That's what I call getting into a sticky situation guys...

I'm not inside my own mind today... Did the Canadians just elect a majority Conservative government after they BARELY managed a minorty government in the last 2 elections?

Yes... yes we did.

Why?

The system is broken. Simply put, 40% of the peoples vote, made a majority Torrie government. Does that sound right to you? 60% of Canadian voters DID NOT VOTE FOR STEPHEN HARPER OR THE CONSERVATIVES and yet, they now have a majority government. How does that work, how does that make sense. If you have 40 percent of something that's less than half right? Yet that 40% vote gave the conservatives 167 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. A majority government. Does this seem right to you?

I really have one person to thank for this. That's Michael Ignatieff, the leader (...at least he was) of the Liberal party. From day ONE. Hell, even before day 1, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives made this man their prime target. Why? Because he was really, the biggest threat to them. Attack ads, attack ads, attack ads. They slammed Ignatief so hard that the Liberals have their lowest representation in government EVER (34 seats, the next lowest was when they had 40 in 1984, the year Lying Brian Mulroney was elected.). They can thank the Torrie's aggressive slam campaign for that and really the loss of liberal seats that were swooped up by the aggressive Torries and the aggressive NDP's is probably the one of the only reasons the Conservatives have a majority government today. It was the result of this aggressive smear based campaign that DIDN'T EVEN FOCUS ON THE CONSERVATIVES GOALS... virtually EVERY ad they put on TV slammed Ignatieff in one way or another, and had nothing to do with them. THAT was their agenda, DESTROY Michael Ignatieff... and it worked.

Jack Layton is the big surprise. Never in a million years would I have expected him to lead the NDP part to the point that they became official opposition. When I voted in 2008, Jack Layton was about the most boring, unassuming party leader of the bunch. You had Harper who... I learned my lesson when I voted conservative (WHY?!) in 2006. I switched my vote to Green Party after that, but back to the point. Jack Layton was like... this kind old dude you would've ran into church every sunday. He just didn't seem to have any of the fire I wanted in a world leader. Jack may have read my mind because he showed fire in this past election. In the televised debate, he kicked ass and I think that opened a lot of eyes to his cause. Being caught in the middle of a rub-and-tug sting operation maybe helped his chances too... Who am I to judge?

The frustrating thing about this is that, once again, there was a dangerously low voter turn out. Barely over half of Canadians bothered to get out to vote and that irritates the fuck out of me. A large portion of this, I think, is that American Politics dominate the televisions. Canadians probably don't even feel like our countries leader even matters. When we turn on the news it's all America this and Obama that (even when they AREN'T killing Osama Bin Laden) and as a Canadian it's hard not to see that and think "Where are the Canadian leaders and our imput? Why should I care about Canadian politics?"

I don't know. It's hard as a young person who has got out and voted EVERY opportunity that I have had to since I became legal voting age. The fact that there are people I know who I am friends with who are as passionate about Canadian politics excites me but for every one of us, there's two or three people who frankly don't give a shit. That's frustrating to me. I look at my country, a country that I love and I see a mass of apathetic people who don't care and that infuriates me. To everyone that did not go out and vote yesterday, fuck you. That's all I have to say. Period.

Now that I have 4-5 years I wonder what we are looking at here from a Majority Conservative Government. Health Care is at risk, Women's rights to pro-choice are at risk, Hell, the Canadian debt is at risk considering the Conservative government wracked up a defecit of over 50 billion dollars, I expect that to climb exponentially but oh wait we're in a recession right? You gotta spend money to make money? That old adage? Well we don't fucking need SHORT RANGE fucking fighter jets, I'll tell you that much. They will pretend to engage 'active economy' but he will give corporate tax cuts and make the tax impact on the people that much greater. The money's got to come from SOMEONE right? Yet the fact that a major anchor of his tax campaign was "The NDP will raise your taxes, the Liberals will raise your taxes" People... Harper will raise your taxes. Don't kid yourselves. Now Harper said he will balance the budget by 2014, so I will hold him to that.

Of the 58% of Canadians that voted, 40% of those wanted Conservative government so... Where's the math in that. Who's majority is this really? Well. Those figures aren't important to The Harper Government. With a majority government now they're really in a position where they can accomplish the Harper Agenda. This will lead to further 'Americanization' of Canada, mark my words. The air of hope that I had, that Canada may change, that Canada would move forward in the modern world. That hope is gone for at least a half a decade...

As I age into my mid and late twenties I will look back at this day as a a day Canada failed to rise up. The NDP rise in power is a key note that ideology in Canada IS changing and I can anticipate the day where there is an NDP government (or another party...) running Canada. It probably won't be Jack Layton running that party (he would be around the age of 64-65 in the next election so it's not out of the woods, depending on his own aspirations) but whoever it is will be in a position to change Canada, and maybe for the better, as long as the Torrie government, sorry The Harper Government, doesn't run us through the mud first.