Local NDP resurgence was really a homecoming in part

Some times you have to be patient. When I began the analysis of the Nanaimo-Ladysmith election outcome the figures came up short. Until I took into consideration that around 8,000 mail-in votes remain to be counted. However, that did not really impact the final result.

The first comparison between the 2019 and 2021 federal elections locally showed only the NDP and People’s Party increasing their totals. The greater message is the NDP growth was a homecoming in a sense. Voters who had abandoned the party to vote Green last time around switched back to the NDP. But it was more than that. The NDP gained 2,000 while the Green vote went down by 7,400. The Conservative candidate lost 19 votes and the Liberal count went down by about 400.

The greater message we can take away from this is the NDP growth was a homecoming in a sense. Voters who had abandoned the party to vote Green last time around switched back to the NDP. The Conservatives retained their second-place standing, although some support went to the People’s Party.

In Paul Manly's case, it was more than the return to the NDP. He was also a victim of the national abandonment of the Green Party whose support was cut in half nation wide.

Good luck to our new member of Parliament, Lisa Marie Barron.

ON THE NATIONAL SCENE ­– Sixty eight per cent of Canadian voters did not want Justin Trudeau, but here we are and there he is. 

The $600 million-plus price tag for the election was money down the drain for an unneeded exercise designed to give Trudeau a majority. Voters did not see it that way. Aside from the federal government’s cost of the election, add to that the hundreds of millions spent by the parties for their campaigns. And what about all the tax credits for donations to parties that the government has to make up somehow.

People will pick this apart, but the end result is the same Liberal minority government we had before. The Justin and Jagmeet Limited Partnership is still in the driver’s seat, combining for the number of seats needed to control parliament.

The job of a party leader is to lead the party to eventual victory. Although Justin Trudeau, Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh all failed in that mission, they all defended their leadership and vowed to continue on.

The outcome was not unexpected and now it remains to be seen whether our 338 elected representatives can play in the sandbox together for more than just two years. Don’t bet on it.