Canadian Politics Thread

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/apihtawikosisan/2013/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-elsipogtog

^that is what I was talking about manipulation. I realise it's just an opinion piece but the headline is arrogant and the choice of what "you need to know" is too one-sided for anyone outside the Rabble hivemind. It's basically dishonest.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/in-senate-hearing-supreme-court-asks-could-canada-become-dictatorship/article15411970/

ILXOR SERVERS ON THE BRINK OF LIVING UNDER AN IRON FIST

ANARCHY AND REVOLT BECKON

So this Justin Trudeau stunt is definitely a PR move but I also think the principle behind it is sound and welcome: it makes sense for a federal state to have a bicameral legislature, with a less politically driven upper house devoted to regional balance and 'sober second thought', but partisanship is a major and unnecessary obstacle here. If he is as bold about weakening the grip that parties have over MPs as well, I may well vote LPC for the first time.

Genuinely surprised about Redford's resignation. She had some pretty dodgy expenses going on and the PCs have been a bit shambolic, but others have clung on to power under far worse circumstances. I wonder who'll be in the running to take over. I also hope AB PC voters are starting to see that this party is tired and useless.

I also hope AB PC voters are starting to see that this party is tired and useless.

I don't, because I can see what's up ahead.

I'd be interested to hear what Quebec ILXors think of today's provincial election results. English media outside the province is hardly worth reading on such subjects.

Glad the xenophobes were ousted, obv. Of course, the other powerful party is back in power. The rich get richer, corruption reigns, fuck the poor, fuck the environment, business as usual.

Don't live in QC anymore, but I'm glad at least that Marois's hateful campaigning fucked her over and QS made some modest gains.

Me neither but I've never felt so good about the words "Liberal majority".

I really dislike the current incarnation of the PQ, so in that sense I'm happy. On the other hand, the Liberals in no way deserved to be back in power so soon.

Honestly, I was pulling for the CAQ, they seem like the least bad of the choices that actually had a decent amount of support.

In the long term I hope that QS eventually replaces the PQ, though that still seems a long way off.

Is QS's basic ideological position something like this?: "We want to create a progressive, tolerant social democracy. This is impossible in the (bilingual, multicultural, highly decentralized) country of Canada because the RoC still largely thinks in the neoliberal Anglo-American framework. However, Quebecers are different (even though the federalist vote mostly goes to a party that essentially operates within the same Anglo-American framework and the separatist vote mostly goes to a party of xenophobic nutjobs). Thus, we need to become sovereign in order to realize this dream (even though our province is also totally broke)."

sort of. Their economic platform seems completely unrealistic considering the current state of the province's finances. But since they are still very far away from having any actual power, they don't really have to be realistic. I assume they will be forced to be more pragmatic as they become a bigger force in Quebec politics.

I don't know if they have any realistic shot of getting significant votes outside of Montreal. Even though I grew up there, I have a hard time understanding Quebec politics outside of Montreal. After a whole generation where elections have mostly been single issue elections, people have a harder time situating themselves on the political spectrum.

i for one am insanely relieved, the way i put it on facebook was "I am really looking forward to hating the Liberals again"

it would have been nice of the ROC* had been paying a bit more attention tho instead of obsessively focusing on every single thing rob ford says and does

*the toronto media

Ha, I got into a small fight with a friend who was making almost the opposite complaint on on FB, that the RoC was 'Cansplaining' too much to Quebec.

I like the phrase "Cansplaining". There are so many articles by Globe/Post/Star/CBC/etc writers who clearly have no idea what they are talking about, Cansplaining "the Quebec question" to us RoC types. So tiresome.

And, yeah, there's no need to talk at all about Ford. Ever. Yet he seems to be complete journalist-nip, they cannot resist. They know better, I'm sure they do.

Ha, maybe I shouldn't have argued with him then.

Cansplaining is amazing. I'll use it all the time now.

Sund4r explanation of the QS is totally otm. We really had to chose between 4 ridiculous parties.

eff cansplaining, how about just paying attention to what's happening next door

Thoughts on the ON election campaign? The most recent polls have the PCs in striking distance of a majority, which could be a dismal prospect: http://www.threehundredeight.com/

I don't think I can stomach voting Liberal again at this point. I was mostly on board with Horwath and the NDP until they started talking about this Minister of Savings business, which just seems silly. I'm seriously considering voting Green for the first time, especially after this: http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/steve-paikin-green-party-promise-could-shake-ontario-campaign

(Context, fwiw: my riding is one of the safest Liberal ridings in the country, both federally and provincially.)

i'm in an NDP stronghold which is ok, i guess. i'm starting to get a little nervous because every policy announcement Hudak makes is even dumber than the last. from laying off 100,000 people to cancelling all sorts of transit projects. and he's leading in the polls.

