Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

The NDP are actually doing a little less badly than I expected but yeah, no. Are almost all of their seats in Edmonton?

I mean, how could one not be impressed with Jason Kenney's tenure as minister of citizenship and immigration? I, too, would want my province to be run by a man who understands that most foreigners want nothing more than to 'cheapen' our Canadian values, as he so elegantly put it.

i'll never forget his fake citizenship ceremony: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-bureaucrats-pose-as-new-citizens-on-sun-news-1.1271079

not much drama in that race surely. good showing by ndp would be to come within, i dunno, 8 points of UCP?

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, April 16, 2019 9:32 AM (yesterday) Bookmark

lol this was optimistic. 23 points or something in actuality

PEI election results are definitely interesting: PC minority with Greens as Official Opposition. Genuinely curious to look into more of what the PEI Greens are about. I gather their PCs are in the Maritime Red Tory vein?

Still processing both of these (from a week ago):

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/ontario-library-service-funding-pc-doug-ford-1.5102406

http://shorttakes.canadianmusician.com/ford-government-budget-slashes-ontario-music-fund-by-more-than-half/

I like music. I like books.

― clemenza, Thursday, April 18, 2019 6:31 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

remember a while ago when I said things were deteriorating? I'm sticking to that.

General strike against Ford on May 1

The only protest I can find in Ottawa takes place when I am working this evening, which is probably part of the point of a general strike but I, uh, also don't get paid if I don't work and, strictly speaking, don't have an employer anyway.

The bloodbath continues (hyperlink to similar freeze in Otrawa at the end): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/paramedics-funding-shortfall-1.5129154

Although this is somewhat reassuring, wtf were these people anticipating when they elected a Ford-led PC government less than a year ago??: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/mobile/poll-suggests-support-for-pcs-has-collapsed-ford-now-less-popular-than-wynne-1.4435061?fbclid=IwAR2eeX8iQPjeIv2J8qmltIk9rmOThdcSmkkYEVbOSB_vd4OTpbaOK-8dLCY

The proposed changes to ODSP have been actually frightening to us: https://rnao.ca/policy/action-alerts/stop-changes-odsp-definition-disability?fbclid=IwAR0NWKmNF7zqDBCJac1YLBXgAuuCw2GazeVs6b9mhyrWWTuyspjmQN3djMQ

Also, less than a year after voters delivered the Ontario Liberals a bloody rout, they are the most popular party in the province now that they have an interim leader? (Quick: name him.)

Ford is going to fuck everything up so hard. Ontario is doomed

Also, less than a year after voters delivered the Ontario Liberals a bloody rout, they are the most popular party in the province now that they have an interim leader? (Quick: name him.)

For more reasons why this seems insane, afaict, the NDP has been doing all the work of opposing the PC government, and often well. I honestly don't know what the Liberals (who were fine imo) have done to improve the public's opinion of them, other than not having a lesbian leader anymore.

why are the NDP so bad and hated (in Ontario)

Ppl hated Bob Rae as premier because he uh... Idk what he did or didn't do. He created pd days for teachers? Dude like immediately joined the federal libs which doesn't exactly support the "ndp is its own thing" theory the ndp says sometimes

Anyone itt familiar with the courage coalition?

Tbf, Rae joined the LPC 11 years after his term as Premier ended! I'm usually a defender of his Premiership. Really, though, the ONDP's 74 seats from 1990-1995 were an anomaly. Their electoral success after that time has not been any worse than it was before that time.

I don't have an exact answer to symsymsym's question. I will note, though, that I'm not sure that many NDP provincial governments of the past few decades have been much further to the left than the last Ontario Liberal government, which might be the point Will was getting at.

Yeah AFAICT NDP gvmnts have not been terribly bold for some time now

wtf were these people anticipating when they elected a Ford-led PC government less than a year ago?

Canada is supposedly one of the most educated countries in the world. You'd think that would make a difference in terms of political literacy.

getting a masters degree in 1982 does not grant you media literacy in 2019. media literacy in 2019 is p much a full time job. education has nothing to do with the sophistication of global rightist propaganda.

and yeah re: bob rae i have no real opinion, i'm just saying what i vaguely remember people saying about it in retrospect. usually people during the mike harris reign being like "at least it isn't bob rae!" i did live in rural-ass ontario, and not the cool union-y type of rural either. the "half of em work for bruce A and the other half farm" type which = a lot of "i got mine"

There was a nationwide recession as the ONDP came to power in 1990. They spent a lot on stimulus in their first budget (which became generally accepted as the correct response to a recession in the 00s). To reduce the deficit afterwards, they came up with the idea of the 'Social Contract', where all public employees would get 12 unpaid days off per year (the fabled 'Rae Days'), in order to spread the pain around harmlessly and avoid having to lay anyone off. The unions didn't agree to this, negotiations broke down, and the government went ahead with the plan anyway. Afaik, it actually worked as intended but the union leaders felt totally betrayed by this disregard for collective bargaining and abandoned the ONDP, who had previously been able to count on union support. The unions, and the rest of us, got to deal with Mike Harris's PCs instead. To listen to some people, you would think Ontario was plunged into famine and plague the instant Rae was sworn into office but I saw no evidence of that. I know I'm in the minority but this is mostly how I see it: https://www.tvo.org/article/bob-rae-was-right-but-before-his-time

(Not that I think collective bargaining principles should be disregarded but I don't think the Social Contract was a bad idea.)

