The best of what was left

Canada's election is over, and we got the best result I could have reasonably expected, given the way the polling was going right before the election.  The Liberals, Canada's resident centrist party that talks a good progressive game but who is dedicated to the status quo, won a minority government.  They will end up getting propped up by the NDP, most likely, which isn't so bad.  I can live with centrist policies that have a bunch of left wing concessions.  Not what I wished for, but it was the best I could expect.

That is especially true since the Conservatives actually won the election, by popular vote at least.  Another example of the stupidity of first past the post - win the most votes, end up completely powerless on the sidelines.  I happen to like that result because the Conservative platform angers me and their leader makes me sad, but it just shows how much we need electoral reform.

I suppose the chance at electoral reform became more remote though, after this result.  The Liberals got a win because of our archaic system so I suspect they will be even more leery of tinkering with any changes.  They like it just the way it is, because their priority is the Liberal party, not Canadians.

There is some cause for celebration though.  The far right xenophobe party got completely wiped out, and the Greens collected 3 seats, which I don't recall them ever doing before.  They are on the cusp of a breakout where a vote for them is no longer thrown into the void, and I approve of that.  They have a long way to go to get themselves organized and make sure they have better candidates but this is a step in the right direction.

I shouldn't criticize the Greens too hard though, since the racist outbursts that trouble me are things that I expect from the majority of Conservative candidates.  I want the Greens to avoid picking up candidates that are environmentalists who happen to be bigots too, but the Conservatives and People's Party candidates regularly manage to be hard bigots without the environmentalism.

None of the big parties is perfect in this regard, but there are degrees, and those matter.

It is unfortunate that an election ends with the centrist party winning and I breathe a sigh of relief.  We need so much disruption and innovation, and all I can think about is my happiness that we didn't get a party dedicated to regression.

Politics!