election day

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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Do-over election a bad idea
Canadians want the government and opposition parties to work together to get a new trade deal with the U.S. done

Author of the article:postmedia News
Published Oct 25, 2025 • Last updated 13 hours ago • 2 minute read

An elector casts a ballot in the 2025 federal election.
An elector casts a ballot in the 2025 federal election.
The Mark Carney Liberals have suggested of late that the reckless opposition parties – meaning the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois – might be crazy enough to defeat the budget the Prime Minister will deliver Nov. 4.


That would trigger a federal election.


Why the Carney Liberals have chosen this tactic is hard to understand, since all they have to do is bribe what little remains of the NDP caucus, which they’ve been doing for years whenever it came to passing their budgets in a minority parliament.

The math is simple.

The Liberals have 169 seats, three short of a majority of 172.

All they have to do is throw a bone to the NDP, which has seven MPs and did so poorly in the recent election that it no longer has official party status.

The idea the NDP wants an election when what little resources it has is being directed to its ongoing leadership race is absurd.


Pollster Frank Graves, of EKOS Research, on Friday released his latest survey showing most Canadians don’t want an election and would blame the party or parties they perceived caused it, whether in opposition or the government.

(While Graves is unpopular among many Conservatives, he was the first to detect the surge toward Carney and the Liberals during the federal election race earlier this year.)

Given Carney’s pre-budget warnings that this is going to be an austerity budget requiring sacrifice, it’s hard to imagine the Liberals are secretly dying to provoke an election to run on it.

Ditto the Conservatives who will hold a review of party leader Pierre Poilievre’s election performance in January – to either endorse his leadership, or, if his support is too low, trigger another Conservative leadership race.

Costly election doesn’t make sense
Finally, sending Canadians to the polls in a dreary late fall/winter election costing taxpayers close to $600 million while they’re in the middle of a cost-of-living and affordability crisis doesn’t make any sense.

Voters already gave Carney and the Liberals a mandate to govern and to make a new trade deal with the U.S., within the confines of a minority government.

That means they want the government and opposition parties to work together to get the deal done.

Politicians in all parties would be wise to consider that.
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
39,361
3,643
113
Ontario looks to do away with fixed election dates
New rules reverse changes made 20 years ago by Dalton McGuinty, Ontario governments can now last as long as five years

Author of the article:Bryan Passifiume
Published Oct 27, 2025 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 1 minute read

Ontario is hoping to get rid of fixed dates for provincial elections.
Ontario is hoping to get rid of fixed dates for provincial elections.
OTTAWA — Vowing to do away with “American-style” elections, Ontario is hoping to do away with fixed dates for provincial elections.


Legislation introduced into Queen’s Park on Monday will also strengthen political donation and funding rules, said Attorney General Doug Downey.


“The proposed reforms will return Ontario to an electoral process that served our province well for nearly a century and a half, prior to the imposition of American-style fixed election dates,” Downey said in a statement.

“With these reforms, governments will be better positioned to respond to changing circumstances and external threats, including by seeking a fresh mandate from the people of Ontario when it’s needed.”

Former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty introduced fixed election dates in 2004.
Ontario governments can now last as long as constitutionally mandated five years
Fixed election dates were introduced in 2004 under former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, described at the time as a means to “strengthen” democracy in Ontario.


Under those rules, elections would be held on the first Thursday in October every four years — Monday’s changes mean Ontario would revert to the constitutionally-mandated term limit of five years.


During Doug Ford’s time as premier, Ontario hasn’t gone more than three years without an election — after securing his majority in over Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in June 2018, the province went to the polls in June 2022, and again in Feb. 2025.

Under the current rules, the next election would have to have been held no later than October 2029.

The new rules, which have yet to pass muster in the Ontario Legislature, also increases maximum donation amounts for political parties from $3,5000 to $5,000 — effective next year — as well as provide new tools for the Chief Electoral Officer to enforce advertising rules for third-parties.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
39,361
3,643
113
Judge rejects Bloc candidate seeking new election after one-vote loss
Justice Eric Dufour says the postal code error does not constitute an irregularity as defined under federal electoral law

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Oct 27, 2025 • 1 minute read

MONTREAL — A Superior Court judge has rejected the Bloc Quebecois’s request for a new election in the Montreal-area riding won by the Liberals in April by a single vote.


Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagne, the Bloc candidate, had challenged the result in the Terrebonne riding after a Bloc voter revealed that her special ballot was returned to her because of an error in the address on the envelope provided by Elections Canada.


In a ruling today, Justice Eric Dufour says the postal code error does not constitute an irregularity as defined under federal electoral law.

Dufour says the human administrative error was committed inadvertently and without any malicious or fraudulent intent and did not impact the integrity of the electoral system.

The judge says expanding the definition of election irregularity to include administrative errors would open the door to numerous contestations.

Dufour writes that annulling an election in a riding should only occur in the most serious of cases.

The Liberals won a minority government in the April general election, with Liberal Tatiana Auguste winning Terrebonne by one ballot.