Re: BLANK PAGE

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011, James wrote:

>> http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/4136/26/
>
>> The west is facing not an Arab spring but a long bleak winter of 
>> post-prosperity discontent. I don’t think the likes of Brigette DePape 
>> will adapt very well – and I would wager their disenchantment with 
>> responsible government will grow. As for the Muslim Brotherhood so for 
>> stunted morons like Miss DePape: The democratic process is legitimate 
>> only if you vote for the approved side.
>
> Responsible government?  Sure...

FWIW, I'd be more inclined to say that DePape is disenchanted with her 
fellow countrymen.  I mean, Harper did get elected to a majority 
government just the other day, and with the biggest percentage of the 
popular vote that the *combined* right wing has had in this country since 
1988.  (In other words, the 39.62% of the popular vote that Harper got 
last month is bigger than Harper's percentage in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and 
it is also bigger than the combined PC-Reform or PC-Alliance votes in 
1993, 1997 and 2000.  You have to go all the way back to 1988, when 
Mulroney won re-election with 43.02% of the vote -- and the brand new 
Reform Party got an additional 2.09% -- to find a stronger show of support 
for the right from the voters.)  (And, FWIW, Chretien's Liberals won 
41.24% of the vote in 1993 and 40.85% of the vote in 2000, but only 38.46% 
of the vote -- less than Harper just won -- in 1997.)

DePape was, of course, fully entitled to campaign against Harper (or, dare 
one hope, in favour of someone else) when the election was in full swing. 
But once the people have had their say, it's a page's job to shut up and, 
well, do her job (pouring water for Senators and the like).

Appendix (all figures from Wikipedia):

These are the right-of-centre percentages in all of the elections that 
took place during my lifetime (i.e. since I was born in 1970):

    2011 -- Conservatives (Harper)               -- 39.62% -- majority govt
    2008 -- Conservatives (Harper)               -- 37.65% -- minority govt
    2006 -- Conservatives (Harper)               -- 36.27% -- minority govt
    2004 -- Conservatives (Harper)               -- 29.63% -- opposition
    2000 -- Canadian Alliance (Day)              -- 25.49% -- opposition
         -- Progressive Conservative (Clark)     -- 12.19% -- fifth party
         -- combined PC-Alliance vote            -- 37.68%
    1997 -- Reform (Manning)                     -- 19.35% -- opposition
         -- Progressive Conservative (Charest)   -- 18.84% -- fifth party
         -- combined PC-Reform vote              -- 38.19%
    1993 -- Reform (Manning)                     -- 18.69% -- third party
         -- Progressive Conservative (Campbell)  -- 16.04% -- fifth party
         -- combined PC-Reform vote              -- 34.73%
    1988 -- Progressive Conservative (Mulroney)  -- 43.02% -- majority govt
         -- Reform (Manning)                     --  2.09%
         -- combined PC-Reform vote              -- 45.11%
    1984 -- Progressive Conservative (Mulroney)  -- 50.03% -- majority govt
    1980 -- Progressive Conservative (Clark)     -- 32.45% -- opposition
    1979 -- Progressive Conservative (Clark)     -- 35.89% -- minority govt
    1974 -- Progressive Conservative (Stanfield) -- 35.46% -- opposition
    1972 -- Progressive Conservative (Stanfield) -- 35.02% -- opposition

It's amazing, actually, that the combined right-of-centre vote has almost 
always been between 34% and 40% (with the exception of the two noticeably 
large Mulroney victories in 1984 and 1988, and the slightly smaller Harper 
and Clark defeats in 2004 and 1980, respectively), yet the results have 
been so wildly different -- a few majority governments, a few minority 
governments, and various divisions into second party, third party and/or 
fifth party status.  A couple of percentage points can make a *huge* 
difference ... as, of course, can having a united party.

Appendix B:

Going back even further, I see that there are really only four 
Conservative leaders who have had bigger percentages of the vote than 
Harper just had since Canada went to a three-or-more-party system with the 
invention of the Progressive Party circa 1920 (and the invention of the 
CCF, which later became the NDP, about a decade later).

Those four leaders are:

    -- Brian Mulroney   -- 1988 -- 43.02% -- majority govt
    -- Brian Mulroney   -- 1984 -- 50.03% -- majority govt
    -- John Diefenbaker -- 1958 -- 53.66% -- majority govt
    -- Richard Bennett  -- 1930 -- 47.79% -- majority govt
    -- Arthur Meighen   -- 1926 -- 45.35% -- opposition
    -- Arthur Meighen   -- 1925 -- 46.13% -- opposition / minority govt

That Arthur Meighen is an interesting bloke.  He was the first -- and, 
until 1993, the only -- Conservative leader to see his party reduced to 
"third party" status, in the 1921 election (i.e. the election in which the 
brand-new Progressive Party formed the official opposition).  Then, in 
1925, he had the largest share of the popular vote *and* the largest 
number of seats in the House of Commons, but the Governor-General allowed 
the Liberals to keep running the country with the support of the 
Progressive Party... and then, when that alliance collapsed, instead of 
allowing for another election, the G-G asked Meighen to become Prime 
Minister, which didn't last very long.  And then, in 1926, he once again 
had the largest percentage of the popular vote ... but somehow the 
Liberals had more seats than he did, and once again they partnered with 
the Progressives to form a coalition.  Such bad luck, eh?

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