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You are the official opposition! Congratulations! Now you can implement your policies, YAY. Oh wait. No. You had some sway when it was a minority but with the big conservative majority that’s all gone… so no sway… just back to side-line Jack barking NO NO NO. Can you say empty victory? Well done. —Ballot Blues
This article appears in May 5-11, 2011.
33 Comments
At least the Liberals would never be so shallow as to re-invent themselves by choosing style over substance…
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r3mo3ORvAwI/TaQK…
Awwww Crap >: (
Don’t blame Jack, blame the (non-)voters. Asshat.
Uh… I’d say NDP gains in this election were monu-fucking-mental. They crushed the bloc (who are pretty much toast), and the liberals are barely holding on on life support.
Remember the old time when NDP was barely even an official party in the house of commons? Now they have over 100 seats! Almost 1/3rd of all the seats! Think of how this’ll impact elections to come. You can’t go from where the NDP were to forming a government in the span of three years. This is a great start for them, and I think Jack Layton and his party have much to be proud of.
… of course, this could all just be a fluke and a backlash against the libs and bloc and might not stand the test of time…. but if it isn’t… we could be headed for an NDP government in a few elections.
Doubt it PK…all the Liberals need is a valid leader and not Mr Flip Flop Iggy. I’m waiting for the arrival of Trudeau Jr, and I predict that at that point, the Liberals will come roaring back and take their place as the rightful ruling party.
Iggy is leaving the building…(cue music)
The anointment of Saint Justin Trudeau and digging up ol’ Pope John-Paul II might give the Liberals a miracle next time ’round.
jack is so shit out of luck now, it isn’t funny. he did have more sway back when, but if harper fucks up again, layton is allowed to step in and take over. that is the nice thing.
don’t be too sad 195, the pirates got 3,198 votes. the voter turnout was about 61%…pretty abysmal
It’s better than last time at least.
alert alert…we have eaglet activity comander and oceansis…scree
Oh Hamburgers! – I’d totally forgotten about the nest. Mucho Spassibos Painuchka.
i saw an empty egg shell
Brison is already pushing for Iggy’s job – either that or the opportunist is swinging over to Laytons Commie party.
What would have been scarey would have been if the BQ gotten all its seats and became the Official Opposition. Outside Quebec, they only gained 9 seats. Not much of a win and the Quebec vote was a protest vote of both the Liberals and the Tories.
Federal Tory Majority, NS marjority NDP, yup things are going to real peachy here. We got nothing before and now we’re going to get less
Um S&W, the blues have more seats (4) than the NDP (3) in NS so we’re alright in their books. That said though, what Layton did this election in Quebec was nothing short of a complete miracle and we have him to thank for sweeping the Bloc out of the House. Official opposition is just one step away from the top job.
The libs will be back, but not with Bob Rae at the helm if they’re smart. Harper will jump on his “NDP/Lib merger” comment like Oprah on a baked ham. Their next leader should be a maritimer since this is their stronghold now, or a westerner who can stop the blue wave out there.
What jack accomplished in Quebec was no miracle just checkout the promises he made them,and when he cannot deliver what do you thik will happen? can you say referendum!! or can of worms!
Jack can get up and start whining and posturing all he wants – Big Steve will just have to say one thing 167 = majority, go get blowed.
Fucking non-voters… one more reason to hate my generation.
If you don’t vote, you can’t fucking complain about jack shit, least of all tuition fees. This is why I’m convinced youth activism is largely just a fad to make people feel better about themselves. When they actually have to leave their computers to do something important, they don’t bother.
Even with all the current unrest in countries that are full of people who would give their right arm just for the chance to vote. AARGH. WAKE UP you little shits!
We need to educate kids and get them more interested in local and national politics…
hmmm
A) thats the reason Jack Layton, the official opposition, hedge hog has the position of opposition.. Cause the NDP can’t do squat now
B) This conservative majority wont last long… NDP, COnservatives… Two idiots controlling the house… Lets turn Canada into the U.S
C) The liberals will take back control sooner then you think… This is the publics way of telling them to smarten up
PDG — yup: Bob Rae would be a shitty shitty choice for leader. People still remember how he bankrupted Ontario so….
Saint Justin (heh, ttfn you kill me) will save the party, butttt… I think that’s a little bit further down the road. Maybe in two elections time. He’s too young right now.
Tomjones — I’m predicting the Conservative majority’ll last about 5 years. 😉
Saint Justin is 39 years old – man, that’s hard to believe since I remember his birth – so young is starting to transform into middle age. I’m not saying he’d be the Liberal Savior but you can betcha there’s a lot of people out there that do just because of his pedigree. So what if he has the attention span of a gnat? He’s easy on the eyes.
Shit, now I want to run my toenails through Saint Justin’s gorgeous hair.
Has anyone else notice how quiet the Lefty columnists for both The Coast and the Horrid are. I’m beginning to wonder if they committed mass suicide.
And did anyone watch the CBC coverage of the election? As the Tories were reaching majority, it looked like Peter Mansbridge was ready to cry.
TTFn…I just cringed reading your last comment .
A shudder is still going through me ~;)
I agree Snoop… there were a few people I have on Facebook that made such irritating comments about how they weren’t going to vote, such as: “I’m too lazy”, “It doesn’t matter,” and “I don’t have the right to complain if I don’t vote? How about I just don’t care about politics!”. There was one person who said they weren’t going to vote because they didn’t know where their polling station was and didn’t want to walk to some “random street” to find it. People told her she could just call her candidates office and they would come and drive her but she still said no. Frig.
Not in my lifetime, cos I’m old as dirt – even when they figure out how to vote on line, I doubt if voter turnout will improve. I’m too busy, is it on FB, oh can’t I just tweet my vote instead – and any other sappy excuse.
Could be worse…..could have been a ginger running in the election to open the gates of hell.
Some folks here are in need of a two part civics course. One on civil discourse and the second on how parliamentary democracy works.
It may seem like government by fiat, but it ain’t!
Majority governments typically run 4-5 years. So the earliest another Federal election can be called is October 2015.
As Her Majesty’s Official Loyal Opposition the NDP has considerably more influence than before in Parliament. Granted they cannot ultimately stop the passing of undersirable bills but they have many tools in their arsenal: the powers of persuasion, public pressure, reason and parliamentary filibusters if need be to bear upon the government to change those bills before they are ultimately passed.
PS: Great to see this type of discussion going on here btw!
That would just make the trip shorter for you and your pals, sebastian.
Jeffrey Simpson, Dean of the Globe and Mail, believes the Harper Tories could be in power for the next 10-12 years. he spoke with Don Martin on the politics show on Tuesday May 4.
Hope you all feel better now.
That Muslim taxi driver in Toronto was quite happy to explain to the CBC reporter from The National why he voted Conservative.
So is Jack going to have the guts to publicly spank Tommy Mulcair for going all Jesse Ventura on the ceeb last night(re: photos of dead terrorists) or will he just pass it off as post-victory exuberance? Or, is this the sort of shit we can expect from Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition on the subject of our closest neighbor, largest trading partner and co-owner of the longest piss-poorly defended border in the world.