Canadian Politics Thread

I will say, from a half-facetious American standpoint, that the past year or so has been the most exciting Canada has seemed in eons. The whole country is turning into one of those dark underbelly of the suburbs stories.

uhh

Just joking, really. Canada not being exciting or whatever has been a silly American comedy trope for forever. But this does seem like a whole bunch of crazy Canadian stuff - Tom Ford, Ghomeshi - is getting major attention all at once.

Rob Ford, sorry, Drinkin wine.

I wish Tom Ford was our problem instead of Rob Ford. But tomorrow is the Toronto mayoral election!

It seems like the Ottawa municipal election is almost reassuringly boring, especially compared to Toronto's. We have 11 candidates for councillor in Somerset ward, all of whom are running on quite similar platforms. Jim Watson, who is so MOR that he used to be a provincial Liberal cabinet minister, will almost definitely be re-elected mayor, given that none of the opposing candidates are particularly compelling or radically different in political orientation, as far as I can tell. In a way, it's nice to not think about ideology and just focus on the experience and competence of individual candidates.

Wow: https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/526529361969938432/photo/1

Doesn't seem to be on the current Sun homepage.

Racist, deeply insulting, or both. I can't decide.

I also read another ddale tweet where he witnessed someone literally shout at Olivia "Get lost, bitch, this is Ford country" or something to that effect. More or less confirms my deepest fears about Toronto...

that chow cartoon is disgusting for a cornucopia of reasons. to be honest the vulgar dishonesty of it is the worst aspect to me. i work right by the sun offices and will be incredibly tempted to punch that fuck face cartoonist donato in the head should i ever encounter him.

at any rate – I'm looking forward to dofo being forever banished after today.

ok so look does Doug stand even the slightest chance of winning?
I don't want to vote Tory at all, but we're all going to feel like assholes if Dougie sneaks up the middle just because a bunch of progressives threw away their votes on the guilt-free lost cause of Chow.

he's got a snowball's chance in hell, right?

Example of the raging debates in Somerset ward:
http://ecologyottawa.ca/2014/09/12/ward-14-somerset-candidate-questionnaire-responses/

while his poll #'s are better than you would expect for such a wretched excuse for a human – he has a very hard ceiling. something like 60-65% of voters do not want to touch this guy. at all. ever. i am 99% sure it's safe to vote your conscience.

I'll bite: as a non-Torontonian, are there any significant policy differences between Ford and Tory?

Fair point - but yes, there's a re: significant differences in their transit plans (neither is great but Ford's is insane). Doug Ford's "platform" for what it's worth is mostly lists of promises of expanded services for particular neighbourhoods (eg more ice rinks for Scarborough! subways subways subways!) and no tax increase pledges than any kind of coherent vision. Tory's just a generic pro-business right winger.

On a different note, federal polls have been intriguing over the last couple of weeks. The NDP are within spitting distance of the Tories at this point. I believe ipolitics even raised the possibility of a Liberal minority with NDP Official Opposition come the next election. Obviously, predicting anything this far off is idle speculation.

Imo, the federal NDP has mostly been killing it over the last while. I'm not entirely sure why the LPC and J. Trudeau are as popular as they are, unless it has to do with people tiring of the CPC and not wanting to swing very far left.

( http://www.threehundredeight.com/p/canada.html
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/10/19/time-running-out-for-harper-as-conservatives-risk-2015-defeat-poll-thompson/ )

yeah agree next election will be really interesting. Feels like people have finally had it with Harper and Mulcair is gaining ground. I can see NDP picking up a lot of Liberals who don't trust JT.

i think i'd be more willing to trust Trudeau than Mulcair right now... weird that he has the highest approval of the three leaders. at any rate, i always assume the Conservative mud-slinging machine will be able to drive off a decent number of opposition votes by the time polls open in 2015.

i think i'd be more willing to trust Trudeau than Mulcair right now

Why?

I feel like Trudeau has been pretty wishy-washy even for a Liberal. Mulcair and the NDP have been pretty strong on forcing a debate on murder and disappearance of aboriginal women and proposing clear policies on child care and the minimum wage. I'm not even sure I agree with them about the war in the Middle East but at least they have taken a clear stance and held the government's feet to the fire when the govt has been typically vague and mysterious about important things.

granted, i've sort of tuned out federal politics while my city has been under siege – but Mulcair seemed to change his stripes when it suits him, while Trudeau appears to have more courage behind his convictions. don't disagree that Mulcair has performed much better int he house tho.

Mulcair and Trudeau are, to paraphrase a VICE article on Scottish football hooliganism, "a bald man and a severed head bickering over a broken comb."

Is there any info out there about how many times Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was shot? Some sources say he was shot more than a dozen times by security before Kevin Vickers fatally wounded him. Others say that Vickers emptied his entire magazine into him from a range of about three or four feet. I think he was using an RCMP issue Smith & Wesson 5946, which may have held 10 rounds but probably 15. Still other things I've read say that Bibeau was shot almost 20 times without saying by whom.

