Canadian Politics Thread

Daniel Poliquin's book on Levesque, in the Penguin "Extraordinary Canadians" series was really interesting...I didn't know much at all about his story, for about the same reasons you mention...

I'll keep an eye open for a used copy of that. Levesque seemed like such a humble, honorable guy--he had this way of shrugging his shoulders when overwhelmed (whether he'd just won an election or lost the referendum) that was very atypical for a politician.

Bit of a left turn, but I just finished watching Donald Brittain's The Champions, about Trudeau and Levesque.

This film is great! You can watch it for free on the NFB's site. At least you could about a year ago.

It's still up there:

Part 1 -- http://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_1
Part 2 -- http://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_2
Part 3 -- http://www.nfb.ca/film/champions_part_3

I lucked into a new DVD copy for $13 at a flea market last weekend.

Interview with Mulcair:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=2215926722

RIP

http://images.moneyville.ca/images/af/37/1fd7a96b4be883637e2dd4ebaa0f.jpeg

That's one part of the budget I can actually get behind! 10% cut to the CBC over three years will probably hurt, though I'll be interested to see what results. Is anyone surprised that they're scrapping the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy? The cuts to Elections Canada's budget actually made me laugh. I'm cynical about gearing NRC grants towards 'business-oriented' projects but maybe there will actually be some good money for research. On-reserve education funding is probably good. I actually think it's good that they're raising the retirement age for public servants, not sold on raising the age to collect OAS, although it's good that they're automatically enrolling people. Anyway, pain is going to be felt in suburban Ottawa, all of which went blue last may.

New Forum poll shows the Mulcair-led NDP basking in a honeymoon, tied with the CPC nationally and leading in BC and SK/MB (!), solidly ahead of the Liberals in ON (!): http://blunt-objects.blogspot.ca/2012/03/forum-poll-post-mulcair-35-con-35-ndp.html

"last May"

Alberta's PC party has its new leader: Alison Redford, apparently a 'lifelong' conservative, though her platform reads so centrist it could be interchangeable with a lot of Liberal ones. A lot of people are surprised by this and it's caused quite a stir. From comments I've seen, some on the far right aren't happy (some of them sound like they're scared of how 'socialist' she is!). There are some mumblings that her centrist-y position leaves the far right open for Wildrose to take, which should make for an interesting election. I'm sure the tories will win anyway, but recent leadership shake-ups for PC and Lib parties plus the 'rise' of Wildrose could make things more exciting in Alberta's next election than usual.

― salsa shark, Sunday, October 2, 2011 12:50 PM (6 months ago)

I TAKE IT ALL BACK. Wildrose isn't making things exciting/interesting, they are making things scary: they're actually projected to be within the range needed to get a majority government. ;_;

huh. cutting the election Canada budget. wonder why they might want to do that...

Yeah, it's so brazen: whether or not they're guilty, the optics of that move are obviously poor. They don't even seem to care about that!

(Especially when EC already won against them in court re the in-and-out business.)

Some excellent question-dodging from Chris Alexander on Power and Politics today.

(re F-35 shenanigans)

about the elections canada biz, or hiding information about the jets (which are apparently just bobsleds with wings taped on the sides)?

xpost ah!

E-petition about the CBC cuts, for whatever it's worth:

http://act.friends.ca/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=33&ea.campaign.id=14415

I know I tried to say these guys aren't actually all that evil but, man, commercials on Radio 2 seems like things are getting pretty dire.

Thanks for posting this. Signed.

Latest news does not look good for the CPC:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Robocalls+probe+extends+Tory+headquarters/6470348/story.html#ixzz1sMb8uzjW

here's hoping...so, is this racist? http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/17/ron-leech-wildrose/

WTF?

It's just an ignorant comment I think - totally out of touch with how that might look to most Canadians. I have a suspicion that the Wildrose Party is going to flop quite marvelously next week. Easy come, easy go.

....though that might be wishful thinking, I admit.

I've heard one person predict that NDP and Liberal supporters will strategically vote PC, which says something if it's remotely plausible.

I don't buy that one. More likely this kind of crap will cause a dip popularity a bit and that will signal a significant turn in the polls. A "better the devil you know" scenario. Again, wishful thinking possibly. I don't know much about AB politics but surging new political parties often have their support surge in the opposite direction as polling day nears. And these guys don't seem to smart.

i'm curious about what the context of the interview was...i don't know why a candidate would just start spitballing about the advantages of whiteness. are his opponents in the riding not caucasian? pretty remarkable stupidity in any case.

