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Cut Party Subsidies? We cut you real bad maan. Canadian Politics within.
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While I'm really not a conservative under any definition at all, I LOVE Joe Clark. Seriously, he's just so awesome.
Hey who knows, maybe your vote will result in a non-Conservative seat pickup and...I have to stop. I don't even believe my words.
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[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Well, every vote gives that party some money, so it's not quite a wasted vote.
There will be short terms jobs available during the election, which might be attractive to some of you guys who are in school.
Also, for people who are away at school, you'll want to think about whether or not you want to vote in your home riding, or in the one your school is in. You might have to do a mail in ballot or something to vote for your home riding. Just something to consider.
Jim Prentice is the MP for my hometown riding, I would be tempted to mail in a vote against him but I know it would do nothing :x
Thanks for the link, and the nightmares I'm going to have tonight now that I know that Jay fucking Hill is going to be our MP for the next four years (or whatever.)
Seriously, I didn't even recognize any of the other names on the list of candidates in 2006. And Jay Hill is one of those slimy bastards who sends out shitty newsletters letting his constituents know that the C.R.A.P. is the only thing standing between them and surprise sex with a meth-addled young offender.
And by the by, the next time any of you guys have complaints about your bosses, keep this in mind. Stockwell Day is my boss. And he sends us encouraging emails.
It sucks.
Good thread by the way. I'm always guilty of wondering more about when this McCabe trade will happen compared to carbon taxes etc.
MWO: Adamski
The NDP who are beholden to the Ontario unions, especially the auto worker unions.
The Liberals who are completely useless, stalling on any actual improvements on the environment so long that Canada had to pull out of the Kyoto Accord because no progress had been made to meeting the objectives. Otherwise being beholden to the big business corporations.
The Conservatives, the actual party of the people, you know how they tried to limit the size of contributions by business's the Liberals screamed bloody murder because the Liberal base is all corporate donors. The current Conservatives pay lip service to the social conservatives with the topics of doing a federal referendum on Gay Marriage/Abortion. And while not looking at the polls I think the majority or at least plurality of the country supports both so I'm pretty sure that the longer they stall the less support there is to ban either, and the emptier the threat becomes.
I'm definately enjoying the current balancing of the budget and cutting spending, though I wouldnt mind funding for more social programs like retraining. Though with the all time low of unemployment nationwide, its not a huge issue. Except to the union run auto plants in Ontario, who refuse to get with the fucking times and start looking for other work. GM, Ford, etc have been in an economic slump for fucking ever, I dont know why these people so desperately claw at keeping their jobs there when I've seen plenty of industries scraping the barrels to find employees that are hard working and honest.
MWO: Adamski
I finally got a chance to watch the whole Conservative ad that has been playing on TV, god thats a bad ad.
"I like Harper because he has young kids"
I lean toward Green far more than NDP. My goal for a long while has been to see them get a seat in parliament, their proverbial foot in the door as it were. I hadn't heard that they now have a seat, thats amazing. Hopefully it will (finally) insure them a spot in the debates. The Greens could do quite well this election. Canada has really, really taken to the whole environmentalist thing, at least superficially. Its green this green that, everywhere you go. Which is great, and probably gives the Greens a good boost, especially now that they have a good party leader in May.
I'll have to see what the status in my riding is. Its almost certainly Liberal or NDP right now. If its very strongly or very weakly NDP I'll probably vote Green. If it looks close then I'll seriously consider the NDP candidate.
That said:
I voted for the NDP back in 2004, and what a clusterfuck of a mistake that was. I was very hopeful to hear something positive about proportional representation that session of parliament, the issue I voted on in that election. Layton was prety gung-ho about it on election night. But nothing ever came of it and I find him so conniving and self-serving now that I can't stand the party. I also find their environmental policies a bit wanting, and their idea of economic management doesn't cut it with me. Their website (I tune out any press the party gets these days) tells me they want softwood workers compensated, national child care, more health care spending, cheaper education... I mean, the list of what they would spend on is close to endless. Where do they propose the money for all that shit coming from? Not that I mean to call those things shit, they are laudable goals.
So I said fuck them and moved to another party.
In 2006 I voted for the Greens, and I will again this time. I don't care how close my riding is, that is the party that best represents what I want in the future. They are quite detailed in their policies and while they are often defined as a one-issue party, that's not right at all. Shifting taxation from income to consumption does make sense, as does a complete overhaul of the healthcare system. Preventative medicine (i.e. promoting active lifestyles and mandating certain unpleasant exams at given ages) is cheaper than our current system. They believe in equality across all denominations - but really, aren't we past that yet? A more studied approach to our energy policy would be a benefit as well as opposed to rubber-stamping, though that's more to do with Alberta provincial policies.
