The Fourth Part of Chapter 22: I Choose...

Patricia turned back to the television; it was 9:26, four minutes before the polls would close in British Columbia, and those results become public. The election team was discussing how the election had played out in Saskatchewan and Alberta; the Conservatives had captured most seats in both provinces, with two seats in Saskatchewan going to the New Democrats, one to the Liberals, and the balance to the Conservatives. Helena Perari was talking about the agricultural policies of the Conservatives: “Duff and his team took a comparatively free-market approach, saying that subsidies would be paid to the farmers would be reduced, but they still recognised that farming was a difficult occupation to make money in, but they should still receive fewer subsidies, such that they may become more competitive. Their tendency to keep the promises they make, at least at the provincial level, has likely played a role in their success thus far: the people like honesty, on the whole, and it pays to be consistent an honest, as Duff is surely realising as he reaps the fruit of his reward.”

“Their use of ‘competitive’ in this sense is a euphemistic buzzword meaning any number of things.”

“Daniel is right, and in this case, more competitive would mean more up to date, leaner, or any number of other semi-meaningless words. It helped them in the prairies despite the old adage of the two things that matter in politics: money, and something else that I can’t recall. They would be denying the farmers money in this promise, but given that all three Prairie Provinces are presently urban in nature, this did not cost them. By ‘urban in nature’, I mean of course that the vast majority of the populations of the prairies live in its five largest cities, with much of the remainder living in smaller cities, and only a small portion of prairie residents being farmers.”

“I think Jim told us that ‘competitive’ was an economic term used to describe the type of market upon which economists base their models.”

“Oh,”

James had said that this type of market did not exist in reality, but rather simply held up as some perfect condition under which the laws of supply and demand function flawlessly; to Ryan, it seemed a kind of economic utopia.

“We finally have results from British Columbia, and they are looking very mixed so far: of the province’s thirty-two ridings, the Tories are leading in fifteen, the Liberals in ten, the New Democrats in five, the Greens in one, and an independent is leading in one riding. In Yukon, the New Democrats are leading, and with that the national tally is: 109 seats for the Liberals, 120 seats for the Conservatives, forty seats for the Bloc Quebecois, thirty-five seats for the New Democrats, three seats for the Green Party, and one independent. We expect that over the course of the night, the numbers will change less, and the results that will come in later tonight and into the next couple of days will, unless the margin is razor thin, solidify the numbers we have already. Given this information, we can predict, barring a coalition between the Liberals and another party that the Conservatives will form the next government, and the prime minister will be Cameron Duff. Andrew?”

“Thank you, Derma. While there is a possibility of a coalition government, it does not seem very likely. The Bloc Québecois says it does not want to form part of a government, while Patrick Wakefield says the patronage scandal has left the Liberals’ reputation tarnished, and they needed to spend some time in the opposition. Unless Mr. Wakefield changes his mind, the next government will be conservative.

“Meach will probably live to regret his decisions to be loose with public money; it is a sin of which the public is especially unforgiving.”

“When you say razor-thin, you really do mean razor thin, right?” asked Geoff.

“Yes, by razor-thin, we mean margins of less than ten thousand votes across the country, which means, for example, Duff receiving two thousand more votes than Meach. That is not the case right now: Duff is presently fifteen thousand votes ahead of Meach in the popular vote, and that’s without all the votes counted; with all votes, the margin will grow substantially, and projecting the margin of victory to include the whole voting public implies a margin of about forty thousand votes. That’s not substantial, indeed it’s quite narrow given that we have been used to margins of victory in the millions of votes in terms of the popular vote, but Duff would still be the evident victor.”

Heron added, “Let’s keep in mind that the vote count isn’t everything; Trudeau won the popular vote in 1979, but Joe Clark’s Tories won more seats.”

“Yes, due to the vagaries of the first-past-the-post system,”

“Let’s now go to the Conservative campaign headquarters in Edmonton, where the conservatives are celebrating their victory.” The screen then changed to show the conservative campaign headquarters, and the silver-haired figure of Cameron Duff at a lectern in front of a large audience of cheering supporters.

“Tonight, dear friends, we have won a great victory. I would like to take this moment to thank all of you gathered here in a hall that supported the Conservative campaign during this election period. I would also like to dearly thank party supporters from all across the country. I would also like to thank Bruce Meach, Patrick Wakefield, Georges Valence, and Abethey Mazli for a vigorous, professional, and hard-fought campaign. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank the Canadian people for participating in this great exercise, no matter how cold it was; I know, for instance, that it was minus twenty-six in Montréal and Ottawa today, and it is minus forty-three outside right now, but neither temperature nor adversity, poor health or bad weather kept Canadians from the polling stations; indeed, the latest estimates show a voter turnout of eighty percent, the highest that Canada has seen in quite some time. This is a reflection of the quiet yet passionate way the Canadian people does politics, and I assure you, my party and I share your passions. As Canadians, we will move forward together in the great journey of Canada, and we will see new horizons with a strong Canada, a Canada at the forefront of the world, indeed, a great Canada. Thank you, my dear supporters, and good night.”

“What do you think of that?” asked Ryan.

“It’s a nice ending to a dramatic election campaign; one that they will be writing about in the history books, for sure. That was an inspiring speech that he gave.”

Meach will put up a fight, said Patricia to herself. One doesn’t relinquish power easily, especially when he can form a coalition with the New Democrats, the Greens and the independent. With the election campaign lost and won, there was not much else to see on television, and she had no ear for the prognostications of a number of talking heads.

Previous Next