Two Elections

I'll be keeping my eye on two elections that are happening today.

The first is a provincial election in British Columbia. Three or four decades ago there were three pro-business parties in BC: the Liberals, the Tories, and Social Credit. Then there was a successful effort to make sure that all of the anti-NDP money and energy went to a single party, making it that much harder for the NDP to win. Originally that party was Social Credit, but they self-destructed in the '90s, and now it is the Liberal party. Despite the name, their platform and performance in government has resembled the worst of the provincial Tory governments in the country over the last 15 years. They are looking for a second term and the NDP are looking to get back into power. I haven't really been following the campaign at all and I don't know what the polls look like, but I'm hoping the NDP have a chance.

The other election is for the mayoralty of LA. I've paid a bit more attention to this race, though still not as much as I could have. This is a runoff election with only two candidates, Jim Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa. The former is the incumbent, but he has been plagued by corruption scandals, and the latter is the front runner. Both are liberal Democrats. Hahn has the official support of labour because he was generous to them in his first term, but exit polls during the first round of voting showed that Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, soundly won the votes of union members. Though he isn't as fiery in his progressive spirit as he used to be and he seems to be pretty darn careerist, I would have voted for Villaraigosa in both the initial round and in this one.

In the unlikely event that anyone reading this page resides in either of these jurisdictions, please be sure to vote!