via: The Galloping Beaver

New Zealand writer on the Canadian federal election. Jane Young: Canada’s Groundhog Election

Canada has just blown $300m on its third election in five years, only to reproduce the status quo. They have groundhogs here, and electorally-speaking, Tuesday was their day. That an election was even called was to satisfy a surly Prime Minister failing to get his way with his minority government, who tossed the toys out of the parliamentary cot only for voters to hand him another minority government. If ever there was a country crying out for proportional representation rather than its immovable first-past-the-post, it is Canada, or as they say here, Canada eh?

This election was overshadowed by ‘that election’ south of the border for a number of reasons, not the least the economic turmoil, and therein lies a message for western democracies who may be following Canada to the ballot box. Canada’s financial infrastructure seems to be holding a little more firmly than that of many other nations, although the Toronto Stock Exchange has been in free-fall some days, bouncing around a lot on others, and the Canadian dollar has slipped from parity with the U.S. only three weeks ago to trading about 86c. However the housing market has not slumped–yet. And the banking system shows no need of any bail outs–yet. In short, the careful, if not boring, stewardship is paying its own dividends.