "let's stop giving corporations tax cuts" for garnish. You can hardly blame Canadians for not giving a crap. So don't.
  5. Calgary Grit's ProjectionsI was unduly harsh before. Calgary Grit's projections were inaccurate because the polling on election day was different from the polling a few days before. I still prefer reading about seat counts to reading about national vote percentages.
  6. Electoral ReformMaybe now that they're a party that is under-represented in the House of Commons, the Liberals will get their heads around the need for electoral reform. I don't know. Which of the two following graphs would you prefer as the composition of the House of Commons?