And the Winner Is...

Entry number 300 here at the Pond marks the final edition of my Unofficial Guide to Canadian Politics for the Uninterested and the Apathetic. Paul Martin and the Liberals have been re-elected as a minority government. That means that they hold the most seats in Parliament, but they do not hold more then 50% of the seats. In fact, they have only 36.71% of the seats. So, to pass laws and make the government work well they must either make an alliance with another party (the NDP is the most likely), or at least sweet talk the party that is most likely to support whatever it is they are working on at the current time.

As I mentioned before, I did vote. And although my candidate didn't win his seat (in fact, no Greens got into Parliament), I still feel good about voting for him. And overall I am pleased with the shape of the government. I think that Canadians have shown that no one party is particularly in favour right now, but we like parts of what each party stands for. With the minority government shaped the way it is, each party will have to work together to find the moderate road, and hopefully please as many Canadians as possible. This is especially true because with a minority government we might see another federal election in as few as two years, and I suspect that parties who don't try to get along will be penalized by voters in that election.

The end of election season marks the end of my interest in politics. Really, this is the only time that I pay much attention to what is going on up north in Ottawa. Sure, if I big issue pops up I do try to learn about it, but over all Canadian politics are very bland. Tomorrow should see a return to more normal entries, promise.