Election Aftermath

All in all I'm disappointed in the results of the election. I had hoped the results would number Mr. Chretien's days as Prime Minister. Alas, he is now in the position of staying around as long as he wants. From his track record this might only be three and a half years, but you never know. He has mused about trying for a fourth term, to match Laurier, his personal hero. If that's what it takes to buy him off, it might be cheap to hold an election next spring. It's $200 million for an election, against the potential humiliations of being represented by a man who speaks neither official language and who doesn't seem to grasp the complexities of the world, or the propriety of appearing to be impartial.

After all, his recent trip to the Middle East was a veritable smorgasbord of ankle tasting. He seems quite willing to restrict the rights of Canadians so he can assure a Third-World thug that protesters will be kept out of sight. The Prime Minister is expected to have bodyguards to take care of his personal security, and one wouldn't be too surprised to hear of them having to deal with people trying to intrude on him. But having Mr. Chretien grasping a protester by the throat goes too far.

Another disappointment is the voter turnout. Only 63%! That's good only by comparison to the United States. I suspect the reason for that is because there is no alternative marked "none of the above". As I discussed in an earlier article, lots of people don't have much faith in the Official Opposition to form a government. None of the other parties are in any shape to form a government. It doesn't leave us with much choice, and I think many people stayed home because there wasn't anyone they wanted to vote for.

This is a sad state of affairs. It isn't good for the country to be divided politically between east and west. Mr. Chretien has already remarked that he finds it difficult to work with westerners, and that he likes easterners. And he wonders why we don't vote for him.

I've always been a little interested in various forms of democratic voting, and after this election I'm a whole lot more interested. If seats were allocated based on the proportional vote, the results would look like this. Liberal, 123 instead of 173; Alliance, 77 instead of 66; Conservatives, 37 instead of 12; Bloc Quebecois, 32 instead of 37; NDP, 26 instead of 13; and six "others" from the minor parties would have seats, as opposed to having none. There are 301 seats in the house, so 151 are needed for a majority government.

It might be more difficult for a party by itself to form a majority government, but working with another party or group might bring more effective legislation. Certainly the politicians would have to govern more skillfully. Right now the PM gets what he wants, and there isn't much that anyone can do about it. I think it's time for a change, and so do lots of other people.