My internet picks the worst times to stop working. As a result I was without internet for the lead up and aftermath of
election 2015. But I'm back online and ready to give my thoughts on Monday's election results.

I never imagined I'd see the day when the riding of Fundy Royal would elect a Liberal. Further, I never imagined I'd be
happy about it. I took the time to contact each MP during the campaign (and met many of them in person) and it was
Liberal candidate Alaina Lockhart who impressed me the most. Accessible, willing to listen, and pleasant to talk to she
passed the fundamental first test of any candidate: do they listen. This is especially important considering I have never
found former MP Rob Moore to be all that communicative. Numerous emails (both mine and others) were left
unanswered. And he was the only candidate not to get back to me with answers to my policy inquires. Both the NDP and
Green candidates were pretty good at getting back to me but both held opinions I found troublesome. I look forward to
​seeing what Alaina does with the opportunity that has been given to her.

Canada now has a strong majority government under the Liberal Party, A solid opposition in the Conservative Party, a
New Democratic Party returned to its natural place in third, and a bit of random detritus rounding out the final few seats.
While those with short memories will find this a novel change it actually looks like a return to the Third Party System. Is
this return to two national parties duking it out while a strong third party challenges both a permanent change? Who
knows, ask me again after the next election. The fact is that the last ten+ years have been confusing for political scientists.
Was it a continuation of the fourth party system or a realignment in how parties relate to each other and the electorate?
We just don't know. Canada has traditionally had predictable elections punctuated by realignments that fundamentally
changed the system. It may well be that you could count the last few elections as a slow motion realignment. Or maybe
​the framework of how the Canadian Party Systems have been classified is no longer useful.

Oh sure, the policy platforms are different but at a structural level this election is a return to the past.

Two NDP defeats that surprised many was that of Peter Stoffer and Pat Martin. Both were expected to coast to victory.
Of the two I consider Peter Stoffer to be the greater lose. Peter was a dedicated, hardworking MP who was a consistent
voice on the left in favour of the monarchy. Peter Stoffer, you will be missed. On the other hand we have Pat Martin
who's foul-mouthed outbursts are well known. He is also a republican of the worse sort and I shed no tears over his
departure.

An Official Opposition with one hundred seats and a decent share of the popular vote is not a terrible place to be at.
Previous Conservative defeats have left the party broken (and broke). Neither is the case this time around. The Tories
have a pretty good lineup of potential leadership candidates. If I have a concern it is this: the PC wing of the party took the most damage in this fight. And while it will most likely be rebuilt after the next election I fear it being rebuilt in the
image of western discontent. We'll see.

On a more meta level the Conservative defeat has buried talk of the left uniting. While the Conservatives might like to
believe they would hold power more often under a two-party, left-right system I am less convinced. A situation where the
left splits every third or fourth election is a recipe for governing more often, not less. 

And then there are economic considerations. Canada has a housing bubble, China's economy is slowing, and Europe has
not fixed its structural issues that led to the Greece Default Crisis. In short, the next four years are not likely to be clear
​sailing on the economic front. And if the Liberals falter the Conservatives will be returning to power real quick.

​Much like the Liberals in the 1930s, the Conservatives may find themselves glad to have lost this one.

There is no sugar-coating things; the Pirate Party did not perform well. It ran 5 candidates (down from 10 in 2011) and got
900 votes (down from 3000 in 2011). While this may well be a national trend (most other minor parties lost votes) the
Pirate Party needs to reflect on its role going forward. As a former leader of the party I can say with some authority that
party organization and volunteer retention is lackluster at its best. It needs to improve.

It is also true that if some of the minor parties joined together they would at least have a shot at relevancy. Perhaps a 
​thought for the future?

A provincial by-election has been called for the riding of Carleton. The People's Alliance of New Brunswick has just
announced their candidate. The following is a copy of the press release:

The People's Alliance of New Brunswick announces Deputy Leader Randall
Leavitt as candidate for the upcoming Carleton By-election.

Leavitt's background is in business management and sales, with several
years experience spent within the NB school system working with special
needs students and those with learning challenges.

With the current state of the province, Randall sees this as an excellent
opportunity for the people of Carleton to elect an MLA who will take their
concerns to the Legislature, free of partisan politics.

“The people of Carleton need an MLA who can freely bring forward issues on their
behalf, “ says Leavitt, “ rather than electing a red or blue who just gets lost in the
shuffle of big party politics. People come first, I would be honored to work
extremely hard for the population of the region.”

People's Alliance leader Kris Austin says Leavitt is the change the area needs,
and the change it deserves.

“Randall puts people first,” says Austin, “whether at work or in volunteer
endeavors. There is no other candidate that would work as hard for the
people, and we are extremely proud of the dedication he has shown by putting himself forward to serve the riding ”

The by-election is scheduled for October 5th.

Media Contact:

Wes Gullison
Communications
506-999-0200

wesgullison@peoplesalliancenb.com

For those unfamiliar with the People's Alliance here is their About page, as well as a link to their 2014 Provincial Election Platform. Best of luck to the new candidate!

I happened upon a Facebook discussion that had ended up on my feed due to a friend commenting on it. The discussion
was on a script called 'GhostVolunteer' that would automatically fill in the volunteer form on the Conservative Party
website with random data. The idea being to flood the site with legitimate-looking, but completely fake, volunteer offers.

Now there are a number of issues to discuss here. For starters I don't know how the volunteer forms are dealt once
received so its an open question whether GhostVolunteer would even have an effect. Regardless of what you think of the
Conservative Party (and they don't play a convincing victim) they don't deserve to have their volunteer page tied in knots.
But perhaps my biggest concern is the potential for such a program to find wider use in Canada. Imagine if none of the
parties could effectively identify volunteers. The parties wouldn't be overly hurt. Candidates generally recruit volunteers
from among family and friends while parties hire what help they need. This program would instead effect those who
want to get involved in the political process but are not familiar with other contact channels. And that would be
unfortunate in an era when people are largely disengaged from politics.

Minor parties on the other hand would have a hard time dealing with a GhostVolunteer attack. Such parties rely on
volunteers for everything. Nor do they have the ability to deal with piles of spam. The potential to cause minor parties hardship is rather ironic as the script's author is himself a member of a minor party.

I hesitated for a while on whether to write this article or not. If I ignore it the script might never even be used. However, if
it does become widely used by a group with an agenda it would be the kind of dirty trick I dislike the Conservative Party
for. And I won't be a silent accomplice to that. However, if I make all sides aware of the script I risk starting the universal
volunteer block described above. But perhaps by making all sides aware of the potential problem counter-measures can
be taken. In this case the counter is rather simple: CAPTCHA. However, its not unfeasible that similar scripts could be used for email or messaging services that don't have CAPTCHA so I'd rather awareness lead to a MAD-like situation
where no one wants to make use of this type of attack.