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The 'moose chilling watching the van burn across the street" meme has to be retired, as Canada's most populous province, and the seat of her federal government, elected a wholly unqualified, criminal populist to premier (that's like a state governor) last night.

While the infamous crack smoking mayor's brother can have little direct influence on our national stage, it does show that Canadians are just as susceptible to self-sabotaging populism as our American cousins.

Good luck Ontario, you're gonna need it.

Yeah, we had a bunch of poor options but the PC party was what I wanted least.

I voted NDP this time. While normally a Liberal supporter, historically the party needs a reset every 12 to 16 years and this was the end of their cycle. I might have voted for them still, but the party leader conceded defeat a week before the election, and then had the cohones to ask people to still vote for the party.

The PC party's platform is full of the usual tax cuts for everyone, more money in your pocket... with no service cuts... honest! Hopefully the long term harm is minimal.

 greatbigtree wrote:
Yeah, we had a bunch of poor options but the PC party was what I wanted least.

I voted NDP this time. While normally a Liberal supporter, historically the party needs a reset every 12 to 16 years and this was the end of their cycle. I might have voted for them still, but the party leader conceded defeat a week before the election, and then had the cohones to ask people to still vote for the party.

The PC party's platform is full of the usual tax cuts for everyone, more money in your pocket... with no service cuts... honest! Hopefully the long term harm is minimal.

The PC platform is... fine I guess. I mean it doesn't share my values or anything, but there has been plenty of competent, functioning conservative governments over the years.

It's more the legitimising of such a plainly awful and unqualified candidate that I'm worried about.

But yeah, hopefully the long term harm is minimal.

Don't feel bad, this kind of thing is a gloabl fad at the moment.

This too shall pass.

As a former Ontario resident, I'm going to officially renounce my Ontario citizenship and claim full Maritime status.

I totally understand that there were three less than ideal candidates for most people, but Ford is the least qualified by a long shot. I want to be proven wrong about all my expectations for his government, but I know I don't want to be living in that province with him at the helm.

I'll watch safely from here. To quote the Beaverton, "Good fething luck."

Related, this election further reinforces the absolute need for electoral reform in this country. Low voter turnout and FPTP are leading to gakky situations and the feeling of wasting your vote in many ridings. Under a different system, this election would have resulted in a minority PC, or a coalition of NDP/Lib/Green. Still ticked off that Trudeau backed off that promise. It was one of two major promises I really wanted for this country. Thankfully the Senate pulled through and passed the marijuana bill (with amendments, of course [also, Senate reform please]).

"I totally understand that there were three less than ideal candidates for most people"

Here is your problem - it's the same problem everywhere. As long as people are forced to pick the lesser of 2 evils or chose between ass clowns to run their countries. This will continue to happen.

Blacksails wrote:
Related, this election further reinforces the absolute need for electoral reform in this country. Low voter turnout and FPTP are leading to gakky situations and the feeling of wasting your vote in many ridings. Under a different system, this election would have resulted in a minority PC, or a coalition of NDP/Lib/Green. Still ticked off that Trudeau backed off that promise. It was one of two major promises I really wanted for this country. Thankfully the Senate pulled through and passed the marijuana bill (with amendments, of course [also, Senate reform please]).

I fully agree. Luckily, where I live, it appears Horgan is going forward with his voting reform referendum.

Xenomancers wrote:"I totally understand that there were three less than ideal candidates for most people"

Here is your problem - it's the same problem everywhere. As long as people are forced to pick the lesser of 2 evils or chose between ass clowns to run their countries. This will continue to happen.

"Lesser of two evils" does not mean all options are equally bad. Choosing the worst option because you don't really like any of the options is infantile.

"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good" is a rational, grown up maxim. We can't always choose exactly what we want.

Not that I disagree with you. If you truly believe a system is fethed beyond all reason though. Which choice makes more of a difference? Perhaps letting people see how bad it can be will be an eye opener.

