Gary Carr could get the Speaker's job as he held it in the ontario legislature and speakers can vote to break a tie, I believe. They are MP's after all.

There are 308 seats, the reason 155 seats are needed is so that when the Speaker is appointed it will be 154:153 on the floor. When there was an odd number of seats, it was enough to have a tie on the floor.

Of course there's no guarantee the Speaker will be a Liberal, even when the Libs had a majority it was a close thing (the backbenchers stood on their hind legs and ran, wasn't it John Nunziata, right up to the last poll when the leadership smacked 'em all back down again?).

But with less than a majority, the Liberals might be wise to encourage a Conservative Speaker be elected by the MPs.

andrew

If you're going to compare the mega-cities of Toronto and Montreal, at least compare the entire GVRD, which shows all Conservative and NDP outside of the Vancouver city core except for part of Richmond.

The PC party was useless, they were indistinguishable from the Liberals on almost all policies. This election at least gave voters Conservative, Liberal and NDP choices that represented different views.

Add North Vancouver (a total surprise to me) and the apparent near-upset in West Vancouver. What was surprising in the lower mainland, especially Fraser Valley ridngs was that the CPC margins weren't as overwhelming as they've been historically.

It wasn't me who made the distinction, see Election Canada:

http://enr.elections.ca/MajorCentres_e.aspx

Vancouver: 4 Liberals, 1 NDP

Montreal: 14 Liberals, 4 Bloc Québécois

Toronto: 22 Liberals, 1 NDP

I had some number errors earlier, the above is the actual count. And no, we are not talking about the Greater Region of ____ , we are talking about the City of ______ . Vancouver is the smallest, nevertheless, as you can see the Conservatives were totally shut out. In the City of Toronto, NDP and Con. have almost equal number of popular vote @ 20% each. In Montreal, even the NDP has more popular support than Con., at 7.1% VS. 6.4%. In Vancouver, the Conservatives were dead last among the main parties. You'd think in their Western base they would fare better, not so, the numbers don't lie: Liberals, 41.4%; NDP: 32% and Con.: 19.9%, only about 1 person in 5 voted for Harper gang.

And the metropoles of the country usually indicate who is governing the country and as you can see, the Liberals won handily in the 3 major urban centers whether it's the BQ fever Quebec or Western alienated B.C., it made no difference in Montreal or Vancouver.

Memo to king Ralph:

Keep building the Firewall. We have nothing in common with the rest of Canada.

Removed as it was a double post.

The independent is a former Alliance MP who didn't get the nomination when the Conservative candidate flooded the meeting with instant members. He was subsequently diagnosed with cancer and did not do that much campaigning. I don't think he will be taking the Speaker's chair, and if he is healthy enough to sit he will likely join the Conservatives.

Opinion of some Quebecers
 

Just to give you some hints about the feelings of MOST BQ voters here (including myself):

Don't worry, we don't want any special treatments, we just want our taxes to be spent efficiently.

But we don't:

a. want the "hell to break loose" in Canada each time Bombardier gets a loonie to export, while when feds puts $ in automobile/farming/fishing/sponsorship/provincial juridictions, it's always OK and efficient.

b. want federal spendings in provincial fields (using $ it cut to the provinces and direct taxation powers it stole in WW2). That makes for overlapping of programs/endless fighting/conflict of objectives/absence of accomptability/wasted taxpayer $/chaos. Nobody signed for that BS in 1867. The federal then consisted only of Defense, International relations/trade, transcontinental rail and that was about it.

c. want to be bombarded with overwhelming BS federal propagenda (sponsorship $) telling us how Canadians "loves" us and how a terrible independance would be.

d. want the whole Cdn Gvt beeing run like the gun registry :mad:

You would be suprised how Quebecers respect/admire Canada (excluding it's politicians). They really don't want to interfer/mess with Canadians affairs. They don't want any money from them either.

The big thing here is to find a way to collect all of our taxes and manage all of our responsabilities.

Right now, only the PQ (endorsed by the BQ) offers us a solution. Constitutional talks/changes only gave the opposite.

The PQ (and the BQ endorses the PQ) says it would maintain any present aggrements/associations/institutions/partnerships that Canadians wish to maintain, including a fair share of the present dept repayment.
If Canadians wishes a cut off, well so be it I guess. Worst case we'll still be all part of NAFTA. (And anyways, for some reasons, Quebec has always been so much more successfull exporting outside Canada than inside - so we'll have to drink more milk :D and get our cars/beef/toasters where it's cheaper)

We should all see it as a fantastic opportunity.

No more Quebec whinning.
No need to search and fire separatist federal employees
No more subsidies/transfer paiements/"special treatments" to Quebec.
No more such thing as a "distinct" society.
No more sponsorship programs to protect national unity.
No more BQ/PQ/"Queeebec" in canadian news.
No more language issues.
No more Quebec whinning about Air Canada status
Shorter canadian history books (by removing anything relating to french and pre1759) :D
Best of all, no Quebec prime minister anymore, niet, none, nada. (and no more Stephane Dion as a bonus) :p
(please please, provide more examples in your replies)

(Too bad it won't geographycaly go away and as may find yourself in Montreal or Quebec city once a while :( )

You see, Quebecers and Canadians share all the same goals... :D

And believe me, there is no ways Charest's Liberals will stay in power, even in 2007. And we all know the PQ will translates above feelings into a question like "achieve outright souverainty or keep Canadians (who loves us so much)to manage two third of our taxes".

Please don't shoot the messager. I'm just providing a different view on how some Quebecers thinks. It's really not like wanting to have the cake and eating it too. They were 49.5% to think like that in 1995.
I admit there are emotional voters (and not so logical) in there, but believe me they also exist on the other side.

(And I realise that about nobody in this forum will share above ideas)

Much was made in the Eastern press about Jack Layton and his wife 'Might be the first Husband and Wife team' in the House of Commons.

Anyone in the East care to guess what actually happened in the 'Husband and Wife' race????

At least one such race was won
 

in a pair of B.C. lower Fraser Valley ridings.

Terenz:
You're not from the East. :p :p

Re: YUL post
 

You didn't have to shove it down out throats twice.

BTW I am a Quebecer born there and have family who have lived in Quebec for four generations. I know as well how some Quebecers feel but they've just been lied to again by the chief blochead "douce bag". He said b/f the election that separation had nothing to do with this election that it was all about the Liberals lying and then today said it bodes well for separation. He can lie through his teeth because he's "pur laine" while the rest of us Tetes carres are supposed to lie down in front of him. Well F*** him;he or "Laundry bag" are not going to take my province out of confederation. The clarity act is well suited for that purpose and when I retire back in Montreal I will again take up my strong position against those separatist douce bags.
Just remember that when Quebecers are asked if they want to have a non Canadian passport they answer 75% "non"; and that's the bottom line. Its the lobster pot that Parizeau tried to put them in with his trick question that nearly got them. The PQ and their puppets are masters of lies and deception.
And I'll bet you money right now Charest will win the next election easily and the Blocheads will lose most of their seats in the next federal election in 18-24 months from now. Watch and see how douce bag tries to talk loud but do everything in his power to avoid another election because its downhill from here on in. He'll in reality be kissing Martin's a$$.
Salut mon vieux.
And now do you want to know how I really feel? :rolleyes:

Yeah simple - he got in because he is a party leader, that helped him carry the vote for the riding, she did not get in because she really isn't liked all that much. :)

I vote we trade Alberta for Texas...even those red necks are less radical than the Alberta ones.