Tight By-Elections Paint Canada Blue and Orange

After yesterday's tight races in 2 federal by-elections, Calgary-Centre stayed Conservative and Victoria remained NDP. The third race, Durham, saw a strong Conservative victory. Overall, despite their losses, the Liberals and Greens can celebrate the results, which are bittersweet for the Tories and NDP. The winners may keep their turf, but it isn't stable.


The results were anticipated to be close in Calgary-Centre but after a close race between Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt and her Liberal opponent Harvey Locke, Crockatt squeezed through for a narrow victory in what has been Tory land since 1968. In other words, even though the Liberals didn't win the seat, this is their best turnout in the riding since 1968 and additionally, their best turn out in the past 6 years.

Calgary-Centre Results

Party	Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Joan Crockatt	10,201	36.9%
	Harvey Locke	9,034	32.7%
	Chris Turner	7,090	25.6%
	Dan Meades	1,063	3.8%

However, the Liberals weren't the only force fighting for Calgary-Centre, the Green Party fielded a strong candidate in that riding who managed to finish third with a good margin but for Liberals who were aiming for that riding, Chris Turner's gains couldn't have been sour enough. Nonetheless, the Green Party gave the NDP a run for their money in Victoria, surpassing them and keeping a tight race throughout the ballot counting. In the end  while the Greens didn't pick up any ridings, their strong performance is noteworthy - especially when they have managed to take momentum away from Canada's two largest parties: the NDP and the Conservatives.

Victoria Results

Party	Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Murray Rankin	14,519	37.2%
	Donald Galloway	13,368	34.3%
	Dale Gann	5,633	14.4%
	Paul Summerville	5,092	13.1%

The funny thing about these results is how unstable the victories actually were for the Conservatives and NDP. The results of Calgary-Centre will be historic as Crockatt is the first Conservative MP to barely hang on to the riding since 1968 - while nearly losing it to a Liberal. Meanwhile, the NDP fared poorly inthat riding, only receiving 3.8% of the vote. While the NDP may have a 2.9% edge over their Green opposition in Victoria there were points during the ballot counting that seemed like a turnover might happen.

Considering the low turnouts in all three ridings, it is worth noting that even the strongest Conservative victory of the by-election, 50.7% in Durham, is weak and unstable. The voter turnout was lowest in Calgary-Centre where Cockatt only won with 36.9% of the 29.4% of people who bothered to vote. Durham paints a similar story, Erin O'Toole won 50.7% of the 35.8% who voted and in Victoria, Murray Rankin won with only 37.2% of 43.9%. With a larger vote count in 2015 and votes falling differently, these three ridings may come back to swallow their new MPs alive - but then 2015 is a long way away.

Durham Results

Party	Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Erin O'Toole	17,281	50.7%
	Larry O'Connor	8,947	26.3%
	Grant Humes	5,887	17.3%
	Virginia Ervin	1,386	4.1%

Overall, the NDP and Conservatives can be cautiously optimistic about their wins because with a different split and greater turnout next time, their fortunes may be very different. They may have these ridings now, but this by-election has shown that the grounds are shaky, even for the ridings that have been solid since 1968. The Liberals and Greens can celebrate quite a bit. The Liberals managed to nearly beat a Conservative in the heart of Conservative territory and the Greens had a strong turnout. If these performances reoccur in 2015, it will be interesting to see how the seats will fall - or if this will end up aiding the Conservatives and NDP like it did Joan Crockatt in Calgary-Centre.

What do you think of the results of the by-elections? Are you satisfied? Do you think the establishment (NDP and Conservatives) should see the uprising of the Greens and Liberals as a potential threat in the future? Follow us and let us know what you think: Facebook, Twitter, Google+.

Conservatives Sink Canada into Largest Debt in History

The Conservatives are stellar at economic management - enough so that they managed to bring Canada to its highest level of debt in history. Canada's debt hit $600 billion yesterday and shows yet again how competent the Conservatives are at managing Canada's economy - as if their chronic and secretive spending habits and their new round of deficits weren't bad enough.

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation has officially made the call for the government to start spending within its means, calling this record debt a milestone for the Harper Government. To put some perspective on the size of this debt, if divided among Canadians, each person would be $17,200 in the red.

At the current rate, with increased deficits, Canada's debt is growing by $74.6 million per day or $863 per second.

CTF director Gregory Thomas said that much of the stimulus spending that was made to fix the economy in 2008 was unnecessary and is in fault for the deficits that brought Canada's debt to record levels - and to think Canada was paying it off when the Liberals were in power from 1993 to 2006.

"The economy bounced back and ... we're going to be paying those stimulus dollars 20, 30 years from now if we don't get our act together.".

Thomas pointed out that of the unnecessary funds, much of it was wasted and specifically targeted the government's ad campaigns to sell themselves - yes we are paying for that too!

"You can't sit through a football game without seeing all this propaganda about what a terrific job the government's doing," he said.

"They're borrowing money to sell Canadians on themselves."

The government inherited a debt of $481 billion and a surplus of $13 billion in 2006 and with reckless spending and terrible economic management, the Conservatives spent Canada into a deficit before the recession in 2008. Once the recession had hit Canada, the government was cornered into bringing out a stimulus plan which it, in turn, used as a propaganda machine to sell themselves as worthy economic managers. Four years later, Canada is still in deficit, deeper than initially forecast and the Government's records have been so impeccable that there is a real possibility that the House of Commons and Canadians aren't the only ones blindfolded over economic issues, but Flaherty himself as well. 

Meanwhile, on the provincial scale, debt is rising as well, unless you are in Alberta where they are stockpiling money as we speak.

Debt per Province

• Alberta: $4,337 cumulative surplus

• Saskatchewan: $3,354 debt per person

• British Columbia: $7,866 debt per person

• Manitoba: $11,603 debt per person

• P.E.I.: $11,919 debt per person (2011-2012)

• New Brunswick: $13,336 debt per person

• Nova Scotia: $14,023 debt per person

• Newfoundland: $15,225 debt per person

• Ontario: $17,621 debt per person

• Quebec: $21,432 debt per person

Flaherty acknowledged that Canada's debt won't be erased by 2021 and that further cuts would be necessary. He has ruled out tax increases and cuts to provincial transfers for the 2013 budget.

Everyone will pay the price for this record debt, and it is enough of an indication of Conservative economic management to know that their Action Plan ads were nothing but empty propaganda used solely to brainwash the masses into voting Conservative in subsequent elections - and it didn't cost the Conservative party a cent in election expenses either!

Do you still trust the Conservatives with the Canadian economy? Follow us and let us know what you think: Facebook, Twitter, Google+.

Conservatives: Don't worry, we're going deeper into deficit

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that Canada is in deeper economic trouble than anyone was willing to tell us. They didn't want us to know how much they actually spent and they tried their best to hide the numbers, as the Auditor General pointed out last month, but as we crunch the numbers, we see that this government has spent more than any government in Canadian history.

A Chinese Takeover - Not a Private Sector Buyout

Developing Canada’s oil sands brings great promise to the Canadian economy and allows for an opportunity to emerge as a major player in the energy market. The oil that sits unrefined in Alberta opens doors to vast new trade opportunities, which each bring long term benefits. Most importantly, Canada’s oil presents an opportunity to lower fuel prices nationwide and offset some of the tax burden from middle class families to fund the services Canadians cherish. Overall, if exploited wisely by Canada’s private industries and used for the right objectives, Alberta’s oil sands present an opportunity to bring great benefits to this country… Why would you want to give that away?