[Discussion] Canadian Politics Catch-All

A place to discuss Canadian politics and more general political topics through a Canadian lens.

Reads like a pretty standard, off the shelf Conservative to me.

I think the Canadian Alliance have finally finished taking over the Conservatives.

Certis wrote:

Reads like a pretty standard, off the shelf Conservative to me.

Pretty much... since the PC-Reform merger.

From what I understand, his background is what allowed him to win overall as the other candidates were eliminated. The PC party has been divided between those who want to move towards socially liberal but fiscally libertarian policies (and were putting their hope in Bernier) and those who want to keep the social conservative roots, and the latter were more motivated in getting people to vote, as is typical with the religious right.

Political parties are big coalitions of people with a lot of different interests. The CPC has their social conservatives, the Bernier libertarian types, pro-big business, and what's left of pro-market/fiscal conservatives. The NDP have their urban champagne socialists, Leap manifesto advocates, and what's left of the Labour movement.

I was surprised by how big the social conservative base was but I don't think I should have been. I've always seen them as highly motivated politically and that matters a lot in a leadership election where you have to buy a membership to have a vote. I bet Brad Trost had the easiest time selling memberships of any of the candidates. Barring Trump blowing up our economy by blowing up NAFTA, you can't come close to winning an election here by going with policy that appeals to Trost's base.

I don't see any reason to expect Scheer's going to be anything but mostly continuation of Harper's governance. Muzzling the social conservatives in caucus in the name of actually being able to win elections, boutique tax credits galore, a bunch of bad mostly inconsequential like more small tax business tax breaks; that sort of thing.

If Canada continues going crazy that's one less country to seek asylum in, and potentially more asylum seekers to compete with, if the US continues circling the drain as well.

I "feel" that with the direction 45's US is going, Canadians are going to pull very hard, on the wheel, away from anything even remotely like him.

... but I thought Hill was a shoe-in against that horse's ass.

Shows what I know...

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

I "feel" that with the direction 45's US is going, Canadians are going to pull very hard, on the wheel, away from anything even remotely like him.

I would not be sure of that at all. Canada's politics seem to mirror America's in that the right-wingers have limited appeal but that limit is always almost maxed out because conservatives vote for their candidate no matter who is running, while enthusiasm among the centre and the left ebbs and flows. All it would take is for enough lefties to be fed up with Trudeau enough to go NDP or Green again (or just not care enough to vote) and we'll be back to everyone complaining that Scheer became PM even though only 30-something percent voted for him.

Jesus. If only the Liberals had lived up to their promise on electoral reforms, I'd be able to stop worrying about exactly that.

Our supreme court seems much more willing to slap down the overreach attempts of our federal government though.

That's only good for as long as the Supreme Court is largely unpartisan. With much of politics in the world going the way of the US, I am pessimistic about the possibility for the judiciary to remain as it is in the long term.

And all in all, I'd much rather have a proportionally-elected government that could only get things done by collaboration between all parties. Frankly, it's worth having a few far-right and far-left nutjobs in the back benches due to small percentages of votes if it makes the mainstream parties of ALL ideological stripes actually talk and listen to each other.

I still don't think the US is a good point of comparison because their political institutions are broken and very different than ours. A Brexit-type disaster from a Prime Minister throwing a bone to a part of his political base is far more likely but even then we have the benefit of the 10 provinces essentially being a check on the Prime Minister's power to do anything major.

Even before the Brexit debacle I couldn't help but look at the UK and think they could really benefit from greater devolution or more of a federation. Having almost all the political power tied up in London and with most of the economic activity also being in London is not a good mix. It seems like a lot of the country has been getting neglected.

BC's looking really interesting right now. With convention being that the speaker maintains the status quo in the event of a tied vote and the seat math the way it is neither the Liberals or the NDP & Greens with their agreement will want a speaker coming from their party.

The NDP were apparently reaching out to Liberals a few years short of being eligible to collect a pension to persuade them to consent to serve as speaker but it seems like they haven't persuaded anyone yet. Barring that or a floor crossing it looks like there might be another provincial election.

Roke wrote:

Having almost all the political power tied up in London and with most of the economic activity also being in London is not a good mix. It seems like a lot of the country has been getting neglected.

Hmmm, starting to wonder if we should move "Ottawa" to.... Regina

I'm not so cruel to move them to Nunavut. Although.......

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:
Roke wrote:

Having almost all the political power tied up in London and with most of the economic activity also being in London is not a good mix. It seems like a lot of the country has been getting neglected.

