The usual U.S. reaction to Canadian news is “Whut?”, but Sunday night’s exciting “shot-up Arab villain” story kept the official Real American response to Canada’s Historic Election down to a couple of wire stories that leaked into our Google from “the Canadian Press” and maybe a couple of Twitter posts in that weird French. Was it all a conspiracy to hide the surge of socialism up North, as the socialists of the New Democratic Party became Canada’s official “opposition party” to Stephen Harper’s conservatives? No, just the usual “ignore the parts of North America that are in Canada or Mexico.” We don’t really follow any of it, either, and we are daily CBC listeners.
(Our favorite CBC programs are “the weather reports for Nova Scotia or Manigotagan or whatever,” the show with Jian Ghomeshi that’s basically bands and writers, and those soothing hours-long programs with somebody from Miramichi East telling about how they took an ocean liner to South Africa once, to fall in love.)
Anyway! They had an election, very historical. These NDP people won all over the place, especially Quebec — where they won 58 out of 75 seats. It seems many of the NDP candidates were just vaguely aware they were even running for election!
NDP candidate Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who until the election managed a bar on Carleton University campus in Ottawa, won her race in Berthier-Maskinongé. Brosseau, who doesn’t speak French, will represent a riding that’s almost 100 per cent Francophone.
She rose to prominence in the election after taking a holiday in Las Vegas in the middle of the campaign. Contacted by the Globe and Mail, her co-worker said he didn’t know she was running for Parliament in a riding more than 300 kilometres away.
Other NDP winners included random students from McGill University.
So, the Bloc Québécois party is basically dead, the fake liberal Liberal party is “in collapse,” and the Greens actually have an MP now. Stephen Harper still sucks, even though being “conservative” in Canada still means promising (in French) that everybody will get more education and health care and environmentally themed baseball caps. [CBC/Globe and Mail/Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette]







{ 209 comments }
Canada? That's that place up north, right? Never heard of it.
"Perky 'Canada Has Own Government, Laws" http://www.theonion.com/articles/perky-canada-has...
Very informative article.
Yes. Unless you live in Detroit, in which case, Canada is your southern neighbor.
You're welcome.
No wonder everyone left Detroit.
Canada goes to the Artic Circle, north of that is Ruskie Country. Is Detroit how the commies are getting into the USA? Geeze, we need to send some Trump investigators to look into that.
North of us? I thought it was just vacant arctic tundra right above us. Geez
I thought that was Wisconsin? What with the socialism and beer and what not.
I have it on the best authority it's where Michele Bachmann was born.
A clear refudiation of libtards, eh?
Naw, the NDP is composed of liberals who have left the Liberal Party because the Liberals weren't left enough. You know what I mean?
Anyway, big gains for the NDP, Jack Layton's natty lip hair and his nice Asian lady wife.
And the Bloc Quebecois? Looks like they're down to four guys who can't agree among themselves just exactly how Quebec should secede from Canada City.
It's the centre that fell out.
Jean Chrétien ruined the Libs by taking them to the middle (and the scandals, too).
Very nice to see the NDP grow up…was in BC during Mike Harcourt's time…so nice after Vander Zalm's Socreds and tulips.
(Fuck the Bloc. Foutre le bloc.)
I'm from NZ, the only other country where the Socreds got into parliament. Scary people, with their crimpelene trousers and Skodas. The party of used-car salesmen.
Even in Canada, libtards eat their own.
But how does this effect Sarah Palin's health care?
Like the rest of us, she'll have to start paying the whole shot out of pocket.
It sucks because Harper is a climate-change denier in a country full of very dirty fossil fuels, and with a majority in Commons he can run the show like a dictatorship. Expect "efficient government." The news in Quebec and increased voter participation are the only good to come of this election.
Looks like someone wrote a term paper on Canada!
Someone wants to immigrate without having to conjugate French verbs.
I conjugated a frenchie once, I'd do her again if she ever comes back.
The NDP also is not great on environmental issues (they're kind of left-populist). Still, as much as I hate seeing Harper with a majority, HA HA HA SUCK IT IGGY GO BACK TO HARVARD YOU TWAT.
Iggy appears to have been a bit of a disaster for his Liberals.
The 'kbainow speech by Ignatz was pretty good last night. But the Libs are too close to the CPC so don't really have a raison d'être. At least the NDP broke 100 and the Greens actually took a riding.
Iggy was actually a plant by the Lizard People. True fact; check his long-form.
