Canadian Politics Thread

Every Monday, teachers across Ontario have been holding off arriving at work until 30 minutes before start time: "McGuinty Mondays." What do we call them now?

Start having Hudak Thursdays, where you don't show up at all?!

I will propose this at the next staff meeting.

Whoa, this is nuts. Has the teacher's union conflict been the main issue? I have been out of touch with things in ON. I voted Liberal twice. It was only last year that I started getting the creeping sense that McGuinty did not in fact have any idea what he was doing. I'm trying (not very hard, admittedly) to think of a precedent for this and coming up blank.

Interesting: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/21/ontario-polls-nanos-forum_n_1903388.html

I'm not sure? I think it was a budget thing and the NDP victory in Kitchener?

i think it must have been alot of things.

Anyway this likely means no sessions 'til the new year, wowie

So this talk about McG running for the federal Liberal leadership: this would be a disastrous move for the federal Grits, right? (Mind you, I said the same thing about Justin T a year ago.)

there was talk about that a few years ago... but now tho?

https://www.google.ca/search?q=dalton%20mcguinty%20federal%20liberals&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&source=hp&channel=np

i didn't mean there wasn't talk about it now - i just meant i can't imagine it happening now nearly as easily as i could have a few years ago.

Ah, yeah, totally, that's what I was thinking too. Kinsella is stanning for him!

Kinsella is/was on his payroll!

can someone explain what just happened

I laughed listening to CFTR's McGuinty coverage this morning. They were interviewing people for their reactions, and there was one guy they identified as "Frank the plumber." Not sure if he'll catch on in a big way.

Just had a kid come to he door dressed as Harper. Told him it was the scariest thing I'd seen all day.

brillant. my mom once saw a kid as two-face who said 'no i'm jean chrétien'.

A little late on this but it looks like there were actually misleading scripts provided by the CPC to its callers during the campaign:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/11/05/pol-robocalls-ridings-election-challenge.html

Coyne re Liberal leadership race:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/19/andrew-coyne-how-to-enjoy-third-party-status-in-a-few-easy-steps/

Coyne being his usual smug self i see.

Anybody outside of Québec heard/spoke of this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpDRg7TLY8c

Sorry i don't know how to embed here.

Oh it does automatically. nice.

what the...

argh. I get so tired of people from 'the west' whining about how their wealth goes to pay for programs or benefits in other provinces. Hey, westerners (more particularly Albertans), want social programs? Better daycare? Lower tuition (it's not, as the guy guesses, 8 or 9 thou 'a semester' either, in case anyone's wondering)? Stop voting in conservative governments. Duh.

"We can't get daycare for $7 an hour here in Alberta." Right Chuckles, it's called provincial taxation.

Oh okay, I was trolled. The video was made by three francophones. Separatistes, perhaps?

That is where it gets really depressing yeah. That video trended on Facebook amoung my quebec friends and I fear the worst. I have tried to find what are the motives of the directors, but can't really.

Ah, I thought it might turn out to be something like that. I was suspicious at the idea of Albertans being able to subtitle something into French.

Earlier point abt whiny Albertans still stands, though

What the fuck is that shit? A new movie? Did they just find some random hicks in the Prairies and tape them saying crap, claiming that this proves that there are some deep intractable divisions in the country?

4xpost

my conclusion: no people did not know about it and i should have kept it to myself.

The thing is I honestly think the differences between AB or SK and ON are extremely small, even compared to, say, the differences between New York and West Virginia. In terms of social programmes and the role of government, QC's a little different but I'm not even sure it's a radical difference. Tuition is higher in ON than in any other province, including AB and SK. It's low in QC but it's low in NL and MB as well. And it would have gone up in QC had the recent election gone just a little differently. As I understand it, AB also spends more per person on health care than Ontario. Unionization out West doesn't seem all that different from Ontario, certainly nothing like the situation in the US.

And yeah, Quebec's a little more union-happy than English Canada but not phenomenally so ime.

QC isn't really different indeed, regardless of what separatists tell you. The whole socialist thing is hilarious considering Alberta would be considered a socialist country by Fox standards. I hope the documentary's subject is the Wild Rose party or separatism outside of Quebec and not one of those 'look they hate us! they hate us' terrible films.

I hope the documentary's subject is the Wild Rose party or separatism outside of Quebec and not one of those 'look they hate us! they hate us' terrible films.

Well, from whom does the quasi-fascist introductory quote come? I thought I heard a faint French Canadian accent but maybe that was a Westerner too?

Someone from Saskatchewan complaining about subsidizing Central Canada is truly lol btw, considering that until just a couple of years ago, SK was a have-not province (while Ontario has been a have province for most of Canadian history).

I highly doubt the quotes at the beginning are told by a french-canadian. I don't recognize the accent.

If anything, that film just show how easy it is to complain about other provinces if you have no idea how our federal system works.

You're probably right. The first time I watched it, my brain probably just lazily connected the French names at the beginning with the slightly off enunciation.

I am an ignorant Westerner.

how come no one bitches about PEI?
buncha assholes.

Potato-farming fucks.

i think i'm going to take the time tomorrow to make a graphic of all of the islands in Canada that are bigger than PEI, but are not their own province.
i will probably change my mind once i realize there are literally hundreds of them.

Real-time byelection results: http://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts_e.aspx

It's looking like it could be a Green upset in Victoria, which is kind of amazing!

(Also perhaps a sign that the NDP needs to tighten its game a little.)

Dude seems pretty cool: http://donaldgalloway.ca/about-donald

reading more about Idle No More and just ugh this fucking government and its manipulative bs

Was a mistake to try to make this so much about Harper I think. Spence is a gift to Sun News who has done way more harm than good. Sad how this is turning out.

So we have one candidate running for leadership of the country who first has to beat another candidate in his own party who once had a child with his father? That's most unusual.

Anyone watching the Liberal debate? Thoughts?

Don't think I've watched a Canadian convention, federal or provincial, since the Trudeau-Clark-Mulroney years. I haven't been watching the Ontario Liberals today, either, but I think I'll watch from this point forward. After two ballots:

Pupatello - 817
Wynne - 750
Kennedy - 281
Sousa - 203 (has moved over to Wynne)
Takhar - 18