Canada Election Day - May 2, 2011

Election results, interviews, links to political parties, and other links below

New Federal Cabinet

Ottawa - May 18, 2011 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper puts together cabinet of 39 ministers. John Baird becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs. Peter Mackay continues as Minister of National Defence. Bev Oda continues as Minister of International Cooperation. Jason Kenney continues as Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. Edward Fast becomes Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway. Tim Uppal becomes Minister of State (Democratic Reform) (See interview with Min. Uppal below.) Bal Gosal becomes Minister of State (Sport).

ELECTION RESULTS 2011

Of all eligible Canadians 61.4% voted. Four judicial recounts - info here.

Initial results - not taking into account the judicial recounts:

The ruling Conservative Party of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was re-elected and won a majority of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. It elected 167 MPs with 54.2 % of the votes cast. In two previous elections, it won less than half the seats in the Commons.

The NDP - New Democratic Party with Jack Layton has become the Official Opposition with 102 MPs and 33.1% of the votes cast.

The former Official Opposition Liberal Party of Michael Ignatieff elected 34 MPs with 11% of the votes cast. Ignatief failed to be re-elected in his own riding.

The Bloc Quebecois, and leader Gilles Duceppe, which only has candidates in Canada's predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec elected 4 MPs - a drop from the 47 they had before the election. Duceppe failed to be re-elected in his own riding.

The Green Party's leader Elizabeth May became the first Green Party MP to be elected.

More results and statistics from Elections Canada - here

Elections Canada is the independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting federal elections and referendums.

Voter information in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu, and others here

In the last election in 2008, 58.8% of eligible Canadians voted, more info here

Canada Elections Act - here

Main page MASALA CANADA -  rcinet.ca/masala

MASALA CANADA - ELECTION 2011 INTERVIEWS

Post election: Number of Women MPs Up

I talk to Nancy Peckford the Executive Director of Equal Voice an organization dedicated to electing more women politicians in Canada. With the federal election of May 2nd, the number of women Members of Parliament has risen to almost 25 per cent. Most of this thanks to the surprising election advances of Canada’s new Official Opposition Party – the NDP – the New Democratic Party. Many of the women elected are young. Nancy Peckford outlines the advances after the election for women, and the impact of so many younger women and men in Canada’s House of Commons.

This interview is in the June 4, 2011 edition of "MASALA CANADA with Wojtek Gwiazda " http://www.rcinet.ca/english/program/masala-canada/home/date/04-06-2011/

Equal Voice website – www.equalvoice.ca

Post election: Canadian Foreign Policy

I talk to Denis Stairs, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Canada’s Dalhousie University. He is also a Senior Research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute and a specialist in foreign affairs. We’ll talk about the new Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, about the future of Canada’s foreign affairs policies, and the tendency for foreign affairs decisions to come not from the foreign affairs ministers, but from the office of the Prime Minister.

This interview is in the May 28, 2011 edition of "MASALA CANADA with Wojtek Gwiazda" www.rcinet.ca/masala

Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute – www.cdfai.org

Post election: New Minister of State for Democratic Reform

I talk to Tim Uppal, a Member of Parliament from the western prairie city of Edmonton. As the new Minister of State for Democratic Reform he’s going to be promoting some of the Prime Minister’s key political parliamentary issues: voter representation, eliminating government subsidies for political parties, and reform of Canada’s Senate, the upper chamber of Parliament. We spoke on May 19, 2011, the day after the swearing in ceremony of the cabinet in Ottawa.

This interview was originally broadcast in the May 21, 2011 edition of MASALA CANADA with Wojtek Gwiazda: http://www.rcinet.ca/english/program/masala-canada/home/date/21-05-2011/

Tim Uppal web page on parliamentary website - here  Personal website - here

Election results and South Asian Community

Sunil Rao, the editor of the South Asian Focus newspaper, talks about the results of Canada’s May 2^nd federal election which re-elected the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper with a majority, and also had many in Toronto’s South Asian community helping in that victory.

South Asian Focus newspaper website - www.southasianfocus.ca

Women, politics and the election campaign

A conversation with Nancy Peckford, the Executive Director of Equal Voice an organization dedicated to electing more women politicians in Canada. With one week left in Canada’s election campaign we’ll look at how our country compares with others in terms of female representation in our House of Commons, and talk about some of the challenges and obstacles facing women who decide to get into politics.

This interview was broadcast in the April 23, 2011 edition of MASALA CANADA http://www.rcinet.ca/english/program/masala-canada/home/date/23-04-2011/

Equal Voice website - www.equalvoice.ca

Canadian organized labour and the election

Ken Georgetti, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress which represents more than three million unionized workers, talks about organized labour’s involvement in politics and in this year’s election campaign. He also outlines the key issues for labour in the campaign.

Canadian Labour Congress Election page -  here

Wooing South Asian voters, how and whether it's working

In the April 2, 2011 edition of MASALA CANADA I talked to newspaper editor Sunil Rao about Canada’s federal election campaign. Rao’s paper is the South Asian Focus, based in the city of Brampton, just west of Toronto, and home to one of the biggest South Asian communities in Canada.  The community is being wooed by Canadian politicians as they campaign to attract voters for the May 2^nd election. We talk about some of the issues to look for during the campaign, and their impact within the community.

South Asian Focus newspaper - www.southasianfocus.ca

Main page MASALA CANADA - rcinet.ca/masala

CANADA - POLITICAL PARTIES

List and links of all political parties here

Main Political Parties:

Conservative Party of Canada - www.conservative.ca

The ruling Conservative Party is led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and has been in power since 2006. But neither in 2006 nor in the election of 2008 did the Conservatives win a majority of the seats in Canada's House of Commons. With only a minority government, the Conservatives had to depend on one or another of the opposition parties to stay in government on confidence motions. With the election of 167 MPs on May 2nd, the party now has a majority government.

 New Democratic Party - www.ndp.ca

The left-of-centre NDP has never formed a government on the federal level, nor until this election has it ever been the Official Opposition. It is led by Jack Layton, and was in fourth place in terms of MPs elected until this election. With 102 seats it now forms the Official Opposition.

Liberal Party of Canada - www.liberal.ca

Led by Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Party has been the party most in power in Canadian history. Over the last few years it's lost ground to the Conservative Party. Before the election it formed the Official Opposition. It elected only 34 MPs. Ignatieff failed to win his own riding, and has resigned as leader.

Bloc Québécois - www.blocquebecois.org

The Bloc Québécois is a federal party which runs candidates only in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec. The Bloc's main platform is the independence of Quebec from the rest of Canada. The party's leader is Gilles Duceppe, of the major parties, he is the leader who has been leader the longest. In the NDP sweep across Canada in the May 2nd election, the NDP won the most seats in Quebec. The once dominant Bloc was reduced to only 4 MPs, and Ducepped failed to win his riding. He has resigned as leader.

Green Party of Canada - www.greenparty.ca

Up until this election the Green Party had no elected Members of Parliament. The party's leader Elizabeth May was elected on May 2nd.

OTHER INTERESTING LINKS

Media:

CBC News election coverage - here

Radio-Canada (French) election coverage - here

Globe and Mail newspaper election coverage - here

Toronto Star newspaper election coverage - here

National Post newspaper election coverage - here

Le Devoir (French) newspaper election coverage - here

La Presse (French) newspaper election coverage - here

Maclean's Magazine election coverage - here

L'actualité (magazine in French) election coverage - here