I was thinking more like a Canadian John Kerry. And this is Canada's 2004. So expect a lot of them to grumble about moving to America.
haha, a "Canadian Conservative" is further to the left of blue-dog Dems & Obama. I don't think they even have anything analogous to the teabaggers, a la the BNP in the UK. I mean they even believe in global warming because they see shit melting all over!
That is no longer true for a substantial number of Canadian Conservatives. Your madness has contaminated our body politic and now the teabaggers have a majority.
You're both kind of right. But really, no matter how nutty the Canuck Conservatives might seem, they're objectively nowhere near the likes of Huckabee, Santorum, Bachmann, um… Trump. At worst, they're like Romney (admittedly bad enough). But let's not forget that we in Canada have single-payer universal health care, same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and no capital punishment. And just as importantly, no party is seriously trying to change these things (at the moment, at least).
However, as far as amping up the military-industrial complex, tax cuts for corporations, and raping the environment, the Cons really are quite horrible.
My take is that they are kind of both right, but I get a bit annoyed with the meme that Canadian conservatives are so much to the left of your average conservative down here. The big difference seems to me to be that the conservatives in Canada don't have much historical policy and wins to protect and defend, so they have to at least appear more liberal. That's to say that they long ago lost the health care fight and such, whereas down here these are still very active debates, or debates that the conservatives have one up to a certain point so they have to advocate for these arcane measures to stay relevant.
It's my belief that if a Canadian conservative moved down here their natural tendencies would pull them to the right. In other words, they'd get away down here with what they always wished to get away with up there. I don't think that they are all that less conservative, rather, there is a much larger left up there that kind of moderates the shit that they can get away with, and it also seems to moderate what they are allowed to get away with saying, rhetorically.
Maybe, but now you're trying to peer into people's souls. You can't really take a politician out of his/her political context. That's like saying Obama would be much more progressive were he prime minister of Spain. Well sure, but he isn't.
Canada, the Mexico of the north. Time to build the "Dang Fence"!
Canadium. An irradiating metal that causes marijuana use and memory loss. Or did I just say that?
Cannaba, oh Cannaba…
The only Canadian metal I acknowledge is written by Neil Peart.
What about that Canadian terrorist that is still at large, Labattsma bin Moosehead?
I heard he was Exporting Molson Canadian.
Or as I heard proclaimed many times while astride a bar stool in Detroit, "I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a Labatt's in front of me". Or some such.
I'm more concerned about the Irish Arab terrorist, Eamonn al Zawahiri.
Koo roo koo koo koo roo koo koo…
(secret Canadian terrorist call to prayer)
But the wingnuts have a super majority. Like here, y'know, how the minority runs our country? Anyway, where in fucking blazes are we going to flee to now, Wonketteers?
New Zealand?
They kick you off the internets in New Zealand.
Costa Rica?
I'm headed to Japan next week, and I do speak the language. This time's just for shits and giggles, but if I keep getting more and more reasons to get depressed about 'Merka, I may just go full expat.
Politically, Japan's pretty much as fucked up as anywhere, but basking in someone else's problems for a while can only be therapeutic. Oh, and they have better (any) public transit over there, and the fanciest cell phones in the world.
Amid NHL playoffs, Canada's election gets even less Canadian attention than usual.
I wish. Turned on CBC out of Windsor last night to see that the election returns preempted NHL playoff coverage. I suppose it’s a good thing because the game on was Boston v Philadelphia; if I saw it, I would have wanted both teams to lose.
True. Yet more than 60% turned out to vote.
Which one is the kenyun usurper?
I'm trying to focus on this story but all I can see is something about how Bloc Party broke up. Didn't they suck anyways?
I have no issues with my Brothers and Sisters to the North.
Been to Canada twice and loved it. They play what they want on the radio (including Frank Zappa late at night) and don't think their shit doesn't stink. Very sensible people, at least the ones I encountered and I tried to encounter a representative sample both times.
"I tried to encounter a representative sample both times."
So how was the Canookie?
Being Canadian is like living next door to the Simpsons. Here are all these patient, sensible, kind people (I swear, their real national motto is "Now, let's not get excited") living right next to "the States," where some hideously noisy psychodrama is always going on.
–Molly Ivins, as relevant today as in 1998
So miss Molly. Thanks for that.
Can't double upfist, so must resign myself to a reply. May your p score ever increase for the Ivins quote.
