I have nothing original to say about the Québec election--and when you've got Paul Wells to interpret things for you, you hardly need me anyway.
But I do have to say that I've been watching election returns like other people watch hockey ever since I was a wee idealistic pragmatist--in all four, five, six, seven, or eight countries I've lived in (depending on how you count them)--and I have never, ever seen as exciting an election as that one. I'm still breathless!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
The best game in town
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
It was practically a threeway tie!
That's NEVER happened in all the elections I've ever seen! Although I've only seen a few elections in my meager lifetime ;)
I KNOW!!! And I've seen a LOT of elections in my...not-so-meagre lifetime...and even I haven't seen a three-way tie before. And statistically speaking, it was a tie. Complete insanity.
I watch elections like I watch football.
Some other interesting statistics are:
- 4% of the popular vote goes to Québec Solidaire and another 4% for the Green Party. That's 8% of the voters without representation in parlement. I think it also played a big role in the unpredictability of the outcome.
- 29% abstention rate, that represents more votes than what any single party got in this election.
Eugene,
Well, then this was a mighty fine football game!
Michel,
Actually, this was the most proportional result from a first-past-the-post election I've ever seen. Those two parties probably wouldn't have gotten in under a PR system, either, because of thresholds. The non-voting rate is abysmal, though. It reflects a real dissatisfaction with the available choices, I think.
IP, you should pay attention to Nova Scotian politics. The results aren't quite proportional, but we've had two minority legislatures in a row, with a gradually weakening PC Party, a strengthening NDP, and a weak Liberal Party well behind.
Josh,
One of my dearest friends is up to her neck in Nova Scotia provincial politics, so I'm way ahead of you! The pattern over time has been fascinating. Not the roller-coaster ride last night was, of course, but that's probably a good thing.
P.S. to Michel,
MSS from Fruits and Votes is a political scientist and electoral systems scholar, and he's got some interesting stuff to say about how oddly almost proportional this result was.
Wow, I barely had posted my overview of the proportionality when a link appeared here! Thanks for that.
And you know, I get rather excited about elections, too, IP. And this was one of the best I have followed. I could hardly believe my eyes when I logged on to CBC about 45minutes after polls closed.
And, yes, Josh, I do pay attention to NS, too, and things indeed have been interesting there. And in NB. (Why all these interesting elections for you folks in Canada? Not fair!) Nothing beats this Quebec result (though Palestine was a lot of fun to blog on).
I will spare all the links. If anyone wants to, he or she can find those posts over at F&V.
One of my dearest friends is up to her neck in Nova Scotia provincial politics, so I'm way ahead of you! The pattern over time has been fascinating. Not the roller-coaster ride last night was, of course, but that's probably a good thing.
I should have known you'd be one step ahead of me. In any case, the NDP is well poised to form the next government (another minority maybe) with the Tories floundering.
But, yeah, things are interesting, but not *too* interesting.
Post a Comment