Canada

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/170859

From BBC News via this RSS feed

OTTAWA — OTTAWA - Elections Canada says more than 68 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the federal election -- more than 19.5 million people.

While this election was widely expected to see increased turnout, it did not surpass the record set in March 1958, when 79.4 per cent of eligible Canadians voted.

But the nearly 68.7 per cent turnout was the best since the 1993 federal election, which saw 69.6 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

Elections Canada says early estimates indicate 11 million people voted at their polling station or in their long-term care facility on election day.

The agency says nearly 7.3 million Canadians voted at advance polls while 1.2 million voted by special ballot.

Elections Canada does not gather demographics data so it’s not clear which groups turned out to vote, but it says postelection surveys can show which groups faced barriers to voting and what can be done to address them in future elections.

The Liberal party ended the election with 43.7 per cent of the total vote and 169 seats, while the Conservative party secured 41.3 per cent of the vote and 144 seats.

The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both took 6.3 per cent of the vote, and will hold 22 and seven seats, respectively.

“In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity to discuss our province’s future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward,” she said in a statement Tuesday.

“As Premier, I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province’s constitutional rights, facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources, and treats us as a valued and respected partner within Confederation.”

Ms. Smith’s new proposals also include reintroducing corporate and union donations to parties, constituency associations, prospective candidate associations, leadership contestants and third-party election advertisers, including those campaigning in referendums. It also eased spending limits, among other changes.

Both the provincial New Democratic Party and the UCP previously took steps to limit the amount of corporate and union money in the electoral system.

could spearhead electoral reform in Canada. That might be the party's saving grace.

I did support Carney and I hope he does good things, and I don't think the following scenario would occur but I realize this belief is entirely based on my judgement of Carney's character which could be wrong.

I was thinking about the proposed gas pipeline to the east coast. If Carney hopes to be re-elected, he can't ram a pipeline through Quebec using emergency powers if such exist. Or he'd lose his seats in QC. Instead he's gotta give significant concessions to QC, like ownership, high royalties, etc. Stuff that he and Blanchet can sell to the Quebecers. I think this is certainly possible for a gas pipeline.

But then the following disaster scenario occurred to me. He likely has significant Brookfield investments in that blind trust. He likely has a seat open on that board whenever he quits public service. What if he uses emergency powers to ram a whole bunch of infrastructure, through P3s, where the private partner retains ownership, and the partner is Brookfield. Do as many of those as possible, get kicked out of office and sit on Brookfield's board, that much richer, while we get saddled with an even angrier and vindicated CPC fascism.

Thoughts?

Edit: Thanks for wading into my election PTSD nightmare!

Did everyone notice how this election wiped out all the previous leaders and now we're faced with being introduced to a new crowd of political leaders.

Elizabeth May with the Green Party is the only one still standing.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh suffered a resounding defeat on election night, losing his own seat, his party reduced to a single-digit seat count.

It's very likely that the Liberals will have to work with the NDP to form government. Isn't it a no brainer for the NDP to make electoral reform a deal breaking issue?

Lack of proportional representation is what has led to their laughable 7 seats.

The liberals will find working with the bloc a lot harder than the NDP, so electoral reform seems like an acceptable deal from their end too, right?

Should we be excited for this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Canadian_federal_election

Except Polievre doesn't have the warmth or compassion of a terminator.