What in the hell is going on in Thunder Bay? We just move last month away and there's a state of emergency there now? O_o
Wait, did someone remind the people there they live in Thunder Bay? You aren't supposed to say that. Don't they know the rules!
Real answer: floods
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It's so hard to resist making a "Trains running on time" jab at Riatt's forcing the CP strikers back to work. All in the name of protecting the economy, you see. Meanwhile this marks, what, the 4th successive major strike that has had back-to-work legislation shoved through?
It's so hard to resist making a "Trains running on time" jab at Riatt's forcing the CP strikers back to work. All in the name of protecting the economy, you see. Meanwhile this marks, what, the 4th successive major strike that has had back-to-work legislation shoved through?
I made the trains run on time joke. Couldn't help myself.
A huge pipeline spill has released 22,000 barrels of oil and water into muskeg in the far northwest of Alberta.
The spill ranks among the largest in North America in recent years, a period that has seen a series of high-profile accidents that have undermined the energy industry’s safety record. The Enbridge Inc. pipeline rupture that leaked oil near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, for example, spilled an estimated 19,500 barrels.
My favourite comments to the article (so far):
canucktwofour
6:18 PM on May 30, 2012
Are the people who reported the spill environmental terrorists?
libbie34
7:21 PM on May 30, 2012
I am sure the wildlife is pleased to know it is ethical oil
Also, as the brouhaha in Montreal continues, I'm so frustrated by this.... Look, for years, we've been concerned about extremely low voter turnouts amongst young Canadians and their increasing disconnection and dissatisfaction with Canadian politics. They are, without a doubt, feeling cynical towards and disenfranchised by our political system. So finally, FINALLY, a large group of young Canadians has gotten together to fight for an actual political goal, and our response is, "You guys already have it plenty good. Back in our day, ... And over in Somalia, they don't even get ..." and "Won't someone think of the Grand Prix?!"
When I look at what's happening in Montreal, I don't even see the tuition problem, because I can't see anything but a hugely blown opportunity to engage a politically active, young Canadian demographic and a complete disconnect between the established boomer generation and their own children. Students don't take to the streets because that's their first choice of expression; telling them to go vote isn't a valid response from their perspectives, and, if anything, just demeans their situation. "If you don't like something, go vote! And if you think the voting system is rigged and that we older people are selling you out, well then, tough, because we outnumber you!" It's just a baffling, baffling response. I can't help but interpret it as, "We want you young people to engage in politics, but only on terms, on our sides of our issues," and it's just so incredibly tone-deaf.
And saying "go to the voting booth" is also bullshit cause the tuition will already be doubled by the time the next election rolls around and it'll be too late.
The thing that really pisses me off though is the goddamn "Well, I payed X amount!" as if that's an argument. Hey assholes, maybe you got ripped off?? It reminds me of the "We are the 47%" bullshit from when OWS was going strong. Apparently many people's reaction to people complaining is to say "I got shit on worse, so fuck you!".
MPs are privately being reminded that support for fellow Conservative Stephen Woodworth’s motion would be considered a vote against Mr. Harper’s wishes. Word being spread in the Commons lobby recently by senior Tories – not the PMO – went even further, saying a vote for Mr. Woodworth’s motion is a vote against Mr. Harper.
So it looks like Toronto city council has voted to ban plastic bags in response to rob ford's request to get rid of the 5 cent bag fee.
Ford's response: It’s the people’s fault
Honestly they should have just banned plastic bags from the beginning.
So it looks like Toronto city council has voted to ban plastic bags in response to rob ford's request to get rid of the 5 cent bag fee.
Ford's response: It’s the people’s fault
Honestly they should have just banned plastic bags from the beginning.
WTF?
Shiner, one of Ford’s most loyal allies, said he spontaneously came up with his motion in the middle of Wednesday’s meeting. A Ford opponent, Councillor Anthony Perruzza, had already proposed a ban for 2014; that proposal failed on a 22-22 tie before council approved Shiner’s proposal to begin the ban in 2013.
