Another careful Voter turnout

So, only 60% of the voting public made it to the Polls, and the result is we have a new political party. It goes without saying that these will be interesting times indeed. With all the scandals and bad press about the Liberals I am not surprised that the New Conservative Party has won. The Liberals just couldn't get away from it, and there were far more swing voters this year.

Also, with the Liberal defeat, it does not surprise me that Paul Martin will be leaving his position as leader of the party (Opposition). His time is up, and he has made his mark, and I give him kudos for realising this and leaving the position open for someone new. Whoever is chosen to lead the Liberals, I am sure it will make for good tv. But with another minority government, I am happily skeptical in the potential power and influence the Harper government will have. I am sure Stephen Harper is tossing in his sleep, trying to figure out how he intends to pass any Conservative policies in the House of Commons, with a minority government. All 3 parties have a fair share of the seats in the House, Liberals obviously hold the higher hand, but I won't underestimate the Bloc Quebecois or the NDP. A lot of the Liberal policies went through during their minority term, but I only believe that to be the case, because we Canadians tend to be more moderate and further left on the Political spectrum. The voters have chosen Harper by a marginal lead, and the message they are telling Harper is that they don't want to see too many right-Wing Conservative agendas. I forsee a lot of political wrangling, and as I said, it will be interesting.

The last 12 years of Liberal government has seen the political landscape change quite dramatically. Who would have thought the strong shift towards Conservativism in Quebec and the loss of Bloc Quebecois seats? It stands to reason, that a fair majority of the country is looking for change and they have done so democratically by voting a minority Conservative government. In my conversations with people, it isn't so much that they have switched their political alignment to that of the Conservatives, but are rather telling the Liberals that they need to regroup, clean up their act, and then come back and prove themselves to the country.

As they say, trust is built up over years but dissolved in seconds.

The people of Canada need some time to reflect and frankly so do the Liberals. I just wonder how long Harper will remain in power and if he will actually be able to push through any of his Conservative (sic Right wing) agendas. I highly doubt it with the strength of the Opposition. The one scary thing that I have realised during this election, is that Harper has somehow fooled those normally resilient and card carrying Liberals to vote for the Conservatives. How did Harper do that? Well, it seems that Harper has blended into the "red" and made his party seem less offensively Right wing, by silencing certain members and by cleaning up his his public persona and language. He has blended his party into the mainstream middle and has therefore appealed to many who don't think he is that much a threat. If you ask me, he is still a lion in sheeps clothing and I will be watching carefully.