[ncountylee]

What can US FReepers do to help?

[M203M4]

Dunno, it is looking like a train wreck of an election right now. There will be no "winner" - the result will almost for sure be a government that lasts less than a year.

A "minority government" is formed if the "winning" party fails to get 155 or more out of the 308 seats - we have 5 parties that get significant support (above 10% each): Liberals (center-left, currently corrupt), Conservatives (center-right), NDP (socialists), Bloc (Quebec only - French socialists), and Greens (yay!! more socialism, but they never get enough votes in a given region to win a seat).

The losing parties either enter into a defacto coalition with the quasi-winner, or form an opposition coalition. An election can basically be forced at any time in these circumstances (instead of every 4-5 years), so minority governments are pretty short term creatures. A minority government is almost a paralyzed government (which is good and bad I guess)...

The best outcome now is a Conservative majority, which ain't going to happen this time around, sorry to say. It is going to be either a Liberal minority (again), with NDP support (again) OR a Conservative minority, with Bloc support (the only thing they both have in common is a hatred for the Liberals). I predict that the cycle won't be broken until either the Liberal leader (Martin) or the Conservative leader (Harper) is replaced.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"What can US FReepers do to help?"

Nada, rien, nichts, nothing. Thanks for the offer -- but any attempts by (conservative) Americans to influence the election would only be playing into the Liberal strategy.

Remember how Freepers reacted to European attempts to influence the US Presidential election last year, through letter writing, etc.? Magnify that by ten.

Of course, it would be just fine for Michael Moore to tell us how bad Conservatives would be for us (again). Or Bono. Or half the Hollywood gliterati.

[NorthOf45]

If I may ... just keep in mind, and spread the word, that not all Canadians are liberal and a growing number here are fighting the good fight. About all American Conservatives can do is offer moral support. Believe me, it is appreciated.