TL; DR --- The polls are open in Canada. There are five major political parties in Canada: The Conservative, The New Democratic, The Liberal, The Bloc Québécois, and The Green. The incumbent is the Conservative Party (Torries), a centre-right party that has led Canadian government since 2006. Their leader is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is seeking his forth term. Harper is originally from Toronto, Ontario but represents Calgary (Southwest), Alberta. The Conservatives increased support in the 2011 Federal Election, moving from a minority to a majority government, but their popularity has waned in recent years in concert with a downturn in the Canadian economy. Harper's relationship with Barack Obama has been frosty with the two disagreeing regarding Israel, Syrian use of chemical weapons, trade agreements, and the Keystone XL Pipeline. There is currently no informal communication between Harper and Obama and their official relationship is extremely official. The Conservatives are running on a platform that emphasizes tax cuts, immediate budget balancing, increased national security and terrorism measures, raising the retirement age to 67, and creating 1.3-million new jobs by 2020. The Torries would ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership and have been secretive regarding negotiations. The leader of the official opposition in Canada is Tom Mulcair, representing the Centre-Left New Democratic Party. The NDP have the second most seats in the House of Commons after sweeping through Canada in the last provincial elections. It was international news when the NDP took Alberta from the Conservatives after several decades of Conservative governments in oil-rich Alberta, the home province of PM Harper. Mulcair is from Ottawa, Ontario but attended university at McGill in Montreal, Québéc. Mulcair is Canadian-French having a dual citizenship stemming from his marriage to his wife Catherine (née Pinhas), who is from France. Mulcair succeeded the late and well-liked Jack Layton. Support for the NDP reached unprecedented levels after Layton's death due to cancer. The NDP is running on a platform that emphasizes balancing the budget by 2016, not raising taxes on the middle class, increasing taxes on corporations, maintaining the current retirement age (65), and creating an inexpensive national child care program. The NDP would absolutely not ratify the TPP. Despite the NDP being the official opposition they are expected to finish third in the national elections. The NDP have suggested they would be open to a coalition government should the Liberals finish with a minority government ahead of Harper's Torries. PM Harper's main opposition in today's election and in fact the favourite to succeed him is Justin Trudeau, eldest son of former PM Pierre Trudeau, and leader of the centrist Liberal Party of Canada. Trudeau, 43, became more involved in politics following his father's death in 2000, having dabbled as a teacher and actor previously. Bolstered by the love the country still feels for his father, Trudeau has become a celebrity politician this decade. The handsome son of Pierre and his wife, an actress (Margaret Trudeau, née Sinclair), Justin has been portrayed by the Torries as naive and entitled (political ads by the Torries run the slogan "he's just not ready"). Trudeau became the leader of the Liberal party in 2013 and has helped rejuvenate the party after nearly a decade of decline following Liberal PM Paul Martin's loss in a confidence vote in 2006. It is said that a Liberal win in Canada would help thaw the relationship between the Canadian PM and Obama although they aren't in lockstep--for example Trudeau casually supports Keystone XL. The Liberals are running on a platform that emphasizes tax cuts for the middle class, increasing taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, balancing the budget by 2020, and canceling the plan to increase the retirement age to 67. The Liberals are still investigating the TPP and have been criticized for not taking a firm stance on the controversial trade agreement. The Liberals are likely to be open to a coalition with the NDP if it means securing a majority government, supposing they can't do so via the election. The other two (major) parties are the Bloc Québécois and the Greens. Gilles Duceppe leads the Bloc, the French-Canadian political party in Canada. The Bloc are mostly insignificant politically outside of Québéc but represent French-Canadians across the country. The Bloc were trounced in the most recent provincial elections by the NDP in Québéc and have only two seats in the House of Commons. Though considered centre-left their classical interest in Québéc sovereignty is hugely unpopular in Canada even by liberals and progressives and has minority support within Québéc. Elizabeth May heads up the Green Party of Canada. They are mostly interested in environmental issues. The Greens are a centrist party by Canadian standards. They have garnered more attention this election cycle than in recent years due to expanding their political focus to issues such as labour rights. The Green Party belongs to the Global Greens, an international coalition that includes the Green Party of the USA along with 89 other parties around the world. The Greens are rarely called to debates with the other parties and have two seats in the House of Commons. Left to right: Duceppe (BQ), Harper (CPC), May (GPC), Mulcair (NDPC), Trudeau (LPC)
The three month election campaign in Canada has been described by the media as exhausting. There are concerns regarding voter turn-out due to the 3rd game of the ALCS taking place at 8pm ET. There are 338 districts to be decided with results beginning at 5pm ET from the East coast, Newfoundland and Labrador coming first. Elections Canada's website is suffering under a massive amount of traffic leading to issues for people checking to see if they are registered and where they are supposed to go to vote. Polling stations are not overwhelmed at this point and people are able to register there with one piece of government issued ID with their current address. For example it took me less than ten minutes to register and vote. People were also able to vote early last week. The total spending limits for the election were set at about $130-million, increased due to the 78-day period which is the longest in over a century.
The CBC is projecting a Liberal majority government with Justin Trudeau as the next Prime Minister of Canada. The Liberals are at +147 seats, the biggest comeback in Canadian history.
I'm just going to wait for South Park to do one of their Canada episodes to explain all of this to me.
How will this affect America? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/19/what-canada-election-means-for-us-obama
