Canadian Federal Election 2011

[sdhonda]

Hookay then.

[tak197]

Turns out I'm more of a liberal though according to the Political Compass, I'm more like the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela in political issues.

[InsaneFool]

I always vote NDP. The lesser of three evils as far as I'm concerned.

[Tally]

Took the political alignment quiz, and it turns out I'm super in line with the Green party views. Jeez. Hadn't realized the West Coast had turned me into such a frothing-at-the mouth hippie!

Apropos of nothing, I've decided that for my next crafting challenge I will attempt to construct a dress from tree bark.

[tak197]

Took the political alignment quiz, and it turns out I'm super in line with the Green party views. Jeez. Hadn't realized the West Coast had turned me into such a frothing-at-the mouth hippie!

Apropos of nothing, I've decided that for my next crafting challenge I will attempt to construct a dress from tree bark.

I thought that the crafting made you a frothing-at-the-mouth hippie, not living on the West coast.

[empath]

Gee, I had this...feeling that the term "Contempt of Parliament" sounded so familiar when I heard it around the time of the 'try to be all things to all people' budget came out...

Ah! That's why...

And this one got pushed aside since it was just one individual (a cabinet minister) while the SECOND was a systemic action by multiple government members to hem-and-haw and drag their feet on revealing the actual cost of their plans and bills and proposals. Not just Oda in contempt, but the whole "Harper Government™" (I bet that rebranding idea isn't looking so hot now, is it?)

[ecks]

Screw parliment, seems to me harper is frequently in contempt of anyone with a properly functioning brain.

To stave off depression, I've decided to interpret the following quote to mean that harper believes himself to be or is a space alien.

"Nobody on this earth is going to be buying F-35s in flyable condition at $75 million a copy. That's not in the cards,"

from "U.S. defence expert says jets will cost double DND and Tory estimates"
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/us-defence-expert-says-jets-will-cost-double-dnd-and-tory-estimates-119247454.html

Although voting these days seems to be like choosing between getting kicked in the left testicle or the right, no wonder voter turnout is so high.

<rant mode off well not really but i'll stop posting it now>

[Lisra]

What really gets me are questions like "The government should fund daycare instead of giving money directly to parents". Seriously?

Says something about the political differences between our two countries (I'm not Dutch but Norwegian)that my thought was: why aren't they doing both?


Anyways, thanks for this topic, it is always fascinating to read about other countries politics, because only major news make it over the pond.

I'm still waiting for the government of my host country to collapse. There's something icky about that fact that it is hostage to a man who hates me simply because I'm a foreigner. He doesn't hate me as much as other foreigners because I'm white, but he still hates me. And all my friends. That's not very nice.

[Master Gunner]

What really gets me are questions like "The government should fund daycare instead of giving money directly to parents". Seriously?

Says something about the political differences between our two countries (I'm not Dutch but Norwegian)that my thought was: why aren't they doing both?

To further the difference, I don't want them to do either. If people with children are in dire circumstances, then yes there should be programs to help them out. However most people have kids because they chose to do so, and/or are in a position where they can support their child. So I don't want to be taxed more to pay for somebody else's decision.

[Alja-Markir]

Throwing some chaff into the thread, as I'm not Canadian myself, but sources I view as reasonably credible inform us that the Canadian Conservative party is planning to roll in sweeping authoritarian powers over the internet, including extra-judicial spying on citizens.

Article here.

In a curious tangent, the NDP wants to do pretty much the opposite - increase broadband and enshrine principles of net neutrality in law.

Here.

~Alja~

[Lisra]

To further the difference, I don't want them to do either. If people with children are in dire circumstances, then yes there should be programs to help them out. However most people have kids because they chose to do so, and/or are in a position where they can support their child. So I don't want to be taxed more to pay for somebody else's decision.

Fair enough. I'm ok with that, because I can get the same benefit as everybody else when I need it.

[Zaktan]

Voting Liberal, because the candidate actually cared for the residents of my constituency, unlike the current Conservative one. Waterloo is generally a swing riding anyway.

[Metcarfre]

Anybody watch the (English) leaders debate? I only caught the last ten minutes or so. I honestly thought Layton came off really well.

[Master Gunner]

I watched the whole thing, found it a complete waste of time for me, but eh. Layton came off the best, and probably got the most out of it. His strategy was mainly going "F U" to Iggy and Harper. Harper held his own and I'd say came second. He stayed calm, collected, and kept looking straight into the camera, which usually helps. Iggy was the worst off of the lot, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him slip a little in the polls.

[Matt]

layton came off ok. Iggy was a little overbearing and arrogant. Harper may as well have had "That's simply not true" prepared on a soundboard for how often he said it.


