But now the Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives have united, is that it? So they're not competing against each other?

Yes. I don't really know how much vote splitting the Greens will do with the NDP. They are still a small party, but the NDP, is where their votes will come from....

Just back from coffee with my Canadian friend. She's from Broadbent's district, so she got to vote for him (I had forwarded her the rap thing; she thought it was funny). She didn't feel like she was helping to splinter the Left/Liberal vote since she thinks Ed's a shoe-in to win. True?

Probably. He's a former leader of the NDP who's come out of retirement, so he's a bit of a star candidate.

Yeah, it depends on the riding. In a "safe" NDP or Liberal riding you can vote for whoever you want to without fear of splitting the vote.

I'll be voting tomorrow in a civic election to replace our mayor (who resigned to run for the Liberals federally). He was one of the five craziest mayors in Canada according to Rick Mercer - unfortunately none of the candidates are nearly as eccentric.

Because Megan is not at work: 57 minutes to go!

Is this thing on??

I'm poking my nose into the Atlantic Canadians area to see if the election is under discussion -- and behold, it is. Would anyone mind explaining how the whole minority government thing works, please? I've been reading the election stuff over at The Globe and Mail, and the possibility of a minority government has been mentioned a few times. Now I'm all curious.

I've been watching some of the candidates discussing issues over at Newsworld International. No rapping, so far.

t shudders at the thought of Harper or Martin rapping

Calli, a minority govt. is when one party has more seats than any other but still not enough for a simple majority. (There are 308 seats in Parliament, meaning 155 seats are required for a majority.)

When that happens, the minority government party has to figure out a way to gather enough votes for a majority. They usually do it by horse-trading with other parties; i.e. the NDP will say "we'll support your government if you agree to introduce policies x, y and z."

Or you could just read the CBC website, which explains it much more concisely here.

Thanks Dani! The CBC site looks like it has lots of useful stuff.

So if the Liberals get 154 seats, they might be able to hook up with the NDP or the Greens and stay in power.

Multi-party (more than 2, I mean) politics looks fascinating.

Apparently, even if the liberals do not earn the most seats, they can still try to form a government, if they find a party to work with. From what I understand, they could ask for a vote of confidence in the house, and if they could get enough votes, they could remain in power, if not, the GG would ask another party to form the government. There would be a hue and cry, I'm sure, if Martin tried to hold onto power this way.

they could remain in power, if not, the GG would ask another party to form the government. There would be a hue and cry, I'm sure, if Martin tried to hold onto power this way.

Paul Martin was quoted on the front page of the Toronto Star today saying "most seats wins".

"It's a common sense proposition that the party that has most seats is that party that ought to form a government", Martin told reporters.