Canadian Election Contest -- with prizes!!

[c9]

Winter is often sucky. Elections are often sucky. I'm going to create some synergy here and have a contest on federal election predictions!

Please answer, in one comment, the following questions:

1. How many seats will the Liberals win?
2. How many seats will the Conservatives win?
3. How many seats will the NDP win?
4. How many seats will the Bloc Québécois win?
5. How many seats will the Green Party, Marxist-Leninist Party, Marijuana Party, Elephant Party, Canadian Action Party, Pity Party, and Independent candidates win, combined?
6. Minority or Majority? (a majority requires 155 seats)
7. If minority, which party will hold the balance of power? (meaning which party, when combined with the leading party, creates a majority, so that a coalition might provide some stability)
8. Which leader(s) will announce their resignation during their concession speech(es)?
9. Who will stab their party in the back first, Ralph Klein or Dalton McGuinty? (Note, Ralph's pre-election musings don't count)
10. Will the following star candidates win or lose?
    1. (NDP) Svend Robinson (former NDP leadership contender and 25-year member of Parliament, resigned due to weird "stressed-out-and-stole-a-ring" situation, now back in the game)
    2. (Liberal) Belinda Stronach (former Tory leadership contender turned Liberal cabinet member)
    3. (Liberal) Scott Brison (former Tory leadership contender turned Liberal cabinet member)
    4. (Liberal) Michael Ignatieff (Harvard academic and author)
    5. (NDP) Olivia Chow (20-year Toronto city councillor, wife of NDP leader Jack Layton)
    6. (Conservative) Peter Kent (former Global News anchor)
    7. (NDP) Paul Summerville (former chief economist at RBC Dominion (!))

I will award points on January 24th to the person or persons who are closest in their answers, and award some prizes! Not sure what the prizes are, feel free to suggest any old thing. Keeping in mind I have little money. :) Everyone may enter, worldwide, and you may revise your answers up until December 5th at midnight EST. After that, you can still enter but with an automatic reduction in points as we get closer to January 23rd, the date of the election.


Psst! Know fuck-all about politics or Canada? Here's some links to help you out (if you don't want to just make stuff up):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_election

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_of_Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democratic_Party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloc_Quebecois

Standing of Parties in the 38th Parliament (2004-2005)
Results of the last federal election
Search the history of any specific riding (neat!)

CBC Election Coverage
CTV Election Coverage
Global TV News Site (no apparent election section yet)
National Post News Site (no apparent election section yet)
Globe and Mail Election Coverage
Toronto Star Election Coverage

Comments

[jdhorner.livejournal.com]

Know fuck-all about politics or Canada?

is "fuck-all" the canadian euphemism for "not a fucking thing" ?

i've never heard it before.

and i can't wait to fill out these questions with completely ridiculous answers since i don't know what the hell is going on (or, honestly, care for that matter, since i can't vote)

[c9.livejournal.com]

Correct! Sometimes softened by saying "Sweet Fuck All," or SFA for short.

Make sure your answers are numeric where appropriate, so I can calculate your points!

[bartok.livejournal.com]

ah, I thought SFA was just a Kiwi thing, since there's constant laughter about a product/department I deal with that is actually referred to as SFA (obviously meaning something else though, but of course I can't remember what). So I have to deal with the Service Line Manager of SFA constantly...

[c9.livejournal.com]

That's cute. I will have to start mentally labeling coworkers as "Managers of SFA Division."

Unrelated, you may like this post

[nihilicious.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/untoward/226355.html?style=mine

Re: Unrelated, you may like this post

[c9.livejournal.com]

I do!

[gregr92.livejournal.com]

How many seats will the Liberals win? - Too Damn Many

How many seats will the Conservatives win? - WAAAAY Too Damn Many

How many seats will the NDP win? - Not Enough to make a difference

How many seats will the Bloc Québécois win? - I'm keeping my snarky comments to myself.

How many seats will the Green Party, Marxist-Leninist Party, Marijuana Party, Elephant Party, Canadian Action Party, Pity Party, and Independent candidates win, combined? - Who???

Minority or Majority? (a majority requires 155 seats) - Hoping for a Minority

If minority, which party will hold the balance of power? (meaning which party, when combined with the leading party, creates a majority, so that a coalition might provide some stability) - Liberal, it's the devil you know, vs. the devil you don't.

