Canadian Politics Thread

wow - check this one out:
http://www.canada.com/news/Rahim+Jaffer+sought+secret+info+about+Canadian+satellite+technology+court+documents+words/6948597/story.html

Well guys, it finally happened -- Elections Canada sent me a letter saying that they're taking away my right to vote because I've been out of the country for a measly five years as of September. Ridiculous and unacceptable. Five years is such a stupidly short and arbitrary amount of time for them to decide that a person isn't invested enough in the country to be allowed to vote... as if they have the right to make that decision in the first place.

:(. You're still a citizen but you can't vote? That sucks.

Yeah! I'm like only a half citizen now.

Salsa, did the news of your status change arrive via robocall?

Seriously, is this policy available online?

yeah that's ridiculous! you still have a passport and are canadian! i guess you don't pay cdn taxes though... eesh

LOL, robocall. The 'policy' is apparently part of the Canadian Elections Act, though I have no idea how it was ever passed since goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I think the issue of taxes is problematic, a lot of people see it as being wound up with the right to vote but they forget (or don't realise) that there are Canadians living in Canada who don't pay taxes for various reasons -- but nobody would say they're unworthy of a vote (well that's not true, some people probably do). But it's really a separate issue, imo, paying taxes doesn't make a person a citizen.

More info here, anyway: http://www.letcanadiansvote.com/

It feels esp brutal when you compare it to how other countries allow people to vote. I mean, I'm allowed to vote in UK elections and I'm not even a citizen here (yet), and Britishes living abroad are given 15 yrs to keep voting. France and I think a few other countries have even created extra seats where the elected members are chosen by people living abroad. The weirdest one to me is that apparently American citizens who have never even lived in the US (people with citizenship through parents) can vote in their federal elections, depending on the state their parents are eligible to vote in. And it's not like I plan on staying away forever...

anyone got any good reads on the provincial election? ive been out of town and out of the loop for weeks and need to catch up

Basically everybody I know dislikes all 3 parties. Expect record low voter turnout.

If I had to guess I'd say it's probably going to be a PQ minority government, but it's gonna be close so who knows really.

PQ minority was my prediction as well. That might well be OK. I don't think a PQ minority would be very aggressive about sovereignty?

(But yeah, I find it really hard to get behind any QC provincial party.)

I don't think that even a pq majority government would be particularly aggressive about sovereignty. So there's no chance a minority government would be.

why doesn't quebec vote for the ndp provincially? does the provincial party just lack credibility?

Because there isn't a provincial ndp party in quebec

For whatever reason (that someone else can probably elucidate better than I could), the unions and activist groups - the constituencies that would support the NDP anywhere else in Canada - have traditionally got behind the PQ, at least since the 70s, as I understand it. Could a social democratic federalist party be at all feasible on the provincial level?

quebec solidaire?

Quebec Solidaire is sovereignist, but they are probably what comes closest to a provincial ndp party.

o sorry federalist gotcha

See, this is the sort of thing that doesn't make me feel so great about the PQ:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/08/07/quebec-votes-2012-day-7-promises.html?cmp=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

(Where in QC is it very hard to be served in French btw?)

ugh, quebec politics, just ugh

keeps the place exciting tho

on the plus side wrt the PQ, though: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections/election-blog/pqs-marois-attacks-useless-harper-institutions-royalty/article4466841

I could give two shits about the Royal Family but something tells me that Ms Marois is not about to propose a very constructive alternative constitutional arrangement.

"La reine, c'est moi!"

so as anglophone(ilx poster)s, who do you vote for and does it matter?

QS is stressing their sovereigntist leanings (also kicking around helpless beavers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVSXILDtly8&feature=player_embedded

I get that CAQ is pretty wishy-washy and uninspiring, and backed the tuition hike to boot, but they're neither separatist nor corrupt (so far). Do any Quebec posters see them as a potential 'least bad' option?

I could give two shits about the Royal Family but something tells me that Ms Marois is not about to propose a very constructive alternative constitutional arrangement.

ha ha!

caq say then want to raise tuition 1000$ instead of the planned 1778$, pretty naive of them to have thought that would get them any student votes as it is i don't think i'll consider voting for them

CAQ seem like real bumblers, but at least without the (public) xenophobia of the PQ. I'm predicting a liberal landslide and, err, Amir Khadr.

Caq seems like it should be the logical choice for lots of people but lots of people don't really trust them. They seem to just make up stuff as they go along. Like that $1000 seems to have mostly been chosen because it's halfway between what the pq and plq are proposing. And lots of caq candidates are ex-action démocratique, which was the right wing party of quebec.

