A post-mortem on the election results in Peterborough and across Canada

With relief, I saw right-wing ideology turned back in my country on Oct. 21.

I saw almost 65 per cent of my compatriots turn down all aspects of Trumpism, and vote for faster climate action and for an inclusive, fairer country.

I saw that, apart from a few nasty comments, such as Andrew Scheer calling Justin Trudeau names during the national TV debate, it was generally civil in tone. It was still not substantial enough in discussion of issues.

The campaign certainly was civil in Peterborough, though some letters to the newspaper displayed deep animosity.

I saw people, feminists, bringing flowers to the offices of both Candace Shaw and Maryam Monsef.

I saw citizens of opposing parties reinserting campaign signs that had fallen over for their neighbours.

My two brothers made a joke of taking their opposing front lawn signs and moving them to the backyard on each other, overnight.

Peterborough thinker Ben Wolfe posted a graceful post-election message. He thanked those who voted strategically for winner Monsef in order that Conservatives not be elected, and then he thanked those who voted with their hearts, for the NDP and the Greens.

We may have dodged a bullet. Voters should know now that Scheer’s team of advisers included Hamish Marshall, who co-founded the right-wing media site The Rebel.

Georganne Burke, from Scheer’s team, worked on American elections and continued to support Donald Trump online.

There are other small benefits from post-election time: hearing less from the Eeyore in our midst Andrew Coyne, who sees disaster behind every rainbow, and less from self-described anarchist who refuses to vote at all Rosie Di Manno, in the Toronto Star.

I rejoice that these people were re-elected: Joyce Murray, Elizabeth May, Hedy Fry, Bardish Chagger, Karina Gould, Patti Hajdu, Catherine McKenna (a heroine against hate), Chrystia Freeland, Carolyn Bennett, Marc Garneau, Ahmad Hussen, Adam Vaughan and delightful surprise (since his father and stepmother live in Peterborough) Adam van Koeverden, in Milton.

I will miss the ever-reasonable Ralph Goodale, and Randy Boissonnault, the Rhodes scholar from Edmonton who became the prime minister’s point man on LGBTQ issues. Randy has encyclopedic knowledge of the status of LGBTQ people around the world.

I am sorry that Pierre Poilievre, the attack man on the front benches of the Conservatives in the House, is back.

On women’s rights, I learned that fully half of the Conservative candidates were endorsed by the hardline, anti-choice group “Campaign Life.”

The House now has 98 women members, up from 88 in 2015. That’s 29 per cent. Not exactly glowing.

Six hundred women ran in the election, says Eleanor Fast, of Equal Voice.

Let’s watch 25-year-old Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who was elected in

Canadians will have to learn and practise both new and old ways of co-operating and compromising. Put the women in charge, perhaps.

Nunavut.

Here is an interesting note: if we had had proportional representation, Mr. Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada would have six members in the House today.

For the future, Canadians will have to learn and practise both new and old ways of co-operating and compromising. Put the women in charge, perhaps.

My friends in Alberta feel completely misunderstood. They believe they subsidize Quebec especially, with their contribution to the national budget through equalization payments, and yet Quebec, for environmental reasons among others, won’t develop its own natural resources.

They ask how soon the ROC (Rest of Canada) and the ROW (Rest of the World) will get off oil. They tire of eastern “holier-than-thou” pronouncements about the tarsands when the people making them depend on oil.

With all this reconciliation work to be done among ourselves and our regions, Canada must also stand tall as a liberal democracy in the world.

No more talk please of cuts to foreign aid or shutting down our borders. Or of separation as a threat made by self-serving politicians.

The potential for progress in the future with a Liberal minority dependent on support from the smaller parties is enticing.