Canadian Elections

Glaucus

Glaucus

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I know this is a burning issue for everyone, so I thought I'd go and make a thread so we can all discuss. :wink:

Anyway, ran across this on facebook (which is kinda ironic): Ignatieff slams Harper over Facebook screening

Awish Aslam, a second-year political science student at the University of Western Ontario, told CBC News she and a friend were trying to attend a Sunday rally with Harper when they were asked to leave by a RCMP officer.

Aslam said they were led to the lobby where the officer told them they were no longer welcome because they had ties to the Liberal party. Aslam said the only explanation was her Facebook profile photo showing her posing for a picture with Ignatieff at a recent Liberal rally in London.
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Well, I guess that rules out my chances of attending a Harper rally as I'm friends with both a Liberal and NDP MP. Sucks to be me I guess. :lol:
 
You know, that's kind of reminiscent of another recent politician I can remember whose staff would remove people from meetings on the basis of bumper stickers and what not.

While it is anti-democratic to exclude people from meetings based on what you think their opinions might be it is also alarming as it implies that there is a significant and creepy amount of surveillance going on.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
You know, that's kind of reminiscent of another recent politician I can remember whose staff would remove people from meetings on the basis of bumper stickers and what not.
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I'm not aware of any similar incidents, but I imagine you're referring to certain election time fiascoes south of the border?

While it is anti-democratic to exclude people from meetings based on what you think their opinions might be it is also alarming as it implies that there is a significant and creepy amount of surveillance going on.
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Yep and that's kinda what first got into my head as well. That means there's someone who actually "googles" every single person who applied to attend the rally. Of course, this all fits in perfectly with Harper's highly controlled (and limited) access to reporters and Canadians themselves. I laughed out loud when he blamed this whole incident on his "staff", like they would ever do anything without his explicit direction on the matter (I also found it funny that they put so much effort into screening rally members and a lot less so on their own staff who've recently been let go for various shady reasons). Everything about him oozes undemocratic tendencies, I just don't understand how people can vote for him. He's a snake in the grass as far as I'm concerned. I don't know about you, but my nightmare scenario would be for him to get a majority victory. In a way he's Canada's George Bush; no matter how badly he fucks up the nation, people feel compelled to keep voting for him. I just don't get it.
 
Canada watches its democracy erode

Edmund Burke noted that all that was necessary for evil to triumph was for good men to do nothing. Canadians are certainly good and worthy folks, but they suffer an excess of civil obedience, politeness and lack of civic rage that could be harnessed to combat political atrophy. At a time when Arabs risk life and limb for political freedoms, Canadians seem largely apathetic about the erosion of their democracy.
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Glaucus said:
Canada watches its democracy erode
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Watching is right. I find there are a lot of people around these parts who just aren't all that smart... or perhaps they just aren't paying attention. Right from day one Harper was shady but some people take criminal disregard for the rules as "strength".
 
Voters should consider Harper's contempt.

"It would send a bad message about parliamentary democracy if a government brought down for contempt, very serious contempt, on the finding of a Speaker, is rewarded with a majority. I think it would encourage Mr. Harper and maybe those after him to be contemptuous of Parliament. And then I think we're in real trouble.
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In Canada, we have had 13 minority governments at the federal level. There have been many more in the provinces. In Britain, the "Mother of all Parliaments" has seen 18 minority governments since 1834.
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Glaucus said:
http://www.shitharperdid.ca/
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Shane Koyczan just made a contribution to shitharperdid

[youtube:2m91me6k]fUnFhCcNPoo[/youtube:2m91me6k]
 
Good video.

It's the split vote that's killing us. To be honest I was upset with Jack Layton as he's been going after the Liberals just as much as he's been going after Harper, where as the Liberals were pretty much focused only on Harper until recently. Layton is basically helping Harper with his majority as the left vote is now split 50/50. If we had run off votes here in Canada it would be different, but the current setup greatly favors the Conservatives. If anything this highlights that Canada needs to overhaul it's election system. The only way to cope with the existing system is to vote strategically. I urge people to vote for whatever party is most likely to beat the Conservative MP in their riding.


And oh yes, there's this: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/canada_save ... acy/?rc=fb
 
A ditty I just did... because it was rattling around in my brain - not looking to win any awards :)

Come into my parlour
Said the Spider to the fly.
I am moral and upstanding
And you know I never lie.

The world is full of terrorists
And the gays are trying to wed
And the druggies have your children
And the pension fund is dead

Here come Layton and Ignatieff
And they're scary and conspiring
So you must cede to me
The power they're desiring

Hurry, hurry, hide in here
I have a plan for you
It's all in your best interest
What else would a spider do?

And so the fly, not knowing why
Flustered with great dread
Flew as the spider pointed
Into a sticky thread.

The more he buzzed, the more he stuck
And the spider said "You'll stay"
"There must be some austerity
I've some bills that you must pay".

"You chose this" said the spider
as the fly began to cry.
And I believe I have a mandate
And now I'll suck you dry.
 
