Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Thousands and Thousands Served

Rodney MacDonald wins a minority government in Nova Scotia, despite losing seats. Libs drop, but aren't decimated, while Darrel Dexter and the NDP finish with a strong opposition.

PC 23
NDP 20
Lib 9

posted by calgarygrit at 10:57 p.m.

16 Comments:

  • The Libs and NDP could pull a Peterson/Rae move and sign up for a coalition government.

    Just sayin'...

    By Blogger Zac, at 11:11 p.m.  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Jason Townsend, at 1:44 a.m.  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Jason Townsend, at 1:52 a.m.  

  • The unfortunate thing is that the Lib-NDP bad blood is so bad noone on the CBC or CTV even seriously talked about it. Instead they just called this 23-20-9 split a "Tory Minority" and mused about who Rodney would ask to be his partner.

    To a Liberal of my stripe it's all quite depressing. I certainly hope we don't prop up the Tory boy wonder, already known as "Little John" after the infamous John Buchanan who did so much to mire the province in fiscal misery.

    It was a bad election all around for aimless, haphazard and preposterous promises; but in Rodney's case there was really no upside. Even my Tory informants pretty much shake their heads and admit that he's a bit of a non-entity.

    I just hope the Liberals sort out their leadership situation in a big hurry and think hard about dealing with the Dippers in government rather than being the tail of the Tory dog. I don't think we can afford to to pin the future of our provincial party on an alliance with a looby like MacDonald unless it's part of some really brilliant master plan.

    By Blogger Jason Townsend, at 1:53 a.m.  

  • Some thoughts.
    The Nova Scotia Liberals face oblivion unless they do some major overhauling. Leadership is just one thing that needs to change, obviously.
    The Manitoba Liberal Party seems to be growing, actually. But the analogy between Saskatchewan and NS is very interesting. In both provinces, both parties share the same organization as the federal party. As a result, in both provinces, the provincial party is subordinate, and suffers. Completely separating the federal and provincial wings of the NS Liberal Party may part of the major overhauling that needs to be done.

    By Blogger John Murney , at 2:48 a.m.  

  • The Lib party in NS is in disaster zone if they don't organize themselves better. Even their headquarters crowd on CTV was brutal.

    NDP don't want to work with Libs because they want to be a stand-alone party. They are effective too. Libs are now leaderless yet again and unfortunately, just like the federal party, are in need of a major overhaul but don't seem to want to do it.

    The NS party picked a leader and moved on last time, and it backfired in a big way... think there's a lesson for the LPC there?

    By Blogger Forward Looking Canadian, at 8:07 a.m.  

  • MacDonald should have attempted governing for the two years remaining on his minority mandate. Arrogant twat. All indications going in to this election were that the status quo would likely remain. This endevour was a colossal waste of time and money as we do indeed have the same situation as on Monday. The upswing? The laughable result shown by Liberals here in Nova Scotia will not effect their federal counterparts egregiously.

    By Blogger Omar, at 8:40 a.m.  

  • The relation between federal and provincial results is pretty tenuous; the provincial Liberals got wiped out in PEI in 2000, winning only 1 seat (out of 27), and then the federal Liberals won every seat in the same year.

    By Blogger IslandLiberal, at 9:03 a.m.  

  • I find in Nova Scotia the relationship is a lot MORE than tenuous. Already in the provincial leadership of the party you can find organizers/campaign managers from the 2006 federal election.

    It's the party aparatus that works on both fronts. Strong provincial party means easier organization when election time comes.

    Rodney MacDonald, whom I am no fan of, had to have an election in order to recieve his own mandate. How democratic is it when the party in power just chooses a new leader to run the province for another 2 years? He had no mandate to be premier apart from his own party.

    I think it's wishful thinking to say that the Liberals loss in NS won't equate into bad organization for the next federal election. People like Scott Brison were desperately campaigning in places like.. oh HANTS-WEST where the Conservatives managed to beat out the Liberal candidate after a lot of his campaign staff worked in the riding.

    I would have been ticked if he'd chosen to govern for another two years without getting himself elected first.

    By Blogger Forward Looking Canadian, at 9:33 a.m.  

  • It's fun to play the 'What If' scenario sometimes.

    I think that if Danny Graham hadn't stepped down in 2003 (given the circumstances, it's understandable), the Liberals may have faired better in this election than under MacKenzie. I thought that under Graham the Liberals had made some strides but any momentum was lost with their lackluster leadership race/convention and MacKenzie.

    The Liberals just have to find a way to get the Halifax-Dartmouth support back. I think it's possible. Although, some people will disagree as amalgamation under Savage over 10 years ago still leaves a bitter feeling amongst some, particularly in Dartmouth. Gloria McClusky certainly doesn't help the situation out.

    Anyways, if the Liberals are to win back the province they need to win back support in the Halifax area. I think something as simple as support Sunday Shopping is a start.

    It will be interesting to see if the race in Nova Scotia is much like the leadership race in Newfoundland. That is, there wasn't one as only one person stepped forward....

    By Blogger Bailey, at 10:01 a.m.  

  • Yesterday's Telegraph Journal had the PC's polling ahead of the Liberals provincially in NB. Today's Toronto Sun has the Tories polling ahead of the Liberals provincially in Ontario. Is the Liberal party still suffering from the corruption tag? Will a new leader of the federal party make a difference? Voters usually vote for different parties at the federal and provincial level, but there seems to be a Conservative trend at both levels now.

    By Blogger nuna d. above, at 10:38 a.m.  

  • Nuna D

    The Volpe thing is killing Liberals everywhere.

    It's not just Volpe. It's the Liberals inability to deal with it effectively.

    We are all being tarred with that brush. The issue has long legs and is thrown in the face of Liberals still two weeks after the issue hit the headlines.

    Its a real scar on the party and the leadership seems oblivious.

    I'm active in my community and it keeps coming up at public events.

    By Blogger Down & Out in L A, at 11:50 a.m.  

  • Yesterday's Telegraph Journal had the PC's polling ahead of the Liberals provincially in NB. Today's Toronto Sun has the Tories polling ahead of the Liberals provincially in Ontario.

    The Tories have been in power in New Brunswick since 1999, and the federal Liberals got great results there in that period (and they're still doing quite well).

    As for Ontario, while I'm not an Ontarian, the provincial Liberal Party is a separate organization.

    By Blogger IslandLiberal, at 2:38 p.m.  

  • Decimated means to kill 10 percent of.

    The Liberals lost 10 percent of their seats.

    By Blogger Michael Fox, at 7:02 p.m.  

  • The modern usage of the word very rarely accords well with 10%, even though the word has its origins in the Roman practice.

    We might wish that we lived in a world of etymologists, but we do not.

    By Blogger Jason Townsend, at 7:23 p.m.  

  • "etymologists" - What do bugs have to do with anything?

    By Blogger The Rat, at 11:08 a.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home