59.1%

Well, the election is over. Thank goodness for that.

And who won? Well, nobody really.

So, what changed? Ehm, well, nothing really.

On Tuesday, Canada had a minority government with a Conservative Prime Minister and today it has, yes you guessed it, a minority government with a Conservative Prime Minister.
Actually, something did change; the parties and the country spent a lot of money on an election that changed nothing. But at least it 'cleared the air' as Jim Prentice said on CBC radio this morning.

Cleared the air?

That's like me demolishing my house and building a new one because I had an argument with my wife in the kitchen.

I also heard some radio pundit say that Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Aberta and BC are now resoundingly Conservative. Surely a bit of a stretch when you consider that only 59.1% of the electorate voted. The only resounding thing about that is the lack of belief in democracy.

But, actually, democracy is working, just not in a good way.

Consider the scenario: on the Right you have the Tories, one party, a leader with stoic hair, a clearly understandable manifesto-of-the-me, something that people might not like but, at least, they get it.

Then, on the other side, there are three parties with very similar ideologies, the Liberals, the NDP and Lizzy's Green Party, who are all trying to do the right thing for society but with different approaches. They also fight just like three siblings, one bald, one with penchant for childlike simplification and one who can hardly speak English.

So, people have a choice: vote for a single right of centre organisation or dilute your vote into tense pool of leftism.

For many liberal-minded citizens, this choice is unnaceptable so they just haven't bothered. In this case, the Left has diversified just too widely.

So, is there a solution? I think the only way to restore voter willingness will be a reduction of the number of parties on the left, either through consolidation or attrition but the question is, does the left have what it takes to do the right thing for Canada?

We shouldn't have to wait too long to find out; there is already talk of another election in "a year or two" - those crazy pundits.
Hey, what else are we going to spend our surplus on? America has the sub-prime crisis - perhaps Canada will be the first country in history to experience an election-led recession.