Honestly im pretty sure the referendum will fail here in BC, our liberal party is a pc party in disguise and they hold a lot of sway with the older folks.

Man, to hear facebook (all the albertans and Trudeau haters in their echo chamber) Doug Ford is the besr thing to happen to Canada since Saint Harper.

I cant wait for Scheer to get obliterated since hes the one none of the PCs even wanted and all hes running on is 'Harper, again' so far. The NDP candidate has a dodgy background, they both seem to want to hand it to the Liberals. Im sure the PCs will try to dredge up the terrorist stuff (the one guy who had already won his supreme court case), like their base seem to try to use.

 feeder wrote:
The 'moose chilling watching the van burn across the street" meme has to be retired, as Canada's most populous province, and the seat of her federal government, elected a wholly unqualified, criminal populist to premier (that's like a state governor) last night.

While the infamous crack smoking mayor's brother can have little direct influence on our national stage, it does show that Canadians are just as susceptible to self-sabotaging populism as our American cousins.

Good luck Ontario, you're gonna need it.

Honestly though, this is so many orders of magnitude less bad than the US right now I wouldn't know where to start.

 feeder wrote:

Blacksails wrote:
Related, this election further reinforces the absolute need for electoral reform in this country. Low voter turnout and FPTP are leading to gakky situations and the feeling of wasting your vote in many ridings. Under a different system, this election would have resulted in a minority PC, or a coalition of NDP/Lib/Green. Still ticked off that Trudeau backed off that promise. It was one of two major promises I really wanted for this country. Thankfully the Senate pulled through and passed the marijuana bill (with amendments, of course [also, Senate reform please]).

I fully agree. Luckily, where I live, it appears Horgan is going forward with his voting reform referendum.

The BC NDP is doing a pretty damn good job from my reading on the opposite side of the country. Something like 75%+ promises kept/enacted with more on the way.

Didn't BC vote before on electoral reform and they voted against it?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 feeder wrote:
The 'moose chilling watching the van burn across the street" meme has to be retired, as Canada's most populous province, and the seat of her federal government, elected a wholly unqualified, criminal populist to premier (that's like a state governor) last night.

While the infamous crack smoking mayor's brother can have little direct influence on our national stage, it does show that Canadians are just as susceptible to self-sabotaging populism as our American cousins.

Good luck Ontario, you're gonna need it.

Honestly though, this is so many orders of magnitude less bad than the US right now I wouldn't know where to start.

Lets not get into that but you are clearly exaggerating.

I don't feel like I'm exaggerating at all.

Don't you still have this guy as supreme leader?

We do.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Don't you still have this guy as supreme leader?

Spoiler:

Yeah, that's why I said Ford can't have much influence on the nation. It's more what his election represents. The triumph of wishful thinking and stigginit.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Don't you still have this guy as supreme leader?

That is..... terrifying... it looks so human its chilling.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 feeder wrote:
The 'moose chilling watching the van burn across the street" meme has to be retired, as Canada's most populous province, and the seat of her federal government, elected a wholly unqualified, criminal populist to premier (that's like a state governor) last night.

While the infamous crack smoking mayor's brother can have little direct influence on our national stage, it does show that Canadians are just as susceptible to self-sabotaging populism as our American cousins.

Good luck Ontario, you're gonna need it.

Honestly though, this is so many orders of magnitude less bad than the US right now I wouldn't know where to start.

Lets not get into that but you are clearly exaggerating.

I don't feel that he's exaggerating at all.

Trudeau isnt great, but at the moment he still has a pretty good chance to get another majority, since he hasnt really done anything that bad other than be goofy.

The NDP is dead until they get another Jack Layton, and most people I know are still sick of the PCs. Of course, I live in BC, i merely help determine whichever party that won gets a majority or a minority, Im not sure how people in Ontario or Quebec feel.

