Go And Vote.

As always I encourage those of you who can to vote in today's Canadian federal election.  I don't care who you vote for.  I do have my opinions on who you should and shouldn't vote for, but in the end that's your choice.  And if you ever needed an incentive to vote it's an election like this, where the Conservatives and Liberals are neck and neck, and there's a high chance we'll have a minority government.  Early voting was up this year, so hopefully that's a sign the overall numbers of voters will be up this year.

Futile.

This week I spotted some election signs for the Christian Heritage Party.  It's one of those parties you look at and ask "Why bother?"  According to its Wikipedia entry the party has been around since 1987.  Yet in that time they have failed to elect even one candidate, not even coming close in any riding.   The party has pretty much no public profile outside its current supporters, leader Rod Taylor being ignored by the media. Their high point was in their first election appearance, 1988, when they won 3.56 percent of the vote.  In the 2015 election they won 0.97 percent of the vote, which was in fact an increase from 2011, when they won 0.84 percent.

The demographics become less in their favour with each passing year.  The percentage of Canadians who identify in some way as Christian is decreasing, and of course many who do have no interest in the conservative policies of the CHP.  They aren't likely to attract the support of those non-Christian voters who might agree with many of their policies.  And this election they face competition from the People's Party of Canada, which has former Conservative Party cabinet member and leadership candidate Maxime Bernier as leader. 

Having said all that I wouldn't be surprised if the CHP is around for future elections, which the PPC, which I suspect is as much a vanity project of Bernier as anything else, will not.  Stay tuned.

40 Days.

The limited suspense Canadians had been feeling is over.  We now know the federal election will be held October 21st.  As I said, the suspense was limited, since there had to be an election in October, and the parties had all been unofficially campaigning for a while now.  Hopefully the turnout will be better than yesterday's Manitoba provincial election, which saw a dismal 53 percent of eligible voters turn out to vote.

Vote, Canadians!

It's federal election day.  If you haven't already done so in an advanced poll get off your ass and vote.  There are legitimate reasons not to vote, but laziness and disinterest aren't.  If you don't vote,  and you could, keep your yap shut when things don't go the way you want.  By not voting you de facto vote for whoever wins your riding.

Sorry, Jack.

I found your message on the answering machine this afternoon, but I'm afraid I can't come to Saturday monrning's NDP rally.  I like to sleep in on Saturdays, and I might not even be awake yet.  Good luck with the rally, as we certainly don't need Conservatiuve MPs being re-elected in Saskatchewan.

Disunite The Right?

This being April Fool's Day my thoughts drifted this morning to my former MP, Jim Pankiw.  He had said last year he'd run in the next election, and a March 26th Star Phoenix story indicates he's running here in Saskatoon-Humbolt.  Could he actually serve a useful purpose and pull votes from Brad Trost, and increase Trost's chances of losing?  One can only hope.  That's the only thing he actually can do in this election, drain off the idiot vote.  Trost isn't much better than Pankiw is.

It's The "In" Thing, Stephen.

What's wrong with our PM?  He keeps trying to convince people the other parties will form a coalition if he doesn't get a majority, and that this is bad, so they should vote for him.  Funny how his counterparts in the British Conservative Party don't seem to think coalitions are a bad thing.  They're even running around chopping things left and right like Harper would if he could get away with it.  Maybe he should reconsider the idea and think about forming one himself again if things don't go the way he wants.

Something In The Water?

One of the odder events in yesterday's Canadian federal election was the re-election of Conservative Maxine Bernier in his riding of Beauce. He won with a commanding 62 percent of the vote. The obvious question is why. The man is, to be blunt, an idiot. You'd think his constituents would want someone less embarrassing as their MP.

Gobblegobble.

Is it telling that the Canadian federal election, announced over the weekend, will take place the day after Canadian Thanksgiving? Certainly most Canadian visitors to this blog can think of politicians, and if they're really mean whole parties, who they think are turkeys. The choice of dates may also prove appropriate given that like the evening meal the day after Thanksgiving, which generally consists of more of the same from the night before, this election may well produce more of the same, another Conservative Party minority government.

