Vote Canadian Solers..

[Aaliyyah]

It's all over but the voting as Canadians choose government in spring election

 

(The Canadian Press) – 7 hours ago

 

OTTAWA — The campaigning is over, the opinion surveys have all been done and now the only poll that counts is underway.

 

Canadians are voting today in the fourth federal election in seven years and, by most accounts, it's going to be a game-changer.

 

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his NDP rival, Jack Layton, both cast ballots in their Toronto ridings this morning, reflecting what is expected to be the most significant dynamic of the national ballot.

 

Ignatieff, a relative unknown going into the 36-day race, got a boost early on but his support appeared to fade as the campaign evolved.

 

Layton's NDP surged to unprecedented levels in Quebec after the leaders' debate and appeared to gain momentum across Canada in the last two weeks of the campaign.

 

The final public-opinion poll of the campaign — conducted by The Canadian Press Harris-Decima, and released Sunday — suggested Stephen Harper's Conservatives were at 36 per cent support, with the NDP six points back at 30 per cent and the Liberals languishing at 19.

 

The Greens and Bloc Quebecois were well back nationally, with the separatist party lagging far behind the NDP even on its home turf.

 

How those numbers will play out, and whether the surge in NDP popularity will only serve to split the left-leaning vote enough for the Tories to seize a majority, was the big question going into the day's balloting.

 

Layton voted in his Toronto Danforth riding, about a block from his home, accompanied by his wife, incumbent New Democrat Olivia Chow, his mother-in-law, his daughter and granddaughter.

 

"We're feeling optimistic," Layton said. "The future of our country, our wonderful country, lies in the hands of Canadians today and I think many will choose change."

 

He said he gets the sense Canadians "will break out of the old patterns and the old habits" of voting for either the Conservatives or the Liberals.

 

Ignatieff shook hands as he arrived at a polling station in a junior high school in suburban Etobicoke, trailed by news media. He appeared a bit on edge and after slowly inserting his ballot in the box, he got on the bus and waved to the cameras.

 

Later, he and wife Zsuzsanna Zohar visited a nursing home. The Liberal leader said it "feels great" to vote after the rigorous campaign.

 

"It's an important moment for every citizen, it's an important moment for me, so I was delighted to vote today."

 

"I am getting reports of good turnout today so that's terrific."

 

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe cast his ballot in the morning in the Montreal riding where he's believed to be fighting for his own seat.

 

And in the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, Green Leader Elizabeth May was looking to defeat Tory cabinet minister Gary Lunn.

 

May focused virtually her entire campaign on the riding in her attempt to gain a voice inside the House of Commons. Insiders suggest the race is too close to call.

 

Depending largely on those vote splits, the Conservatives appeared to be on the cusp of their first majority since Harper initially took power in January 2006.

 

Conventional wisdom suggests high voter turnout is generally bad for the governing party. Voters turned out in record numbers for early balloting on Easter weekend but it is not known if that was because of the holiday or other reasons.

 

"We can't say if that is going to translate into election day — we don't know," an Elections Canada spokesman said today.

 

"We're certainly hoping that there's a good participation, but we don't have any hard data to support it."

 

The agency does not release turnout data until the voting is done this evening.

 

Christian Rouillard, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, notes overall election turnout has been dropping in recent years — hitting just 58.8 per cent in 2008.

 

Rouillard said the youth vote, just 37.4 per cent among 18- to 24-year-olds last time out, could prove a critical element to the outcome tonight.

 

Since the writ was dropped March 26, online campaigns and so-called "vote mobs" aimed to get young people engaged as never before.

 

"These tend to be less conservative as a group," Rouillard said, "so if the young people ... choose not to vote, then I think that would, in fact, favour the Conservative government."

[Aaliyyah]

On my way to vote..kinda late hehe but I will make it inshallah ..so ye all dnt forget it!

[Axmed-InaJaad]

vote ndp!

[Aaliyyah]

^^Are you Somali-Canadian?..

 

Just came back..and the guy sitting at the table was like are you 18? lol totally caught me off guard....man do I look younger than 18 *feeling flattered! =)

[Aaliyyah]

Conservatives are up ahead in the game ..

 

As for the liberals they are losing badly.....I believe their leader Michael Ignatieff will probably have to resign tonight...

[Aaliyyah]

Michael Ignatieff was born on May 12, 1947 in Toronto, the elder son of Russian-born Canadian diplomat George Ignatieff and his Canadian-born wife, Jessie Alison (née Grant). Ignatieff's family moved abroad regularly in his early childhood as his father rose in the diplomatic ranks. George Ignatieff was a diplomat and chief of staff to the prime minister under Lester Bowles Pearson. He also worked for Pearson's leadership campaigns.