And here is our Premier Douglas Robert Ford (@fordnation).

I'm sorry but this sounds really threatening, I'm not clear what I've done that could constitute a threat since it's pretty demonstrable that there is something very corrupt in QP, none the less.https://t.co/culpbINhP5

— Michael Cole 🇨🇦 (@michaeljacole) May 24, 2019

Wow @ that.

Equally wtf: https://pressprogress.ca/bc-liberal-mla-says-child-labour-is-needed-to-prevent-south-asian-kids-from-joining-street-gangs/?fbclid=IwAR2fa0TnkRyWDkElc5yr83x8-n03Wkg4GtIKXZDbo1hGzD72NTvygnN7bg4

lol

Where to begin…

canadian conservatism does it again

How much farmwork is he doing on Saturday nights?

That’s what good farm kids do. They put down their books. They changed their clothes. They went to the barn, and they started getting the cattle ready for milking time.

You go to school to get a job. If you've got a job at 12, why continue going to school? QED.

This is something: the CFS is taking the Ford to court over making student fees optional for activities it has deemed matters of 'student choice' (and which, in partisan emails, it has apparently described as 'crazy Marxist nonsense).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-universities-optional-fees-1.5153201

Anyone know anything about the legal grounds for this?

Heading to this soon: https://north-shore.info/events/fighting-for-our-lives-contingent-for-june-7-anti-ford-actions/

The whole Bob Rae saga is somehow proof to me that leftists are harder on leftist politicians than right wingers are on right wing politicians. Or at least, they are more demanding.

This is something else: 95yo LBP/PET-era Cabinet Minister Paul Hellyer discusses his apparently sincerely held views on UFOs, extraterrestrial life, and the deep state.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/by7ipl/i_am_a_95_yo_former_canadian_minister_of_defense/

Valiants Thor, the Benevolent Venusian with an IQ of 1200 lived in the pentagon for three or four years, offered us Earthlings a richer, healthier life in exchange for giving up our nuclear weapons. His offer was not accepted. (More on Thor, including his picture, in my latest book Hope Restored.)

Bill 21 is alive. Fuck this province.

Democracy at its finest. What a fucking disgrace.

fuuuuuuuuuuuck quebec

I just read through the bill and the adopted amendments and, yep, it's bad. And this, from yesterday, actually sounds even worse: https://globalnews.ca/news/5396431/quebec-government-passes-bill-immigration-bill-9/

Well, this says it's 'only' 16k applications that are potentially scrapped now: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/closure-bill-21-bill-9-national-assembly-1.5177520

Disappointed that Gatineau mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin seems to support Bill 21.

Support for Bill 21 is overwhelming in Quebec at the moment, primarily outside of Montreal where chances of meeting a muslim immigrant are slim to none. In any case, this is what 'we' voted for – 'we' only have 'ourselves' to blame. It's a lesson in populism, if you will.

As for the decrease in immigration quotas, it's doubly telling when you consider that Quebec's unemployment rate is at its lowest since 1976 and hiring is an uphill struggle in certain sectors right now.

And while Quebec is currently at the forefront of fascism-lite in Canada, keep in mind that the average pure laine's take on immigration and religious minorities is gaining ground in the ROC as well. We're headed towards even more hateful rhetoric while gently patting ourselves on the back, as usual.

I've said it before, but I'm consistently amazed that anyone might look to the French assimilationist model and say 'Yes, this has worked quite nicely so far, we should emulate it back home'. It's even more absurd in a province where the last violent incident involving the muslim community was a neonazi terrorist attack.

I'm also pissed at some of my acquaintances who were shocked when Marine Le Pen applauded Legault's election last year – totally not in the same ballpark, right?

There has been some significant opposition in Gatineau/Outaouais, although I guess largely from English school boards: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/western-quebec-anglophones-bill-21-opposition-1.5091203

luv to declare a climate emergency and approve a pipeline expansion within 24 hours

sigh

I didn't fact-check everything she said but Elizabeth May is pretty compelling here imo: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tasker-trans-mountain-trudeau-cabinet-decision-1.5180269

Speaking of lessons in populism, the majority of British Columbians still support the expansion:

https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/majority-support-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-project

Canadian values ftw.

A new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Resource Works [1] : Resource Works communicates with British Columbians about the importance of the province's resource sectors to their personal well-being. It demonstrates how responsible development of British Columbia's resources creates jobs and incomes throughout the province, both directly and indirectly, while maintaining a clean and healthy environment. And Resource Works explores the long-term economic future of British Columbia as a place that depends on the responsible development, extraction and transportation of the province's resources.

well they seem unbiased!