Analysis
NDP newbies
Election of NDP newbies raises questions about democratic process
Often they're university students plucked from campus party associations who run in regions they've never visited. Sometimes they never do, even during the campaign, since they have no hope of winning. Except on Monday night, when Quebec voters decided...
Harper's road ahead: holding a fractious caucus together
In matching John Diefenbaker's record of two minorities and a majority, Stephen Harper is in rare company.
Liberal insiders say party must take long look in mirror
Liberal insiders say their party must stop looking for a "messiah" and instead, start a soul-searching exercise to rebuild its own identity following Monday's crushing defeat.
Liberals could yet rebound from Monday's train wreck
In the excitement over the wholesale change wrought by Monday's election results, Canadians might be tempted to think Liberals are headed for history's dustbin. That would be a miscalculation.
Ignatieff's 'rootlessness' robbed him of authenticity needed on national stage
What on Earth happened to Michael Ignatieff? It was clear he had a problem during the election campaign — and in the period leading up to the campaign — but it has never been all that clear what his problem was.
In messy election aftermath, will the centre hold?
There is ample evidence that in politics and ideology, Canadians are overwhelmingly centrist. But in a matchup between the Conservatives and NDP — particularly at a time when voter turnout is appallingly low — the electoral math may show ...
Some celebration before Conservatives, NDP get down to redrawing political priorities
Stephen Harper won the election of 2011; so did Jack Layton. With a Conservative majority government and the New Democrats as the official Opposition, a process that began in 1993 with the obliteration of the Progressive Conservatives is almost complete...
Vote-splitting saw Tories claim new seats: analysis
Stephen Harper can pass on his thanks to Opposition leader-elect Jack Layton and the NDP's strong showing for helping swing Liberal seats to the Conservatives.
May's win may have saved Green's bacon
Here's the question Elizabeth May danced around during the campaign: What if you don't win?
Edmonton's orange wave in a sea of blue: Linda Duncan remains city's opposition
Historically, it was never prudent to send a television satellite truck to an NDP election party in Alberta. By the middle of Monday afternoon, three of them were parked in front of the NDP campaign headquarters in downtown Edmonton.
Is the Bloc loss a sign of things to come in Quebec?
It's not often we see history being made — and even less often that we see so much of it being made as in Monday's federal election. And much of it was made here in Quebec.
New Canadian laments Conservative majority
I am disgusted to be a new Canadian. Although I felt considerable satisfaction when I cast my ballot Monday for the first time in a Canadian election, all pleasure at participating in my country's electoral process vanished in the face of the Tory majority...
Harper can't duck HST issue in B.C.
What now? What's next for the big economic issues in B.C. that urgently await federal and provincial action and co-operation?
Tories out from 'under the guillotine' with majority win
Stephen Harper's majority-government victory secures his place as one of the great federal Conservative leaders in Canadian history and unshackles his party in the House of Commons.
Tory majority will test Harper's promise to stay the course
There can be talk of a hidden agenda no more. Stephen Harper will now have four years to govern the country with the majority he has long coveted, after a historic realignment of the political landscape that has left the Conservatives' two main foes, ...
Liberal fortunes continue to decline — not even official Opposition
Canadian voters have relegated the once-mighty Liberals to third-party status for the first time since Confederation.
Conservative-NDP gap narrows to three points in dwindling hours of campaign
The gap between the front-running Conservatives and the rising NDP has narrowed to just three points, a new poll finds. The EKOS-iPolitics survey shows the Liberals trailing 11 points behind in an increasingly tight two-way race to the finish. Latest...
What editorial writers are saying about Monday's election
Here's a sampling of what editorials in some of Canada's major newspapers have to say about how Canadians should vote on Monday.
Election day is "feast or famine" for NDP: poll
The result of this election hinges on the last thoughts going through voters' minds before casting their ballots on Monday, the results of a poll on voter stability suggest.
Will Harper's Hail Mary pass pay off?
