For the first time in a long while Prince Edward Island will have a minority government. The Progressive Conservatives dispatched the Liberals to third place. The Tories are expected to win 12 seats with 9 for the Greens and 5 for the Liberals. In other words, the Tories will have to play ball with the Greens if they expect to govern.
Next up, Ottawa.
Aw, man. I was really hoping the Greens would win that one straight up--it seemed like that was in the cards.
ReplyDeleteWhy the Conservatives? A coalition of Greens and Liberals would have a majority at 14 seats. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteHi, PLG. In a way I'm relieved the Greens are oppo. They're green in more than name. It would be easy to blunder had they won and they need at least one term to really connect with voters, show what they can do, etc. Had the Tories taken a majority it would have been far worse. Now the Greens have a measure of effective power to restrain and, perhaps, direct the government.
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ReplyDeleteToby, I don't have an answer to your question. We'll have to give it a while to see what develops.
The PCs in PEI are not of the barking-mad lunatic Doug Fraud or Sir Jason Smarmalot Kenney (did I leave my laurel wreath here somewhere? Just checking) type. That sort of thing would not go down well socially. So having to restrain a load of plutocratic PEI PC MLAs intent on reinventing the place was never on the cards even if they had won a majority.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how Green support was distributed around the Island, but the population are a small c conservative lot. I'm not sure that video of May's rather twee wedding helped the cause following a Green candidate's drowning on Good Friday, but a lot of alleged Green support evaporated somewhere over the final three days while campaigning was suspended after the drowning.
"The 76.28 per cent voter turnout was only the third time it was below 80 per cent since 1966." And just 56% in the riding where the Green candidate died and only the proportional voting referendum was votable.
BM
Congratulations to the PEI Greens. So much for stupid people in the Martimes...say what? Very, very smart people! Way ahead of the Western Provinces any day. Anyong
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