Canadian federal election today!

I believe the mandate expires 9/20/2025 (so that’s the last day Parliament can run before the election has to be called, and Canadian elections run 36-50 days, so the latest the next election can be is 11/9/2025.

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We’ll, that election was a waste of everybody’s time…

The 4 year clock resets (although it’s "the third Monday in October of the fourth year following…). Next election will happen on 20 October 2025, unless called sooner.

The system does have the arguable advantage of providing a way to reset the government if the parties reach an impasse, rather than being stuck until the next scheduled election. (Although some of us Americans might observe that a government unable to cause mischief is a good thing.)

The disadvantage is if the risk that votes can be called (either a PM declaration of snap election, or successful votes of no confidence) on a ridiculously frequent basis in times when Parliament are unsettled or ineffective. Consider, for example, Israel which has had four elections in the past 2½ years.

One other difference in Canadian elections as compared to American elections is that their campaigns take a lot less time – only 39 days this time, I think – but the government is effectively shut down while the campaigns run.

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For Americans who might not be aware / haven’t gone searching, the gains/losses as of this morning (with at least one riding outstanding):

Looks like Trudeau still has a minority government, and has to make nice with Singh to get anything done. The best analogy in the US would be giving Bernie Sanders a veto over Biden and Pelosi.

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…and there is a certain regional aspect to the parties’ results…

I guess I should have voted.

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image

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The map is interesting, because, how did the red party win with so little red on the map? Toronto, the whole tiny Toronto region went red, and it has a shit tonne of people, so it has a shit tonne of red seats.

The red party won the same way the blue party won in the US, except Canada has a greater disparity in population density than the US.

Here’s the map zoomed in on the populated part of the country:

Well, the Liberals won the most seats. But they lost the popular vote.

If I remember all the arguments from 2016-17 doesn’t that make this an anti-democratic result and Trudeau a not quite legitimate head of state?

:roll_eyes:

I am sure you can find someone who claimed Trump was not a legitimate head of state, but I think most people just said the outcome of 2016 was stupid.

Also, Trump received fewer votes than his opponent. That did not happen with Trudeau. Presidents regularly win the popular vote with less than 50% of the total.

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The difference here is that the party that received the most votes also received the most seats, whereas in the 2016 US Presidential race, the popular vote conflicted with the outcome thanks to the magic of the Electoral college.

The “fun” thing for Americans to consider about the Canadian federal election are the implications of not being constrained to a two party system. With three parties on the left, there are scenarios where the Conservatives could have gained a plurality of seats/votes, despite the left-leaning parties having had a majority.

It’d be like the Democrats splitting, garnished with (say) Texans forming their own Texas-nationalist party (especially if those Texans’ first language was mostly something other than English).

And there’s my riding. Red. By 200 votes on 12000 IIRC. close one. Last time it was also red by 350 votes, again close.

It’s happened 7 times in the last 26 elections, and 3 of those were legit 3-way races with 3rd party candidates getting over 5% of the vote… which makes an outright majority a lot more difficult. (Although Ronald Reagan managed… 1980 is NOT one of the 7 and John Anderson got 6.6%.)

So I guess it depends on your view of “regularly”.

These aren’t actually true:

Also, Trump received fewer votes than his opponent. That did not happen with Trudeau. Presidents regularly win the popular vote with less than 50% of the total.

The difference here is that the party that received the most votes also received the most seats, whereas in the 2016 US Presidential race, the popular vote conflicted with the outcome thanks to the magic of the Electoral college.

The Conservative party won a plurality of the votes, not the Liberals.

Thank you. I just happened to know that when I put up my original post. Not too surprised someone didn’t do their research before responding.

Also, 50% of the last 8.

And in the UK, the five years runs from the first meeting of Parliament following the election.
This is because the maximum term of a parliament is five years. Since this was established by the Parliament Act 1911, it is theoretically possible for the UK government to change it though the House of Lords can veto such a change (they usually can’t veto, just delay).

So Conservatives got the most votes but Liberals got the most seats? That seems kind of whack and the stupid gerrymandered type results you’d see in some states is n the US.

Not exactly the same, because the Liberals tended to win ridings that they were close with the Conservatives in due to strategic voting by people that would otherwise vote NDP or BQ.