Oh, Canada!!

October 20, 2015 JanF Editors' Choice, News and Opinion 10

In a stunning upset, Liberals gained 150 seats in Parliament and will form a Liberal government. The conservative government of Stephen Harper lost their majority of 166 seats to end up with 99 after the voting was done.


(Your party on demagoguery: sooner or later those Canadian geese will come home to roost.)

Canadians not only rejected the hatemongering of Prime Minister Stephen Harper but austerity and the anti-government rhetoric of the Conservatives.

From the CBC:

Justin Trudeau will be Canada’s next prime minister after leading the Liberal Party to a stunning majority government win, dashing the hopes of Stephen Harper, who had been seeking his fourth consecutive mandate, but will now step down as party leader.

This will be the second time for Canada to be led by a Trudeau, as the 43-year-old Liberal leader follows in the footsteps of his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who served as prime minister for almost 16 years before retiring in 1984.

Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau addresses his nation:

From The Guardian

“In Canada better is always possible,” a hoarse but jubilant Trudeau told cheering supporters at Liberal headquarters in Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth hotel.

He added: “This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive, hopeful, a hopeful vision, and a platform and a team together can make happen.

“Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message tonight, it’s time for a change in this country, my friends, a real change.” […]

And in an implicit rebuke to Harper – who had attempted to exploit a row over Muslim women’s right to cover their face – he said: “We know in our bones that Canada was built by people from all corners of the world, who worship every faith, who belong to every culture, who speak every language.”

I think we can blame John Oliver for this. Get your bags packed, John! You will be spending the next 6 months in the Canadian hoosegow for violating Section 331 of the Canada Elections Act. Watch out for the moose!!!

“Canada is about to have a major election. John Oliver enlists Mike Myers, a beaver, and a moose to give voters some advice.”

Other pre-election commentary:

Justin Trudeau, the son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, is leading in the polls, apparently tapping into an appetite for change among many Canadians, with promises to cut taxes for the middle class and increase them for the wealthy. He plans to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure, running deficits for three years to do so. And he has pledged to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year.[…]

The Conservatives have blitzed the country with TV ads targeting Trudeau, saying “He’s just not ready.”

But many Canadians seem ready to take a chance on him. “He brought the Liberals back from the dead,” said Robert Bothwell, a Canadian history professor at the University of Toronto. “The Liberal Party was on the verge of extinction, and if they hadn’t pulled themselves together this election, they would have ended up like the British Liberals.”

Just four years ago, Canada’s Liberals, beset by years of infighting and ineffective leaders, had their worst electoral defeat, coming in third behind the traditionally weaker left-of-center New Democratic Party. But Trudeau increased his share of the vote in his Montreal district. In 2013 he became the sixth Liberal leader in seven years and has worked to rid the party of its sense of entitlement.

The Liberal Party was the party for 69 years in the last century:

Liberals governed Canada for 69 years during the 20th century. Pierre Trudeau called for a “just society” and ran the country with a panache not seen before from a Canadian leader. He is responsible for Canada’s version of the Bill of Rights and is credited with opening the door wide to immigration.

Harper has worked to dismantle that legacy in ways practical and symbolic. When the updated guide to Canada for new immigrants was published in 2009, it was widely noted that social programs such as universal health care were de-emphasized as points of pride for Canadians. Instead, the guide emphasized traditional Canadian symbols such as the British monarchy and the armed forces.

A victory for the Liberals would crush Harper’s goal of displacing them as Canada’s natural party.

“To lose to Justin Trudeau would be devastating to Stephen Harper on a real personal level,” said Gerry Nicholls, who worked under Harper at a conservative think tank. “Harper wanted to undo all of the things that Pierre Trudeau did, and now he’s facing his son, who wants to bring back all of those Trudeau values and traditions to Canada.”

Harper’s goal, crushed. Good job, Canada!

10 Comments

  1. Demagoguery loses. Anti-government loses. Austerity loses.

    Maybe something like this can sweep south …

    “We know in our bones that Canada was built by people from all corners of the world, who worship every faith, who belong to every culture, who speak every language.”

    So was the United States of America.

  3. Three cheers for our neighbor to the North! This is wonderful news and Jan, thank you for the transcript. I never have time to watch videos, but I read rapidly.

    I am SO happy for Canada and for my friend in Kelowna, British Columbia, which just elected a liberal as well.

    Let’s hope it’s catching and will spread southward, that’s all I can say. :)

    • You guys must be pinching yourselves! I have been reading the commentary (I haven’t had a chance to post links yet) and they said that as recently as 2 months ago, the Liberal Party was not expected to do much of anything. Now, this!

      I stayed up last night to watch the election coverage (our CSPAN-3 ran the CBC feed) and it was fun watching the stunned commentators.

      It seemed like there was much sadness that the NDP lost many of its promising MPs. How is that development being received?

  6. Apparently, Canada was monkeying around with their election laws also but the problems were overcome:

    Voters in ridings across Canada reported confusion at the ballot box on Monday, with many attributing the issues to the Fair Elections Act, a controversial bill that ushered in many changes to the electoral process, from campaign finance to voter identification.