So vote to scrap 5 cent plastic bag fee? Passes.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2014? Fails.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2013? Passes.
Huh? There were two councillors who thought 2014 was too far off, and had foreknowledge that a 2013 motion was to come and get votes?
So it looks like Toronto city council has voted to ban plastic bags in response to rob ford's request to get rid of the 5 cent bag fee.
Ford's response: It’s the people’s fault
Honestly they should have just banned plastic bags from the beginning.
This is amazing:
“It’s the people’s fault,” Ford told AM640’s John Oakley. “Honestly, sometimes I get so frustrated because the people are just sitting back listening. They don’t pick up the phone, they don’t go down to City Hall, they don’t ask questions, they just — it’s frustrating. I want people to get engaged in municipal politics to find out who their councillor is and know how they vote.”
Everyone remember how happy and delighted Ford was to see City Hall crowded all night by citizens who wanted to voice their opposition to his tax plan, and how he listened and changed his mind to obey the will of the people?
Man, Rob Ford seems like he is having the least amount of fun an elected official can possibly have. Widely hated, unable to actually move his agenda anywhere. Paranoid as hell. It must be a strange world for him right now.
In other news, MPs vote to drop some hate-speech sections of Human Rights Act. So this is removing the section regarding hate speech on the Internet or over the phone. Their argument is that hate speech against groups and individuals is already adequately covered under the criminal code, and incidents of such should be investigated by police, not civil parties.
I don't know that I understand all the ramifications but...I think I agree?
Man, Rob Ford seems like he is having the least amount of fun an elected official can possibly have. Widely hated, unable to actually move his agenda anywhere. Paranoid as hell. It must be a strange world for him right now.
He is the worst leader. Pretty much the greatest sin for a leader is to insult his followers for failing to follow him. That's not a failing of them as followers; that's a failing of you as a leader. Hell, they're not just not following him now, but they're actively running in the opposite direction!
Man, Rob Ford seems like he is having the least amount of fun an elected official can possibly have. Widely hated, unable to actually move his agenda anywhere. Paranoid as hell. It must be a strange world for him right now.
He is the worst leader. Pretty much the greatest sin for a leader is to insult his followers for failing to follow him. That's not a failing of them as followers; that's a failing of you as a leader. Hell, they're not just not following him now, but they're actively running in the opposite direction!
Rob Ford is basically the apotheosis of the empty-suit populist leader.
He's a guy who people voted for cause he yelled about the shit they cared about. But ultimately, he has no idea wtf he is doing and has no real solutions or policy positions.
In other news, MPs vote to drop some hate-speech sections of Human Rights Act. So this is removing the section regarding hate speech on the Internet or over the phone. Their argument is that hate speech against groups and individuals is already adequately covered under the criminal code, and incidents of such should be investigated by police, not civil parties.
I don't know that I understand all the ramifications but...I think I agree?
If protection from hate speech was adequately covered under the criminal code, then we wouldn't have created hate-speech laws in the first place. Our judges and police officers are not exactly sitting idle right now, so that we can dump more things on them to do. And like it or not, when you destroy one body dedicated to investigating a specific type of crime and put the workload on a general body, you're causing a drop in the quality of the investigation.
Given all this, it's no surprise that this motion was approved by Conservatives. Just look south of the border to see the party they want to grow up to be. When their platform will be openly anti-gay, anti-immigrants, anti-minorities, anti-lower-class, anti-left, and anti-women, they don't want those pesky hate speech laws in the way getting every single one of their MPs getting sued for every single speech they make. This change is a step towards creating a more fanatical far-right discourse.
So it looks like Toronto city council has voted to ban plastic bags in response to rob ford's request to get rid of the 5 cent bag fee.
Ford's response: It’s the people’s fault
Honestly they should have just banned plastic bags from the beginning.