The contrast is even greater at the Detroit-Windsor border, and very strange. Windsor and Metro Detroit are pretty similar economy wise. They are both the respective "car capitals" of their nations, and physically, the housing and layouts are very similar, so that everything on the surface kind of looks and feels very similar. Culturally and socially, they couldn't be any further apart even though everything basically looks the same. Even Detroit's wealthy suburbs tend to be more socially dysfunctional than inner-city Windsor, and it's even stranger give that Windsor is considered by many Canadians to be their "armpit", the "Detroit of Canada" is often what I've heard used disparagingly by them.
Are they taking Justin Bieber back in retaliation? Please do….
And Celine Dion too.
And Micheal J. Fox, for faking Parkinson's (according to some fat AM Radio DJ).
We get to keep Ellen Page though; she's cute.
“conservative” in Canada still means promising (in French) that everybody will get more education and health care and environmentally themed baseball caps
In the past probably. These guys are more "global warming denial", super prisons and F-35 Steath Fighters on no-bid contracts.
As our resident commenter from Canada City, I bet you're pretty excited about Fatty finally getting his majority, huh? Chills?
In mourning.
The climate denial and NATO defense masturbation is there, yes. But I listened to a ton of these "conservative" campaign speeches and they all sound like boilerplate U.S. Democrat speeches, but with realistic promises of more health care and more green energy and all that.
True, but the problem is that his background is in the Reform (GOP wingnut lite) party and the Canada City Taxpayers Federation (rich people lobbyist.)
You forgot the National Citizens Coalition.
Sorry, that's campaign talk and for foreign consumption. The core leadership of the Conservative Party is old-school Reform, and still very wingnutty.
pretty much a control freak as well… most of his elected reps are kept muzzled…
Brosseau, who doesn’t speak French, will represent a riding that’s almost 100 per cent Francophone.
Do elected officials ride their constituents, or is it the other way around? What a country! What a system!
Just like everywhere else. The politician rides you.
Regardless, I was hoping for DMX & Eve the Lady of Rage to stage an invasion & implement martial law.
I don't know about you, but being so open with regard to not giving two shits about one's constituents is sort of refreshing.
I don't know. That's kind of what happened down here last year with the Tea Party (people clearly not knowing who they were voting for and instead simply voting against Democrats), and look how that turned out.
Now, everyone that voted for them is bitching about them wanting to take away Medicare, when that's been the GOP's MO forever.
Now if Obama would only reinstate the draft, I might finally have reason to take off, eh, to America's big beige beret.
Don't be silly. A reinstatement of the draft would put an immediate end to three or four of our wars; wars that mean JOBS!
Why do you hate America's jobs, Extemp?!?
Alright, how 'boot a comprise, eh?
Reinstate the draft and declare war on Canada.
Draft dodging Americans would be forced to make for Mexico instead. As a result, American-displaced unemployed Mexicans would be forced to stream across the US border in even greater numbers in search of work. American companies would then be able to double their workforce without any increase in expenditures by paying said Mexicans half of what they would an American worker. Finally, any extra Mexicans (of which there would no doubt be many) could be drafted and deployed to the war in Canada.
Job rate goes UP; casuality rate goes DOWN. It's a WIN-WIN for America!
Dude, you put way more thought into that strategy than was put into the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bound for failure.
Ditto what bitchincamaro2 said. You put way more thought into that than any politician ever would.
Perhaps, you two, yet still not enough thought to spell fucking "compromise" correctly.
Or is it that how it's spelled in Canuckistanian? Hold on a sec…why yes, yes it is!
Free Marc Emery!
(with a purchase of equal or greater value)
I ran a Canadian site for my old corporation a few years back. One night a bunch of my colleagues after work started talking crap about the good old USA and they kept prompting me to retaliate by asking what Americans thought of Canada. I resisted until about my third Maudite (yum by the way) and then I told them ……. You know what we think of Canada, we don’t we forget you are up here.
Almost unrelated, but: Unibrou for the fucking win.
Yes you have to love a beer that you can stand up a spoon in.
la fin du monde, aussi!
Why have elections at all when the Queen can shut down the government anytime she pleases? Democracy, my ass?
what, what? What?? maybe her rep, the gov-gen… Liz could care less…
Harper, the current Prime Minister, is the most Conservative leader in Canada's history, and yet he's to the left of Obama on most issues. We kinda fail :S
Actually he's way to the right and not a fan of global warming.
Well, at least i got to reinforce the american stereotype of not knowing a thing about Canada. yay?
I heard the fucker wasn't even born in the US.
