Yeah it's pretty annoying when he claims to represent the majority when 61% of C...

cperciva · on Jan 31, 2012

The word "majority" has been (mis)used to mean "plurality" for a long time.

skylan_q · on Jan 31, 2012

Right. The last "majority" was 50.04% of the vote back in 1984: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1984

What's with this new attitude of hating parliament if it's not your party with a majority?

afterburner · on Jan 31, 2012

When it became in vogue for the majority party to simply ignore those that did not vote for it? Although it's not too extreme in Canada yet.

cperciva · on Jan 31, 2012

The last "majority" was 50.04% of the vote back in 1984

Indeed, and prior to Mulroney in 1984 the only true majorities were Diefenbaker in 1958, once during each world war (both of which were distinctly atypical elections), and 1904 and earlier.