We have had minority governments before and the country plodded on just fine.

The independents and smaller parties tend to hold the balance of power, I.E. The greens which pushed for more housing and made a multi-billion dollar deal with Labor last election is one such benefit.

I would also argue the maturity difference between an 18 year old and a 21 year old is pretty minor. - 3 years isn't that big.

Sometimes walking away is the mature and responsible thing to do.

It shouldn't be frowned upon, every situation needs to be assessed for an appropriate response.

This result is terrible.

I was hoping that Liberal would lose, but was hoping more independents would win their seats.

I actually prefer minority governments as it forced the two to come closer to the centre and gets some useful things through that benefit us all.

I meant minority in terms of a voting minority.

I said 21 because that's been used as the min before in some places. I agree, the difference isn't that big, which is why personally I'd want it a bit higher, but not too much higher. 25-30 range. In a world where people live considerably longer than they used to, a lower voting age doesn't make anywhere near as much sense. But again, equally on the opposite end of age, if you're so old that you've clearly 'lost it', a failed cognitive test is also a logical reason to suspend that. Just like a passed cognitive/IQ test, could allow an 18-25/30 year old to vote early. Checks, balances, and options. All part of a well functioning system.

Agreed. Doing things the same way just because that's always how they've been done, is not logical or prosperous long term thinking.

I assume you mean CAN walking away from USA. Not sure it's possible to be honest, as I have a really hard time believing the USA would allow it, not just Trump either, and when I say allow it, I don't mean I think the USA on paper Governs over CAN, so. Alberta and Sask would also not go along easily if CAN decided to totally break ties with the USA, and how that would play out exactly is hard to say. A CAN without just Alberta alone is a significantly weakened Country, even if it were to partner or join with another Country or (inter)national group.

Even if that were to take place over time, CAN as a whole, fully intact, breaking ties with USA, would change Canada forever. Not just because of it's disconnect from the USA, but because way more Canadians than you'd expect would decide to move to the USA as the transition took place. Especially those from Alberta and Sask, many of which who work where the majority of the Countries money is made. If Canada wasn't already a more Liberal Country, it would become majority Liberal, to the point where elections would no longer be fought between Cons and Libs, but between Libs and NDP. Neither of those parties could care less about balancing the budget either, which isn't the end of the world when Alberta oil is making bank for Ottawa, but what about when those oil workers leave in droves to the USA and the money train derails? Change the "learn to code" campaign to "learn to drill", while also pushing for a green economy due to climate change? We already can't get people to do carpentry, welding, electrical, etc, so good luck getting them to work in the oil fields. Wind farms are also struggling a bit as workers are avoiding them due to more than a few turbine fires and collapses over the last decade.

Walking away would be unbelievably difficult, and certainly isn't clear would be for the best overall. A strong independent CAN, partnered with USA, would look to be a much better balanced approach, but Canadians disagree, as that was the message of the losing 2nd place party this election.

'Snowflakes': Sydney MAGA cafe closes after six weeks - news.com.au

The only thing more insane than MAGA is Canadian MAGA, Australian MAGA, or British MAGA. It's like Polish people who supported Germany, or Chinese people supporting the Empire of Japan. 

It wasn't just the Liberals who got toasted this election either.

The Greens lost three of their four seats, including that of their leader, Adam Brandt, who was toppled in Melbourne, the heart of the country's most progressive state. For the Greens to lose inner city Melbourne is quite an upset.

The only remaining Greens seat remains too close to call as counting continues.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-08/adam-bandt-concedes-seat-of-melbourne/105268636

The Coalition between the Liberal Party and the Nationals has split after more than 60 years:

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-national-party-end-coalition-agreement-with-liberal-party-2025-05-20/

For those who aren't Australian, this basically means that our conservative party has broken in two, leaving even the bigger of the two halves with barely more power than the crossbench of independents and minor parties.

This is basically a "nuclear meltdown" for the conservative movement in Aus.

Probably something along the lines of the Nationals wanted to heed Murdock's suggestion of moving more rightwards and the Liberalst thought "Fuck that, we're out!"

What about the other members of the Coalition though? Will the Liberal National (Queensland) and the Country Liberal (Northern Territory) parties still stay in coalition or will it completely break apart?

Worth noting also is that the Nationals got less votes than both the Liberal National party and the One Nation party (about half as many as those two). While they got a bit more votes than last election, on their own they're too small to do much of anything. As such, I could see them trying to get their own coalition with One Nation and the Trumpet of Patriots running as a kind of Australian MAGA party.

Australia basically just went progressive/left leaning for the next 10 years at a minimum as neither the Nationals or the Liberals have the voter base large enough to secure an election on their own.
Basically the Piranha's are all feeding on themselves.

Gina Rinehart and Murdoch will be upset not having conservative puppets in their pockets to push their agenda's.

What will be interesting is if the Teals, One Nation or other parties pony up with the Liberals at the next election.

Firefighters are also rallying against a new Levy/Tax in Victoria.

We got the world's deadliest spiders, the world's deadliest snakes, but for the foreseeable future, we have no conservative power base.