I really have no idea what a caq government would look like.

Thankfully, we'll never have to find out.

So I did CBC's Vote Compass for the QC election, leaving aside any questions about specific parties or leaders. A bit surprisingly, it has me at 59% Liberal, 51% Green, 49% PQ. I'm roughly in the same place as the PQ on the socio-economic scale (not too surprising) but further to the bottom on 'identity' than any of the parties, given that I hate Bill 101 and strongly oppose decentralization, let alone sovereignty.

When I weight my answers by importance, I'm 57% Liberal, 52% PQ, 49% Green.

Interesting, since I kind of hate the Liberals.

i didn't even know what the vote compass was so looked it up and found http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/story/2012/07/30/quebecvotes-2012-votecompass-faq.html and haha comment #2: "I stopped doing the Compass when no matter what you chose it would portray you as a Liberal."

Ha ha I'm gonna get my ultra-partisan NDP housemate to take that test

99% Rhinoceros?!

Voter suppression case to be heard in Dec:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/08/15/pol-council-canadians-court-date.html

December?! jesus shit justice is slow up here.

Marois is achieving self-parody:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/story/2012/08/21/parti-quebecois-non-french-speakers.html?cmp=rss

Seriously, is that constitutional?

"allophones"?!

first/home language neither French nor English

People whose first language is neither French nor English; thought it was the common term?

xpost

My French is rusty enough that I had to refer to Google Translate several times (or else I'm overrating how good it ever was):

http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/vincent-marissal/201208/21/01-4567058-planchers-flottants.php

Addresses the question of constitutionality (answer: no):
Cette loi de Mme Marois, si elle est adoptée, s'en va directement à la Cour suprême, qui, indubitablement, la déclarera illégale en vertu de l'article 3 de la Charte (Tout citoyen canadien a le droit de vote et est admissible aux élections législatives fédérales ou provinciales), article qui n'est pas assujetti à la clause dérogatoire

Correct me if I'm wrong but Rene levesque was never a signator to the constitution act of '82. (in reply to EveningStar)

That does not make Quebec exempt from it.

It was never a legal necessity for every single province to sign. It was, however, perceived as an insult and sign of alienation by Quebecers, that the federal government and other provinces passed the Constitution Act without Quebec's signature. While I would actually agree that it would have been a good idea to wait until a Quebec government was willing to sign on, this does not invalidate the Constitution Act or Charter or exempt Quebec from it.

I'm guessing that Marois's strategy, in the event that the PQ wins, is going to be to propose something blatantly unconstitutional, have it go to the Supreme Court, and then declare something along the lines of "Aha! Quebec's aspirations are being suppressed because of this oppressive consitution we never signed on to! Yet again we see that Quebec and Canada are incompatible!"

xps

The whole thing to me is not actually a language issue but a culture issue - which has been said before, and yes obv language and culture are tied - of course people should be able to manage at a decent working level in French if they're working in a system that functions primarily in French, I mean, no one is going to be translating email and every meeting for you. Hell, go to the provincial dept of health as a regular ol citizen and they will only speak French to you. This is just the way it goes. But if we all had translation devices implanted in our ears, would language still be a political issue? Partly yes, because language and culture are deeply linked via history and meaning, and partly no, because "people are people," deeply linked via humanity, etc etc - yet regardless, culture and the promotion/protection of it still would be an issue. The bigger question, outside of how to make rich people richer, in Quebec today is accepting that cultures merge and change and that's a good thing if balanced representation is maintained. But lol my small-l liberal leanings... conservatives aren't so into that...

Rant part: It's also kind of funny that a lot of what makes Quebec interesting is the ~struggle~ for representation. I'm kind of like Move On!! Grow Up! but I've also gotten kind of used to the atmosphere of struggle and what comes out of that. Old-school artist way and whatever + often a desire to win, to show 'em - it's a weird, interesting, exciting even blend of lefty politics and capitalist desires. Certain people get the accolades in whatever it is they're doing and keep at it; some people don't and keep at it, some move away, get sick of the fight and sick of being poor, whether they're Anglo or Franco. I guess this is part of a rant about what Success means in Quebec (and by extension, Canada.)

Anyway, I feel like none of the parties running in this election speak to or for me, and I'm a pretty engaged citizen.

Yeah I feel pretty alienated in this election. My friend and I both did the CBC vote compass thing the other day and landed squarely in the lower left corner where no parties reside. I joked that we should start our own party. He said we could call it the NDP.