Whim

 That election call is often portrayed as a whim on the part

of the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. This is the fourth wave 

of the pandemic and no one really feels like lining up at the polls, let 

alone what campaiging must feel like. But why has minority government

gotten so difficult to live with.

Canada's political culture really does spawn some oddities, and the 

CBC  is again  predicting - blithely - a Liberal win with the popular vote

going to the Conservative Party. Think about it: we are voting one end

of the spectrum and ending up electing the other doing so. This is not

really possible in other countries.

European parties form mainstream coalitions.In France, la Droite; or la Gauche.

Germany as well, on a regional basis. Even the United Kingdom has been known 

to do this. The actual vote lets one express onself - in a legal way - about the

direction we would like to see.  If one's coalition forms the government, our views

are in the game.

My daughter asked me, the other day, why Quebec was so Liberal. I answered 

her that the opposition is in splinters so that all votes favour them. Something

of a sassy answer,  but not false. Indeed, one the ironies of this election is that

the 5% of the vote Maxime Bernier's Party is getting everywhere actually balances

out nationally the cut the Conservatives are taking in Quebec with the Bloc.

I only have 2015 numbers on the distribution of registered voters (in Wikipedia,

from Elections Canada). But hey, I now know how to  do Python queeries on an

Sqlite database. I've got some ideas...