While I'm on the subject I must mention one way in which the Canadian electoral system is superior to that of the United States, no argument.(Sorry, but if you disagree you are quite simply WRONG!) Unlike the United States, where you must be born American to run for President, any citizen of Canada can become Prime Minister of Canada. In the current election if by some miracle the Green Party won sufficient seats to form a government Green leader Elizabeth May, who immigrated to Canada from Conneticut when she was a teen, could become PM. On the other hand someone who has spent most of their life in the US and became a citizen as soon as possible cannot become President.

As is usually the case this Canadian federal election campaign is producing all sorts of odd behaviour. Dale Sanders, the Christian Heritage Party candidate in the Saskatoon-Wanuskewin riding, feels that Conservative Party incumbent Maurice Vellacot tried to intimidate him into dropping out of the race. He also says that Sam Magnus of the Conservative Party's national council made a similar phonecall. Both men supposedly wanted to know why Sanders would run against Vellacot when they're both Christians and doing so might split the conservative vote in the riding. CHP leader Ron Gray says he received a similar call from Vellacot regarding Sanders, and that Vellacot suggested the party should make all its candidates drop out, because they might split the vote and allow Liberals to be elected. Vellacot told Lana Haight of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that he sees nothing wrong with asking such questions.

Such a premise strikes me as flawed. It assumes that all CHP voters would vote Conservative if the CHP isn't running candidates. This of course isn't the case. Some would vote for other parties. Others wouldn't vote at all absent a CHP candidate. And some might not like a specific Conservative candidate running in their riding and not vote for him, whereas they would vote Conservative if another candidate was running. Its also an amusing worry when you look at the results in Vellacot's riding. He beat Liberal Chris Axworthy, the second place candidate, by almost 5000 votes. Does he really think this election will be that close in his riding that the several hundred(if he's lucky) votes Sanders might get will prevent him from winning? In fact given the limited profile the CHP has its hard to imagine their slice of the votes being significant in more than a riding or two if at all.

Over in the Battlefords-Lloydminster riding Jim Pankiw is stirring up things again. He's called on the Elections Canada commission to charge Conservative MP Gerry Ritz with tampering with his election signs. Pankiw's father found Ritz removing one of Pankiw's signs from private property. He also implied in his letter to the commissioner that Ritz may have had a role in some of his signs being vandalised. Ritz says he was removing the sign at the request of the property owners, who he states did not give Pankiw permission to put up the signs. He claims to have received at least 50 phone calls from folks who've had Pankiw signs put on their property without permission. Given Pankiw's previous antics this wouldn't surprise me in the least. It also amuses me that Pankiw, like a lot of vocal "get the government out of my business" types, is quick to go to the authorities when it involves something affecting him.

Pankiw is also the subject of a parody website. Any complaints he might have about this sort of cybersquatting will ring a little hollow however. In the 2000 election he acquired a web address including the name of then Liberal candidate Morris Bodnar and established a website there that redirected visitors to anti gun control sites. The same person behind the Pankiw parody site, who declined to give his real name to the Star Phoenix, is also running a parody site lampooning Saskatoon-Humboldt Conservative incumbent Brad Trost.

Today on CBC's Cross Country Checkup the discusssion is about the probable federal election that's expected to be called after tomorrow's non confidence vote in Parliament. As is often the case when elections are discussed a caller mentioned fixed election dates. This is a concept I'm no fan of. All one has to do is look at what happens in the US, where government business becomes sluggish for almost a year before each election. Canada's electoral system is of course far less complicated than the US system of primaries and electoral college votes, but its pretty obvious that even with our system fixed election dates will result in months before each election of blantant political antics by the political parties while the business of government gets shunted to the side. Of course there are worse electoral changes, like those who want judges to be elected. I would rather not have to face a judge who might make decisions on my case based on whether they'll get him reelected. Its ironic that people complain about politicised judges, and their suggestion to change this is to make judges another layer of politicians.