While you were out … a quick look at National news from over the summer

Vote mobs get youth voting
Vote mobs became common practice among students prior to the federal election this past May. Inspired by Rick Mercer’s rant on the student vote apparently meaning nothing to political party leaders, two students at the University of Guelph decided to make a change. Rallying students together and filming them shouting, “Surprise, we’re voting!” or other phrases of that nature, they posted these videos on YouTube and from there, vote mobs became infectious. Mercer even attended a vote mob held by the University of Western Ontario in London May 3.

Conservatives win majority
The federal election this past May had some surprising results, with Stephen Harper getting his desired majority government, and the NDP taking a historic rise to the Official Opposition, pushing the Liberals to third rank. A party needs to capture 155 seats to win a majority in the House of Commons. The Conservatives gained 23 seats, mostly in Ontario, while the Liberals suffered a 43-seat drop.

Canada Post comes to a halt
Early in June, Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on strike due to pay cuts along with other benefit reductions to their employment contracts. Rotating strikes occurred all over Canada, as postal workers tried to make a point that they believed these changes to be unfair. Shortly after the rotating strikes began, Canada Post locked out its workers.

CUPW and Canada Post attempted a fairly long negotiation process but neither side would budge with their demands. Stephen Harper then flexed his new, majority government muscles by enforcing back to work legislation once negotiations went cold.