Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

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!

Good catch.

I would believe that they majority of BCers do support the pipeline, but I really doubt it's 60-30. Past polls I've seen had pretty different responses. And the way a poll asks these questions could really skew the results.

there were some STEMy students on my bus this morning, doing co-op terms so on their way to their workplaces downtown, talking about their plans for the future, all from asia - one guy mentioned going home to jordan, another mentioned being indian.

one had planned to move to montreal after he graduated and said that with the government that had been elected he was changing his plans and was going to move to toronto instead. the other two assented.

Pipeline should be given to FNIM people as part of reparations imo.

im all for reparations but since a bunch of the nations whose land it's going over don't want it that would be flawed (of course a bunch of nations are for it too, first nations aren't a monolith etc.)

Canada 1st in the world in resettlement of refugees in 2018 with 30%.

I suppose that yes, sometimes, Canadians values ftw.

that's heartening

Agreed it would be a complex thing to work out but any form of reparations for the FNIM will be complex, just like any legitimate solution to a complex problem is. I'm just throwing the idea without knowing some of the important details, I'm just working from a basic assumption: it it is to cross those First Nations lands without their consent, at least it should be theirs to profit from the monetary gains.

that's basically the status quo. the government of canada has - a very sui generis - "fiduciary responsibility" for first nations' lands, which the government of canada technically owns. they will consult with the first nations about what they want done in a particular case, because they legally have to, but then they decide what they wish to do. so in this case they will allow the pipeline to be built, and the first nations whose lands it is built on will receive money from it

ok from a what I understood they are not the proprietors of the pipeline itself, they would need to buy stakes.

Full text of the CCLA's court challenge to Quebec's Bill 21. Supporting this might be the most effective way to oppose the bill: https://ccla.org/ccla-nccms-application-regarding-bill-21/

Easier to read in Firefox than Safari ime