Let’s face it, whether we like it or not not (and many Canadians don’t) the big winner is Stephen Harper. The fact is I don’t know a single person who likes Harper and I know many who hate him. Still and all, Harper was the big winner yesterday. On his fourth try, he won a majority government. He is set for the next four years to buy expensive fighter jets, build more prisons and cut corporate taxes. What a depressing prospect.
Of course the next big winner is Smiling Jack Layton. At the beginning of the campaign the NDP leader had two broad objectives. One was to increase the NDP”s seat count. He achieved this in spectacular fashion by going over the hundred mark. His second objective was to deny Harper a majority. He failed in that, also spectacularly.
But Layton is not out of the woods. He has a disparate, inexperienced caucus and it will be like herding cats to put them in shape.
The biggest loser in the election was the Liberal party and its leader, Michael Ignatieff. Ignatieff could not even win his own seat and he led to the historic Liberal party to its worst finish since Confederation.
These drastic failures raise a couple of questions. Should Ignatieff resign as party leader. Should the Liberals and the NDP consider a merger to consolidate the left and give Harper a stronger opposition?
Finally, the fourth big loser was the Bloc leader, Gilles Duceppe. Hecouldn’t hold his own seat and his party has been virtually wiped out. Duceppe has already resigned.
How does the Bloc defeat affect the cause of separatism in Quebec?
Was Canadian democracy also a loser? Harper got 39 per cent of the popular vote. Yet he got well over 50 per cent of the seats in parliament and a majority. Is that any way to run a railroad?
Do you have other winners and losers maybe in your own area?
Who are the winners and losers in yesterday’s election?
What do you think?