I am not a Conservative supporter. I have never been one, which is not a popular stance to take in a province where the map was quickly colored in blue. Naturally, I didn't vote for the party in this election, I disagree with many of their policies, and to be completely honest I didn't want them to form a majority. I try not to push my politics, but that's how it is. With that in mind, it's painful to say it but I actually think a Conservative majority might be a good thing.
Given the election results overall, two things are clear. One, the NDP is simply not ready to govern. This is not to say that in four years they won't be ready, but this is just what happens when a party more than doubles their seat count. The majority of their caucus is extremely inexperienced. Many are very young, with several Quebec MPs being in their 20s. While they are full of new ideas, which is good, they also don't know what they are doing yet, which is less good. The majority of the party will need to use these four years in opposition as a crash course in governing. At the end of the term, they might be ready, but half of the party's job right now is just to prepare their new group to actually be good MPs overall. That would be very difficult with the party in power, and equally difficult if the party must constantly prepare for a new election.
The other thing that has become clear is that the Liberal party needs to rebuild, and honestly it doesn't have time to do much else at the moment. In fact, it could be argued that the minority government situation is what caused their massive defeat in the recent election. After Stephan Dion did poorly, the party hastily put Michael Ignatieff as leader, as a desperate attempt to stay relevant and have a chance. It was an ill considered and hasty move, and as a result the attempt fell completely flat. Ignatieff can't shoulder the entirety of the blame for the crush of the Liberals, since his leadership was just one of a number of poorly thought out and quickly implemented steps to stay ahead of any proposed elections. Obviously, his appointment didn't work, and the party was making decisions so fast it never had time to consider if they were the right decisions.
As much as I'm not particularly fond of the idea of four years of Conservative government, I have to admit that it gives the other major parties time to plan. For the NDP, it's going to be an extremely advanced political science program, a crash course to get the rest of the party up to speed and ready for the next election four years down the road. It will also be a time to prove to the rest of the country that the party can actually pull off what they promise, and after decades in the third party slot they have their first major test. Whether or not they succeed is up to them, but if they ever hope to form government this is the next step. The Liberals now have time to select a good leader, get a strong platform, and consider their next move, something that hasn't happened since their last loss. I might not agree with the party in charge, but on reflection the relative safety of a majority is what the rest of the parties need. After an election where the map changed completely, it would be difficult to effectively prepare for the next go around, or for a complete change in responsibility. Four years is a good amount of time to prepare for the next step.
