Thoughts About the Election

So, I bet you're reading this post thinking I'll talk about Barack Obama or Sarah Palin. As much as I'd like to (and might in the future), this is about a different election. Our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, in all his wisdom, decided to call a Canadian federal election at the same time that the US elections are happening. Our federal election will be held on October 14th. In addition, this is also the same time as our municipal elections. It was the absolute worst time to call an election I could think of.

As a point of clarification, I should explain that we don't have fixed election dates in Canada, due to our parliamentary system. Well, Stephen Harper DID pass fixed election date legislation, but went against that legislation to call this election. It's a bit confusing and I'm not informed enough to explain it properly, so I won't even try.

In Canada, there are five major parties: the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Greens and Bloc Quebecois. The only ones that have a chance of actually leading the country are the Conservatives, who are in power right now, and the Liberals, who were in power previous to this current government.

To explain the system a bit, the country is divided into 308 electoral ridings. In each riding, one person is elected to represent that riding. Most parties will have a candidate in each riding. The party with the most electoral ridings represented are the ones in power and their leader will become the Prime Minister.

I love politics and will follow this election closely. I will also follow the American elections closely. The Canadian election will affect me more in the end, but the US election is definitely more interesting. There is more money spent, more characters involved and, in the end, it will probably have a pretty big impact on me in indirect ways.

I will try to post more about this election as it goes along with some information on each of the parties and their leaders, and what I think the impact of each would be on the country.

Thoughts About the Election