Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Ouch, my government

Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The phrase alone depresses me.

Just for fun, let's take a look at seat arrangements and the popular vote.

The Conservatives got 124 seats, and 36.25% of the popular vote.
36.25% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 112 seats.

The Liberals got 103 seats and 30.22% of the popular vote.
30.22% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 93 seats.

Bloc Quebecois got 51 seats, and 10.48% of the popular vote.
10.48% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 32 seats.

NDP got 29 seats, and 17.49% of the popular vote.
17.49% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 54 seats.

An independent got 1 seat, and 0.52% of the popular vote.
0.52% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 2 seats. (Though a lone independent might have trouble occupying two seats, but for the sake of argument...)

Other parties (I would assume mostly the Greens) got no seats, and 5.05% of the popular vote.
5.05% of the seats in parliament would be approximately 15 seats.

Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

(Statistics courtesy of CBC.)

Fuck first-past-the-post elections.

posted by Jonathan at 9:50 AM