I love it! Get your guitar and a web cam and make yourself a video that is sure to go viral in no time! You could make the 6 o clock news! :-)
 
The real story of this election so far is the surge in NDP. No one seems able to explain it. I think the polls that show people vote mostly on policy and second on personality are BS. I think this election is mostly about personality and Jack Layton seems to be winning people over. I don't see anything at all new in the NDP policy this election and I'm not even sure the NDP can deliver. And as repugnant as Stephen Harper is to me, those that vote Conservative tend to like him for some twisted reason. And it seems that no one likes Ignatief because, well, he's not a career politician. It's perhaps why I like him. Of all the politicians, he's the only one to have ever been in a war zone. So even if his views on our foreign policy isn't radically different from what we have now (although different enough to be worth voting for), I know that he'll be basing his decisions on more then just how we can win favors from the US. I also like how only Ignatief presented a real plan to shift money from corporations into social programs. Overall, a realistic policy that steers Canada back towards Canadian values that we can identify with. But the problem with Ignatief is that he can't sell it. Or really, he can't sell himself. When he first presented the policies Liberals polled well, but the more people saw and heard Ignatief himself speak, the more turned off they became. So I can only conclude that people are voting based mostly on personality. It's like elections are just another reality show were talent or skill is second to popularity. Pretty sad.

Having said that, I'd be more the happy to see Jack Layton as PM instead of Harpo. If Harper doesn't get his majority, and god help us if he does, Layton will most certainly try to form a coalition. Would that be our first ever NDP PM? Not sure, but it certainly would be the first in decades. Still, an NDP PM backed by the Liberals would be a welcomed change and would also signal the end of Harper's career. Wouldn't that be something?
 
Glaucus said:
The real story of this election so far is the surge in NDP. No one seems able to explain it.
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It could just be that the polls are wrong (or fake) - maybe a ruse to draw off Liberal votes to the NDP in tight ridings. I've heard some people worry about that and it is has a certain mad logic but all I've been hearing on the radio are Conservative ads saying how scary Layton is.

Mind you, I'm living in BC and the NDP polls well out here so there would be a regional reason why I'm hearing the ads I'm hearing.

I've liked Jack for a while and would be fine with giving him the chance to lead for a bit. He understands the importance of the role of the Bank of Canada in Canada's economic sovereignty for one thing. Elizabeth May knows as well - she may win her riding too.

Harper is a CFR tool and he doesn't know anything about anything, not even the actual age of the earth.

Ignatieff, I quite like, he's an interesting guy. He rightly denounced Israel's attack on Lebanon - unfortunately in politics that's the wrong thing to say, money will dry up, the media will turn against you - he had to grovel to the Israel Lobby before he was even allowed to come back and be leader of the Liberals. If he's harbouring a grudge over that, I'd see that as a point in his favour.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
It could just be that the polls are wrong (or fake) - maybe a ruse to draw off Liberal votes to the NDP in tight ridings. I've heard some people worry about that and it is has a certain mad logic but all I've been hearing on the radio are Conservative ads saying how scary Layton is.
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Perhaps, but the parties do their own polling. If internal Liberal polling didn't show a surge in NDP I don't think we'd see Liberals attacking Layton like they have recently. But who knows, with Harper anything is possible.
 
Slate had something to say about Ignatieff: Worthwhile Canadian Candidate

In 2005, Michael Ignatieff returned home to Canada with a gilded résumé. In the 36 years since he'd left Toronto, he had become one of the world's leading public intellectuals: reporting extensively on human rights issues for the BBC and the New York Times; writing more than a dozen books, one of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; and teaching at Harvard, where he'd helped codify the case for humanitarian intervention that President Obama invoked to justify bombing Libya. He seemed eminently qualified for his new chosen field—politics—and his sights were fixed on Canada's top job.

In 2006, Ignatieff was duly elected to Parliament, and three years later he became leader of the Liberal Party. Now he is finishing up his first election campaign at the helm—and he's all but certain to get trounced. Canadians' minds appear to have been made up from the start: The ambitious Mr. Ignatieff needed a comeuppance. In Canada, you can be disqualified from leadership for wanting it too much.
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If you look in the comments you'll find a reply I made. Anyway, off to the voting booth I go.
 
Glaucus said:
If you look in the comments you'll find a reply I made. Anyway, off to the voting booth I go.
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Let me see if I can guess who you're voting for. :)

On a different hand, there seems to be a wee spot of fiction in the article, for e.g.
The opposition forced this election despite solid public support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government
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Harper didn't have to table the budget he tabled - he knew it wouldn't pass but he wanted an election. I'm pretty sure the situation was transparent enough that the majority of people could see that.
 
Glaucus said:
What a disaster.
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Ha ha. You got back in before I did. I was at a gruelling by-law meeting. It basically played out the way I figured it would and I got hung out as the hold out when all the other fellows whose ends I already had figured browbeat the other holdouts into premature "reasonableness".

When I got done with that arduous task I checked in and ... holy crap.

Disaster? Maybe. Wake-up call? Definitely. I feel bad for the Liberals in a way but not really so much. Trying to place yourself between the Stephen Harper (to the right of Tatcher) and the centerist Greens was just not smart. The Liberals ceded their centerist position to the Green/NDP (which are pretty close together but NDP has much better name recognition) and stuck themselves out chasing Conservative votes that just weren't going to vote for Conservative light. The centerists took advantage of the ground they had occupied.

In a way it's an ugly outcome because now Harper has his majority but it is equally ugly for the Conservatives because now they really have an opposition and an energized center. Just look at the raw vote count. 39% Conservative, 30% NDP (roughly). That's an absolutely staggering showing for a populist party.
 
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