Well another Canadian election has come and gone, and I would be remiss if I didn’t provide a bit of my reaction to the events of May 2.
To say the campaign in the Skeena - Bulkley Valley was underwhelming would be, to put it nicely, a massive understatement. While my hat goes off to everyone who threw their hat in the ring, there was just something missing this year. Many figured it would be the usual two-horse race between incumbent Nathan Cullen and the Conservative candidate, but the Conservative candidate wasn’t as aggressive as the past two elections (Mike Scott and Sharon Smith respectively). And I actually heard from other people involved in the campaign for different parties that “everyone knows Nathan is going to win anyway”. Yikes.
On the national scene, I don’t think anyone could have seen the results coming the way they were. In one fell swoop the Bloc Quebecois, who had formed the official opposition in 1993 and only had fewer than 40 seats once in their history, was pretty much wiped off the map and left with only four seats. The Liberal Party, whose roots go back to the founding of the country and who have formed government 23 times since 1867, were left with just 34 seats - the lowest in the party history. The leaders of both parties were not elected and the NDP formed the official opposition for the first time in party history.
Historic election? I would say so.
As far as the Bloc goes, good riddance. I was never a fan of a party that only runs in one province having so much power. But this is beginning to look like a shift to more of a U.S. style of government where voters on the left and the right end of the political spectrum vote for the furthest left and right party in hopes of forming government.
It was already said in this election that the NDP and Liberals were splitting the vote and that could have let the Conservatives go up the middle. That could only add fuel to the two-party fire.