whoop-de-doo.

Well, that was as lack-lustre as elections get, frankly. The Conservatives dissolved parliament as a minority government and still come out of it a minority, albeit with a handful of extra seats. (I love the "Bigger minority" headline on the Times-Colonist today.)

The only good thing is that Dion will hopefully realize no one wanted to vote for him and he will hand the reigns of the Liberal party over to someone more ... appealing.

Locally, our three incumbents kept their seats -- Savoie handily won her Victoria seat, Lunn's win was less decisive (and there are more than a few questions about how things played out in Saanich and the Gulf Islands), and Martin's results were down to the wire (I expect a full recount for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca).

For comparison to the 2006 election; Conservatives moved from 124 to 143 seats; Liberals from 103 to 77; the Bloc from 51 to 49; NDP from 29 to 37 and "other" from 1 to 2 but the one lone Green Party member (who was not elected as Green but crossed to the Green party shortly after being elected) was not re-elected. That's going to make life pretty hard for the Greens in the next election. [Interestingly, Wikipedia lists a slight variation for the 2008 results with one fewer Liberal and one more Bloc member.]

We have to wait a few more weeks to watch the U.S. election outcome and then we limp into the late fall Municipal elections. The City of Victoria is overrun with candidates with 8 people vying for the Mayor's seat and 35 fighting for the 8 council seats. Included in that batch are a bunch of people whom one member of Vibrant Victoria said he wouldn't "hire to serve coffee" -- the kind of candidates who give "fringe" candidates a bad name.

After November I think I will be all electioned-out.

Election night puns...

(collected from those in the room, I am neither claiming nor owning up to any of these though

"Looks like the Green Party campaign went off the rails!"

"Their train didn't leave the platform!"

"I threw MY vote in the recycle bin!"

[after a candidate who withdrew due to a skinny-dipping in the presence of minors incident got over 1000 votes] "Looks like the NDP got the pedophile vote out!"

(ouch.)

If you are in Canada....

You'd best be casting your ballot today! Polls are open 7 am to 7 pm.

(I have to wait until after work, but I will definitely be putting an X next to someone's name.. and yes, it will be the Not Boomer candidate in my riding.)

Earworm of the day...

Real Estate Barons for a Week

So. We are now in the new house -- Home Sweet Home -- and until next Wednesday at midnight, we still own the townhouse, too. Most of the stuff we had left in the townhouse is here now (probably another two van-loads left) but of course there's the U-Pak and the self-storage, too.

The move itself was a photo finish as we waited for paperwork to be filed, money to be deposited and title to be transferred, but we finished the bulk of the move yesterday and this morning got the hot water tank replaced (with near-military precision) and the cable hooked up (the tech actually had to run a new line from the power pole across the street -- I've never, in all the years I've moved, encountered that before).

For breakfast I had an apple from one of our trees and this afternoon, Kiddo came home and within minutes was outside running around in the yard. I even went out and played catch with her for a while. Even the cat is happy now that he can look out several windows to a neighbourhood (instead of a patio and parking lot) full of birds, squirrels, other cats and everything else.

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and there will be turkey to be had -- just not here -- but there is hope that we will, as pledged, be able to host Christmas in the new abode.