Kaybec, not sure if that is even part of Canaja…
So does that mean… he… loves Jesus… and abortions?!
He love Jebus and hates abortions.
Then he's just a fuckin' American.
Exactly. Which is why 60% of the country wants him to just become an American and leave already.
He's from Alberta. Alberta is Canada's Texas.
the dude's a blue-eyed brownshirt with no sense of honesty. see:
shitharperdid.ca
or a sense of humour, or humility or honesty or just about anything… (note the savage hate Iggy campaign based on him being a Harvard guy once (note the similarity to …)
Canada: America's hat.
and brain.
Arizona: America's asshat.
Viva la Corner Gas!
That's about (aboot) alls I know of this Canada place.
(or is that "le"?)
Technically it is part of Buffalo. I think most people don't know that.
if only! as a native buffalonian I can say that the difference is striking, as soon as you cross the peace bridge. Better beer, better strippers, hockey players on the money, cleaner, nicer, etc. etc. etc.
The beer thing is because the US watered down beer in the Great War to fight the fascist left and Canajans left the brew alone…
Don't forget Shirkston Beach
Which part of a buffalo is it?
The northern part?
Pfff–you sheeple actually believe these stories about there being a whole country to the north of the USA? Like we'd even allow such a thing to happen on our continent? "Canada" is just a story that parents tell their children to scare them into sitting up straight and closing their mouths when they chew.
Or like the Reservation in Brave New World where the misfits can go. Sort of a mythical pressure release valve.
Or the "farm" where the nonstop barking dog gets sent.
I've lived in Canada for five years now and there have been three Federal elections in that time and I STILL don't know what the hell is going on.
From what I gather, one votes for the leader of the party, by voting for the local person running in one's riding (district) in that particular party. Your local MP could be a runaway mental patient, but if he's NDP (or Tory or whatever), that's your man.
Also, I can't get a beat on why people like Harper. He's Mitt Romney without the sexxy and dazzling charisma.
Manchu! Help me please!
He's:
1) From Alberta thus they love him out west
2) Allegedly saved Canada City from economic ruin unlike US America which is funny because he was for deregulation of the finance industry
3) news media under his thumb so no one can really criticism him
4) cut taxes in much the way W cut taxes
So, what does Layton do as the OFFICIAL opposition? Do they sorta consult with him and then cut health care funding like they were going to do anyway?
Just do what they did before… ignore him.
Layton will spend the next four years yelling impotently. Imagine a big L liberal standing atop a train yelling "stop."
benevolent, er malignant despotcy comin' right up…
- He gets to live in a nice government-owned residence, instead of the environmentally-friendly ancient half-duplex he lives in now with his wife and mother-in-law
- He gets the first question each day during Question Period, which the Prime Minister can happily ignore.
- Swankier office space.
- Better seats at official functions.
And with all that, he has far less power now than he did when the Conservatives had a minority. And now he gets to babysit fifty onetime placeholder candidates from unwinnable ridings that the NDP won. That should be fun.
He eats kittens and has a nice blue sweater.
Has a magazine named after him.
How bazaar, how bazaar.
We've had three federal elections in America in the last five years and I still don't know what the hell is going on either.
Win!
The only politics in Canada I care about are the ones that make it easier for Americans to immigrate there permanently.
They have mounted police in red jackets who all sing songs about cross-dressing, is what I hear.
Hey you dizzy kids, I was overseas for a week and just got back. Did I miss anything?
I been overseas for 15 years and don't miss anything!
Your parents must be very proud.
My mother's been dead since 1959. My father is happy that I'memployed. Surely you don't think that you are diminished if someonein China is happy?
We have vacationed in Canada many times and just love it. The people are friendly, the food is good and always served piping hot, and the gas is sold in litres so you don't even know how badly you're getting screwed. Heck, even their money is way cooler than ours.
i would think 'blame canada'
Liberal leader Ignatieff made John Kerry look like Bill Clinton. That's why they suck.
callin' BS here…
won her race in Berthier-Maskinongé.
Damn! So even in Canada, politics has gotten Birthier!
So with a bunch of college students in Parliament, I can't wait to hear what some of the proposed legislation is. Free beer, pot & pizza for all?
Nationwide screenings of Animal House and Boondock Saints and national "Hey, take your top off" Day.
But these are Canadian college students; there should also be national screenings of Strange Brew.
& Tragically Hip to rewrite the national anthem.
