Watched CBC’s Canada Votes from 4:30 MST to midnight. Here’s how election night went, rapid fire edition!
4:30 PM
Coverage starts. Atlantic results come in. Liberals are underperforming. Not awful, but definitely not what they wanted. Conservatives start poking through. Tension level = simmering.
6:30- 7:30 PM
200+ seats are now up for grabs, with the majority of polls in Canada closing, and polls starting to count. CBC’s seat counter turns into a ping pong match. Liberals and Conservatives trade leads, with liberals owning a significant portion of leads.
8:10 PM
CBC calls it: Liberal government. But here’s the catch, no one knows if it’s a majority. The number 172 becomes an obsession.
8:45 PM
Poilievre loses his seat. Conservative leader out. Most shocking part of the night for sure. (Fun fact: 91 people ran in his riding of Carleton, making it the longest ballot ever, plus his riding had the highest advanced voting rates in the entire country!)
9:30 PM
Liberals inching toward 172. Still too close. B.C. ridings are keeping them from a majority.
10:40 PM
Jagmeet Singh loses his riding of Burnaby South and resigns. Just like that. Saddest part of the night, cried a bit, worst part of the night too.
Around 11:30 PM
Mark Carney walks out for his victory speech saying “humility” like six times.overall pretty good, acknowledged the humanity in his leadership, and the ability for leaders to make mistakes.
11:45 PM
Elizabeth May holds it down (shocking). Wins her seat. Jonathan Pedneault (co-leader) doesn’t. Greens stay at one.
12:00 AM
Still no answer on majority. CBC ends the night at 169 seats. Final count: unclear. We all go to bed wondering.
Tuesday:
Liberals confirm a minority government, with Mark Carney recovering his mandate from the Canadian people.
Wednesday
Jonathan Pedneault resigns as Green Party’s co-leader, stating it was unfair for him to continue to be the leader after losing his own riding, hoping to invite new voices to the Green Party leadership.
Thursday
The debate over Pierre Polivere’s leadership is in the air, many say he should be removed for failing to win his own riding, but an overwhelming number of Conservative MP’s are rallying behind him, using his ability to raise the Conservative’s popular vote as rationale.
Overall, the night was super chaotic for Canadian politics. One thing I have to say, this night was a collapse of a healthy democracy Canada once had. The transition into a two-party system is detrimental to representing the voice of the people, and becomes voting to keep another party out of power, not who you believe will support you and your fellow constituents within a riding. The lack of options, facilitates the rise of unhealthy government systems, and becomes a fight between parties, individuals soon begin to believe both aren’t good, and have to vote for in obligation. This new system, has allowed for the fall of the NDP, Bloc Quebecois, and Green Party, even registered voters to each of these parties voted for either the Liberals or Conservatives to keep one or the other out of power, choosing which would be ‘relatively better’. This is incredibly dangerous to your freedom of choosing government, and never ends well as seen south of the border, who have a seemingly increasingly similar political structure. This is your reminder to advocate for YOUR right to a healthy and functioning democracy, no matter who is in power, if your government doesn’t allow critique, you don’t live in a democracy anymore.