Can't actually find a definitive answer to this. Anyone?

not sure there is a "definitive" answer yet

Is there media coverage anywhere putting this in it's correct context as a mental health issue and scoffing at all the "Canada Has Changed Forever/TerrorTerrorTerror/Attack on our Soil" bullshit?

I'm glad Mulcair is saying this: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/29/ottawa-shooting-mps-parliament-caucus_n_6068160.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-politics

Yeah, there wasprobably a smarter way to do that than to get into the hair-splitting debate over whether or not it technically counts as "terrorism" but I'm glad someone is trying to undermine the push for greater powers of surveillance etc.

It's what almost everyone I know thinks anyway. Haven't met a single person who gives a shit about "terror" and everyone cares about drug addiction, homelessness and mental health - because it's outside our doors every day. Fucking Globe & Mail last weekend was a complete disgrace. There was a scene in the local coffee shop on Saturday morning there where myself, my friend, the barista and three strangers all bitched and eyerolled while collectively leafing through page after page of reactionary nonsense.

JT's response is pretty classically Liberal (as opposed to classically liberal) and gets at why I find him so wishy-washy:

"The RCMP was clear, these were acts of terrorism, (so) these were acts of terrorism," said Justin Trudeau.

I was neutral/he's better than Harper about him before, but right now I'm starting to hate him.

..and he was wearing a poppy at the time. How patriotic. It's not even Halloween yet you twat.

Autopsy of Zehaf-Bibeau was "inconclusive" and there are few real facts confirmed. But it seems like the dude went down in a hail of bullets from numerous House of Commons guards - which is kind of what seemed to be the case from what we knew on the day, despite the media story of Kevin Vickers doing a Bruce Willis on him (disappointing so much of the media ran with that btw). Now it seems the narrative is that the RCMP will look like incompetent twats if the full details are put together so they are being dicks about releasing any real info.

Don't worry Canada, Stephen Harper is going to protect after your rights

Mr. Harper said Canada and its allies face a war from Islamic extremists and should expect to do so for some time. “I don’t say this out of any particular pleasure or excitement, but it is a fact,” he said.

thanks for the clarification

Hah - that phrase jumped out at me too. Like it would be a thing to be excited or pleasured about facing a war. What a nut.

In the 'WTF?" file: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-poll-finds-harpers-anti-terror-bill-is-a-political-juggernaut/article23067983/

Even the National Post had a brief moment of lucidity: http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/18/john-ivison-mulcair-looks-alone-among-party-leaders-in-wanting-serious-talk-about-anti-terror-bill/

lol

harpo harpo harpo

Yeah, saw that globe and mail article this morning and was thinking wtf? Especially since deep in the article there's this: " a large majority, 69 per cent, believe there should be additional oversight so police agencies “do not go overboard with these new powers." Headline might as well have been the opposite.

Only Mulcair is truly going to oppose it. This is not good.

Generally speaking I'm really unimpressed with Trudeau and Mulcair increasing looks like he would make an excellent PM.

Same. However, there is no way Mulcair will ever gather the necessary votes, and I'm not sure making Quebec their base is a good look for the other provinces.

I wish there was a way to alter that narrative (that Mulcair has no chance). The way they treat him in the press is ridiculous - they forget he is the leader of the opposition and instead acts as though Trudeau is in that role, even though he never says or does anything remotely substantial and represents one third of the seats that the NDP has. I would not be surprised to see a deflation in the expectations surrounding Trudeau (caveat: I am always wrong about such predictions).

What was really amazing about that G&M story was that a few pages later there's a letter from Chretien, Martin, Clark and Turner which ought to have been on the front page.

I missed this discussion! Yes, I completely agree with this (and I don't even agree with the NDP on PR or the Senate):

I'm really unimpressed with Trudeau and Mulcair increasing looks like he would make an excellent PM...

The way they treat him in the press is ridiculous - they forget [Mulcair] is the leader of the opposition and instead acts as though Trudeau is in that role, even though he never says or does anything remotely substantial and represents one third of the seats that the NDP has.

I've been reading some speculation that the Conservatives are intentionally hoping that things like this 'anti-terror' bill and their opposition to the wearing of niqabs during the citizenship ceremony will gain them some votes in Quebec.

A good thing that all those predictions that NAFTA would undermine Canadian sovereignty when it came to public interest legislation were unfounded:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/01/14/canada-sued-investor-state-dispute-ccpa_n_6471460.html

I should have known not to read the comments section on this:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-judge-wouldn-t-hear-case-of-woman-wearing-hijab-1.2974282

I'm pretty sure I wore a hat in a Quebec courtroom once.

don't set foot in their province there's a warrant oot

Whoa, I had not been paying attention to the AB election campaign. Had no idea this was going on:
http://www.threehundredeight.com/