Imagine a country so blue, they called it Canada…
Seriously though, Harper is bad news. He basically ran on a platform of not saying anything and promising nothing, but now that he has a majority you can expect him to finally start implementing his platform.
The Conservatives only got 40% of the vote. I hope the NDP devours what's left of the Liberal and BQ constituencies and maintains a credible opposition. And then I hope Harper gets his ass kicked next time. He really is way too right-wing for most of Canada, except for fucking Alberta.
And, ha ha, go to hell Iggy! Aside from being a shitty man in general, Ignatieff was an awful campaigner even for a Liberal, which is saying a lot.
your username says it all…
Alberta: Canada's Texas.
/I thought this was an exaggeration until I drove across about 25 years ago and it was nothing but pickups and cowboy hats and George Strait on the radio. wtf.
But do they have an equivalent of Gruene Hall?
I guess 25 years ago you missed out on the lovely, scenic tarsands.
You missed the Calgary Roundup?
Exactly. I don't think the old Tory voters in my riding realize that he's really a Reformer at heart. He tricked the nice old ladies, with pictures of him with cats.
Reformer? only in the sense of reforming everythin' to his cockeyed viewpoint…
Their chief export is Rush.
Do fly by night away from here.
Take off, you hoser.
And Plastikman.
and the Tragically Hip, the absolute best-kept secret export a country ever had.
Rush, the band who were teabaggers before it was fashionable, but still the music was good. Why do modern conservatives and libertaritards have all the BAD CRAPPY art?
Geddy Lee is much too cool with the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame to be a true teabagger. Just, like a lot of metallically-minded rockers, he's into D&D & Ayn Rand, but only the first on more than a superficial level.
Don't forget Anne Murray
Everything I know aboot Canada I learned from How I Met Your Mother.
***humming The Beaver Song***
They have elections in Canadia? I thought they had some kind of Ice Queen and an aristocracy of hockey players.
Bar-manager riding!
With the exception of their loopy Internet policy, Canadia's conservatives make most American liberals look center-right, (oh wait, they are already, never mind).
What's a Canada?
You know, like the geese and bacon and stuff?
Also, milk that's sold in see-thru plastic sacs for some reason.
A 19-year-old is in Parliament? Suck it, Pitt the Younger!
Lord Palmerston has been avenged!
Did I use incorrectly? :{ I emigrate FROM America to Canada, I immigrate TO Canada from America?
Whatever, they'll never let me in anyway.
Poutine? WTF?
Wait a minute..Mexico is in North America? Where the heck is New Mexico then?
I hear they're all a bunch of hockey-playing, beer-swilling hosers.
Sounds like fun.
Hey, our president made Canada his first international destination. Can't they be happy with one smidgen of recognition every four years, or are they gonna start getting demanding?
Those crafty conservative Canadians. OF COURSE they deny climate change, who stands to win? Soon people will actually be able to live in parts of Canada that are further north than 100 miles away from the US border.
Meanwhile, those fires in Texas will finally go out when everything turns to desert, as sand is not flammable.
How do you think glass is made?
Now that the "War on Terror" is over we can get to the pressing needs of our national defense:
DEFEND THE NORTHERN BORDER!!1!
Canadians: The New Al Qaeda
Idea: Let's move the Washington Nationals to Montreal.
And send the Phoenix Coyotes to Winnipeg.
And send the Sacramento Kings to Rochester.
The New York Yankees to Baltimore!
She rose to prominence in the election after taking a holiday in Las Vegas in the middle of the campaign. Contacted by the Globe and Mail, her co-worker said he didn’t know she was running for Parliament in a riding more than 300 kilometres away.
WHO THE FUCK PUT MARTHA COAKLEY ON THE BALLOT AGAIN?
Has anyone double checked to see whether the McGill students are even Canadian? An awful lot of McGill students are Americans who like the low tuition + status.
Haha, I'm an American student at McGill University. Up until three days ago, I didn't even know how big this election was. That's how exhausting following American politics is, people.
Amen, sister! I can't keep track of both Fox News AND Fox News North! Something's gotta give.
And just in time for Cinco de Mayo! No, wait….
I like that stuff on my chimichanga.
Try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtVrDPhHBg
They use a lot of duct tape.
If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
Harper's a piece of work, but the Liberal party has historically been no better. (It is really "liberal" only in the 19th century sense). Although Harper is not one of them, there is a long tradition of "Red Tories" (they understand political color symbolism up there, although the NYT had to hysterically explain to Americans that "red" meant "left" in Canuckistan, as if it were topsy-turvyland). The collapse of the BQ is fabulous news, and the NPD is the only party that is progressive on a range of issues, including the environment, so that's kinda good too.
