Canadian Politics

[RWG]

O'Toole and Sloan are the bad boys the base dreams about. McKay is the stiff they wind up marrying.

[ButterflyEffect]

Man, what is Andrew going on about here.

In the past five minutes he's compared the Liberal Party to the government of the Soviet Union, and has suggested people check out alternate news sources such as the Post Millennial and True North. What on earth.

[*Chris]

5 minutes ago, ButterflyEffect said:

Man, what is Andrew going on about here.

In the past five minutes he's compared the Liberal Party to the government of the Soviet Union, and has suggested people check out alternate news sources such as the Post Millennial and True North. What on earth.

 

Me during his speech:

 

[RWG]

1 hour ago, ButterflyEffect said:

Man, what is Andrew going on about here.

In the past five minutes he's compared the Liberal Party to the government of the Soviet Union, and has suggested people check out alternate news sources such as the Post Millennial and True North. What on earth.

 

Rebel Media must be in the bad books.

 

It sounded like a speech you'd expect the head of a campus conservative student union to give. Just too dumb for any serious person to entertain, from a grown man who was a stone's throw away of becoming PM.

 

It's 10:30 PM or later for most of the country and there still isn't a leader...

Edited August 24, 2020 by RWG

[RWG]

6 hours ago, RWG said:

O'Toole and Sloan are the bad boys the base dreams about. McKay is the stiff they wind up marrying.

 

Nope I'm wrong. Erin O'Toole is the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

 

He feels like a not very formidable candidate to go up against a prime minister who badly needs to be challenged.

[ButterflyEffect]

I thought MacKay would have given them a better shot at forming government...the Atlantic Canada boost could have yielded another 10'ish seats there, and then any inroads into the 905 would have set them up well. O'Toole won't be given free seats in Atlantic Canada, though what he can do in the 905 remains to be seen. Quebec voted en masse for O'Toole last night, so that could be something to try and build upon, though I doubt they could honestly break through the Bloc and Liberal fortress there.

[RWG]

The Conservative members in Quebec had to vote for someone, so I'm guessing they just picked the person who was born there. The BQ is much more in tune with cultural conservatism there. And they ran probably the most racist federal campaign of any of the parties in 2019. If the CPC adopted that kind of rhetoric, they'd blow the 905 region they value more.

 

Based on the polling averages, it looks like the Conservatives got a small bump by replacing Scheer as leader. But the Liberals would still be bordering on a majority if the election were held today.

 

edit: nvm. None of the polls included in the CBC polling tracking averages are from a period after O'Toole was named leader.

Edited August 29, 2020 by RWG

[ButterflyEffect]

I think we'll see some polls in the next few weeks. Since O'Toole isn't a very well known commodity I'm not sure if the CPC will see any boost.

Liberals are somewhere between their last election result and majority territory. Honestly they may be begging to lose the vote of confidence in the house so they can get to the polls while also blaming the election on the CPC/NDP/BQ/Greens. 

[TeamAudra]

It’s starting to spread...

 

 

[RWG]

25 minutes ago, TeamAudra said:

It’s starting to spread...

 

 

 

I don't support automatically tearing down every statue of everyone who lived more than a hundred years ago, like some of the protests seem to do, but John A. MacDonald is a pretty noxious person to have statues of.

 

Quote

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write."

 

Quote

“…to wean them by slow degrees, from their nomadic habits, which have almost become an instinct, and by slow degrees absorb them or settle them on the land.  Meantime they must be fairly protected.”

 

Quote

“…..we have been pampering and coaxing the Indians; that we must take a new course, we must vindicate the position of the white man, we must teach the Indians what law is; we must not pauperise them, as they say we have been doing.”

 

Quote

"We have had a wonderful success; but still we have had the Indians; and then in these half-breeds, enticed by white men, the savage instinct was awakened; the desire of plunder  --  aye, and, perhaps, the desire of scalping  -- the savage idea of a warlike glory, which pervades the breast of most men, civilised or uncivilised, was aroused in them, and forgetting all the kindness that had been bestowed upon them, forgetting all the gifts that had been given to them, forgetting all that the Government, the white people and the Parliament of Canada had been doing for them, in trying to rescue them from barbarity; forgetting that we had given them reserves, the means to cultivate those reserves, and the means of education how to cultivate them  --  forgetting all these things, they rose against us.”"

 

Quote

"The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.”

 

[ButterflyEffect]

There's a pretty rough statue in our city as well which people want taken down, of Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real. His claim to fame was sailing over here with his father, being one of the first Europeans (but not THE first) to step foot on the island. And then they kidnapped about 50'ish indigenous folks, brought them back to Portugal, and sold them into slavery.

Tear it down. He was actual scum. 

[TeamAudra]

I was referring more to the “defund the police” movement. I don’t expect that to be a thing in Canada. 

[RWG]

With few exceptions, no politician should have a statue erected or a library constructed in their honour. It is public service. They work for us. They are not King Tut.

 

As for the explorers, there is no chance that their actions from hundreds of years ago are compatible with the current shared values in this country.

 

I saw Erin O'Toole and Jason Kenney complaining about the statue today. This is a dumb issue that distracts from the real struggles people are going through right now, and I naively hoped it wouldn't be spread to us.

