If anyone tried to reach this blog and failed last night, it was because I was using my webserver to fix my Tivo. Luckily there was no point watching TV last night other than live, so I didn’t miss anything.
Speaking of elections, I know several of you are suffering hangovers from celebrations (or sadness) last night, but I had a reason to celebrate too: Ujjal Dosanjh finally won MP in my riding, after a second (second!) recount, by 20 votes. So, on the federal election day (October 14) they said on TV that Ujjal won in Vancouver South by several thousand votes. Then the next day I heard on the news that it was only 33. This prompted an automatic recount, completed the next week, where Ujjal was demoted to a 22 vote lead. Except that they didn’t recount all the boxes, and the Tory candidate Wai Young went to court demanding a full recount. Which they did, and Ujjal won by 20.
Let’s just keep recounting until we get the number we want, shall we? Oh, and as it turns out, at 21 days this was the longest recount in Canadian history. W00t.
Your tax money at work, Canadians! Though I can see the Conservative chick’s point, why didn’t they do a full recount in the first place, with that small a win? The total for the riding was around 40,000 ballots, after all.
I wonder what the total would’ve been if people hadn’t been assured that this riding was the safest Liberal seat in BC, so there was no point voting. Sigh. If anything, people should look to Vancouver South as an example that every vote does count, and you can’t always rely on polls to predict the future.
Yay ujjal.
I remember another recount, several elections ago, in my old provincial riding Peace River South. My friend and candidate for the NDP requested a recount when the margin between him and the liberal candidate was similarly slim. After the recount the margin was even slimmer. I think it is a good lesson to vote with your heart and not to vote with some kind of strategic notion of keeping someone you don’t like from winning.
@melanie For the lesson, do you mean your example, or my example? My example is specifically a lesson for strategic voting vs. voting with your heart. People were told that Ujjal was going to win, and could vote for whomever they wanted to show support for their favourite party. However, if these same people didn’t want the Conservative to win, they should’ve voted Liberal. Then the margin between Ujjal and Young would’ve been greater and we would’ve never needed the recounts.
yeah – but then we got to hear Ujjal’s absolutely astonishing outbursts on CBC radio the night of and the day after the election, when he was pretty sure that he had either a) lost by a little, or b) won by too little to count. I’ve never heard a politician come so close to swearing so many times in one 10 minute period. He doesn’t face the threat of loss well – I wonder what would happen if he’d lost?