Conservatives win Canada election

[swimmernsecretsea]

Ben Townley, Gay.com U.K.
Canada's Conservative Party wins the country's election, raising fears that the country's gay marriage laws could be repealed.

SUMMARY: Canada's Conservative Party wins the country's election, raising fears that the country's gay marriage laws could be repealed.

Canada's Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, has won the country's election, ousting the Liberal Party and raising fears that the country's gay marriage laws could be repealed.

The party won 124 seats, while the Liberals won 103 in Monday's polling.

The Conservatives had 36 percent of the vote, according to the BBC, compared to the Liberals' 30 percent. The majority needed in Parliament is 155 seats.

It is the first time the party has won leadership of the country for as long as 13 years and is thought to be a swing to the right from Canadian voters.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper ran the 2004 election on policies that included the ban of same-sex marriage and a clamp down on abortion rights. Having lost that election, he chose this time to run the election focusing on corruption scandals facing the Liberal party.

However, activists fear the issues could now come to the foreground.

Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20060125/co_po/conservativeswincanadaelection

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Repealed? Laws already written?

That couples have married under? Had children under?

What a travesty that would be.

[Kagemusha]

4. It would be a legal nightmare and therefore very unlikely

Strictly speaking, no government *can* repeal it now. The law passed by the last government was simply implementing a court decision on basic human rights. Basic human rights aren't an issue that the government can override according to the current constitution (thus making this part unalterable for so long as the nation as presently constituted exists). If most people knew it was like that they'd be astounded and perhaps appalled for reasons of democratic justice totally apart from the gay marriage issue. Nonetheless, it is, at present, the supreme law of the land, and no government has the constitutional power to override the supreme court on this issue. Or to acquire that power.

Of course no one's actually tried to seize such power anyway. Yet.

[JeffR]

2. Only a fool would interpret the result as "swing to the right"

There is, though, a danger that if Harper calls a free vote in the House of Commons about gay marriage, some Liberals would end up joining ranks with the Conservatives who are mostly - if not all - against it.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. I just don't get it

it is such a non-issue.

How in the world does it hurt anyone, anywhere?

[StClone]

6. Naivety or Ominous

It may mean nothing but who would have thought the USA would be talking about a King George with three branches of Gov. supposedly restraining each other. We'll see, but I know that American Conservatives are working in Canada as is the NRA with 100s of Millions of $$$ to see if they can "improve" things.

[tsuki]

3. It's a minority government. Sheesh.

[Nomen Tuum]

7. All Harper has to do is issue an Order In Council to repeal gay marriages

He doesn't even have to convene Parliament for six months, just as Joe Clark did in 1979, he could rule by Orders in Council for 6 months.

Interesting to see what happens...

[pretzel4gore]

8. this is as good as the vote could be....

the canadian people actually showed something like insight. harper's conservatives cannot really do anything too drastic, unless they want to provoke another election by pissing off the libs/ndp/bloc/greens etc, who'll bring the government down, just like happened to the 'liberals'. in order to survive, the conservatives have to get along with the others; or if they want to bull their way through, they have to do it in a way that appears their principles have merits worth risking the entire gig for.(anyone who causes another election anytime soon would certinly be punished, the damn things are costly, and they really don't make choices clearer) the problem also is that the newsmedia, including the cbc, is far to the right of the people (a few years ago, a honest journalist named lawrence martin did a story comparing polls of regular people with polls of media people and found almost complete difference, with journalist and media players farther right then everyone else: the newsmedia was horrified and shocked appalled etc, and you hadda witness them claiming that martin was mistooken, mad, as in insane asylum loonie! the sputtering and lip licking anxiety was fun to watch, but there was nothing they could do, hahaha...) and the people appear to simply ignore the media when they clearly want the people to act a certain way- as in this election, 2 of the largest canadian newspapers were saying a harper conservative majority (harper scoring 155 or more seat, fact-harper got 124!) and the rest of the news were saying 'polls this and polls that' but harper's minority both gets rid of the phony liberals, and it puts the conservatives on the line to for example, send soldiers off to possibly be killed etc, or join in bush's missile defense scam iow to kiss bush's smelly arse, or just shuttup about that, and that's a damn good thing!