Sunday, November 20, 2011

Canada Votes 2011: The Year Of The Incumbent

If the world were indeed collapsing around us as the Occupy Canada protesters believe, you'd think that this year would present a difficulty for all incumbents seeking re-election. That has not been the case (federal Liberals and Bloc Quebecois notwithstanding), and it started with Stephen Harper getting a majority mandate in the spring. Dalton McGuinty was re-elected, Brad Wall cruised to a giant majority, Selinger won in Manitoba, Ghiz swept PEI, and Saturday greater Vancouver voted strongly incumbent in municipal elections despite the unpopular gas tax. This has been a good a year for incumbents, even those with popularity problems. Canadian voters have not been voting for change, which you'd expect if things really needed to be changed.

Perhaps the strong performance of incumbents this year is a sign that things aren't all that bad in Canada? Yes the United States and Europe have their problems which will likely hurt us, but Canada is not heading to ruin because Canada is broken. We'll feel the pain when our allies run into trouble, however global financial markets are not falling based on news coming out of Canada. There's a reason incumbents are being re-elected.

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