Another election on a beautiful day, and another provincial election nursing a virus (which has mutated from a sore throat to a runny nose today). I encountered many many doggies today and got a lot of petting in, including my next-door neighbour's dog for the whole elevator wait and ride. Hopefully that's enough good luck.
I didn't get a voter's card this year and had to wait in a bit of a line to register (a process that was a bit slower than I recall) but it got done in under half an hour with no particular difficulties. I voted in a seniors' residence instead of a school this time. Some of the residents were milling around outside watching all the comings and goings, and I believe some of them were working at the polling station. Nice friendly community-like chat waiting in line, dogs and children got squeed at, and the whole process took under half an hour.
Now I'm at home to nurse my cold and a glass of wine, and watch results.
6 comments:
I went to my polling station at 6pm or so, and it was a bit of a mob scene. I got done really quickly though -- my own poll was empty. All very friendly and chummy and efficient.
Plus my guy won (in my riding), and the guy I didn't want to win didn't. What do you think of the results?
I didn't receive a card, either. A & I had to go through the same process we went through for the federal election, of showing ID and filling out a form to say we were voting for the first time in this riding. That took a few minutes, then we each voted and were in and out. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes (it was mid-day), and as usual, the people couldn't have been nicer.
Our guy (NDP) didn't win, but neither did the Conservative, so I was pleased. Federally, our area has turned from Liberal to Con, but that was not reflected provincially. I find that odd, but I'm glad for it.
Re results, I'm ok with a Liberal minority, given the prospects some weeks back, when it looked like a Conservative govt for sure.
What do you both think?
My riding went red, which was unsurprising. I was hoping for a three-way minority, so I'm happy with that outcome. I was hoping the seat count would be closer, but the net effect is the same.
I was hoping the seat count would be closer, but the net effect is the same.
Yes, I agree.
I had a lot of very relieved conversations with co-workers on Friday -- they all felt that a Hudak win would have been pretty bad for the government's work, and until about a month ago everyone was resigned to a big loss by McGuinty.
(Of course there's some self-interest there too, because a lot of them are very happy about the 3% per year increase that they've seen under McGuinty, and there's little question that Hudak would have been less easy on the union. The one thing that conservatives hate most about McGuinty, I gather, is that he doesn't "stand up" to the public service unions. I guess the labour issues under Harris were preferable somehow, but I don't quite know what was so great about that.)
I'm actually happy about the result. The Liberal won in my riding, beating the PC challenger (who you may remember, Laura, as the other guy in the room the day we met with Terence Young). I don't know what an Ontario Liberal minority will be like, but I think Horvath is a good person to have as the balance of power, so I'm hoping there will be at least a couple of years of peaceful, useful government. It would be great if they could reasonably share power and get a full 4-year term in, to everyone's advantage.
One race that the Liberals lost that I wanted to see them win was in Parkdale-High Park, where my friend Cortney Pasternak was running against Cheri diNovo. I don't know much about diNovo as an MPP, but I've heard her speak and she sounds like a total crackpot. She won, but not as easily as in previous years.
Cheri diNovo is a strange mix. I've run into her on both pitbull-related issues (on which she is excellent) and Palestine-Israel related issues (on which she is completely irrational). For someone in public life, she is strangely unable to listen to opposing viewpoints, or even give lip-service to doing so.
I really like Andrea Horwath. I hope this is a great opportunity to her.
Post a Comment