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27

Dust off the Bunting, It (May Be) Election Time in Canada!

Filed Under Politics

Canadian Parliament

Well, it looks like we’ll be having a federal election some time in the next month or two in Canada (campaigns are limited to 40 days, so ours could be announced, run, and won before the American election in November).

So in honor of this exciting (possible) election, I started visiting the websites of some of the… less influential political parties. But where to start?

The first website I visited was the homepage of the CHP, or Christian Heritage Party. I noticed that the very first thing to load was a blank page with a Statcounter chicklet. After a few seconds, it forwarded me to the homepage. Did they ever consider that someone might click on said chicklet? I did.

Christian Heritage Party Web Stats

Well, it looks like the CHP has me beat, at least for now, in daily hits. But consider this. In the winter 2006 federal election, the CHP garnered 28,152 votes. I garnered $8 per hour (minimum wage in BC), working part time at a pizza place. I think I’ve come further.

So, hard times for the religious right in Canada, but let’s move on to the next victim, the Western Bloc Party.

You would think that this marginal movement, which wants Western Canada to separate from the rest of the country, would take a lesson from the separatist movement in Quebec. The Parti/Bloc Quebecois has failed to achieve separation despite having the support of 49% of Quebecers in a 1995 referendum.

So how powerful a groundswell is the Western Bloc Party riding, anyway?

Western Bloc Party Web Stats

Not very powerful. eTrilobite.com about equals the WBP traffic. But traffic to my store (which is higher ranked in search engines), usually doubles it. Also worrisome for them is the percentage of traffic coming from outside Canada. Those people aren’t really helping the cause that much.

Now, I’ve lived in BC for my entire life (until I move to Quebec this saturday), so I thought I’d also take a look at the WBP’s complaints with Canada. One of them is representation. They whine that Ontario has 106 seats in parliament, while the Western provinces combined have only 92. Let’s take a look at this. Ontario, has 12,891,787 people, while the entire west clocks in at 10,147,161. So let’s do some simple math.

Ontario: 12,891,787 people / 106 seats = 121,621 people per seat.
The West: 10,147,161 people / 92 seats = 110,295 people per seat.

So, people in the west actually have MORE seats per capita than Ontario. Epic fail. The west is actually better represented.

Now, I realize I’ve only been harsh to the right-wing lunatic fringe in this post. I tried to show the (probably weak) traffic stats from both Canada’s communist parties, as well as a number of other left wingers, but none of them are dumb enough to display their stats. Not even the Marijuana party.

So, I’ll keep my eyes open for any new and exciting Canadian fringe parties. They usually pop up in the west and whither quickly, but sometimes they catch on (the Reform Party, which went on to take control of the current Conservative Party, is a good example).

Maybe this will be the Communist Party’s breakthrough year? Or maybe the Marijuana Party’s?

Comments

One Response to “Dust off the Bunting, It (May Be) Election Time in Canada!”

  1. Pat on October 8th, 2009 9:54 am

    What a burden the Western Block Party would lift off the shoulders of western Canadians. Eastern Canada seems too close to a Fascist government. Western Canada have always had to accept the terms of the east. We in the West have, had to tolerate, corrupt premiers, such as Gordon Campbell. Campbell has pretty much destroyed BC, and Stephen Harper allows campbell’s criminal activities, with out a murmer. Ottawa turns a blind eye to campbell’s crimes. So, Harper, is allowing campbell to do all the dirty work for the rest of Canada. You had better believe there is much worse to come for the west.

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