A good article debunking a lot of the message passed around in the US media that Canada has taken a massive tilt to the dark conservative side.

Conservative win not big Canadian lurch to right

Interesting points:

  • The conservative party only got 36% of the vote, hence 64% voted further to the left
  • Of the 36% who voted for the conservatives only 41% claimed to be in favour of their policies while 54% said instead “it was time for a change
  • Two parties made significant gains in the election: the conservatives and the NDP. The NDPs gain, proportional to their previous seat total, was larger.

These are all good proof points that the election was much more about the scandal than moving towards Conservative values. I’m not trying to guess what might happen by the next election, but let’s get our facts straight for the last one first.