Campaign 2008: Canadian Version

[ZGangsta 0]

Libs really need a plan that's quicker to action than "wait for Justin Trudeau to get into politics."

 

Posts like the one above me really say why. The libertarian anti-tax attitudes of America will seep into Canada with enough time.

 

Well, if it makes any difference - I'd never vote for a Federal Liberal, no matter what his surname may be, anyway.

 

That said, as someone said above, I do miss the old PC party. It was a nice mix of red/blue. Sure, the new CPC party has been good to me economically..

You're lucky you didn't have any exposure to income trusts, cause a lot of people got really screwed on that.

And that was a huge tax increase out of the blue. One that Harper PROMISED wouldn't happen (and constantly painted the Liberals as evil boogeymen by claiming they would raise taxes on income trusts) in his 2006 election platform. So don't give him any praise for tax cuts, or believe anything he says in this election cycle about taxes. (Hell the guy's been in power 2 years and it seems like he's already broken more promises than in Cretien's whole reign so don't believe what he says about anything)

 

I've been a PC supporter for years and when the Alliance guys merged up with them.. I'd go to events and just be completely mindfucked about how their social values are waaaaay off from how the party used to be. Really surreal, to be honest.

 

If Harper (Alliance) somehow loses this election, I hope he steps down so that Peter McKay (PC) can step up.

Yeah you always see some fringe right wing GOP-style stuff pop up in this iteration of the Conservative party from time to time.

I agree about McKay. It was a real shame that Harper beat him for the leadership. I probably still wouldn't vote for the Conservatives, but McKay definately seems alright.

[... 0]

This site displaying all the various poll results and predicting seat counts is rather engrossing:

 

http://predictor.hillandknowlton.ca/

 

The way I see it that the CPC is bankrolling on either a Harper majority government or a Liberal minority. Why a Liberal minority? The economy is starting to point down, so the CPC and its brand spanking new leader (since if Harper loses this election which he seems to equate to one on leadership, he's outta here. I'm thinking Jim Prentice would be perfect material for new leader.) can bring down the government in '09 or '10 and say "We tried it the Liberal way, Canada, now give us that majority government we've been asking for."

 

The present worst-case scenario (for the Conservatives) is another minority government, and it's the one the polls are currently bearing out. I personally am looking forward to it because:

 

• I like some of what the CPC has done, but Harper's overbearing act is wearing a little thin, as are the acts of Calgary Tory cohorts Jason Kenney and Rob Anders.
• Stephane Dion is lighting no one's world on fire. Ignatieff was always better and more eloquent leadership material.
• It will be a tacit admission that an election really wasn't necessary in the first place since we're back at square one.
• It'll be a chance to freshen up the opposition. If the Bloc does poorly, goodbye Gilles Duceppe. He's been party leader for over ten years and I think they need to change direction. (But the Bloc has done so well in Quebec since 1993, I don't see it happening.)

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Dion's like "Hey, we'll fix up the immigration backlog by rolling back Harper's changes to streamline applications!" What?

 

It's because of the Liberals not bothering to dismiss obviously falsed up refuge claims that the backlog was created in the first place. Harper's plan gave arbitrary power to one office, but it also allowed people like me who would like to live there an easier time to eventually move in through attending school there. College and University is a great gateway for immigration and Dion wants to set that back to being more difficult again, in order to make it easier to move there. Seems backwards to me.

 

Nobody has it right in that article. Dion is wrong, the idiot commenters who want to raise the points or somehow make it harder to get in are wrong (typical "I'm here, raise the drawbridge" reaction), and Harper did something less than ideal on the way to co-oping Dion's goal. Canada doesn't need to keep drawing well-educated professionals. All they're donig is drawing in people with extensive education and career background to come in and drive cabs and deliver pizza. The jobs that are having trouble being filled are grunt work labour typically in Alberta.

 

With the American labour market so depressed by outsourcing, really the best course of action IMO is to offer these labour-intensive jobs down south with ease of immigration as a perk. You can pull in workers who don't have a dozen degrees but do speak English and are willing to work jobs most Canadians pass up to live in the MTV cities, in the frigid cold for some money and maybe even a chance to leave America if they don't like it here (a lot of us don't.)

