A Canadian (Province of Ontario) Political Story

[Mark in Ottawa]

Yesterday was election day in Ontario.

As you may know, in a Parliamentary Democracy, the Government is formed by the political party that wins the most seats in an election. If one party wins a majority of seats, that is an easy arrangement. When you have more than two parties (as we do) the Governor General (on behalf of the Queen, federally or the Lt Governor, provincially) will ask the leader of the party with the most seats to form a government with the expectation that at least some of the other parties will offer support in a minority government situation and not force another early election

For the last four years we have had a Conservative Government in Ontario. I would note that the folks on the left hated the Premier (Similar to a US Governor) not so much, I think, because he was a Conservative but because he bears a superficial physical resemblance to Donald Trump and was being smeared as a Trump like politician.

At any rate, to get to the story. The Conservatives won a huge majority yesterday. They literally got twice as many seats in the legislature as all of the other parties combined

I think that most people realized that the Conservatives did a pretty good job of managing the pandemic. In one instance, early on, when there was a critical shortage of N95 masks, someone in a dental (?) supply facility called the Premier to tell him that they had several thousand masks in their warehouse which they were prepared to donate to a hospital if someone would tell them where to deliver them. Without saying anything, the Premier jumped in his own pick up truck and went to the warehouse and got the masks himself. Someone saw him loading the truck, photographed him and sent it to the media. He is very recognizable so the photo was clear. That is leadership and the voters recognized this

[togor]

In Canada the Conservatives are more in the traditional model of "liberal ends by Conservative means".

In the US they have to run and get through the primary season by appealing to the most hardened voters who demand anti-government candidates, especially at the Federal level. Similar on the left, where primary voters want government to solve life's problems for them.

Canadian conservatives are unelectable in the US outside of the northeast.

[Mark in Ottawa]

Togor, you are probably correct. Canadian Conservatives are centre-right in their approach and I am a pretty good example of that. I support financial responsibility, personal responsibility and accountability, law and order, reasonable firearms laws and the military. On the other hand, I don't care at all if gays marry (particularly when the corollary of gay marriage is gay divorce) and I support a woman's right to choose on the abortion issue. I believe in welfare as a short term "Helping hand" but strongly object to long term welfare for people who don't want to work or are not willing to make an effort to get trained for gainful employment (I would let them starve actually)

There are Parties to the right of the Conservatives but they are generally considered to be right wing outliers and fanatics and very few people will vote for them, even if they support some of their views.

I once took an on-line test trying to estimate where I would fit in in the American political spectrum and found that I was a left-wing Republican. That was about where i expected to fall.