 

At the age of 11, Ignatieff was sent back to Toronto to attend Upper Canada College as a boarder in 1959. At UCC, Ignatieff was elected a school prefect as Head of Wedd's House, was the captain of the varsity soccer team, and served as editor-in-chief of the school's yearbook.[3] As well, Ignatieff volunteered for the Liberal Party during the 1965 federal election by canvassing the York South riding. He resumed his work for the Liberal Party in 1968, as a national youth organizer and party delegate for the Pierre Elliott Trudeau party leadership campaign.

 

After high school, Ignatieff studied history at the University of Toronto's Trinity College (B.A., 1969).[4] There, he met fellow student Bob Rae, from University College, who was a debating opponent and fourth-year roommate. After completing his undergraduate degree, Ignatieff took up his studies at the University of Oxford, where he studied under, and was influenced by, the famous liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, about whom he would later write. While an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, he was a part-time reporter for The Globe and Mail in 1964–65.[5] In 1976, Ignatieff completed his Ph.D in History at Harvard University. He was granted a Cambridge M.A. by incorporation in 1978 on taking up a fellowship at King's College there.[4]

clearly he couldnt get any more educated yet it wasnt enough. Seriously, canadians are even more racist than I thought...and I simply cant stand conservatives!..

 

Not that I voted for the liberals..I actually ended up voting for NDP. They seemed to me that they had some potential.

[Axmed-InaJaad]

Aaliyyah;716454 wrote:

^^Are you Somali-Canadian?..

 

Just came back..and the guy sitting at the table was like are you 18? lol totally caught me off guard....man do I look younger than 18 *feeling flattered! =)

yes im canadian. ****** conservatives are gonna have majority

 

the liberals and ndp need to join for the next election cuz they are splitting votes in ontario. and it looks there will be no more separatists.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

just got the news, The conservatives won and won big. Hope conservative has a different meaning up there then it does down here Aaliyya

[A_Khadar]

Aaliyyah;716454 wrote:

^^Are you Somali-Canadian?..

 

Just came back..and the guy sitting at the table was like are you 18? lol totally caught me off guard....man do I look younger than 18 *feeling flattered! =)

:D Dadka waa khaldi kartaa markaase..lol..

[Aaliyyah]

the liberals and ndp need to join for the next election cuz they are splitting votes in ontario. and it looks there will be no more separatists.

Axmed I agree with you they should.

 

just got the news, The conservatives won and won big. Hope conservative has a different meaning up there then it does down here Aaliyya

Naxar most ppl if not all ppl who support the conservative government are white rich ppl. They are more geared to serve the rich ppl and they are anti public services. For instance, they are for private health care to name one, I would hate to pay everytime I visit the doctor..

 

dadka waa khaldi kartaa markaase..lol..

A khadar sifiican lol...hada ka dib I would have to take advantage of that fact ..

 

anyhow still disappointed that they won. But, life moves on..lets see how things turn out now.

[Aaliyyah]

Michael Ignatieff resigns after Canada poll defeat for Liberal party

 

Liberals came in a distant third in Monday's elections with just 34 seats giving Stephen Harper's Conservatives a majority

 

Michael Ignatieff

Canadian Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff waves goodbye after announcing his resignation as party leader. Photograph: Paul Chiasson/AP

 

Michael Ignatieff, the man once hailed as the "bionic liberal", has stepped down as Canada's Liberal leader after leading the party to its worst ever election defeat.

 

The Liberals came in a distant third in Monday night's elections with 34 seats, giving Stephen Harper's Conservatives, on 167 seats, a majority in the 308-seat House of Commons.

 

The collapse of the Liberals, the traditional party of governance for the 20th century, has redrawn the map of Canadian politics. The leftwing New Democratic party, led by Jack Layton, nearly tripled their strength to 102 seats, emerging for the first time as the official opposition.

 

Voters also elected the first Green party MP, Elizabeth May, in British Columbia, and threw out all but four members of the French-speaking separatist Bloc Québécois.

 

Ignatieff's humiliation was compounded by the loss of his own seat. On Tuesday morning, the exhausted-looking leader blamed the Liberals' collapse on negative attack ads. Canadians liked him once they got to know him, he told a press conference, but "there were these negative attack ads that made it very difficult for me to connect with people who weren't in the room," he said. "I had a very large square put around my neck for a number of years."

 

But Ignatieff, who became a public figure in the 1990s as the telegenic host of BBC's Late Show before decamping for a job at Harvard as a human rights professor, said he took responsibility for the defeat. "The only thing Canadians like less than a loser is a sore loser and I go out of politics with my head held high," he said.

 

The party will meet next week to choose an interim leader. Ignatieff said he wanted to return to academia, the career he gave up in 2005 to make his first run for office in a suburban Toronto district, though he said he had had no offers as yet.