Which leader(s) will announce their resignation during their concession speech(es)? - Go Harper Go!!!

Who will stab their party in the back first, Ralph Klein or Dalton McGuinty? (Note, Ralph's pre-election musings don't count) - Both???
Will the following star candidates win or lose?

Svend Robinson - Loose
Belinda Stronach - Tough one, but I think she'll pull through
Scott Brison - Loose
Michael Ignatieff - Hate to say it, but, who??
Olivia Chow - I'm guessing that's a win
Peter Kent - Loose
Paul Summerville - Iffy

Do I sound at all jaded by our fearless leaders???

[canuckboy.livejournal.com]

The irony of your spelling error: Svend Robinson and Scott Brison may be loose, but wouldn't want the general gay public to know, as they may lose their opportunity to bottom for some hot men. ;)

Peter Kent on the other hand... he's probably going to lose, but I have a feeling he's a tight-ass and definitely not loose. :P

[primary-suspect.livejournal.com]

It will be interesting to see what happens to Belinda in her riding since she probably ticked off a lot of people when she switched parties.

[ex-halfwitte432.livejournal.com]

I will enter this but not right now. Probably tomorrow afternoon.

[mightycodking.livejournal.com]

1. 114
2. 110
3. 28
4. 55
5. 1
6. Minority
7. BQ (which obviously bodes poorly)
8. None. They'll wait til later.
9. Klein
10. Robinson, Stronach, Brison, Ignatieff will win. Chow, Kent, Summerville will lose.

[canuckboy.livejournal.com]

I don't think Svend will garner enough of the West End vote (homo, hetero, or in between) to win. Hedy's got it.

[mightycodking.livejournal.com]

But that would make me wrong. WTF?? :)

[c9.livejournal.com]

1. +10
2. -7
3. +1
4. -4
5. Correct!
6. Correct!
7. Correct!
8. Nope.
9. Nope.
10. 5/7 correct.

[canuckboy.livejournal.com]

How many seats will the Liberals win? 120
How many seats will the Conservatives win? 104
How many seats will the NDP win? 18
How many seats will the Bloc Québécois win? 60
How many seats will the Green Party, Marxist-Leninist Party, Marijuana Party, Elephant Party, Canadian Action Party, Pity Party, and Independent candidates win, combined? 1
Minority or Majority? Liberal Minority
If minority, which party will hold the balance of power? Bloc
Which leader(s) will announce their resignation during their concession speech(es)? None - Stephen will still run in the soon-to-follow election of Summer 2006
Who will stab their party in the back first, Ralph Klein or Dalton McGuinty? Ralph. Hands down.
Will the following star candidates win or lose?
Svend Robinson: lose
Belinda Stronach: win
Scott Brison: win
Michael Ignatieff: win
Olivia Chow: win
Peter Kent: lose
Paul Summerville: lose (although he might get my vote)

FYI: these numbers were picked at random. I may change them.

[c9.livejournal.com]

1. -17
2. +20
3. +11
4. -9
5. Correct!
6. Minority, but not Liberal. Half points.
7. Correct!
8. Nope.
9. Nope.
10. 7/7 correct!

[c9.livejournal.com]

1. -33
2. +28
3. +9
4. -5
5. +1
6. Correct!
7. Nope.
8. Nope.
9. Correct!
10. 5/7 correct!

[thespos]

I am going to do some research and come back to this post. :-)

Besides, I still have that story about your cabinet that I owe you. I haven't forgotten. :-P

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

I wish I had the free time to put in enough research to answer this meaningfully, but this just happens to be the busiest I've been since I started this job, and if I want Christmas vacation, it's going to continue to be so until January! Sucks!

PS: Yes, Harper is batshit insane. For the longest time, I thought his anti-gay stance was just to garner votes*, but now I see it's a deep seated obsession with him. It has to be for him to do something that stupid!

*I once had a Conservative staffer tell me at a party (with a straight face) that the two biggest issues on the minds of Canadians are gay marriage and the strengthening the military. Seriously! They have some seriously whacked out pollsters.

[msvu20.livejournal.com]

You know what I just realized after reading that list of names, that Canada has no motivating or charasmatic political leaders. At ALL. It's like picking between shades of white.