Background
With most extempers worried about how the U.S. elections are going to turn out , many might have missed the news about the Canadian elections that happened last Tuesday. The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party, called the elections in the hopes that he could lead his party to a majority of seats in the Canadian parliament. The Conservative Party had ruled the country for the last 32 months, but had done so from minority status, which makes it difficult to survive votes of no confidence and pass budget and other procedural matters.
Building majority governments has grown difficult in Canada where a parliamentary system that does not use proportional representation has grown skewed because the country has seen a political shift from a two party structure to a five party structure. Harper’s Conservative Party is part of this political shift, created in 2003 in a merger between the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance.
The main opposition to the Conservative Party is the Liberal Party, led by Stephane Dion. The Liberal Party is Canada’s oldest party and as an interesting sidenote, every leader of the Liberal Party since 1896 has become the prime minister, although that will most likely change in May when it is expected that Dion will be replaced after a terrible result in these recent elections. The Liberals have been a dominant political force in Canada and not just because of their long party history. The Liberals have managed to occupy the political center for years by being liberal on social issues but moderate on economic ones.
Other parties that have emerged on the political radar include the Bloc Quebecois (BQ), who have prevented the Conservative Party from creating a majority in the Canadian parliament. The BQ campaign only in Quebec as their main issue is to win the separation of Quebec from the national government. The BQ is also well entrenched with organized labor interests in the country and has mass appeal in Quebec as they argue only they can make Quebec’s unique voice heard on a national stage.
Another political force is the New Democratic Party, the fourth largest party in the Canadian parliament. The New Democratic Party is to the left of the Liberal Party and advocates more taxes on the wealthy, gender equality, more rights for homosexuals, and more environmental regulations.
The final political party is the Green Party, who although being created in 1983, is evolving into a major political party. Although extempers might speculate that the party is to the left of the political spectrum, it is actually moving more to the middle to become more popular. Critics allege that the Green Party’s schemes to decrease corporate taxes while increasing them on polluters has made them abandon their principles. However, their vote share has increased over the last several elections.
Election Results
Stephen Harper called the election in order to win a workable majority for the Conservative Party in parliament. Speculation was rampant is August that there would be an early election to elect a new parliament, but it took until September 7th for Harper to officially announce that there would be new elections in the country.
During the election, the Conservatives tried to sell voters on a platform that it was necessary for Canada to remain in Afghanistan, that the Liberal Party would spend too much money, that Dion was not of the right mind to be leader, and that the Liberals plan for a carbon tax would be a horrible idea at a time of economic crisis.
The Liberals tried the risky strategy of trying to sell a carbon tax to voters to benefit the environment at a time when voters were worried about the state of the economy. The Liberals also argued that Harper did not develop a plan for handling the economic crisis and tried to make comparisons to President Bush.
When the election results came in, with a 59% voter turnout, the lowest in Canadian history, Harper and the Conservative Party succeeded in increasing the size of their party, by nineteen seats, but still ended up twelve seats short of forming a majority. The Liberal Party lost 27 seats, with voters deciding that they were not in favor of a party arguing for new taxes at a time of economic difficulties. The Green Party, although they managed to win almost seven percent of the vote, did not manage to win a seat in parliament and their leader, Elizabeth May, lost an election in Central Nova. To look at the composition of the new parliament, extempers should read the October 18, 2008 edition of The Economist.
The Future
Any speech on Canadian politics needs to set the election in perspective and lay out the different policies each party proposed. It is clear that the Liberal Party needs a new governing plan if it is to be considered a major force in Canadian politics yet again. In this election, the Liberals were very inept in their idea to propose carbon taxes, an issue that Conservatives were happy to seize on as it overshadowed Harper’s weakness in how to handle the economy.
The dismal voter turnout showed that Canadian voters are tired of voting. They have had to vote three times over the last four years as minority governments have grown unstable. This new government could last just as long, especially with the economic turmoil unless Harper is able to marshal the votes they need on a consistent basis to pass new policy. Canada has always had an uneasy history between the interests of the national government and the provinces and unless Harper is able to sell the provinces on an economic plan his tenure as prime minister could be short.
However, until this summer the Conservative Party should enjoy its reign in a minority government. The Liberals will reflect on why they lost this election and look for a new leader, most likely deposing Dion this May at its party conference. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party will reflect on what might have been, had it not been for several gaffes along the campaign trail such as Harper’s rant against the arts that most likely swung votes to the BQ, impairing the ability of the conservatives to become a majority. As BQ leader Gilles Duceppe argued on election night, “without the Bloc Québécois…Mr. Harper would have formed a majority government.”