Some brief googling has revealed that this guy is a frickin maniac. Practically unelectable I would have thought.
"http://www.faithandmedia.org/articles/show/233";

yeesh

They're not. The PC incumbent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmeet_Bhullar
The Liberal candidate: http://www.electawan.com/

2xpost

Btw, the Liberal leader's background is South Asian. He was born in India.

the Liberal's website needs some copy editing

A bit more context here - the journalist kinda reads out a more complete version of his quote. Still quite stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INM0ZhMXWGY

That said, non-Dravidian South Asian people are 'Caucasian', although most people don't seem to realize that these days.

xpost to myself
Audio of the quote: http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/04/17/audio-ron-leech-as-a-caucasian-i-have-an-advantage/
(OTM re copy editing)

so leech's message was that as a white person he can speak to people of all communities better than his minority opponents? what a piece of shit.

so leech's message was that as a white person he can speak to people of all communities better than his minority opponents? what a piece of shit.

Yep.

unfair to ambush smith with tough questions about race while she's standing in front of a bunch of signs saying ADOLPH tho.

Kind of a tangent but I have to say that it blows my mind when people use "Caucasian" as a presumably PC (?) substitute for "white". Do people really not know where the terminology comes from?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

Sorry for killing the thread.

I don't buy that one. More likely this kind of crap will cause a dip popularity a bit and that will signal a significant turn in the polls. A "better the devil you know" scenario. Again, wishful thinking possibly. I don't know much about AB politics but surging new political parties often have their support surge in the opposite direction as polling day nears. And these guys don't seem to smart.

― everything, Wednesday, April 18, 2012 7:33 AM (3 hours ago)

It's just sort of exasperating cos the WR has a lot of nutjobs among its candidates. In addition to Ron Leech's moronic comments, in 2011 another WR candidate wrote a blog post about how gay people are all going to burn in hell (more crazies can be read about here). Neither of these things seems to have had a huge effect on the most recent projection polls taken, so either people aren't aware of these stories or they simply don't care (though I'm sure the PCs have their share of scary candidates too). Sometimes I get the feeling that a lot of AB voters don't really care about anything other than having a balanced budget.

Yeah sorry for long post, WR are a threat but I like to think that the end results won't be as extreme as the current election almanac projections say. I'll be surprised if WR actually pulls off a majority but I won't be shocked if they grab a significant number of seats.

http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/canada/politics/article/1166541--federal-budget-2012-details-show-how-canadian-pm-stephen-harper-changing-government

WTF @ "Stephen Harper’s move to quietly give himself the power to approve major energy projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline, even if regulatory bodies turn them down on environmental grounds". Like, just shutting down most environmental review departments wasn't enough.

Harper's facebook should give some insight on what's guiding his decisions on that one:
http://www.weshouldbefriends.ca/timeline.html

Hahahahahaha @ the Wildrose Party plus all pollsters and media pundits, right?

except Warren Kinsella, yes.

so congrats, i guess, to Alberta for electing their corrupt right-wing party over their lunatic right-wing party.

yeah I kind of died a little inside when I woke up and checked the results and actually felt relief at seeing another PC government in charge. what a world. it's probably time I just stop caring; it's not like I plan on ever living in Alberta again.

well - with Alberta - what they do can affect all of Canada. from denying climate change to wriggling out of equalization payments; the decisions that province makes can have repercussions nation-wide.

you're right, of course. I couldn't follow through on that threat anyway. my love/hate for Alberta is too strong to stop caring about it.

Harper breaks Godwin's Law:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/26/stephen-harper-shouted-down-for-saying-ndp-didnt-support-fight-against-hitler/

is that breaking Goodwin's law or proving our Parliament isn't above it?

also strange that the National Vote Conservative Post is the one pointing that out!

is that breaking Goodwin's law or proving our Parliament isn't above it?

Oh, fair point, I guess I'd misremembered what exactly Godwin's Law was. I thought it was something along the lines that an argument is lost once a Hitler/Nazi comparison is made instead of just that the probability of someone making such a comparison approaches one as a debate grows in length.