I know next to nothing about Canadian politics, so do these results (sent to me by a friend) show an increase or a decrease in the influence of the Conservative Party? Looks to me like my joke idea about the western provences becoming the 51st-54th states is sounding better every day. Overall Results Party # of Seats % of Total Vote Liberal 135 37 Conservative 99 30 Secession 54 12 Democratic 19 16 Other 1 5 Provincial and Territorial Summary Provinces: Newfoundland & Labrador: Liberals won, 5-2 Nova Scotia: Liberals won, 6-3-2 Prince Edward Island: Liberals won, 4-0 New Brunswick: Liberals won, 7-2-1 Quebec: Secessionists won, 54-21 Ontario: Liberals won, 75-24-7 Manitoba: Conservatives won, 7-4-3 Saskatchewan: Conservatives won, 13-1 Alberta: Conservatives won, 26-2 British Columbia: Conservatives won, 22-8-5-1 Territories: Nunavut: Liberals won, 1-0 Northwest: Liberals won, 1-0 Yukon: Liberals won, 1-0 Displacedjim

"Ontario: Liberals won, 75-24-7" I don't know much about Canadian politics, but I found that number startling to say the least. Does Canada have a bicameral legislature, or are you stuck with nothing but pure representation according to population? From what little I can remember, your upper house is something like the British upper house - which is to say its something of a debate club. Please tell me you have representation according to geographic region. If not, with numbers like that, effectively Ontario is overwhelmingly THE Canadian government. Ontario as a block has an overwhelming influence over what happens in the rest of the country. I thought the situation was bad with California, but that's insane. At least in the U.S. we've got Senators. It's not like Canada is a tiny country. Each region would I assume have its own culture and concerns. If you happen to be from Manitoba, you might as well not vote. None of your concerns are going to be addressed directly anyway because you effectively have no representation.

the canadian gov't works like this. House of Commons similar to the US congress with stiffer party control. ontario and quebec control enough seats tween them to effectively control the gov't. Senate modeled on the british house of lords had 100 members appointed by the prime minister based on their contributions to the country. nice idea but it pretty much instantly turned into a place to park yon PM's old buddies and major contributors. senators serve till age 75 or they chose to retire. most appointees are in their late 50's and 60's so there is a fairly decent turnover. generally rubber stamps what the commons sends them but they have reared up and said NO from time to time. in my view needs to improve the calibre of people we appoint. the PM is the leader of the party with the greatest number of seats in the commons. his cabinet is picked from members holding seats in the commons. you can make arguments for and against this comparing it to the american system of appointing the president's golf buddies etc. the governor general sits in a mostly ceremonial role cutting ribbons etc. the gg does however have some very important powers such as choosing who gets first shot at forming a minority government and possibly dismissing the PM and forcing an election. this is mostly a theoretical power but it has been invoked in australia once that i know of. the election results are misleading in terms of seats. for the last number of years the tories and the alliance split the centre right vote allowing the liberals to clean house. when the alliance hijacked the tories and absorbed them the split went away. however so did a goodly number of tory voters who couldn't stomach the far right (by canadian standards) of the "new" conservative party. in all the right wing vote as a % of the popular vote declined as voters moved toward the centrist liberals. canadians are not inclined to rock the boat very hard so unless the liberals really screw the pooch they get elected time after time. in this case they were offered a chance to move toward more american values and promptly rejected the offer. Until the new conservative party clues in that they cannot sell those values to most canadians they are doomed to be a fringe party with a power base in the west.