Yeah, it's so weird. Everything about this PC campaign seems to be a textbook 'what not to do', from running with an unengaging leader who blew the last election, to the disastrous Metalworks photo-op that started the campaign, to the flat-out promises to screw over public servants, students, seniors, teachers, pretty much everyone, the open admission that over half of the 'million jobs' would be created without doing anything other than continuing OLP policy, and yet, it seems to be working for them.

I'm struggling to appreciate just how much stuff you and I might think of as weird and dumb and dismal is exactly what a lot of Ontario think is awesome. As groovy as Toronto might want to be, this is the land of the Fords and Mike Harris and Don Cherry.

Plus a lot of people are completely fed up with the corrupt weasely entitled Liberals right now for good reason. Maybe the hate is moreso residually for McGuinty than for Wynne, but the cons are just going all in appealing to hosers on a fuck Toronto/fuck transit/fuck "the elites"/fuck taxes/and fuck YOU platform... and why not? if it worked for Ford - why not the whole province?

They also know the the NDP will pick up some seats, Left vote is split, and they can walk right in. Horvath was kind of shitty to force this election - but I don't think the situation would have been any better for the Left down the line.

It fucking sucks. Hope I'm wrong. I'm voting NDP because I'm in a stronghold too, and I actually like my provincial rep, but it's really not going to be decided by Toronto voters anyway. Would have a harder time deciding if I was in more of a battleground.

What do you all make of Adam Vaughan's big move? Would be a feather in the national Lib's cap to steal Chow's seat so I see why they wanted Vaughan because he might pull it off - but it's kind of weird, he seems like a textbook NDP-er.

I went to take a piss just now at my local—I'm in MTL, btw—and in the washroom there was a poster for the new Denys Arcand film. It shows two people having sex, and through the windows of their home in the background you can see the skyline of Toronto as shot from Lake Ontario.

I'm just guessing, since it's Arcand, that Toronto figures as a kind of historical inevitability, an anglicizing, capitalizing force that hints at some particular End of Something, in some ways just as Les Invasions barbares described the failure of the Left in Québec in terms of health care and L'âge des ténèbres describes it in terms of bureaucratic failure. In that film, the main character's wife leaves him on the pretext she wants to take her real estate courses "en anglais, à Toronto," which makes me think that for Arcand, Toronto is where people go when they've lost all reason and when they've stopped loving you.

I have some friends from Toronto coming in this weekend, lovely people. Occasionally I think about living there—again—and I'm filled with a deep spiritual horror. Toronto really is the end of something. What, I'm not sure, but it's the end, and it's not even good at it.

I thought to myself, "In order for that view of the skyline to be your apartment, you would have to to be in the middle of Lake Ontario," and I thought a little more.

Finished my piss and went back to drinking.

No surprise, been more interested in the mayor's race. I'll have to see whether the Liberals or NDP are more teacher-friendly. Invariably, we get into a fight with whoever gets elected anyway.

do you think Chow has it locked, Clemenza?

Ford spotted "on a break" from rehab in Muskoka tday, btw: http://o.canada.com/news/rob-ford-in-bracebridge

(xpost) That was my thought when she first entered--centre-right and right vote gets split, she gets everything else--but I still haven't really processed how Ford's most recent adventures will affect things. Yesterday it seemed like Norm Kelly was demurely testing a possible candidacy. If he ever got in, I could see where he might win.

Ekos showing the Libs ahead now. Looks like the NDP have a bit of a hole to dig themselves out of: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/05/16/the-ekos-poll-advantage-wynne/

The leads seem to switch readily between the Libs and OPC. The only constant seems to be Horwath sharpening her resume.

If Prentice were leading the PCs in Ontario instead of Alberta, it'd be a much more predictable outcome. Just sayin.

