If Only...

How each electoral district would vote in May if Conservatives ran in every riding. Orange represents the New Democratic Party, and red represents the Liberal Party. In this situation, the NDP would win 44 seats, compared to the Liberals 41.

Back in May, the Conservative Party ran 24 candidates in the general election, their highest since 1979 back when they were Progressive. This resulted in the party getting 2% of the vote throughout the province. With that in mind, I am going to bring up a new term: vote splitting. It makes New Democrats cringe, and Liberals smile. In simple terms, vote splitting is basically a choice that votes must make between two parties with relatively similar policies in an election. This often occurs between the New Democratic Party and the Green Party in elections so if 10,000 voters believe in both of the parties policies, half of the people will vote for one party, and the other half will vote for the latter, thus a split. Due to our voting system of First Past the Post, this causes the Liberals who might have a lower number of votes, to win an electoral district. The beautiful thing about the Conservative Party gaining support is that because it supports the same political ideology as the governing Liberal party, if this were to occur, than the New Democrats would win more seats.

Of all the Conservatives that ran in May, they captured on average 18% of the vote, or about 1,984 votes. So for the sake of this rant, let's say that Conservatives ran in every district and captured 18% of the vote and 1,984 votes. If that were the case New Democrats would gain the two closely fought seats of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, and Saanich North and the Islands. We would also pick up Comox Valley, leaving only Parksville-Qualicum as the sole Liberal seat on Vancouver Island. On the mainland, New Dems would pick up Maple Ridge-Mission, Gordon Campbell's riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, Vancouver-Fairview, Vancouver-Fraserview, Burnaby-Lougheed, Burnaby North, newly formed Boundary-Similkameen, and finally in rural BC, Kamloops-North Thompson. Then Carole James would return to the Legislature with 46 seats, enough to form government.

However the epic part about all of this is that we all know the NDP will do much better in the 2013 election, than they did in the 2009 election. The Harmonized Sales Tax can be attributed to the NDP's recent polls in which support is at 45%, Liberal support has dipped 15% to 32%, meanwhile Conservatives are now rivalling the Green party with 12% and 11% support in the latest poll. Overall, the New Democratic Party will win more than 46 seats four Mays from now, a lot more.

By-Election Results

I am so pleased with the New Democratic Party right now. We have shown that even though we are not the Official Opposition, we are the only true alternative to Stephen Harper's radical agenda for Canada. All that translated into a massive victory for the NDP last night.

In New Westminster--Coquitlam, Fin Donnelly, the NDP candidate, won with 50% of the vote, an increase of 8% since October 2008. I'll say this only once, oh snap! The great part is the Conservative candidate got about 9,000 votes and yet the NDP got 12,000 votes. I don't think we need a recount for that one.

Across the country in Nova Scotia, the fine constituents of Cumberland--Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley elected a Conservative candidate. A little painful I know, but the NDP got 26% of the vote, it's best result ever in the district's existence, along with over a thousand votes more than third placing candidate.

In Central Canada, the NDP faired a little less well, but still very well for Quebec standards. Montmagny--L'Islet--Kamouraska--Riviere-du-Loup elected a Conservative candidate, which was a little bizarre to me, but for a district that is 97% Catholic, for us to get 5% of the vote, that's pretty amazing. Finally, in the great city of Montreal, the citizens of Hochelaga elected a Bloc candidate, with the NDP coming in with a strong second place finish, a swing of 5% since October 2008 for us, and over three thousand votes. You done good, NDP, you done good.

The True Decade of Decline

Back in the mid to late '90s, Gordon Campbell was the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and after losing the 1996 election against Glen Clark, Campbell began to describe the current NDP governments decade in power, as the Decade of Decline. After eight years in office, many British Columbians will now tell you that this is the true "decade of decline". Campbell mostly cited the fiscal policy of Glen Clark and Ujjal Dosanjh, which was usually plagued with budget deficits, which the Liberals would call "fudge-it budgets".

The first term of Gordon Campbell as Premier started off well, with tax cuts applied for all citizens, but with larger ones for businesses. He completed these actions on his second day in office, and yet he had already developed a $1,000,000,000 deficit. Yes, there are nine zeros in that figure by the way. Anyways, knowing that he could not admit this, as he had criticized the previous government consistently for large deficits, Gordon Campbell kept this little number quite for the time being. Soon, he established fiscal austerity, and passed a law banning any budget from being passed with a deficit. To counter the large deficit, Campbell set out to sell the Fast Cat Ferries which had been built for half a billion for nineteen million. E&N Rail would also be sold off, breaking an election promise in the 2001 campaign, and subsequently causing the RCMP to raid the Legislature in 2003.

Post-secondary tuition fee caps were eliminated, allowing rates to soar for students entering college or university, along with the announcement that education is an essential service, restricting teacher's ability to strike. A vote was conducted regarding native rights, which was viewed as a waste of taxpayers' money. Portions of our health care system would be privatized, causing jobs to be given to poorly paid immigrants. We also got the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the minimum wage was raised by $0.40 per hour, but lowered for new workers. Somewhere in between all this, Gordon was also caught driving under the influence of alcohol in Hawaii. Good times, good times.

Following his re-election in 2005, teachers across the province went on strike for two weeks, nearly causing a general strike. To avoid such potentially damaging strikes politically to the Liberals and Gordon Campbell, all union contracts were extended to 2010 to avoid any workers walking off the job during the Winter Olympics. A new tax was created, the Carbon tax, which hurt isolated communities, and nearly drove them in bankruptcy, and was eventually doubled. Gordon's Attorney General, Wally Oppal, also introduced a bill restricting every individual's ability to comment on government policy. Today, the HST is being introduced causing families to lose more money in a recession, along with massive cuts to education, health care, tourism and just about any other government service you can name.

Compare all of this to the NDP's supposed "decade of decline" with numerous environmental bills passed, the lowering of tuition fees, increases of funding to health care and education, and no new taxes, unlike the actions of our current provincial government. So ask yourselves, which record is better: the Liberals or the NDPs?