.- quantum uncertainty -.

Elections went well! Sort of.

There are three main parties at the provincial level in Quebec; this is up from 2.

Liberals - left-center party, moving to the right more though, since the leader was a conservative at the federal level for years, non-separatists
Parti Quebecois - leftish party, with an openly gay leader, but wants to separate from Canada
ADQ/Action Democratique de Quebec - more rightish than the Liberals, don't particularly want to separate

We've had the Liberals in power since April of 2003. Prior to that, we had nearly 10 years of the PQ, including the referendum in 1995 whereupon every citizen of Quebec voted either yes or no -- to secede or not to secede. The No side won with something like 50.8% of the votes, so we stayed in Canada. YAY!!! It was my first vote. I was very happy.

So anyways, one of the big campaign things the PQ does is promise a referendum, essentially.

This is when people tend to flee Quebec. I'm not kidding. Land value plummets, people sell their houses for 1/4 less than they could normally get, people get the hell out of Quebec before it separates.

I stay. I fight. But anyways.

The results of the election this Monday:

Liberals - 48 seats
ADQ - 41 seats
PQ - 36 seats

That means we have a minority government in Quebec, and will likely have another election within a year or two, but it means the Liberals are in overall power and the PQ is NOT. No referendum for the foreseeable future, no threat of separation for now, just some squabbling up at the National Assembly. (The provincial equivalent of the House of Commons.)

So... yay! :)

Well. It's been an interesting few days.

First of all, the election results. We have a Conservative government in Canada now. Except it's a weaker government than the Liberal minority we just had. See, in Canada, we have Parliament, right, and the Prime Minister is the head of the party that has the most seats in Parliament. There are 308 seats to be won in Parliament, so if the party has 155 or more seats, it's called a majority government, because that party with 155 or more seats gets to basically overrule everyone and pass whatever bills they want.

The Liberals had 133 seats, so when the Conservatives, the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP (New Democratic Party) all voted together, they toppled the government, leading to this election.

WELL, hahaha! The Conservatives got 124 seats, the Liberals got 103 seats, the Bloc got 51 and the NDP got 29, and an independent got a seat. So the Conservatives got an even WEAKER government than the one they just toppled. Mwahaha. And since the Libs, the Bloc and the NDP are all further to the left than the Tories, I think same-sex marriage is currently safe.

That's about all the good news.

My poll clerk was incompetant. Due to her stupidity, I thought I'd lost three ballots. Do you know how bad it would be to have lost three ballots? If my numbers don't add up, I DON'T GET TO GO HOME.

In the end, it was just that she'd forgotten to tick off three people as having voted once they put their ballots in the box, but that's half her job. She was supposed to cross out the names as I handed them a ballot and tick them off as they deposited the ballot in the box. IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, PEOPLE.

Anyways. 15 hours, I was there. And I came home to Stephen FREAKING Harper as my Prime Minister.

But then I went out and picked up JB from her polling station (how I WISH she'd been my poll clerk!), then we got ice cream, picked up some of her stuff from her place, came back here, ate ice cream and didn't watch Stephen Harper's speech. No, instead, out of protest, we turned off the TV and watched The L Word.

Blew off Anthro the next day, but made it to Italian.

I slept for 13 hours, last night.

It was lovely.

What is not lovely: Italian test tomorrow. Whee. On four tenses, three of which I can barely use in French, plus some other... things. Eesh. Wish me luck.

At least that's going to be followed up by TV with JB. :)

I am done putting together the ballot box for tomorrow's elections. That included putting in my riding and my poll number on various pieces of paper and envelopes, counting the FIVE HUNDRED ballots, putting the box together (silly little cardboard thing), putting everything into the box, sealing the box with two seals and making sure I didn't leave anything OUT of the box (although that's less dire now than it will be tomorrow night).

Everything's good.

My poll clerk was at the Elections Canada office today and they CALLED me and informed me that my poll clerk wanted to talk to me. This is because I hadn't yet called her up, although I was going to do that right after I inventoried the box. Well, had I not asked for my poll clerk's name and number on Friday when I got the box, I wouldn't have even known who the hell she was, so whatever.

She sounds elderly, as I predicted. 70s or so. Her husband is also working at the polls, in the same polling area, but not at the same station.

JB should have had her training today. I suspect she'll be a poll clerk, and I curse that she's not mine. I hope she winds up being at my area, but since my riding is a large one, I doubt she will be. Alas. Well, at least I (probably) won't be working near Scarianne again, like in 2004. Gah to my brother's ex. And, so help me, if I am working in the same place as her again, I'm going to request to work in a different riding next time. :P

I'm working at the same area that I would have voted at had I not already voted in advance. This means that I'm going to see everyone from my building voting tomorrow just a few tables over, including my grandmother, which will be nice.

I'm somewhat nervous, but only about the day, not the election itself. That's the good thing about working at the polls -- you don't tend to think of the election as a whole until after you hand in your results (which is around 10-10:30pm, after you've been there since 8:30am) and then you're like "HOLY CRAP, who are they predicting to win??!!"

This year, I'll have a car, so I'll be able to drive myself there in the morning and back home at night, so I can get the election results before they actually predict a winner. Hm. If JB is at my polling area, maybe she'll want to come over afterwards for the results and then I could drive her home... or she could spend the night, I don't know. Hm, hm. Well, I'll have to wait to hear from her.

Uh, okay, enough of that.

To do today:

- go to the drugstore
- go to the grocery store
- get car
- do laundry

Hm. It might be worth it to get the car FIRST and THEN go to the stores... But it all depends on my parents and when I get the car. And laundry, ugh, I can't wear jeans. So I have to wash the black slacks I've got and wear those tomorrow. At least they're not terribly uncomfortable.

Okay, after talking to my brother, that's all cleared up, I'm getting the car tonight, so everything else has to be done first.

So the Conservatives, the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP all voted against the Liberals in a no-confidence vote tabled yesterday in Parliament.

Parliament has fallen. The Prime Minister is asking the Governor General to dissolve Parliament. There will be elections in January.

I am saying right now, barring any miraculous scandals, that we will wind up with a Conservative minority government.

This annoys me. A lot.

I am further annoyed by the fact that regardless of who I vote for, my current Liberal MP is going to get in, because my riding is Liberal, has always been Liberal and always will be Liberal. Which is okay, except when the Liberals have this whole sponsorship scandal thing going on.

I am even further annoyed by the fact that the NDP has no support in Quebec. It's either the Bloc (and I will not waste my vote by voting for those separatist pigs!) or the Liberals. And while I'm glad that the Liberals brought in same-sex marriage, they were nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as the NDP was. The NDP didn't give their members the option -- vote for it, or else. The Liberals had a free vote, as did the Bloc.

I'm kind of all... well, at a loss when it comes down to it. I don't know who to vote for, because my major issue has, you know, been resolved. It definitely comes down to the NDP and the Liberals, though, but I still don't know what I'm going to do. But I will vote, as should everyone in EVERY SINGLE ELECTION, because it all MATTERS!

</soapbox>

And I am definitely going to work as a Deputy Returning Officer again, because DAMN ME, that's an amazing experience. :)

And yes, it's quarter to ten in the morning and I am awake. I've been up since 9. My DSL light is still flickering and someone's gonna get an earful if it's not fixed by noon.

That is all.