    “Canadians shouldn’t have to be experts in electoral law to cast a ballot,” said Josh Paterson, the executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

    Groups tried to get the law delayed but were unsuccessful:

    “We’re stuck with it for today, and hoping to get changes for next time around,” said Mr. Paterson, who himself was asked for unnecessary ID when he voted at the advance polls.

    The bill was criticized for raising limits on campaign spending, prohibiting Elections Canada from mobilizing voters and tightening voter-identification requirements. Critics said aboriginals, students and homeless voters were likely to face increased difficulties in casting a ballot as a result.

    That sounds familiar.

  7. News and Opinion:

    Common Dreams

    During his victory speech, Trudeau, the son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, vowed to “be the prime minister of all Canadians.”

    “We beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together,” he said, referring to the acrimony surrounding the presidential campaign and the negative tact taken by the Conservative Party.

    The Liberal Party victory signals an end to Harper’s nearly decade-long reign.

    As the Globe and Mail reports, “For Mr. Harper and the Conservatives, the loss comes as a stern repudiation by voters and marks an end to their nearly 10-year hold on power, a polarizing stretch that has seen taxes cut, crime punished more severely, and a more combative role for Canada on the world stage.”

    ~

    Al Jazeera

    Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said Canadians rallied around the Liberals as the anti-Harper vote.

    “It became not only a referendum on Mr. Harper but really a sweep for Mr. Trudeau as well,” said Antonia Maioni, a political science professor at McGill University.

    “A clash of values pushed Canadians to really think about what they wanted from a government and what kind of image they wanted reflected back from that government and I think that’s where Mr. Trudeau’s optimism and hope and idea of change captured people’s imagination.”

    The decisive Liberal victory confounded expectations, after 11 weeks of campaigning, that the election was too close to call, and would produce a virtual tie between the Conservatives, Liberals and the left-leaning New Democratic Party. Polling by Canadian news channel CBC on the eve of the election showed Liberals taking 37 percent of the vote and Conservatives pulling 30 percent.

    ~

    Ed Kilgore at WaMo

    One wrinkle in this campaign that center-left parties everywhere should note is that Liberals broke with the other two major parties in refusing to pledge a balanced budget, instead promising to run short-term deficits to finance needed infrastructure projects.

    Another possible ripple-effect from the vote is to cast a pall on the appropriation of American-style cultural conservatism by Harper’s Tories. It’s fitting that Harper’s last political acts as PM were to demagogue Muslim apparel and campaign with Rob Ford.

    And without question, the ejection of Harper is a boon to the Obama administration, especially on energy and environmental issues where Canada had become problematic in its resistance to climate change action and its advocacy of the Keystone XL pipeline.

  8. Post election … the governing begins.

    Justin Trudeau on Syria: New PM Trudeau to Obama: Canada’s Islamic State combat mission to end

    Trudeau, who had also promised to withdraw Canada from combat in the coalition fight against Islamic State, said he told U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday that Canada will pull out of the bombing mission but maintain humanitarian aid and training.

    The White House had earlier said it hopes the new Canadian government will continue to support the efforts of the U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

    “He understands the commitment I’ve made around ending the combat mission,” Trudeau told reporters.

    Justin Trudeau on Keystone: Trudeau win marks new era in Canada green policies, but not on Keystone

    Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s resounding victory in Canada’s election may signal the beginning of a new era in the nation’s climate change policy, but anyone hoping for a reversal on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline may be disappointed. […]

    But like his predecessor, Trudeau has said he supports the Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline — a project that would drive more Canadian tar sands oil directly to the American South. Thomas Mulcair, head of the New Democratic Party — the third runner-up in the 2015 election — opposes Keystone XL.

    Elsewhere, such as in the case of the of the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline — which would run from Alberta to British Columbia — Trudeau has voiced objection, telling energy giant Enbridge that it needs to come up with a “better plan” than running the pipe through “one of the most vulnerable and beautiful ecosystems in the world.”

    Moreover, although acknowledging that the oil sands are an “important driver” in the Canadian economy, the Liberal leader has said that the country must eventually “get beyond” its reliance on the sector and argued that Harper had failed to collaborate effectively with other nations on climate change mitigation.

    Justin Trudeau on Climate Change: Will Canada’s New Prime Minister Turn His Campaign Promises Into Climate Action?

    There are still a lot of unknowns about exactly how a Liberal government will tackle environmental issues, Erin Flanagan, an analyst at the Pembina Institute, told ThinkProgress. The Liberal Party’s platform includes a tenet to create “a national environmental strategy that embraces scientific evidence and accepts the reality of human-caused climate change,” policy which would help keep warming under 2°C and ensure that Canada contributes to its “fair share” of emissions reductions.

    “But [Liberals] haven’t said specifically what that means in terms of emissions targets,” Flanagan said. “They’re saying really exciting and interesting things that we haven’t heard in this country in a decade, but they haven’t been specific.”

    The party’s been asked to provide numbers for emissions reductions targets, but it hasn’t yet done so, she said. Canada pledged earlier this year to reduce its emissions 30 percent compared to 2005 levels by 2030, but that commitment was criticized by many as not being ambitious enough. Flanagan said that, ideally, a Liberal government would change that commitment to be more aggressive.

Comments are closed.