Canadian Election 2011 Update 6-Wipeout

Renee wasn't happy along with many progressive Canadians about the results, but it turns out the polls were right about a NDP tsunami building in Quebec.   The NDP grabbed 59 or the 75 ridings in Quebec and in the process reduced the Bloc Quebecois to a measly 4 seats in the next parliament..

The Bloc Quebecois meltdown was shocking.  It held 47 seats before the election and has dominated politics in Quebec for two decades, and now won't even have major party status in the next parliament.   You must have 12 seats to be considered a major party in Canada.

One of the BQ candidates to lose his seat was party leader Gilles Duceppe, who lost his Laurier-Sainte-Marie riding to NDP challenger Hélène Laverdière.   Duceppe also resigned as BQ leader in the wake of the crushing defeat and imminent loss of major party status.  

But back to the NDP which had a historic night. Riding the orange wave that built in Quebec the NDP garnered a historic 102 seats to claim Official Opposition status for the first time ever.   They even held on to MP Linda Duncan's Edmonton riding in what my homegirl calls 'that wretched province'.  

It was also a great night for NDP leader Jack Layton personally.  In addition to being reelected in his Toronto-Danforth area riding, his wife Olivia Chow was reelected in her Trinity-Spadina one.   I was also happy to see MP Megan Leslie, who was a supporter of C-389 as well get reelected in her Halifax riding.:


But the Tories had their own wave building.   They picked up 24 seats and 167 total.  That was more than enough to get them past the 155 needed for their first majority government to my homegirl's disgust.

The Conservatives did their damage in Ontario.   They picked up73 of the 108 seats available in Ontario and stormed the Liberals Fortress Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area.  The Liberals usually dominate the GTA, but in this election the Conservatives claimed a majority of the 44 seats available there.

One of them they deliciously picked off  (for them) was Liberal party leader' Michael Ignatieff's Ethobicoke-Lakeshore riding.    It was more bad news on a night where the once proud Liberals dropped 43 seats and slid to a historic low of 34 seats in Parliament and they lost high profile liberals such as hockey hall of famer Ken Dryden, former BC premier Ujjal Dosanjh, onetime Liberal leadership contender Gerard Kennedy, former immigration minister Joe Volpe and ex-cabinet hopeful Ruby Dhalla.  Canada's first astronaut, Marc Garneau, was in a dogfight to retain his Montreal seat.

One of the Liberals who didn't lose her seat was MP Dr. Hedy Fry   She supported C-389 and was reelected in Vancouver Centre and so was Justin Trudeau in his Quebec riding.     Justin is the son of legendary Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau and since Ignatieff resigned, may be of the favorites in the upcoming leadership election.   

There was good news for Green Party leader Elizabeth May.   She became the Greens first elected MP after knocking off Conservative incumbent Gary Lunn in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding in BC.

Well, now that this one is over, the next election won't take place until at least October 2015.    So you folks who didn't vote are stuck with the results of it until then.

But there are a lot of questions that will be answered in the next four years.   Who will the Liberals and the BQ choose as their new party leaders?   How solid is the NDP surge to official opposition status?   Will the NDP be able to convert it into permanent lasting gains and become a major threat to the Tories?   Can they hold on to those 59 seats they grabbed at BQ expense in Quebec?   Can the NDP come up with a message that stays true to their values but allows them to start assaulting the Conservative bastion in the Prairie Provinces?


How will the Liberals respond after their electoral thumping?   Will the BQ rise from the ashes?  And will the Conservatives do what their down south Republican cousins did and overreach?

Time will reveal the answers to those questions I posed in the next exciting chapter of As Canadian Politics Turns..