In football, they call it the Hail Mary pass. Throw the ball long, hope the receiver grabs it and watch him cross into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
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Ignatieff hobbled by Conservative ads, minority Parliament
When the Liberal party enticed a media-savvy Harvard professor to return home to Canada nearly six years ago, many anticipated the emergence of a great political thinker in the image of other successful Canadian politicians from their political family...
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Will NDP orange crush or crash in the May 2 vote?
They're calling it the orange crush: The possibility that Jack Layton will emerge from this election with more momentum and moral authority than anyone could have imagined barely five short weeks ago.
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NDP rise casts cloud over Bloc — and its leader
Going into this federal election, the polls gave Gilles Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois 50 of Quebec's 75 seats, give or take, with a chance of winning some Conservative and Liberal seats.
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Will Elizabeth May's Vancouver Island run finally sprout Green in the Commons?
The story of how Elizabeth May searched all through the land for the greenest riding of them all — ultimately with a dream of making a historic breakthrough for her Green party — is reminiscent of a fairy tale.
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NDP surge puts Conservative majority at risk as Liberals collapse: poll
Jack Layton's New Democrats are charging hard to the finish line of the federal election campaign, setting up a white-knuckle final weekend of getting out the vote that will determine the balance of power in Canada's next Parliament, according to results...
Sun Media's attack on ex-Tory aide shines a light on election's hired guns
The Conservative war room was busy defending an attack from an unusual quarter Wednesday. Readers of the Sun papers woke up to an essay by Pierre Karl Peladeau, president of Sun Media Corp., denouncing a former aide to Stephen Harper for campaign dirty...
Voting along religious lines: Are Conservatives better at courting Catholic vote?
Conservative leader Stephen Harper boasted in January to a packed ballroom in Ottawa that his Conservative party had become the "first choice" of Roman Catholic voters. And an Angus Reid election campaign poll last week suggests Harper, while guilty ...
Layton backs away from spotlight as popularity surges
With less than a week to go before the election, NDP leader Jack Layton's campaign is starting look like that of a front-runner.
The Stornoway scenario: Could we get the NDP as official opposition?
Jack Layton has already won the campaign, and Stephen Harper is winning the election. The big question is the ballot question: Majority or minority? There's a second ballot question that's emerged with the surge of the NDP in Quebec and British Columbia...
Minorities work fine — under better leadership
Other countries have founding myths featuring prison breaks, rebellions, wars, and all manner of bloodshed. But not this country. The central event in the story of Canada's founding was a conference.
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Harper government, enemy of the arts?
By refusing to discuss cultural policy this election, the Tories are painting themselves into an anti-arts corner.
Like them or not, NDP alone in offering positive vision to voters
There is no doubt in my mind why the NDP have so far been the big movers in the federal election campaign: alone among the parties, the New Democrats have offered a positive vision for the country if they were to win the May 2 vote.
Green leader seeks seat in riding with history of upsets, scandal
How long are the memories and how sticky is the sleaze? That's the big question in Saanich-Gulf Islands, a riding of awkward contradictions that sprawls across 500 square kilometres of some of the wealthiest and poorest communities in British Columbia...
What would a Harper majority look like?
In the last days of the federal election campaign, there remain only two unanswered questions: Will Canadians give the Conservatives their much-coveted majority? And if so, what will they do with it?
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Tory candidate Wai Young losing votes — from her own family
Conservative candidate Wai Young's rough-and-rocky campaign trail is getting a whole lot rougher with less than a week to go in the federal election.
Layton as PM would tank Canada's economy
Let's consider what might happen if Layton does become prime minister.
Established parties biggest losers with proportional representation
The Conservatives could win 69 fewer seats if an election were held today and Canada used proportional representation (PR) rather than the existing first-past-the-post (FPP) electoral system.
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Is Parliament broke? Or is it our political parties?
Our federal election has not yet happened, and already we've written off Parliament. Pick an adjective: irrelevant, dysfunctional or altogether broken.
What happened to political integrity and respect for Parliament?
It seems almost fanciful now, but in the 1993 and 1997 federal elections, candidates for the Reform Party were required to sign a contract committing them to the politics of integrity. If elected, their actions would be governed not by the partisan demands...
