Liberal majority!

Well. Change is in the crisp Fall air in Canada. Canadians have spoken. The electorate soundly said no to continuing Harper’s reign of fear-mongering and negative divisive politics. Trudeau tried to run on a positive campaign. In his acceptance speech he said (paraphrasing) ‘Conservatives are not the enemy. They are our neighbours. Canadians proved they are kind, generous, open-minded and they know in heart of hearts that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian!’ For me Harper unquestionably squashed hope in Canada for years. He reminded me of the Republicans. Creating separations and climbing over others to get ahead. I’m glad he is gone. Now Trudeau has a Majority and will be able to implement his policies unhindered. Yes he’ll spend. He said he was going to. Hopefully he finds a balance between undoing Harper’s mess and moving Canada forward. Time will tell.

Hoping Trudeau is brave enough to bring in the FAIR proportional representation system. From wiki on PR: ‘Wider benefits from PR have been identified in societies using it as compared to those using FPTP, including higher scores on the UN Human Development Index, a measure of health, education, and personal security, higher economic growth, lower deficits or larger surpluses, less inequality, and better environmental protection.’ Sounds pretty good to me. The popular vote numbers from the election: 338 seats, 17,552,402 votes Break down: Liberal 6,928,514 PC 5,597,565 NDP 3,460,288 Green 605,637 Blockheads 818,652. PCs would have far more seats in this system.

My ruler.

I worked for Elections Canada yesterday. What a long day, from 8:30AM to after 11PM. It was an interesting day to see the process first hand. Canada is quite a country. There is an incredible amount of trust we have in the system. A few people in the basement of a church with some paper, pencils and boxes change the landscape of politics in the country. There are no guards, no security… my polling station didn’t even have a supervisor. People provide ID and vote. The process was usually quick and painless. Most people voted in 2m. It was interesting what was supplied to the DRO (Deputy Returning Officer). We got some crappy pencils which were sharpened with an useless sharpener so I could cross off names from my list with a pathetic looking ruler. Yes I understand costs should be kept low… but the supplies provided were pretty embarrassing. The close out process was mind boggling too. After working a 13+ hour day form a has to go in bag b with sticker c. We were often at a loss with what to do with some of the procedure and process. The counting was straight forward however. I think everyone should participate at least once in the process, I’m glad I did.

The backyard is transforming into a dream. Photos soon.