Heya Sheriff,
Tell us more about what's going on with the Canadian election. I'd really be fascinated to know more about it. I'm getting kind of exhausted thinking about the U.S. election (at least sometimes I feel exhausted by it). And, I'd also really like to hear more about the perception of McCain and Obama in Canadian political circles. I'm sure it could provide a really interesting perspective.
Ok, First, as I've noted a number of months ago (way before he officially clinched the nomination) Canada was going through an Obama love fest. So strong was this pro-Obama feeling that (as mentioned on that other thread) the at-the-time presumptive Republican nominee (McCain) was radioactive to the reigning Conservative party. All top level cabinet ministers as well as the Prime Minister himself managed to be out of town when McCain was invited to some function or other in our nation's capital.
You see, even your Democrats are more conservative (right wing) than our Conservative party, so Prime Minister Harper did not wish to be seen in any way associated with McCain.
As for our election ...
It appears that there's yet another party that's making headways in this country. In addition to the reigning Conservatives (who are in a minority government situation), the Liberals, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Block Quebecois (BQ), there's a new party, the Green Party who earned only 5% of the votes last time but is currently polling at about 12%
During the last elections in 2005, the results (in seats per party) was as follows:
Conservatives: 124
Liberals: 103
BQ: 51
NDP: 29
Independents 1
The latest polling has
Conservatives 35 to 38%
Liberals 23 to 29%
NDP 17 to 22%
Green 6 to 12%
BQ 7 to 8%
As I've already said all parties in Canada are more socialist than your Democratic party, but the Conservative party is the only one that embraces your right wing notions about gay marriages, social services and 'smaller governments'. Thay're not talking about their intention of revising the gay marriage, the death penalty, ect. They're running on how the other parties are going to tax people more. (Heck! for about a month before the election was called, we kept hearing misinformation [propaganda] about the green tax the Liberals were going to be introducing.)
All the others are socially 'responsible'. Last time there was a majority Conservative government (during the Reagan years), it was reduced to only 2 seats (out of 308) in the subsequent election.
Already (with 3 [of just 5] weeks left in the campaining) the NDP and the Green have declared their willingness to 'work' with the Liberals, should they come up with the largest number of seats in the next elections. But pundits are saying that it's likely to end up being a majority Conservative government after Oct 14.
And THAT's depressing.