I think it was rigged

[TheCanadianLiberal]

How did they get a majority? How did they get so much support simultaneously at the end?

Something is not right in my mind.

[Bragi]

1. The CPC vote didn't rise that much

What happened is that the (reduced) Libs and (increased) NDP vote split very efficiently for Harper, and gave him a lot more seats with very little increased vote for his party.

[iverglas]

2. in Ontario

this was the popular vote, with changes:

CPC 47.7 -- +5
NDP 26.4 -- +9
LIB 20.6 -- -8
GRN 04.5 -- -4


Very little increased vote for the Conservatives? 5% is a pretty big increase.


To be simplistic, lost Green votes went NDP, slightly less than half of lost Liberal votes went NDP, and slightly more than half of lost Liberal votes went Conservative.

Who the fuck's fault is it if the Conservatives took seats on a split vote then?? It was NOT just the split; it was previously Liberal voters voting Conservative.

Yes, there are a few horrible close votes / splits in the Toronto area that one could blame on the NDP if one had that sort of mindset. If one thought that voters should be denied the option they wanted and compelled to vote as someone who knew better thought they should. They all had the chance to vote strategically; they chose not to.

Let's take a random BC riding -- random because it took me three clicks at the CBC website to find the example, although I see I just lucked in because it seems to be almost unique; nonetheless:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/#/305 - West Vancouver

Conservative 28,711
NDP 14,812
Liberal 14,103
Green 4,597

NDP second, combined NDP and Liberal > Conservative.

Why is it only the Liberals whining?

... Oh hey, Dosanjh lost; I went to sleep last night before I saw that. Forgive me for snickering about that one. Gosh, maybe he should have stayed with the better party.

How about South Shire - St. Margaret's, NS?

Conservative 17,924
NDP 15,058
Liberal 7,014
Green 1,621

Damn the Liberals' eyes. If they'd withdrawn their candidate, we'd have an NDP MP there, eh?

Or not. Because half the would-be Liberal voters might just have voted Conservative.

I think we NDPers should still be pointing fingers and whining, though.

[Arrowhead2k1]

3. Ignatieff was a terrible leader. I'm a Lib, but I can't find anyone that really trusts him.

He has proven himself to be the worst leader in Liberal history. We have to look at our own party for this and do some serious reflection. This disaster shouldn't have happened, but it did.

What gave Harper his majority was a combination of things though. The vote splitting killed us. Again, thanks to Iggy's failed leadership, a shitload of traditionally Liberal party voters either defected to the NDP or the Cons. And Quebec gave the NDP the faux appearance of being Canada's new and approved opposition. Quebec didn't vote NDP out of love for the party, but because they wanted to unseat the Cons. They failed, now we'll watch reality set in for them. Trust me, after 4 years of Harper's majority, Quebec will turn back to the Bloc, and the NDP's massive support in Quebec will quickly evaporate in the next election cycle.

The left either needs to unite, or the Liberal party has to overhaul their entire leadership and go back to their roots.

In the mean time, regular Canadians can only hope Harper makes good on his promise not to swing hard right.

[Darth_Kitten]

4. It's his first election, hell, who trusts Harper?

:)

[Arrowhead2k1]

5. Even Sun Tzu foresaw his defeat in 600BC.

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."
-Sun Tzu

Iggy had shit poll numbers all year and was never popular. Yet he pushed for this election. Ooops!


"Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance."
-Sun Tzu

Iggy, always the arrogant prick, turns to Jack Layton during the debate and tells him: "atleast we have a chance, you'll be in opposition forever".


"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand."
-Sun Tzu

Iggy clearly failed to think his strategy through before calling the election, thus he lost. I guess the Art of War is not required reading at Harvard... ;)

[Darth_Kitten]

6. Well, it's true, the NDP will never form the government of Canada.

Seems the NDP is starting to show the same signs of arrogance you attribute to Ignatieff.

They should have gone after the Tories. They gave them a free pass. Now that's stupid.

[Arrowhead2k1]

7. The NDP's gains were a fluke.

They didn't do much of anything to change up their strategy to make their wins possible. This was the Liberals election to lose. Layton owes his new found status as official opposition to Iggy's failed leadership.

And just because Iggy indeed said something that was true, doesn't make him any less of an arrogant prick. ;)

[CHIMO]

8. Seems

Like we have a new language here with the ascendancy of the NDP into the official opposition status. We will have to wait for the opening of parliament to see if the NDP now brings this new vocabulary into parliament.

I hope that all our NDPers have a thick skin for what will most likely happen in parliament. With the NDP now the new Liberals so to speak, they should be ready for criticism if they back away from their left positions.

The NDP here, should realize that making enemies here could firm up Liberal support or send it to the Greens.