Hmmm, starting to wonder if we should move "Ottawa" to.... Regina

I'm not so cruel to move them to Nunavut. Although.......

There was a big movement around the time of the emergence of the Reform Party to move the Federal Capital to Winnipeg, being that it's a fairly large city relatively close to the geographic centre of Canada. Never amounted to much, though.

Yeah... they can stay outta my city :p

Feegle wrote:
Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:
Roke wrote:

Having almost all the political power tied up in London and with most of the economic activity also being in London is not a good mix. It seems like a lot of the country has been getting neglected.

Hmmm, starting to wonder if we should move "Ottawa" to.... Regina

I'm not so cruel to move them to Nunavut. Although.......

There was a big movement around the time of the emergence of the Reform Party to move the Federal Capital to Winnipeg, being that it's a fairly large city relatively close to the geographic centre of Canada. Never amounted to much, though.

Considering that you've got about 100K public servants in the National Capital Region, plus all the infrastructure that supports them, "Moving" the capital is not a trivial thing. I

Eh... Let them all telecommute...

Dysplastic wrote:
Feegle wrote:
Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:
Roke wrote:

Having almost all the political power tied up in London and with most of the economic activity also being in London is not a good mix. It seems like a lot of the country has been getting neglected.

Hmmm, starting to wonder if we should move "Ottawa" to.... Regina

I'm not so cruel to move them to Nunavut. Although.......

There was a big movement around the time of the emergence of the Reform Party to move the Federal Capital to Winnipeg, being that it's a fairly large city relatively close to the geographic centre of Canada. Never amounted to much, though.

Considering that you've got about 100K public servants in the National Capital Region, plus all the infrastructure that supports them, "Moving" the capital is not a trivial thing.

Oh, I grew up in Ottawa, so I'm aware. Not only would it be nontrivial, it would also leave Ottawa a barren wasteland.

I never said it was a successful or sensible movement, and it was only "big" in the sense that it got a lot of headlines pre-mass internet.

Found this article interesting.

Canada’s Trump Strategy: Go Around Him

jowner wrote:

Found this article interesting.

Canada’s Trump Strategy: Go Around Him

Brilliant strategy. Also underscores that having lived with Drunk Dad for years, Canada knows better than anyone how to talk him down.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:
jowner wrote:

Found this article interesting.

Canada’s Trump Strategy: Go Around Him

Brilliant strategy. Also underscores that having lived with Drunk Dad for years, Canada knows better than anyone how to talk him down.

Whoa. Power-hungry Drunk Dad is a powerful metaphor.

I'm not an electoral reform supporter - the process to getting there is more important to me than the system at the end of it. Proportional representation or ranked ballot would be good in my books as long as the process to getting there was similar to the one New Zealand undertook when they changed their electoral system.

But I'm gobsmacked by this:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDVtah2XYAAPXuo.jpg:large)

Heading into the whole process after the election I had (naively) assumed the Liberals were acting in good faith on this matter and PR was actually going to be on the table. But the Liberals view what's good for them as what's good for Canada and ranked ballot, which would probably be good for the Liberals, wasn't going to happen so they punted.

Roke wrote:

Heading into the whole process after the election I had (naively) assumed the Liberals were acting in good faith on this matter and PR was actually going to be on the table. But the Liberals view what's good for them as what's good for Canada and ranked ballot, which would probably be good for the Liberals, wasn't going to happen so they punted.

Precisely.

It looks like Julie Payette, a Canadian astronaut, will be named our country's next Governor General.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics...

Jagmeet Singh is the new leader of the federal NDP with a blowout win on the first ballot.

Charlie Angus - 19.4% (12,705)
Niki Ashton - 17.4% (11,374)
Guy Caron - 9.4% (6,164)
Jagmeet Singh - 53.8% (35,266)

Damn!

I know nothing about him but I barely know anything about any Canadian politicians.

Singh was the one NDP leadership candidate who made me feel comfortable thinking of them leading the party. The others were too willing to let Québec's ridiculous Animal Farm Secularism slide.

Surprised it was a first-ballot thing but at this point trusting Canadian electoral forecasts or projections of any sort seems to be an exercise in dog-kicking folly.

Quebec set to pass law banning face coverings for anyone receiving public service — even a bus ride

Oh, Quebec isn't racist. They're secular. There's a difference. /s

The article says that Quebec could be voting on this as early as tomorrow, so let's see what happens.