I’ve been through my first election process in Canada. I have to say that they experience, albeit brief, was incredibly interesting. I didn’t pay much attention to the press or what other people were saying prior to the election. I think I understand more of the issues of the major parties (Yes, I said parties. There were four major ones and several minor ones) were running on than I do about the debating of said issues and what the media was saying about them. In the states, you can barely watch any program without something being said about it. Of course, I still watch a lot of CNN up here, and they could care less about the elections in Canada. Obviously my choice of media outlet doesn’t help.
The Conservatives won, for the most part. At least (creepy) Stephen Harper will replace Paul Martin as Prime Minister. The one saving grace to the whole situation is that Harper doesn’t have the majority. The easiest way for me to equate this with what I’m used to is if the Democrats held in the power in congress with Bush in control of the presidency, which the opposite is currently true for congress. Back in Canada, this makes pro-choice and gay marriage safe for now, but the Conservatives would like to turn that around if they had the chance. How this all plays out will be incredibly interesting. The Bloc, the party predominately in Quebec that wants sovereignty for that province, even lost seats to the conservatives.
A lot has flipped and changed. With the scandal that hit the Liberals, voters are kinda looking at different potentials, but as we can see, another election can be triggered at anytime. A vote of no confidence in parliament can start this whole process over again, and many people are predicting that could happen within a year. To me, that signals a strength in this system, even though it has been a bit confusing for this guy from Iowa. I have a long way to go before I can say with true confidence that I understand the electoral system here, yet alone the way the government works through all forms that make it up, but what system of government isn’t difficult to understand? Even if you know how it works, the people pulling the strings still leave room to make you confounded about what’s truly going on.