Per MG: I listened on the radio, and would rate Layton - Iggy - Harper in that order. Harper was on the defensive non-stop, but couldn't get any traction at all. Iggy had the strongest footing positionally, I though, but pushed it too hard. Layton did ok, because as much as he says he's not, he totally is running for second place, and didn't have to position himself as a strong leader and alternative to harper.

-m

[Master Gunner]

I seriously considered turning it into a drinking game, but I'd have quickly run out of liquor, and I have to work in the morning.

[shadowkid]

Well, everyone hates politicians, so one votes. Leading to even worst politicians. Somehow we have to turn this around. My solution will be to vote for no one. If we get enough people to fill out there ballots with nothing on them, we can send a message. A message that cannot be ignored. It's not the public's fault for not voting. We are ready to get involved.

[Tapir12]

I watched the whole thing with a non-Canadian friend, which was actually really cool because we discussed a lot of stuff about Canadian politics when it got boring (or when Gilles was going on and on about Quebec).

I also thought Layton did very well. He made a lot of good points, especially aimed at Iggy saying one thing against Harper but having voted with him in the house. The only think with Layton is that he comes off as totally idealistic. "We will hire more doctors and nurses and police officers and teachers" and who exactly is going to pay them? But Layton was probably the strongest speaker.

Harper held up his defense pretty well, I thought. He did fall back on the "you are totally wrong" reply a lot, but he had some numbers to back it up. It's just a matter of whose numbers you believe. He was very calm (almost too calm, not enough passion?) but didn't let the attacks phase him. I thought he presented his points well and used a lot of strong examples to "disprove" some of the attacks against him.

Iggy came off as a pest to me. All he did was attack Harper and go against everything he said. He didn't offer a of concrete actions for the Liberals. If the conservatives are so wrong, how are the liberals going to do it differently? This was not answered at the debate.

I concur that Layton and Harper made the best cases for their sides tonight.

EDIT: also, for the non-Canadians who haven't heard, the TV networks actually moved the French debates up a day so they didn't coincide with the Habs playoff game. Priorities people!!

[Danielle Pepin]

I just killed a scary big spider and afterward compared him to Harper...yup I bet he's got some extra legs hiding along with all the other skeletons.

Also anyone can pull numbers out of a hat and make themselves look legit before anyone has the chance or bothers to look at the facts. I'm seeing with my own eyes all the cuts to direly needed services like the ones that keep the at risk youth off the street and help them to help themselves with employment. I've interviewed a few of them myself. Things like cuts to entrepreneurship programs too. It's really sad when programs drop out of existence just cause they can't get enough funding other than donations to keep going when they would be there contributing to the economy directly when allowed to flourish. We need as many good ones as we can get.

[cathou]

also, for the non-Canadians who haven't heard, the TV networks actually moved the French debates up a day so they didn't coincide with the Habs playoff game. Priorities people!!

i know it's weird to prioritize an hockey game, but let's face it. in one hand the first game montreal-boston, with the rivalty that both team had this year (and every year since a while) and in the other a 2 hour debate, with 3 of the 4 candidate that have to use their second language, so they wont be as fluent and as quick as the english debate.

let's face it, the french debate is always more boring than the english one. and the chance to change anything in the result is very unlikely. Duceppe will be the only one in his first language, he's very good at it since it's his 14th leader debate...

[Master Gunner]

Even if it was the English debate, the Habs game is more important.

[Danielle Pepin]

Well, everyone hates politicians, so one votes. Leading to even worst politicians. Somehow we have to turn this around. My solution will be to vote for no one. If we get enough people to fill out there ballots with nothing on them, we can send a message. A message that cannot be ignored. It's not the public's fault for not voting. We are ready to get involved.

Voting by blank ballot is just a spoiled ballot. Voting blank or not voting at all is a vote for Australian internet rules to take over and destroy your rights.
"To make matters worse the Conservatives just put forward an invasive, anti-Internet set of “Lawful Access” policies that would have Internet providers collect our personal information without court oversight. If this goes through, officials will have real-time access to our online information."

You can send a message by petitions and actually being active rather than passive. Writing letters doesn't have to be hard and can sometimes be done with one click.
Send message to your local MP asking for open internet and protecting our privacy in online activities here: http://openmedia.ca/vote You could run for office yourself to send a message.

...or you could run for office yourself if you really wanted to make a change different from all the choices available.

[Matt]

This was posed on twitter, and I had to repost it here.

I LOL'D. HARD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ2MMAP80kg&feature=player_embedded

-m

[Tapir12]

Hahaha, so awesome

[sdhonda]

Indeed.