 

Ignatieff, who was cast by some party grandees as the great hope for an ailing party in search of a charismatic leader, became leader in 2009. But under his leadership, the Liberals were reduced to less than 19% of the popular vote and Harper got his first majority after five years of minority rule.

 

Commentators said Harper now had an historic opportunity to move the centre of Canadian politics further to the right.

 

In the immediate future, the Conservative majority gives Harper a chance to push through an economic agenda of corporate tax breaks and government spending cuts.

 

At a press conference in Calgary on Tuesday, he said the result would bring stability to Canada, which has seen four elections in seven years. He also offered reassurances about an immediate lurch to the right because of pressure from his party's right wing.

 

"We are intensely aware that we are and we must be the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us," Harper said.

 

Layton, whose party won more than 30% of the popular vote, must now fashion a credible opposition force from a large and inexperienced group.

 

The party's biggest wins came from Quebec, where it became the default choice for voters fed up with the Bloc Québécois.

 

One of the winners from Quebec on Monday night, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, works in a bar in Ottawa, does not speak French, and may not have ever visited her district, Canadian press reported. She also spent part of the campaign on holiday in Las Vegas - but she still took 40% of the vote.

 

Other prominent casualties include the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Gilles Duceppe, who stood down after his party lost nearly all of its members.

 

The Liberal party collapse claimed other high-profile figures. In Toronto, Ken Dryden, a goalie in the National Hockey League before entering law and politics, lost to a conservative. However, Justin Trudeau, the son of the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, held on to his seat in Quebec.

[Axmed-InaJaad]

[quote=Aaliyyah;716454Just came back..and the guy sitting at the table was like are you 18? lol totally caught me off guard....man do I look younger than 18 *feeling flattered! =)

maybe u got chubby cheeks

[Aaliyyah]

lmao@ chubby cheeks!!...

[LayZie G.]

Aaliyyah;716456 wrote:

clearly he couldnt get any more educated yet it wasnt enough. Seriously, canadians are even more racist than I thought...and I simply cant stand conservatives!..

 

Not that I voted for the liberals..I actually ended up voting for NDP. They seemed to me that they had some potential.

Thats quite the charge, especially a charge that someone who is not well informed would have made.

 

Voters did not reject the liberals because of race, the voters, among them a large ethnic turn out for the conservatives in toronto turned away from Liberals because of the economy, jobs and taxes, none of which liberals were prepared to match. (partly, ontario shifted to blue because of the ethnic vote but it was not the only factor)

 

In addition to that, the liberals lost ground in Ontario to the Conservatives because of their gains in strong liberal ridings that were fed up with business as usual and as a result voters, some liberals switched sides, from red to blue (in your case, from liberals to conservatives), its a well documented fact, something you can read more about.

 

In the subject of leader Ignatieff, his resume and his personal achievements played little in voters minds. They didnt reject him because because of his past achievements, they rejected his party, including some long time liberal supporters because he and his party did not offer them anything that they can take to the bank.

 

In the last few weeks, voters across the country were asked, what matters to you in this election? Their answer, the economy and jobs and the liberals did not offer an equally strong plan to tackling some very difficult issues facing the country, instead, they attempted to impede progress, hence why we had another forced election held yesterday.

 

and I dont understand what race has to do with voting blue and even if that was true, assuming that your theory about racism holds up, that means the many indian communities and pakis who voted blue yesterday in ONTARIO are racist? Wow, way to stick it to Ignatieff pakis.

 

 

 

yours truly,

 

LayZie G.

 

 

PS: about the health care myth, you dont lose healthcare because if you are employed, you should have health insurance provided by your employer and which as an employee you make a small contribution towards your health insurance and if you are not employed, you are still covered with tax payer dollars, something that has been a long tradition in this country, hence why more Somalis enjoy the best of the best on the backs of tax payers. Either way, you dont lose, so you see, your claim about privatizing healthcare will not hold up.(dont confuse making cuts to the healthcare system to complete overhaul of the Canadian Healthcare System. If that were true and he wanted to privatize healthcare, Harper would immediately lose his senior votes, which is his bread and butter and he is not a silly man, seeing as he accomplished the unthinkable lastnight)

[peasant]

Aaliyyah;716456 wrote:

clearly he couldnt get any more educated yet it wasnt enough. Seriously, canadians are even more racist than I thought...and I simply cant stand conservatives!..

 

Not that I voted for the liberals..I actually ended up voting for NDP. They seemed to me that they had some potential.

 

I don not think it had anything to do with Ignatief's ethnic background but i think it was more to do with the liberal party being low on octane fuel for a while and they were somewhat losing popularity ever since Chretien left office and many scandals kept popping out afterwards. If race or ethnicity was a factor in this election Jack Layton an anglophone from Toronto married to a chines-canadian woman would not have won big in Quebec in the presence of the Blocs.