The Many Pleasures of First Past The Post...

Still on the entertaining Quebec election results, Henri Bourassa's old broadsheet LE DEVOIR has a tantalizing article where pollster Jean-Marc Leger argues that it if weren't for the pesky fringe parties (like a suddenly relevant Quebec Green Party), Andre Boisclair would be Premier today, and not be fighting off the knives at his back.

According to Leger's logic, when you take away the PQ-siphoning votes of Quebec Solidaire and the Parti vert, a number of key seats (including Jean Charest's In Sherbrooke) suddenly fall into the hands of le parti quebecois. The revised seat totals, in an imagined election where the fringe were not a factor? PQ 48, Lib 44, ADQ 33.

Of course, the fringe vote was alive and well, and sunk Boisclair much like it helped sink David Peterson in Ontario many votes ago.

Over at La Presse, commentators are now bravely predicting the end of sovereignty, which is a bit ironic, considering that if it weren't for a few castaway votes, Boisclair may have been allowed to continue to dream about a 3rd referendum (as Premier!).

Long live the fringe voter! Is there a way we can import the UK's Raving Loony Party to all the provinces of Canada?

UPDATE: Paul Wells at Maclean's has challenged his readers to play with the Quebec vote totals some more, and they've found a few thousand vote scenario where Super Mario would have moved into the Premier's bunker...

I wonder if Kathleen Harris can be convinced to move from Florida to QC?

La Belle Province, indeed

Quebec has produced it's first minority government in over a century, and bilingual New Brunswickers can find all the wonderful analysis they need over at La Presse.

The best part? The delightful image gallery, which shows why Quebec politics is so much more interesting than the politics found in most of English Canada.

Go to the link - if a picture is worth a thousand words, than these images are more compelling than anything written by Jean-Francois Lisee. My favourite is the one where ADQ partisans (or militants, as they say en Quebec) sweep the floor with their election signs. It's too bad these guys are still no good at curling...

And Now For Some Culture...

Since this blog is about NB politics and culture (not to mention dulse), it's time for some local Canadian content.


For those of you who are visiting the foggy city tonight, the Peter Buckland Gallery is hosting its 4th annual Young Collectors' Night. Lots of fun can be found here.




The event is really quite interesting. Young Saint Johners (mostly the Fusion crowd) get to look at nice art, and the lucky ones get to buy the nice art. One time a few years back I almost purchased a Warholesque image of Jean Chretien, but alas, I could not afford the hefty price tag involved.

As for the image accompanying this blog? It's Beacon Light, Saint John Harbour, painted in 1879 by some old guy, and it's virtually the only Saint John image the National Art Gallery will allow into the public domain without filling out about 40-odd pages of copyright...

RESPs, Maclean's and a very good point about the Flaherty budget...

Paul Wells has made an excellent point on how increasing RESP limits essentially pander to wealthy voters and their subsidized university-age children on his blog.

An even better analysis of the income inequities inherent in access to university education can be found here.

Sadly, no politician in the land (let alone New Brunswick) is ready to tackle the issue of why more poor kids don't go to university. Instead, we offer tax inxentives that can ensure Flaherty's three sons won't have to work a summer job to pay for higher tuition...

No wonder so many NB university students drop-out. Why bother staying, if the entire PSE system gives an advantage to those students who have wealthy parents? At least in Fort McMurray, everyone is on the same economic playing field.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

The Census is in! The Census is in!

All the number-crunching glory can be found here.

The big NB winners? Metro Moncton (thanks to Dieppe), and Quispamsis (take that Rothesay!).

Fredericton, however, is the one to watch. It had the biggest municipal growth rate of the big three.

Then again, the big three aren't that big. If you added up all the persons living in the Fredericton, Moncton, and Saint John urban areas, you'd have slightly more than one percent of the Canadian population.

No wonder Ottawa has yet to act on harbour clean-up.

UPDATE: Ottawa has in fact acted on harbour clean-up. A historic, long-overdue cause for celebration. Dulse for everyone!

Self-Sufficient, Self-Absorbed?

The Graham government's committment to achieving self-sufficiency should be roundly applauded, but the latest paper coming out of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force is a bit problematic.

How so? Well, the first two papers established some broad themes for discussion, but the latest paper goes in a radically different direction and offers up twenty-odd specific solutions. Even the title is rather definitive - Policy Directions. No need for input there, I guess.

The Task Force has already recieved criticism (however unfairly) for being less than transparent in its consultations, but this third report (issued only a few weeks before the Task Force wraps up consultation) certainly sticks it to those who wanted a policy free-for-all.

The old maxim holds true, I guess. If you're going to hold a government commission, you better darn well know what you want to achieve before you get the commission started...

Or maybe not.