[ButterflyEffect]

12 hours ago, TeamAudra said:

I was referring more to the “defund the police” movement. I don’t expect that to be a thing in Canada. 

 

10 hours ago, RWG said:

With few exceptions, no politician should have a statue erected or a library constructed in their honour. It is public service. They work for us. They are not King Tut.

 

As for the explorers, there is no chance that their actions from hundreds of years ago are compatible with the current shared values in this country.

 

I saw Erin O'Toole and Jason Kenney complaining about the statue today. This is a dumb issue that distracts from the real struggles people are going through right now, and I naively hoped it wouldn't be spread to us.

Never underestimate the desire for some Canadians to want be just like their southern neighbours. A lot of copy cat stuff happens in Canada. 

Not to say there aren't problems in the Canadian police forces. There is still clear discrimination against Indigenous peoples in Western Canada (and a history of some severe, cruel, and unlawful practices such as "Starlight Tours"), and there is also discrimination against Black people in cities with higher Black populations (Toronto, Halifax). Some of the problems associated with US policing aren't as prevalent here since entrance requirements into policing programs are quite a bit higher (weeding out a lot of those officers who are doing it just out of a desire to have power and authority). Calls for defunding are also a bit silly......in the USA police departments are given huge amounts of money and have been trending towards increasing militarization of departments. While Canadian forces also get sizable budgets, militarization of the police is much less, and there are also sizable budgets for other social programs which can help alleviate a bunch of the societal issues which happen in the USA which lead to all the problems with minorities and police.

Does it work?

Police shootings per capita in Canada: about 1 per 1.029 million people
Police shootings per capita in USA: about 1 per 287,000 people

Defunding the police in Canada is just silly copy-cat bullcrap. Better training on how to handle minorities could go a long way, but the same problems don't really exist. Most of the protests in Canada, with the exception of a few nights in Montreal, have been peaceful. Police haven't gone full 'Murrica during the protests....no arrested or assaulted journalists, no one getting fired upon by the police on the step of their house. In fact, the police here helped organize the local BLM protests. They worked traffic control to allow the protests to happen, while also keeping a quiet profile as to not be obtrusive.

[RWG]

New premier approval ratings

 

 

That's a nice rating for Horgan.

[ButterflyEffect]

Nice.

Furey is an unknown at this point.....he's the kind of guy I'm certain the middle aged mom could get behind. He's a lot more charismatic than Conservative leader Ches Crosbie, but with the provincial finances in actual ruin he's sort of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't play tough guy.

[RWG]

I do find it funny how Ford was basically banned from appearing with Scheer in 2019, and Kenney was the conservative premier touring the country with the campaign. Now Ford has done a complete 180 on co-operating with the federal Libs and is actually relatively popular, and Kenney is underwater.

[RWG]

It sounds like BC will be headed for an election soon. John Horgan is supported by an NDP-Green coalition (41 NDP + 3 Green = 44 seats) to the Liberals' 43. So he will probably need to flip Liberal seats. And the Green leader is retiring, and his wealthy, NIMBY riding is probably likely to go back to the Liberals. But Horgan is popular right now, and the BC NDP has been relatively competent compared to the last time they governed, in the 90s. Lots of balls in the air.

Edited September 4, 2020 by RWG

[ButterflyEffect]

On 9/4/2020 at 8:19 PM, RWG said:

It sounds like BC will be headed for an election soon. John Horgan is supported by an NDP-Green coalition (41 NDP + 3 Green = 44 seats) to the Liberals' 43. So he will probably need to flip Liberal seats. And the Green leader is retiring, and his wealthy, NIMBY riding is probably likely to go back to the Liberals. But Horgan is popular right now, and the BC NDP has been relatively competent compared to the last time they governed, in the 90s. Lots of balls in the air.

I think a lot of governments are holding their breath until they see what happens in New Brunswick next week. If the PC government isn't punished for calling an election in the middle of a pandemic then I could see BC and PEI following suit very shortly after. 

[RWG]

I think the summer was the time for the minority governments to shoot their shot. Some provinces are already starting to reverse their re-openings as coronavirus cases rise again. And this is mostly anecdotal, but goodwill towards premiers for their handling of the pandemic seems to be waning. Just looking like you care isn't gonna cut it anymore. Even the beloved public health officers aren't beyond criticism it feels like.

Edited September 13, 2020 by RWG

[RWG]

Quebec:

 

 

Vancouver:

 

 

"Why do you care so much about America, you don't even live here."

 

[ButterflyEffect]

You can't fix stupid.

[ButterflyEffect]

My prediction for NB tonight:

PC - 26
LIB - 18
GRN - 4
PANB - 1

PC's squeak out a tiny majority thanks to Moncton East and Moncton South.

[RWG]

Did not take long for the alt-right to successfully launder QAnon conspiracies into the mainstream through Erin O'Toole.

 

 

[RWG]

Early projections for the BC election

 

 

If this holds, it will be one of the "big" provinces backing up what the conclusion in New Brunswick was: people may be annoyed by being asked to vote but are generally adverse to changing gov'ts during the pandemic.

 

I think we're headed for a federal election soon regardless, based on the throne speech.

Edited September 26, 2020 by RWG