[JaredMilne]

Looking at tonight's election results, I have very mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I am quite pleased to see Stephen Harper shown the door. He abandoned many of the principles that Preston Manning originally fought for, and adopted many of the worst traits that he used to criticize the Liberals for. Western Canadians once seethed at the condescending, arrogant attitude Canadians from further east could display to us, but Harper proved himself to be just as bad, projecting the same attitude towards anyone who dared to so much as question him, and hiding behind a wall of partisans who viciously attacked any dissenters while keeping him in a protected bubble. John Ivison recently quoted one Conservative operative who said that when you're that nasty to that many people, it comes back to bite you.

Worse still, while he was smart at short-term tactics he was very, very bad at long term strategy. As just one example, while his tactics on energy development won him the regulatory war, he shit the bed when it came to public support by pissing off many of the people whose support and approval were needed to get the pipelines built. Now, Alberta's oil is more landlocked than ever, and a lot of that is Harper's fault.

And then there's his incompetence on so many files that are supposed to be conservative strengths-his bungling of military procurements, his bad financial management that would have gotten him fired from any private sector job years ago, his further centralizing control of elected officials with his unelected kids in short pants, his increasing the power of bureaucrats to meddle in peoples' lives and potentially attack dissent and free speech through Bill C-51, are all reasons that Harper deserved to lose.

[JaredMilne]

But I am not much more keen on Justin Trudeau. For one thing, as I've said before he takes after Dad when it comes to charisma, but I can't help but think he takes after Mom when it comes to intellect. What kind of leader describes the Chinese dictatorship as one of his most admired countries, says that budgets balance themselves, or wanting Quebec to separate if Harper remained as prime minister? Will he be able to tackle the milItary, budget, economic and democratic problems we're facing?

And many of you will remember Jean Chretien's Red Book from 1993, and how many of those earthshaking promises were kept. Hence while I anticipate Trudeau will fix some of Harper's more immediate policy mistakes (he'll likely reinstate the long form census, and cancel income-splitting for couples, for instance) I'm more skeptical about whether he'll keep his promises to review the Trans-Pacific Partnership or Bill C-51, or implement the recommendations of the Aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation Commission or proportional representation. If he does, so much the better, but I won't be holding my breath.

And then there's the fact that I'm somewhat skeptical that the Liberals have cleaned out all of the worst elements in their party. Remember, there's the attitude Justin expressed about how Canada was in bad straits because Albertans were running the show rather than Quebecers. Not all of us out here were big Harper fans, and while Harper cemented the trend of top-down control from the PMO it was Pierre Trudeau who really got the ball rolling. With the infrastructure he's inheriting from Harper, it'll be easy for Trudeau to pick up on Harper's worst habits, just as Harper picked up on the worst habits of his Liberal predecessors. At least with a minority, the opposition could keep him in check.

I could be proven wrong. If I am, so much the better. If not, I'll be dismayed but not entirely surprised.

Over to you, Justin.

[JaredMilne]

Finally, I am deeply disappointed by the defeat of my buddy Brent Rathgeber, whose campaign team I served on as his policy researcher. Brent proved himself a more worthy heir to Preston Manning's legacy than Stephen Harper ever was, trying to represent his constituents to Ottawa, rather than Ottawa to them.

However, I can say that we ran a damn good campaign for not having a party machine to back us up, and the Conservatives won far more on the strength of their party than the strength of their candidate. The Liberal candidate was a little different in that she was herself a good candidate, and was likely buoyed by strategic voting, unfortunately. It's telling that the Conservative candidate won with only 45% of the vote, which speaks to the discontent a lot of people in the riding were feeling.

Still, while we lost, we had an impressive showing for a candidate who had only a loose group of grassroots supporters to work with, and who got letters of support and welcome from across the country.

If anything, it's a bittersweet ending.

[BRAH]

Stephen Harper looked almost relieved that it's over, he probably should have stepped down last year. Justin Trudeau has a lot to prove and now has the chance as most Canadians can live with him as Prime Minister instead of Thomas Mulcair.

[xerxes]

My thoughts:

Glad to seen Harper go. Surprised that the Liberals have such a commanding majority government when I was fully expecting a minority government again. I'm sad to see the NDP lose so much ground (even though their share of the popular vote is about the same as last time around) and also sad to see the Bloc make a bit of a comeback.

Another Trudeau as PM. We'll how long it takes this one to start flipping people off.

[andyt]

Harper reviewing his vision for the country in the concession speech said it was about lower taxes. That's it. That will only take you so far.

I haven't really paid much attention to Justin, but he seems to be reaching for the stars. Lots of room to screw up there, become another Obama, but I think Canada could use some of that, some inspiration, instead of just a focus on the mundane. I hope Justin once again that he's been underestimated and can make some of that vision for Canada come to pass.

[Public_Domain]

[Thanos]

This is going to calm down the oil companies a lot. They were terrified of a Dipper win. They did OK under Chretien and the boom wasn't hampered at all by Martin. Still not the results I hoped for but it's still far from the nightmare scenario of a NDP national government.

[Strutz]

Wow. I sure as hell did not expect this tonight.

I've been watching the map on the CTV website and randomly looking at some ridings that are definitely very close and have flipped back and forth between parties as polls are finalized. One of them is my own riding (where I still have a residence) and in which I have voted in the last few elections. I am quite shocked to see just how close it is between the Conservatives and Liberals to take that one.

Since I am not living there the majority of the time these last couple of years I voted instead in this riding, not that it mattered much as this is an NDP stronghold by far and appears to be continuing to do so.

I must admit I am very uncertain about our future. Time will tell...

[Zipperfish]

Yeeeee-haw.

getting drunk tonight.

Hi to all my CKA friends.

[herbie]

Well an almost classy concession speech, other than the compulsory cheezy 'thanking our troops' and then claiming he left them well equipped.
Canada has rejected the right and 'the left' that scared the piss out of you guys has returned to the center.
Look forward to a sensible economic policy and no more social conservative BS

[romanP]

Thanos Thanos:

This is going to calm down the oil companies a lot. They were terrified of a Dipper win. They did OK under Chretien and the boom wasn't hampered at all by Martin. Still not the results I hoped for but it's still far from the nightmare scenario of a NDP national government.

it really wouldn't have changed anything if the NDP had won. you'd just be terrified that the sky was falling because you have this irrational fear of politicians who sometimes pretend to be socialist.

[bootlegga]

Based on recent polls, I was expecting a Liberal minority, not a majority. Still, I can't say I'm unhappy, as Trudeau's platform was the only one that was willing to take a chance - embracing a $10 billion deficit for three years to repair and build our crumbling infrastructure was a bold choice.

I don't like debt for intangible things like social programs, but going into debt (when interest rates are low and labour is plentiful) to invest in roads, bridges, transit and all the rest is an investment that will more than pay for itself down the road.

The only thing is that Canadians still need to hold the Liberals feet to the fire to make sure JT follows through on his platform, and I mean all of it. To do that, we need to prevent the back room puppet masters from getting another sponsorship-like scandal going and from shifting way to the left like they did in the 70s.

[Public_Domain]

[Public_Domain]