As you know if you’ve read me for a while, I’m a big fan of minority governments (i.e., hung parliaments). In the so-called democracy in which we live, it’s about the only check on a government’s power that we have in between elections. I know it hasn’t worked well for all countries at all times — I am reminded of the Italians in the 1970s and what a joke they appeared to be to us uneducated youngsters at the time — but they are not universally and undeniably bad at all times.
Here in North America — currently about 4.5% of the World’s population — we’re subject to the hegemony of two national parties, the Liberals and Conservatives in Canada, and the Democrats and the Republicans in the US. Yes, here in Canada we’re “treated” to a third “major” party (the NDP [New Democratic Party]) that lost official party status in the 2025 general federal election because they couldn’t elect enough MPs to maintain what they had. But in the US, that bastion of democracy, “third” parties are a joke and never amount to anything; at least here in Canada, the “third party” (the NDP) has actually had enough support to have become the “second party”, the Official Opposition. There is now even a fourth party, the Bloc Québécois, who run candidates in only one province, and I feel should be barred from election for that very reason.
However, I wasn’t happy about the Liberals getting a minority government last year (2025), because we needed to fight back against trump, and I felt that the only federal Canadian politician with enough gravitas and experience (and balls) to do that well, was the (then) new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Mark Carney. As a former Conservative voter, it pains me to say that Pierre Poilievre is an absolute joke and shouldn’t even be allowed within 100 metres of the prime minister’s office. Even moreso, now that four of his MPs have crossed the floor to the Liberal Party!
But now that we’ve just had three by-elections — which were all swept by the Liberal party, now that Canadians have had a good chance to test-drive Mark Carney as our Prime Minister and seen what a joke and embarassment Pierre Poilievre has been — the Liberal Party of Canada now has a majority government. Thank god! I don’t feel that governing parties — probably especially the Liberals — should feel they have the right to run roughshod over the Opposition, but in this case, today, dealing with the piece of shit trump, the Government of Canada needs the freedom of a majority government to have the ability to get the damn work done to put trump and the Americans in their place.
So congratulations to Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada! MCGA!