Winners and Losers

Steve Janke lists the real winners and losers from yesterday's election. I concur with most of his selections, but I'd add a few of my own as well.

Winners:

Tony Clement - the "other" contender for the Conservative leadership in 2004 finally got elected, in Parry Sound-Muskoka, and he's a strong contender for the cabinet.

Turncoats - Scott Brison, Belinda Stronach, Keith Martin, Bill Matthews and Jean Lapierre all won. Brison, in particular, looks safe for a long time.

Lawrence Cannon - the federal government's new big dog in Quebec.

British Columbia Liberals - many predicted a near-wipeout, but they hung on to nine seats (including Vancouver Centre, site of Wingnut War I, where Hedy Fry held off Svend Robinson).

SES Research - of all the major polling firms, their numbers were closest to the final popular-vote figures.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) - they hammered the running dog imperialists of the other Communist Party of Canada, 9,289 votes to 3,127. You might not think that's important now, but you will when the revolution comes.

Losers:

Paul Martin - do I even have to explain this one?

Right-wingers - yes, the Conservative Party of Canada won the election. But even with a watered-down, moderate platform, Canadians were still only willing to give the Tories 36% of the vote and 124 seats. The Liberals' leftward turn in the final weeks of the campaign may have kept them over the 100-seat mark.

Atlantic Tories - an increase in the popular vote translated into only two new seats (Avalon and Tobique-Mactaquac). The Tories were shut out once again in PEI.

Peter MacKay - although he won his Central Nova riding comfortably, his margin of victory was a lot smaller than in 2004 - and with Lawrence Cannon in the cabinet, he's unlikely to be Deputy Prime Minister.

Quebec separatists - the Bloc got just over 42% of the Quebec vote. You can never pronounce separatism dead, but they're going to need a while to get over this one.

Green Party of Canada - 308 candidates, 4.5% of the vote, 0 seats. Thanks for playing, guys.

Progressive Canadian Party - fewer than 15,000 Canadians were fooled into voting for the "PC Party". They should have run some candidates here in Newfoundland, where many still call the Tories the "PCs".

Posted by damian at January 24, 2006 11:53 AM | TrackBack