The Government we Elected

With all the spin around what's going on in the House of Commons regarding this new Coalition, I'd like to make one thing quite clear: Canadians did not elect a Conservative governemnt in 2008.

2008 Canadian Election Results

Andrew Heard, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University

It's true, The Conservative Party took more seats than anyone else, but for them to claim that they have the support of the country is really quite disingenuous. With a popular support of only 37%, and most of that resting in 3 provinces, claiming that "Canada elected Stephen Harper" is preposterous. In reality, 63% of the country voted for left-leaning ideals and did so by showing our support for a variety of parties.

Canadians have got to lose this wrong-headed thinking that Canada is a two-party system as this hasn't been true for decades. There are five parties garnering a significant share of the votes in each election and as a whole, they represent the Will of the Canadian people. Instead, we need to start acknowledging the fact that coalitions are the nature of parliamentary democracies so that we might always be governed by a majority in the form of a united set of diverse voices.

This coalition, as convoluted as it may be, should not be a one-time experiment but rather a first step. The next one is proportional representation so that the interests and diversity of the entire country might finally be represented in our governing House. Both Dion and Layton know this, but whether they choose to act on it as the new governement will be an interesting chapter in their new partnership.