Canada 2006 (23rd Jan)

[Hatman 🍁]

I watching CBC on CSPAN, and they mentioned that in 1993, the Conservative Party was reduced to two seats.  I looked it up on Wikipedia, and I saw the election, but still two seats.  TWO SEATS!!!  Maybe I'm just a simplistic American, but can someone explain this to me?

The Reform Party under Preston Manning basically sucked off all of the PC's support.  It wasn't that the right wing of Canada got only two seats, it was just the PC (to whom Brian Mulroney did a rather large disservice).

Thanks.  If the whole Right only got two seats that would have been really amazing.  I have another question too, on CBC, they keep mentioning Senators, what is this title?

Canada has senators just like America, but they're appointed by the federal government (kind of like judges), not elected.  Stephen Harper wants to make them elected (probably because they currently strongly favor the Liberals, but never mind that).

The Reformatoryalliance has always supported and elected Senate

[Hatman 🍁]

How that Martin's resigned, who will be the next liberal leader?

I don't really know.  I'm personally hoping it'll be Keith Martin or Belinda Stronach or someone like that, but I have no idea who actually is a serious contender.

Belinda would be good, but Keith Martin is a sh!t bag. What scares me is people are throwing Bob Rae's name around. It might not be bad, the NDP would be able to attack him and once and for all show (in Ontario) that Bob Rae and the new NDP are two different things.

[Hatman 🍁]

By the way Al, you said that Outremont might not even be the NDP's best result in Québec. It was. But can you guess what the second best was - and their only second place here, too?

Hmm... IIRC the only two good showings outside Montreal were Hull-Aylmer (15%) and Manicouagan (12%)... so it'd have to be a Montreal riding... hmm... I'll take a guess at one of the other inner-Montreal ridings as they're the only ones where the party has a little bit of organisation... so... either Laurier-Sainte-Marie or Westmount-Ville-Marie. Both are very different ridings in most respects o/c...

Laurier.

Laurier was the NDP's best riding in Quebec last election. Too bad there's no chance of winning it.

[Hatman 🍁]

Markham - Oshawa

RENAME THIS YORK-DURHAM IMMEDIATELY, PRUDE

[Hatman 🍁]

York-Durham is the best name, because York Region is north of Toronto and Durham Region is east of Toronto. Hence why I suggested it.

[Hatman 🍁]

York-Durham is the best name, because York Region is north of Toronto and Durham Region is east of Toronto. Hence why I suggested it.

Yeah, but of the many seats that have York in their name, only one (York-Simcoe) is - barely - in this region; all the others are in Etobicoke - Scarborough. Hence why I'm reluctant to follow up on the suggestion...

Toronto hasn't been part of York in 30 years. Get over it. The York's in Toronto have been amalgamated into the city for 5 years now. York is a far better name than signalling out one town (Markham -- yes it is a town, not a city) which is not even the hub of the area. Take it from me, an expert in Canadian geography that the best name would be York-Durham.

[Hatman 🍁]

York-Durham is the best name, because York Region is north of Toronto and Durham Region is east of Toronto. Hence why I suggested it.

Yeah, but of the many seats that have York in their name, only one (York-Simcoe) is - barely - in this region; all the others are in Etobicoke - Scarborough. Hence why I'm reluctant to follow up on the suggestion...

Toronto hasn't been part of York in 30 years. Get over it. The York's in Toronto have been amalgamated into the city for 5 years now. York is a far better name than signalling out one town (Markham -- yes it is a town, not a city) which is not even the hub of the area. Take it from me, an expert in Canadian geography that the best name would be York-Durham.

They should rename the ones in Toronto maybe, to make it less confusing to us foreigners.

In Toronto there (was) the boroughs of North York, East York, and York. The names reflect this, however if we are using bigger districts, than it's ok to use York for York-Durham. It is common in Canada to use the same word in more than one districts. For example, there is Bruce-Grey and Simcoe-Grey.