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Canadians voted for a sweeping change in government Monday, giving Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau a majority to end the nearly 10-year rule of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Election returns showed Trudeau's Liberals winning a majority of the 338 seats in Parliament. With 85% of polls reporting, the Liberals either won or were leading in 185 seats. The party needed to win 170 seats for a majority government.
Trudeau, 43, the oldest son of the late prime minister Pierre, will become the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history.
The story is being carried by USA Today and just about every major news outlet. There were some economic takes on the election as well.
takyon: Results at CBC and BBC. DeSmog Canada has an analysis focusing on potential shifts in environmental and science policies:
The Liberal party has taken a strong stance on the war on science in Canada, promising to free scientists to speak publicly about their work. Trudeau has also promised to instate a Parliamentary Science Officer to ensure transparency, expertise and independence of federal scientists. This position will mirror that of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
In addition to unmuzzling scientists, the party also wants to work collaboratively with the provinces, First Nations and other stakeholders when it comes to ocean management. This is significant in light of the Conservative government's de-funding of numerous marine science programs, including the only research being conducted into the effects of industrial pollutants on marine mammals. The Liberal party has promised to reinstate $40 million of funding for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:54PM
Strategic voting certainly hit the Greens hard this time around. In my riding, the Conservative was going to win regardless, so I could vote Green and at least register that there's continued interest in that party's platform. The local Conservative MP is a good guy, just in the wrong party. He got elected this time by a small margin, so more strategic voting actually could have outed him. In the end though, he does a pretty good job of representing our riding, and can hopefully do a better job now that his party's out of power.
The two main parties have a strong vested interest in keeping FTTP representation and avoiding any sort of proportional representation. If we could institute some sort of ranked voting system, along with proportional representation in some form, I think our political landscape would look a lot different.
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday October 21 2015, @01:48PM
I totally agree with you. That's what I hate most about our election system. You have one vote which picks the person representing you, the party that controls the house and the leader of the country. You might like the guy that represents you, but not the party or the leader, or like the leader but not the party or the person representing you or you might like the party but neither of the other two.
I really liked the conservative MP in my riding, he was a really nice guy, although I've never voted for him. I tend to vote for a combination of the party and the leader as most MPs will do what their party, and the party leader by extension, tell them first than what's right for their constituency second. I can't stand Harper, so I couldn't vote for the conservative MP in my riding. I assume the other people in our riding don't like Harper either. The conservative MP won by a huge margin in the last election and seemed to be really well liked, but was thrown out for a liberal candidate no one even knew up until 3-4 months ago. The only reason I can think of is because others thought like me and voted liberal just to get Harper out of office.
The election system is broken, but you're right. It's unlikely anyone will tackle fixing it as the major parties benefit from it, or can at least make it work to their advantage on occasion.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe