If I were to choose one word to sum up Canada's 40th general election, it would be disappointment. Here is an overview of the seat count and vote share -- along with changes since the 2006 election -- for the five major parties (compiled with data from CBC.ca):
For sure, the Conservatives were given a much stronger mandate: they narrowly missed a majority in the House by 12 seats. The Liberal party was all but beaten to the ground, winning its lowest ever share of the vote and shedding an astounding 27 seats. I was braced for a solid defeat, but I really didn't expect things to go so badly for us Grits. Even after the shakeup, however, we still have a Conservative minority government with Stephen Harper at the helm.
Lowest Voter Turnout Ever
The most disappointing result of the election is that we have hit a new low in voter turnout. Only 59.1 percent of eligible Canadians bothered to exercise their ballots, which I find to be extremely disturbing. It's even more disturbing that the two elections with the lowest voter turnout have occurred in this decade (the previous record of 60.9 percent occurred in 2004). It's nothing short of shameful.
Death of Climate Change Action
The second biggest disappointment of the election is the near death of federal leadership on climate change. Economic fears seem to have shifted the focus away from the environment in this election, which means that wet-noodle Conservative environmental policy will continue to drive Canada's embarrassingly poor performance in emissions reduction. As Gary Mason writes for The Globe and Mail, "... once again, cautious Canada will be playing catch-up."
The Conservative campaign platform -- released no sooner than one week before election day -- has a small tidbit about implementing a cap-and-trade system between 2012 and 2015. 2015... seriously? That's just an insulting waste of pixels on my screen.
For all his failings, I very much admire Stéphane Dion for putting forth the Green Shift, his proposed carbon tax system. Regardless of carbon tax versus cap-and-trade, I feel that we're unlikely to see more federal leadership on carbon pricing any time soon. I hope I'm wrong.
New Era of Conservatism in Canada?
Third, the results of this election may signal the beginning of a new conservative era in Canada. Stephen Harper has done an incredible job of transforming the right in Canada with the goal of replacing the Liberals as Canada's natural governing party. The crazies from his party's extreme right rarely see the spotlight of the media and, in general, the party's image has moved greatly toward the centre.
All that considered, I think the Conservative Party's newfound appeal is fragile, simply because it seems to be based solely on Harper himself. Case in point: the Conservative Party's campaign was extremely light on policy but had an extra helping of Harper. His new and more approachable personality, his new sweaters, and his iron grip on caucus are currently what define the party.
I'm confident in a strong renewal of the Liberal Party, but it's going to take a long time indeed. Until then, we may very well be headed into a new era of conservatism in Canada.