And finally, the issue of the leaders' debates. I don't know why the CBC/CTV/Global/etc are against including the Greens, but they seem to be. In the past they quoted the Bloc and Reform parties as precedents for participation (i.e. having an MP), which has now been met. This should be very interesting, and a shitstorm had better develop if they get shut out again.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080902.wgreens02/BNStory/National/home
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[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Negative voting is an unavoidable side-effect of our electoral system. When two candidates are close, you'll want to make sure the one that represents you better among them wins, even if the candidate that represents you the best is a third candidate that's much farther behind.
I don't like it either, which is why I'm in favour of changing to a Single Transferable Vote system.
Also, Conservative MP's statements about fixed election dates, back when they were told to say they were a good thing. So, who's full of shit now?
This is generally the result when you have 4 mediocre party leaders combined with years of a major corruption scandal whittling down people's faith in our MPs as well as booming economic ties. So long as the latter continues and the government of the day doesn't fuck things up, the general population couldn't be bothered to be interested in Canadian politics.
Currently DMing: None
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[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Me too. Or at least some voting system that isn't like ours. I don't really expect it to change though, I think most of the population would consider an alternative system too complicated.
Exactly, so whats the point ? I mean, the odds of the Conservatives getting a majority don't look good, so I don't see why they have a hard on for an election.
In 2004 we had a referendum on STV in BC and we came within 2.3% of adopting it, just short of 60%. There'll be another one in 2009. I think we'd have to see a bunch of the provinces adopt it before it became a national thing. We'd likely have to amend the constitution to change the national system, and we all know what a clusterfuck trying to change the constitution can be.
I think the system should be set up in a way that makes minority governments the norm. Several nations, such as Germany and Israel, have systems like this. Basically they have a bunch of small parties. None of them alone can win the election. So when people cast their votes, it forces the parties to bargain and collaborate with each other, even though they may have (radically) different policies. It generally prevents a single group from taking power and doing bad things with it, since they're always accountable. And it keeps politics generally more civilized and less polarized. Parties aren't going to get very ugly in condemning each other if there is a chance they'll have to work together in the future.
Currently DMing: None
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[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Because that's not what I want.
I've read an editorial that said that the Conservatives just want an election to destabilize even more the Liberals. Let's face it, if the Conservatives form another minority government (or worse for the Liberals, a majority), Stéphane Dion is out and the Liberals go into another leadership race. This is probably what the Conservatives are hoping for.
Nintendo Network ID: PhysiMarc
This is the system I want Canada to go to as well, first past the post voting systems don't work for countries with several strong federal parties, all to often the winning party/candidate does not get the popular vote. I would love to see us move toward a proportional representational system that is used in places like Sweden. However, if that referendum in Ontario is any indication Canadians do not want to move that way.
The problem with this system is that it gives smaller parties outsize representation in the national government, so that the Quebec secessionists, greens, and the NDP gain more power, along with whatever fringe groups get organized under this system once people realize that they can get their voices heard with fewer votes than before.
The thing I like about that system is that it while the major parties (liberals, conservatives) will still keep most of the power, thus preventing the government becoming run by a pool of small extreme left/right parties, it will still allow smaller parties to make it into office and have an impact on government. This ensures that more people's views will be represented in the laws the government makes.
Richy: You are probably right, I don't remember the details about the referendum, just that it got smacked down pretty hard.
That's adorable
But seriously, thanks for this thread. I'm learning a lot.
See, this I don't get either. Dion is good for the conservatives. I guess the short term destabilization of the Liberals would be good for the Cons, but its probably better just to leave Dion in place instead of risking the Liberals finding someone the nation might actually care about to lead them.
I suppose we could see both the Liberals and the NDP look for new leadership after this election.
BC STV
Ha, I can even provide animated explanations: Click
Look, if it wasn't weird and complicated, it wouldn't be BC politics. We're the people who elected a dude named Amor De Cosmos as Premier. :P
That's really, really fucked up.
Huh, that's exactly what I like about that system. The big parties are just monolithic forces with the sole purpose of insuring their own survival. If you had a slew of smaller parties mixed in, you'd get the monoliths still playing the major role, but you'd really get a good idea of what Canadians actually want from the smaller grassroots parties. Sure you'd get the nut job parties in there as well, but hey, this is supposedly a democracy we're talking about here. More people having a voice is definitely a good thing.