I should be elated with the performance of the NDP across Canada in yesteray's Federal election, but I'm not. In fact, I'm quite depressed, hence the title of this blog. On the plus side, the NDP has achieved what neither of the two established have managed to do in Quebec for twenty years, including the Mulroney victory, and that is wipe the Bloc Quebecois from the electoral map, at least for the time being. And with over 30% of the national vote, and 100+ seats (I don't have the final count in front of me) it should be a day of rejoicing for long-time supporters of the New Democrats. But I can't get rid of this foreboding that Harper, with a strong majority of seats, has four years to wreak NeoCon havoc on the Canadian people with his agenda of corporate tax cuts, reduced government services, and indifference to the mounting dangers posed by reducing government control over environmental damage.
And one of the gross inequities to emerge from yesterday's results is the continued disaster of First-Past-the-Post voting. Barely 60% of the electorate voted. The HarpoCons received 40% of those votes. Which translates into the appalling statistic that only 24% of the electorate supported a majority government.
Now that's depressing.
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