Is everyone asleep now?
libs are right of centre, NDP and BQ are left of centre, Greens are far left while Cons are still in the Dark Ages, akin to teatards in many ways…
Just send them to the CBC's stupid Vote Compass, and be done with it. Wait – I got it.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/v...
Since when is the collapse of Barbeque fabulous news?
I'm never going to understand Canada.
One of the most interesting things about Canada is that it is one of only three sources for US comedians. (The other two being jews and blacks.)
Make me curious about what goes on up there.
That's why your p-ness is so small.
Haha, still, that condo in Myrtle Beach is looking like a good investment.
My husband lived in Canada for twenty years, and because I am a US/Canadian citizen, he seems to think that I have some interest in what happens there. I do not. Mostly because it just further enrages my cousins when I visit and ask really stupid questions about their communist government.
Wait….Canada has separate parties for liberals and socialists?
I thought they were one and the same. Damn it, talk radio lied to me!
Check out how some of these other parties did.
Eh, tell a wingnut that facism and socialism are polar opposites of each other and stand back and watch the fireworks.
Harper must think that the Canadian Arctic will be the new vacation land as global warming continues. Smart citizens of our neighbor to the north will be grabbing options on beachfront property in Inuvik.
"It seems many of the NDP candidates were just vaguely aware they were even running for election!"
Are you saying I should check my inbox or answer my phone this morning?
These quotes from the CBC article prove that the Canadians don't care about their politics, either:
"Controversial Conservative Maxime Bernier — known partly for speaking frankly on Conservative policy and mostly for a former girlfriend who consorted with biker gangs — won his seat in the Beauce."
"NDP candidate Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who until the election managed a bar on Carleton University campus in Ottawa, won her race in Berthier-Maskinongé. Brosseau, who doesn't speak French, will represent a riding that's almost 100 per cent Francophone. She rose to prominence in the election after taking a holiday in Las Vegas in the middle of the campaign. Contacted by the Globe and Mail, her co-worker said he didn't know she was running for Parliament in a riding more than 300 kilometres away."
A "riding"? Is that some sort of Dudley Do-Right reference?
Well… I guess we are not alone in the Batshit Crazy Politics Department.
Talk about poutine, or Club Super Sexe . . . then you've got my attention.
I converted my Ameros to Canadian Tire dollars when the exchange rate was at par. They've done remarkably well since, though.
We elected a Harper majority?
Sorry about that.
In Canada, no one hears you scream.
It's true. Sound travels more slowly in the cold air.
The Libertarians did worse than the Marxist-Leninists, which I am sure the Libertards blame on the presence of the Pirate Party.
I didn't notice that!
My biggest question is, what's with "No affiliation"? Is that like write-ins? Are there candidates who said, "I refuse any affiliation!"
We call them "independents". They are typically crazy.
Harper strikes me as the personification of the phrase "the banality of evil". In fact, he strikes me as nothing short of a calm, calculating sociopath if I am to be honest, someone who seems as if he wouldn't at all have a problem connecting with say your average Red State Kansan as their governor if he were forced to move down here.
I once tuned in to Jian Ghomeshi's radio show. He had on a film critic who had never seen 'Gone With The Wind'. Said she: 'Yeah, I like totally need to watch that someday'. I've never gone back.
You're right about part 1. He is a lot like Kerry. But part 2… The only Canadians who would consider moving to America (besides actors and comedians) are right-wingers who are pleased as punch with the Conservatives, so no, they're not moving.
Actually it was a very strange election result in that it gave hope to both the members of the right and the left. (The NDP being the traditional party of the left here more than doubled its previous seat count record from 1988.) It's the mushy middle Liberals who are feeling the pinch, and most of them already figured out which side of the fence they straddle most and thus defected accordingly.
Rather than being Canada's 2004 (US edition), it's more like 1993 (Canadian edition) in that two kind of similar parties (Libs and NDP) split the vote enough in many places to allow a third party enough seats to form a majority government. In 1993 (and really all the way to 2000) it was two parties of the right (Progressive Conservatives and Reform) splitting the vote enough to let the Liberals form consecutive majorities. Meanwhile the NDP was barely a factor during those years.
Oh, I could go on, but I'm fully aware that none of this stuff makes any sense or holds any interest unless you live here…
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