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

After work that evening, Ryan and Patricia were seated on the sofa in their living room in front of the television. It was 8:59 PM, and the election results were just about to come on.

“Who do you think will win?”

“Oh, I think it’s anyone’s guess; the race really tightened up in the last week or so. I don’t think the mutiny of Meach’s ministers was particularly helpful to his campaign.”

The television cameras focussed on the host of the Election Night Coverage, Derma Head.

“Good evening, and welcome to CBC’s election night coverage. I am Derma Head, your host for tonight. Also on CBC’s Election Team are Helena Perari, Andrew Chadwick Heron, Daniel-Matthew Night-Haig, Evan Robert Durmer, Ford Dasker, and Geoff Toro. It has been a dramatic election campaign filled with all the usual promises, grandstanding and political soap operas. Today, you made your decision. With that, I will turn to Daniel-Matthew Night-Haig. Danny?”

“Good evening, Derma. This election has been punctuated with all the usual grandstanding, as you said, showboating, and a fair share of drama queens, but overlaying it was an additional palace drama, so to speak. It was about a week ago when Prime Minister Meach lost control of a large part of his cabinet over lingering feelings about the succession in the leadership of the Liberal Party. Andrea Colm, as you know, was forced out by what had turned out to be an over-ambitious Meach. This part of the drama had occurred five years ago, and it is all the more remarkable––and draws attention to what has been seen as the significant reticence of this government when it comes to releasing information––that the minutes of cabinet meetings were only made public ten days ago, which is admittedly a most inopportune time. It was said that the civil servant who posted the minutes on her blog, Sandra Irene Ward, was rather discontented with her job and the Prime Minister routinely victimised and bullied her. One might say that he planted the seeds of this mutiny four years ago and into the present by his attitude toward those around him, and he reaped what he has sown last week.

“The abandonment of Meach by his cabinet points to a dearth of management skills, and this had some play in the election. Meach had been gaining in the polls, which by last Sunday had him with a six-point lead over Duff, but now the race is neck-and-neck. The last poll, going into the election, had the Liberals and Conservatives tied with a 32% approval rating to each of them. The New Democrats went into the election with a 20% approval rating, the Bloc Québecois with a 8% approval rating, and the greens with a 6% approval rating, leaving only 2% undecided, which is the smallest such undecided subsection in the history of the poll conducted by Treiserd-Wiss. In short, who becomes prime minister is anybody’s guess: it could be either Meach or Duff. The approval rating of 20% eliminates Wakefield from contention for the top job, which I imagine must be disappointing for him; he and all other New Democrats were hoping for a breakthrough this year.”

“We have an update: the first polling station in Newfoundland has reported their results. These results come from Bay Bulls, a former fishing community south of St. John’s; polling stations in Newfoundland closed at 10:30 local time in order to be synchronised with the other provinces, and results from British Columbia and Yukon will be available in half an hour. The results from this particular polling station, with thirty-two voters, were fourteen for the Liberals, twelve for the Conservatives, four for the New Democrats, and two for the Greens. We will be receiving updates continuously throughout the night; the results from the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba will be available in a few minutes, and the results will change dramatically. Now, we have preliminary results for the entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the Liberals leading in four seats, the conservative leading in two seats, and the New Democrats leading in one seat. The results will also be displayed at the marquee along the bottom of your screen. Evan?”

“Thank You, Derma. The Prime Minister’s Atlantic strategy was focussed on conservation and the long-term preservation of the fisheries there. As you know, the cod fishery of Newfoundland was shut down in 1992, and the closure of most Saint Lawrence fisheries followed suit last year. Given this, Meach promised a comprehensive conservation and breeding effort to, as he put it ‘make fishing cod, haddock, and salmon economically viable for the foreseeable future’ by strictly banning all fishing within our exclusive economic zone, which was to be enforced by the navy presently stationed in Halifax.”

“What did you think of that promise? I was wondering how the government was planning to patrol three million square kilometres of water with only three ships and a submarine,” said Ryan.

“Maybe he was planning to use the coast guard patrol ships,” said Patricia.

“There was some opposition to that, which was very interesting; they were saying that it unnecessarily curtailed the fishermen’s’ right to make a living by fishing as much as they wanted. The problem with that is, there is no living to make, because the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Grand Banks are empty; that’s why the unemployment rate in the Maritimes is 27%; at least that’s what Clarissa said,”

“I think turning the Atlantic into a marine park would be a very good idea.”

“Hey look, there are more results; it looks like, all the way west to Alberta! The Liberals are now leading in 105 seats, and the Conservatives are also leading in 105 seats!” exclaimed Patricia.

“…And the Bloc Québecois has 30 seats, the New Democrats have 31 seats, and the Greens have two.”

Ford Dasker was speaking: “With preliminary poll results coming in from all provinces and territories save Yukon and British Columbia, the Liberals and Conservatives are still tied, at 105 seats to each of them. Given these results, the CBC cannot predict anything as of yet. We do not know who will form the government, or who will become prime minister. The only thing we can say with confidence is that the 41st Canadian Parliament will be a minority parliament, which means that whoever wishes to govern will need to form alliances with other parties. It is also noteworthy that the Green Party is leading in two seats, but we shall wait for that to change. That the results should still be so close with this many polling stations reporting is an indicator of how changeable the electorate has been. While individuals’ minds may not have changed significantly, the numbers for the Liberals and Tories were sufficiently close for the lead to vacillate a number of times throughout the campaign. As you remember, back at the end of November when this election was called the Liberals were leading by seven points, which is not that impressive, but would still guarantee their grip on power were the election held then. The lead has since narrowed, placing the Tories, Grits and New Democrats within five points of each other, between 26% and 31%, which changed by Christmas with the Tories in the lead. The Liberals leading at New Year’s followed that, with another swing towards the Tories ahead of Election Day; a tumultuous election season it was, indeed.”

“Horse races aside, Ford, what do you see in the next parliament?”

“I see more drama and more exciting question periods.”

“As you can see, the numbers are changing as we speak, and the Tories are now in the lead, with 112 seats. The liberals have now fallen to 100 seats. Now, at this point, we only have sufficient data to call 24 seats, so we would wish to emphasise that these are very preliminary numbers. As the night wears on, it should be noted that the numbers will become more ‘sticky’, so to speak, meaning that they are less likely to change dramatically.”

“We are still waiting for results from British Columbia, which are due in at 9:30 PM eastern time. As you can imagine, both Grit and Tory headquarters are on tenterhooks waiting for the results; this is shaping up to be a very long night, and with the battle lost and won, the dust will settle early tomorrow, possibly at 3:00 AM. Needless to say, I do not envy Bruce Thomas Meach or Cameron Duff right now.”

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