And then the Bloc caucus... all four of their MPs are female (I couldn't find a picture of their caucus together).
Last time we had anything this close was in 1993 when 50% of the Progressive Conservative caucus was female with Elsie Wayne and Jean Charest.
Update: Apparently my information about B.Q was incorrect. It is actually one woman and three men. I can’t find the report anymore which provided that misleading information.
I am sure pundits will be giving many analysis of last night’s election as to who won, who lost and what went wrong. In my estimation all the leaders are losers. Yes, there was no winner last night.
Harper took a big gamble to win a majority, indifferent to what was happening to the country. He lost and got another minority. If he would have waited and handled economy well, he might have had better chance in 2009 on the fixed date.
Dion’s dream to become Prime Minister did not work. He could not deliver a knock out punch when Harper was at his weakest, stock markets were in disarray and the economy headed for a major downturn. He ended up with reduced Official Opposition numbers.
Jack Layton aimed for the Prime Minister’s job but could not even come up with Official Opposition title. He fell short of his expectations although he picked up a few seats.
Gille Duceppe could not quite pull off a major upset in Quebec but he did achieve his objective of denying Harper his majority. Canadians should be thankful to Duceppe. Imagine a Harper majority and full-fledged CON agenda.
Elizabeth May of course could not garnish a single seat in the House of Commons. She would have done better in London Ontario or in British Columbia.
However, the biggest loser in all this was the Canadian public. Harper broke his own fixed date election law to impose the election. All Canadians got was a major loss of time and resources with the same results we had before the election. Harper should have been looking after the economy, but instead his ego to have a majority got the better of him and he lost his credibility in the process.
I think both CONS and Libs need a new leader. CONS need a leader who cares about Canada and not about himself alone. Libs need a leader who not only cares about Canada but also can win. It is hard to predict the future, but both these leaders should head for the exit door.
Danny Williams has the ABC (Anybody But Conservatives) campaign against Stephen Harper. Maybe he is on to something. He did deal with Harper face to face and very few get that chance. Is it possible that he knows something that we all should pay attention to? Williams does have alot of credibility as he is a straight talker who has a very high approval ratings in his home province of Newfoundland.
Danny Williams told Steve Murphy of CTV Atlantic that when he confronted Harper on his promise of an off-shore resources deal, Harper looked straight in his eyes and said he did not need the votes of Newfoundland and Labrador. That is quite rude to say to a Premier of any province, especially after breaking his word on the Atlantic Accord.
I watched French Debate and parts of English debate, I do not think Harper did so well. He kept smiling and on economy he said Canada is not the U.S. and repeated the John McCainesque quote of "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Can you believe this guy? On Thursday the Toronto Stock Exchange took a 814 point hit which does not look good. Yes, geographically we are located north of the US and we are not the US, but anything which happens in the US travels to the North like pollution from smoke stacks in Ohio. This false assurance by Harper is not very comforting. People lost their savings, especially those who have RRSPs up to 20+% on average, and he continues to tell us that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" (even McCain ultimately admitted there was a crisis, but Harper out-Republicaned him by not admitting this). Maybe Harper means that the economy is strong for him and his rich friends.
I think Danny Williams is right, that Harper cannot be trusted.
In the English debate Harper was repeatedly asked where his platform was which is not available yet. Jack Layton threw a zinger when he said, "Are you hiding the platform under your sweater?" Yes where is his platform and how is he going to deal with the current economic crisis which is getting worse by the day?
Stephane Dion gave a strong performance in the French language debate and held his own in the English debate. Elizabeth May performed strongly in both debates and gave new visibility to her party.
CNN aired specials called "Barack Obama Revealed" and "John McCain Revealed". More recently, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were "Revealed." I thought I will try a Canadian version but in a much simpler way for my readers. I will "Reveal" the answer to, who do they aspire to be?
Stephen Harper: Of course his master George W. Bush. If given the chance, he would change the nomenclature from Prime Minister to President and build himself a Whitehouse.
Elizabeth May: She would like to be her role model David Suzuki. Environmentalist and all green.
Gilles Duceppe: But of course René Lévesque, his role model. A separate nation and he is its Prime Minister or President, whatever the case may be. I wonder if Duceppe will take up smoking too ;)
Jack Layton: Barack Obama of course. He mimics Obama in his speeches and wants to be the leader of change. At times he sounds exactly like Barack Obama and even copies his gestures and mannerisms.
Stéphane Dion: If nothing else he will like to be Prime Minister for 10 years plus like Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He would also like to be like David Suzuki, but then it would complicate the picture a bit.
Good luck to them all.