 

Too bad anything that involves more Americans in Canada is so unpopular as to be third rail.

[Red Baron 0]

I can see the NDP be the official opposition, but this is a Harper majority government.

 

I know in the Niagara Region I've only seen about 20 signs on lawns with about 75% of them on business/corner lots.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I was up in Northern Ontario for a wedding on the weekend and the Liberal and Conservative signs were under the names 'Kropp' and 'Albrecht' which is fairly typical of a high-European area. The NDP candidate? Orlando Da Silva.

 

Also the Green candidate in my former riding is named Otto Casanova.

[Red Baron 0]

Jack Layton was in Welland today at the now closing John Deere plant.

 

Shame that over 800 people are losing their jobs to the Mexicans.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Either you're not Canadian or being silly because any true Canadian knows that Mexicans are just a myth up here. East Asian/Indian people are our versions of the Mexi's.

[treble 0]

It's the plants that are moving. I lost my job because of that and the big Hershey's plant in Smiths Falls is closing and moving production to Mexico.

 

One thing I can't understand is how all these plants and factories are closing in this area, but we're getting all these new box stores, we have a HUGE Wal-Mart, and they're building a big housing development on the site of an old cable plant that they just tore down.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Welcome to America circa 2002. While you guys were dealing with getting 50 of our cents for your dollar, we had begun watching the industrial jobs disappear, even the high-tech ones.

 

If the people in charge tell you that you'll adjust by becoming a "service economy" that just sells and supports products manufactured elsewhere, run as far away as you can. That plan always was bullshit.

[ZGangsta 0]

Welcome to America circa 2002. While you guys were dealing with getting 50 of our cents for your dollar, we had begun watching the industrial jobs disappear, even the high-tech ones.

 

If the people in charge tell you that you'll adjust by becoming a "service economy" that just sells and supports products manufactured elsewhere, run as far away as you can. That plan always was bullshit.

Well our conservatives seem to have the same idea as your conservatives, bitch about losing jobs for "good hard working people" but then not do anything about it and insist "No guys, it's cool, the free market will sort it out."

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Our Agriculture minister is a cruel, hilarious bastard. Harper's not gonna cave and fire the guy no matter how much bitching goes his way.

[Red Baron 0]

Man if Rae or Ignatieff was the Liberal party leader, The Liberals would have a minority government right now.

[Red Baron 0]

Either you're not Canadian or being silly because any true Canadian knows that Mexicans are just a myth up here. East Asian/Indian people are our versions of the Mexi's.

 

 

The John Deere plant in Welland is going to Mexico.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Okay, things GOING to Mexico I'll cop to but in terms of actual Mexicans....nah.

[Red Baron 0]

Well it didn't take too long for the Libs to bash Harper for not firing Ritz

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Man if Rae or Ignatieff was the Liberal party leader, The Liberals would have a minority government right now.

Isn't Rae kind of like the Jimmy Carter of Canadian politics? (i.e. policies that wreaked havoc and turned the guy into "too dangerous to lead" even among those who like him?)

 

Because all I ever hear about him from the outside is how he fucked Ontario something fierce.

 

Likewise, I hear Ignatieff is a good politician who will never get to lead because too many casual voters see him as some guy with a crush on the British who is only in Canada because it's easier to get power.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That's the way I see it with Ignatieff. The "common voter" doesn't really view him as a Canadian seeing as how he's spent a good 30% (if not more) of his life living outside it.

[CanadianChris 0]

Our Agriculture minister is a cruel, hilarious bastard. Harper's not gonna cave and fire the guy no matter how much bitching goes his way.

It's not like he has much of a choice. He's not going to pull someone off their campaign to come to Ottawa to be sworn in as Ag minister and briefed on a portfolio they'll only hold for a couple of weeks.