OK, wow: http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/02/12/tim_hudak_wants_student_loans_tied_to_marks.html

This might actually be the worst policy proposal I can remember in this province (and I'm pretty sure I'm more of an academic elitist than Tim Hudak). If he wanted to raise admissions standards, I'd be right there with him. If he wanted to put more money into merit-based scholarships, I'd be on board. All this proposal will do is punish the less-wealthy for being less-wealthy without actually raising academic standards.

Ugh, I almost deleted a couple of ONDP fundraising emails because they looked like spam: "Before I go see the accountant" and "Before I get the fundraising report" were right next to each other in my inbox. Not an impressive campaign so far. They had prepared a little before they announced that they wouldn't support the budget, right?

Not that I'd ever vote PC anyway, but Hudak's rhetoric makes the vote easy for a teacher. The Liberals can beat the PCs, the NDP can't, so I'll vote Liberal. (And then, if they win, we'll all hate them within a month or two.)

like i said after the qc election, i'm really looking forward to hating the liberals again.

I figured that either the ONDP had blown it or they had some long-game strategy going on. The latter might actually be the case: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/ndp-gains-momentum-as-ontario-election-race-tightens-1.1833865#ixzz32UPRX570

(Btw, clemenza, I think it's more than rhetoric: I've no doubt that Hudak is sincere that he will increase class sizes and lay off teachers if the PCs win!)

Oh, I think the ONDP have blown it. Given the OPC threats/promises, progressive voters are now more likely to switch support to the Liberals on election day. The trends at ThreehundredEight.com support this possibility: "of note is that the New Democrats have now fallen in five consecutive Forum polls, while the Liberals have gained in three consecutive polls."

100K job cuts? If the OPC had led with a more centrist economic policy, they'd be deep in majority projections now. Hudak appears to be a victim of some bad strategic advice.

It's funny: when this campaign started, I just wanted to see the Liberals lose. However, with every proposed policy that Hudak has announced, they seem a little less bad.

I wasn't expecting this: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/05/20/tasha-kheiriddin-why-i-cant-vote-for-tim-hudak/

The best response is probably in the comments section:

This column, in fact, reflects the position of many Conservatives. They keep on clamouring for cuts, cuts, cuts, and ever lower taxes...until they suddenly discover that those cuts affect THEM ! Oops. I want austerity...but for other people! Re-oops.

After the recent PQ experience in QC, I'm actually a little wary of the new ONDP promise to freeze tuition without any mention at all of what they're going to do about uni funding.

Anyone watching this? I'm actually a little impressed to see Wynne taking responsibility for the gas plant fiasco.

Less impressed now.

The volume of provincial ads is numbing.

Frightened enough by the prospect of a Conservative majority that I voted Liberal just now. Our (incumbent) NDP candidate is well liked around here, though, so I dunno. This one's gonna be a nail-biter.

Which riding?

I felt really good about my Green vote! Between merging the school boards, the GAI, protecting farmland, increased resource royalties, and the social innovation fund, that was a platform I could actually get behind (and the PCs are not going to take my riding: http://globalnews.ca/news/1340983/ontario-election-2014-ottawa-vanier-riding/).

I had been anticipating a Liberal victory until this morning but this is scary: http://warrenkinsella.com/2014/06/ipsos-just-now-ontario-liberals-behind-in-every-region/

xpost

Windsor-Techumseh

Threehundredeight gave the ONDP a 94% chance in Windsor-Tecumseh: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3FA7VPkAJ28/U5mjb44dQxI/AAAAAAAATVk/rb5xR3QyvcM/s1600/Ridings.png

Since the PCs came second in the byelection (and are projected to come second this time), a Liberal vote might be un-strategic if your goal is "anyone but PC".

I lived in Windsor West for three years. I really liked that city.

Strategic voting guide: http://one-big-campaign.blogspot.ca/2014/06/34-key-ridings-where-we-need-to-defeat.html

There seems to be a bit of a "stop Hudak, vote Liberal" movement happening around here even among those who are usually NDP voters, so I was going by that. Also, our candidate recently stuck his foot in his mouth a bit w/r/t the hospital situation in the city, which might hurt him a bit. Honestly, though, I still think NDP will take it here, easily. Ah well. I should have just voted Green (as usual) so at least I could feel good about myself.

Has a Conservative or PC won either Windsor riding at any point in our lifetimes?? Strategic voting campaigns can be counterproductive sometimes.

http://idealisticpragmatist.blogspot.ca/2005/12/idealistic-pragmatists-guide-to.html
http://fence.blogspot.ca/2005/12/rerun.html