Itll probably be a cold day in hell before Quebec votes for a career politician out of Saskatchewan over a fellow Quebecer, and Ontario is going to have a year to get sick of anything that sniffs of blue, despite not being officially aligned with the national party.

Weirdly enough, Ontario tends to vote Liberal / PC or PC / Liberal at the Provincial / National level. It is rare for Lib/Lib or PC/PC governments to survive an election.

Edit: That is to say, their initial election.

This is why I vote green party.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
This is why I vote green party.

You and me both my friend. At least they got a seat for once now lol.

Vs. Donald Trump? Yeah, I still feel entitled to this:

Trump sets the bar so low no one should feel smug about clearing it. Just deep and abiding shame if they fail to do so.

 Crazyterran wrote:
Trudeau isnt great, but at the moment he still has a pretty good chance to get another majority, since he hasnt really done anything that bad other than be goofy.

The NDP is dead until they get another Jack Layton, and most people I know are still sick of the PCs. Of course, I live in BC, i merely help determine whichever party that won gets a majority or a minority, Im not sure how people in Ontario or Quebec feel.

Itll probably be a cold day in hell before Quebec votes for a career politician out of Saskatchewan over a fellow Quebecer, and Ontario is going to have a year to get sick of anything that sniffs of blue, despite not being officially aligned with the national party.

Here's the thing; every human is goofy in some way. The person who says 'no part of me is crazy' is lying. Goofy doesn't mean a person is going to be bad at politics (as long as they can keep it within reason), it just means they're human. And I think being open about that is appealing to people on both an emotional and rational perspective; it's indictive of a certain level of honesty.

It will be interesting to see how his term in office plays out, a couple of days before the election Ford was already being sued for ruining his family's business and whether it's true or not that doesn't bode well. I'm surprised the NDP didn't do better in the election, I get that liberals were getting sick of their own party but Ford seems like a bit of an excessive way to shake things up!

I doubt this will be the start of a ripple that affects the rest of Canada anyway, Trudeau as far as I can tell has been doing a decent job besides making some questionable fashion choices and is managing to stay in good standing with Europe and the US (if the G7 goes well that is).

I’m honestly kind of surprised Ford was the one elected for Ontario, especially after the last federal election’s “stop Harper,” campaign. Never really expected the NDP to do all that great and the Liberals were probably doomed after Wynne stepped down, but the fact that the PC got such an overwhelming number of seats is kind of interesting to note.

Well, Wynne should have played it to the end instead of conceding a week early, I'm sure that didn't help voter turn out.

In terms of armchair quarterbacking this, I think the most positive spin the concession could have resulted in would have been to diminish vote splitting between Red and Orange.

Which was basically cancelled by an appeal to vote Red anyhow, which just came across as desperate.

Again, my riding is as blue as the sky on a clear day and my vote for Red or Orange didn't matter anyway. And although I was very unhappy about the hydro (electricity company) sell-off in particular, I was going to vote Liberal as their core policies are closest to my wishes for government... but I won't vote for someone that doesn't believe in themselves.

Oxford riding has about 70 000 voters and about 50 000 voted. It's late and I'm tired, but something like 17000 of those 20000 would have needed to vote NDP to oust the incumbant PC candidate. So my vote really didn't matter, but still! I would have liked to have voted Liberal. Of course, I would also have liked if they had done a better job. Oh well. 4 years of what hopefully doesn't turn into a complete mess.

 Xenomancers wrote:
"I totally understand that there were three less than ideal candidates for most people"

Here is your problem - it's the same problem everywhere. As long as people are forced to pick the lesser of 2 evils or chose between ass clowns to run their countries. This will continue to happen.

Countries with PR systems have a greater chance of new parties arising, for instance Italy's 5-Star party, which is led by a popular comedian.

It also allows extremist parties a voice, but perhaps this is necessary to allow the full expression of representative democracy.

At some point you have to rely on the good sense of the ordinary voter.