Canadian Elections

[MBJC]

The conservative party was re-elected in Canada. Any thoughts?
Also, any thoughts on the way the NDP managed to climb to popularity? Can this suggest people are starting to lean more left? It's strange to see sonmany votes cast for the NDP, normally they're just called a bunch of dreaming, overspending communists :laugh:

[Octavian]

ALL HAIL DICTATOR HARPER
http://www.revleft.com/vb/canadian-election-2011-t152419/index4.html
There's already a thread by the way and I know the OP did put it in a strange section.

[The Intransigent Faction]

ALL HAIL DICTATOR HARPER
http://www.revleft.com/vb/canadian-election-2011-t152419/index4.html
There's already a thread by the way and I know the OP did put it in a strange section.

Yeah, though that thread is full of people bending over backwards trying to justify electoralism.

As for thoughts, the decline of the centrist Liberals may be a sign of some greater degree of 'polarization' in Canadian politics, which I would take to be a good sign.

The apparent decline of Quebecois nationalism could also be a bright spot.

That said, the results are bewildering (not as in entirely unexpected, but as in "what the hell are these people thinking voting for the Harperites?!").

We can expect further attacks on social programs and a lack of progress, if not regression, on social issues---but I suppose that's obvious.

Given that Harper also controls a majority in the Senate, it looks bad for Canadian workers. Maybe he'll step over an ideological line somewhere in his policies with a majority and Canadians will react with more NDP support. Maybe...

Of course, it's hard to say much about the future fortunes of the Liberals given that their leader is stepping down, maybe for one more left-of-centre in the future.

In any case, it's another bourgeois election. We can't expect more democratic politics without a democratized economy of the means of production in the hands of the working class.

[Eastside Revolt]

The conservative party was re-elected in Canada. Any thoughts?
Also, any thoughts on the way the NDP managed to climb to popularity? Can this suggest people are starting to lean more left? It's strange to see sonmany votes cast for the NDP, normally they're just called a bunch of dreaming, overspending communists :laugh:

It's a sign of a certain amount of polarization.

Ever since the liberals lost power they've been trying to play the "at least we're not the conservatives" card, and it hasn't been working.

In these times of impending crisis there are two major types of people that vote. The first is the "we want blood, there must be a sacrifice" camp, they vote conservative. The second is the "whoa we want the old Canada back, what about our social security?" who this time around opted for the NDP rather than the liberals.

It's also interesting to observe that usually the Liberals have been extremely succesful by being the only party that doesn't pretend to stand for anything, this time they weren't able to adjust to the new terrain, and their usual position bit them in the ass.

[Eastside Revolt]

Here's what some of us in Vancouver were handing out in the leadup to Mayday: http://anarchistagitation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/mayday2011.pdf

[Tommy4ever]

Bloc Quebecios totally collapsed. It seems the NDP made almost all their gains in Quebec at their expense. They now have more seats in Quebec than the rest of Canada. Quebec has always seemed to be more leftwing so I guess this is just the transference of power in the region over to the NDP rather than a general leftward shift.

[Minima]

Lets talk about the disgusting populism of harper's politics. I still haven't really gotten my head around it.

There was no content to it, it was all strategy. it was a politics of manoeuvring and manipulation. It was an anti-intellectual, anti-elitist campaign with a self-professed allergy towards reason, combined with fear tactics. It was not even "conservatism" and it pissed off all the libertarians I know. it was politicking at it's worst and it was disgusting.

There is a paper, online that describes some of these trends.
Straddling the Divide: Conservatism and Populism in Harper’s Canada and Howard’s Australia, by snow and moffitt. (search Google)

But i wish someone here on revleft could give us a thorough and refined analysis...