So it seems it is bad business as usual in Canada, for politics at least. The Conservatives have again won the election with a minority government, having increased their parliamentary seats from 127 to 143. Meanwhile, the Liberals tanked, from 95 to 76, the Bloc Quebecois stayed steady at 50 (up from 48) and the NDP gained to hold 37 versus 30 previously. The Greens actually do not have any seats in parliament. The re-election of the Conservative government is bad news for the environment. The Conservatives have been largely apathetic about climate change and have shown little environmental leadership on issues like clean energy policies, clear-cut logging, genetically modified food, offshore oil drilling and Canada’s Oil Sands.
Apart from the surprising gains by the Conservatives, it was the poor performance by the Liberals that came as a surprise. Many commentators, including the Conservatives, have said that it was the Green Shift taxes that the Liberals, and the Greens, wanted to apply to the Canadian economy that turned voters away.
The Greens received 6.8% of the popular vote (almost a million Canadians voted Green – which should translate into 21 seats) yet have no seats in parliament.
Perhaps with all the troubles in the World economy, and people’s uncertainty over their jobs, Canadians voted to keep a status quo, rather than make a change to the government. There will be the usual election post-mortems in each of the camps, not least by the Conservatives who felt they would get a majority. They should have, given the good run of economic growth in Canada but Steven Harper may have cost them many votes with his seemingly insensitive comments about the state of the world financial markets and how ordinary Canadians may be affected. Growing concern for the environment may also have contributed to the lack of Conservative majority.
...an estimated 59.1 per cent of Canadians cast votes in Tuesday's general election — a figure that appears to be a record low in the history of Confederation.
In Canada, the wishes of the voting public are not truly represented in parliament. For example, the Greens received 6.8% of the popular vote (almost a million Canadians voted Green – which should translate into 21 seats) yet have no seats in parliament, yet the Bloc Quebecois have 10% of the vote and have 50 seats. The Canadian election results again raises the question of proportional representation being a much more democratic reflection of the public’s wishes. The parliamentary system was defined when there were only two parties in competition, and not the five that are competing in Canada today.
CBC News is reporting that Canadian voter turnout hit a new low, ‘…an estimated 59.1 per cent of Canadians cast votes in Tuesday's general election — a figure that appears to be a record low in the history of Confederation.’
Canada will now have another Conservative backwards period of government that means little will be done for the environment or to mitigate climate change. This is quite an unfortunate election result for the environment in Canada. Let’s hope Americans choose more wisely in their November Federal Elections.
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