The Steele Report Post Election Edition

Ah, for the silence of an autumn morning.  The election is over.

Time to gather up the paperwork and balloons and get ready for the aftermath.

As predicted it is a Liberal Minority with a strange equation.  The conservatives finished second with 122 seats yet they will have less power than the NDP with twenty-five.

There is one vote to watch for though which will be hard for Scheer to swallow.  If there is to be a pipeline vote the conservatives will have to vote with the Liberals to get it done.  Quite necessary but the optics would be terrible –  in a future election.

So what is the view this morning?  The Green wave was a ripple, the NDP saved themselves enough to still be a viable force.  The Peoples Party of Canada with it’s negative views was rejected.  The Liberals have hung on to govern for now.

The biggest disappointment has to be the conservatives.  They have a power base in the west and under the present party leadership they can’t seem to expand their base.  Alberta lost the most last night followed by Saskatchewan.  By voting a solid block of blue they now have no say at the cabinet table.

Saskatchewan had one of the best parliamentarians of all in Ralph Goodale.  Again losing a powerful voice at the cabinet table.   The result will be less attention for the prairie provinces.

BC on the other hand played a good game they elected a sample of all parties.

Before the vote speculation arose over who should form the next government.  The reason most of the parties save one, the conservatives didn’t dwell on it because their own polling showed the outcome was like what we are left with this morning.

A Liberal minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power.

Fred Steele