[Red Baron 0]

This might be the first time that a Liberal wont get the seat in my riding. I know this area is a left-dominated spot for the past fifteen years, but I've seen more NDP signs up than both Conservative and Liberal signs.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

In my former riding in Mississauga we WERE Liberal under a cat named Wajid Khan who's semi-famous for being the dude who supposedly snitched on the teenage terrorist sect. Anywho, dude crossed the floor and pretty much everybody that voted for him as a Liberal were uber-pissed so it brought a smile to my face to hear that when he came by my old house the other day my brother, when asked by him if he'll be voting for Harper told him "No, my blood bleeds Liberal red. Kinda like your once did."

 

According to my brother the reaction was like somebody had gangbanged his wife in front of him. Way to go bro.

[... 0]

Nice. I don't remember: is David Emerson running again?

 

Some polls according to Hill and Knowlton have the Greens coming in second in my riding with about 25% of the vote behind Prentice. I would be glorious if the first Green seat came out of Calgary. They're not doing themselves any favors though, since some of their candidates don't dispel the "one-issue platform" stigma. And this doesn't distinguish them from other parties in terms of how to conduct themselves.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

In my former riding in Mississauga we WERE Liberal under a cat named Wajid Khan who's semi-famous for being the dude who supposedly snitched on the teenage terrorist sect. Anywho, dude crossed the floor and pretty much everybody that voted for him as a Liberal were uber-pissed

Wait, I thought you voted for a party and not a person. If your person switches party, doesn't the party put a new guy in there instead?

[The Metal Maniac 0]

No, we vote for people, not for parties.

 

In fact, back when they were re-working the Atlantic Accord and whatnot, one of the Conservatives around here, Bill Casey, voted against it, which meant he was voting against his own party.

 

He got booted out of the party for it, but he still has his seat.

 

But anyway, just to clarify a little, we just vote for people - now, virtually everyone belongs to a party (there are some independents though) and a lot of people, in my experience, will tend to vote for a party without being too concerned about who exactly is running in their riding (IE, people will say "I'm voting Green", not "I'm voting for Joe Somebody") but that doesn't guarantee that party that seat. It guarantees that person that seat, and yes, sometimes people do cross over. I don't think it's a very common occurance though.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I still doubt he'll get my vote but Harper is saying that if re-elected he'll alter the Youth Criminal Justice act to include harsher sentances and he'll also do away with the section of it that prevents that youth's identity from being revealed to the public. Awesome stuff, I can't stand the fact that a 17 year old who commits cold-blooded murder gets protected.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Isn't that the kind of thing he needs a majority for? If not, why didn't he do it before? If he could do it before and didn't, what makes you think he'll do it now?

[CanadianChris 0]

He's said he would make YCJA reform legislation a confidence matter (i.e. if the other parties don't support it, there would be another election).

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Only the hippiest of hippies and psychobabble addicts would give support to protecting worthless pieces of shit.

[Red Baron 0]

I believe 18 is fine unless the youth commits murder or any other serious offence

[The Metal Maniac 0]

I dunno about that...there's been cases (well, okay, a case) around here of kids stealing cars and basically not getting punished at all for it...until the day the kid stole a car and ran over some woman in a crosswalk. I've read in the paper of parents basically begging the courts to arrest their kids and lock them up, and they don't do shit about it.

 

I think that at 16, kids should start being held accountable. Not saying that a 16-year old should go to adult prison, but they should definitely receive some sort of punishment for their crime.

 

I don't buy that people magically know the difference between right and wrong at 18. I don't buy that they'd magically know it at 16 either, but I just sorta pulled that number out of my ass.

 

That said, I doubt he'd need a majority for it, since it seems like the kind of thing every Canadian hates, thus other parties could vote for it, could they not? Assuming they would, which they should, because like I said, it seems like every single Canadian hates the YCJA.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I believe 18 is fine unless the youth commits murder or any other serious offence

 

The murder that took place at Keele and Eglinton last week was commited by a 17 year old. The murder at Bendale Collegiate in that same week as by a 16 year old. I just find it ludicrious that the cops need to jump through a ton of legal hoops in order to exercise all their resources in finding a suspect.