Has the dust even settled since the last Canadian federal election? Only two years have passed since the Liberals lost their majority government.
Now, Canada and the world are in the middle of a pandemic. We are looking at new COVID variants, mask mandates are back and vaccination hesitancy is not going away.
Good time, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for a snap election. Critics of the PM say its a play to regain a Liberal Party majority.
Whatever the reason, the decision to call an early election has been controversial, and the issue has dogged the Prime Ministers campaign ever since.
Parliament passed legislation setting fixed election dates back in 2007. However, a Prime Minister can request the Governor General call an election at any point before a sitting government five year term is complete.
So, how is the PMs strategy working? Good time to check out the (B)un official Burger Heaven Election poll
As stated on the Burger Heavens website, the poll is "(B)un Official". The way this works is patrons have the opportunity to order a burger named after their favorite candidate.
Its all done in the spirit of good fun... especially evident in the menus description of each of the five candidates burger.
The restaurant's menu is sure to get a chuckle or two. For example,
Green leader Annamie Paul burger is served with a "dollop of green relish instead of May-o", Liberal Candidate Justin Trudeau burger has a "liberal slab of bacon", NDP candidate Singh burger is "Singh’ing the praises of a Nicely Done Patty".
Here's how the candidates are fairing in the Burger Heaven Burger election poll at time of writing,
- NDP Jagmeet Singh 120
- Conservative Erin O'Toole has 79
- Green Party Annamie Paul has 76
- Liberal candidate Justin Trudeau has 51
- People Party of Canada Maxime Bernier 41
- Yves-François Blanchet 6
- Undecided... 42
The Burger Heaven election poll has been a tradition for 3 decades. The restaurant is in the heart of New Westminster, BC (New Westminster—Burnaby), a solid NDP riding for many years.
There currently are 338 seats in the House of Commons,
170 seats are needed to form a majority government.
It's only been 2 years, but here's a reminder of what the results were from the last half billion dollar Canadian Federal Election, October 21, 2019 (Wikipedia)
LOOKING BACK TO 2019:
- The writs of election for the 2019 election were issued by Governor General Julie Payette on September 11, 2019.
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saw the majority government he won in 2015 election cut down to a 157 seat minority government.
- The 2019 election set an all time record for the lowest vote share (33.12%) for a party that would go on to form a single-party minority government.
- The the popular vote went to the Conservatives by one percent. That is only the second time in Canadian history that a governing party formed a government while receiving less than 35 percent of the national popular vote
- Andrew Scheers Conservative party won 121 seats and remained the Official Opposition.
- Yves-François Blanchets Bloc Québécois won 32 seats to regain official party status and became the third party for the first time since 2008.
- Jagmeet Singhs New Democratic Party won 24 seats, its worst result since 2004.
- Elizabeth Mays Green Party saw its best election results winning three seats and over one million votes, a first for the Greens. They also elected their first MP outside of British Columbia, Jenica Atwin in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
- Independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould won her seat and was the first independent to win a seat in over a decade.
- Maxime Berniers People's Party of Canada failed to win any seats. Thats including his own, a seat he won four times as a Conservative.
The estimated cost of the 43rd general election, estimated at $502 million or approximately $18.35 for each registered voter.
Advanced Polls are open all over the country. Get out and vote.
Here are the Candidates Party links