WTF?
Shiner, one of Ford’s most loyal allies, said he spontaneously came up with his motion in the middle of Wednesday’s meeting. A Ford opponent, Councillor Anthony Perruzza, had already proposed a ban for 2014; that proposal failed on a 22-22 tie before council approved Shiner’s proposal to begin the ban in 2013.
So vote to scrap 5 cent plastic bag fee? Passes.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2014? Fails.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2013? Passes.
Huh? There were two councillors who thought 2014 was too far off, and had foreknowledge that a 2013 motion was to come and get votes?
Councillors move amendments to the original motion and after everyone moves amendments, they're all voted on sequentially, and then they vote on the finalized motion, so everyone knows what's going to get voted on by the time they start voting.
What happened was that the very original idea which came from Berardinetti on the Executive Committee was to see if they could get retailers to donate the proceeds of the fee to the tree canopy project. This got hijacked by Ford and got changed to scrapping the fee, which was presented at council. At council, Perruzza moved to amend the motion to ban bags by 2014. Then out of nowhere, Shiner moves to amend the motion to ban them by 2013. Then they voted on Perruzza's amendment, which failed and after that, they voted on Shiner's amendment, which passed. The finalized motion that was voted on was to scrap the fee and ban bags starting in 2013. The way the finalized motion reads, Ford loses either way: either he wins and inadvertently bans bags or he loses and the bag fee is kept.
In non-Toronto news, it looks like the LPC is going to let Bob Rae run for the leadership. What could go wrong?
In other news, MPs vote to drop some hate-speech sections of Human Rights Act. So this is removing the section regarding hate speech on the Internet or over the phone. Their argument is that hate speech against groups and individuals is already adequately covered under the criminal code, and incidents of such should be investigated by police, not civil parties.
I don't know that I understand all the ramifications but...I think I agree?
If protection from hate speech was adequately covered under the criminal code, then we wouldn't have created hate-speech laws in the first place.
Uh... we create stupid additional laws all the time dude.
I love how Rae was all, like, "I'll take up the mantle of interim leader but I promise I won't run for actual for-real leader when that time comes, all right?" and now is going to run.
I don't follow internal Liberal Party politics and maybe he's the best they have right now, but I totally knew that was BS way back when.
[Edit]
What I mean is, I don't know that this is a bad/good thing, but I just wanted to say "called it!"
Eh, Bob Rae is fine, in my opinion. He's a decent public speaker.
His biggest disadvantage is probably that's he's been around forever.
I went to the same school as Bob Rae's daughter. I recall 18-year old me thinking that he was a pretty intelligent, pragmatic person. The NDP baggage will just murder him in Ontario though; not necessarily because the NDP are tainted goods here - because they're really not, as much as the pundits would have us believe - but rather that the Liberals are third-place to an NDP party that seems full of new talent and passion right now. With his history with the NDP, progressive voters, I think, would have a hard time finding a reason to vote for the Rae Liberals instead of the Mulclair NDP.
I know that Saggio is going to rip me a new asshole for saying this, but can we just fucking merge our two fucking left-wing parties already?
Yes, I know, two-party systems are bad and the two parties are ideologically separate on a lot of issues. Pragmatically speaking, we will never get another left wing party in power in the country while the Conservatives are consolidated into 1 voting block and the Socialist / Liberals are divided into 2-3 voting blocks.
I want a left-wing party in power. We can sort-out other differences after that happens, can't we?
People outside of Ontario don't realize the polarizing opinions on either Mike Harris, or Bob Rae. Like, Harris is either a champion of lean government or the fucking demonic Neo-Con out to rape teacher pensions.
For Rae it's a bit more difficult. Yes he did good stuff. But holy shit you want to see someone 35+ possibly get into a furor here? Simply mention Rae-Days! That is the kind of baggage that makes Ignatieff's HoC voting record look like chump change for the Con campaign team.
I know that Saggio is going to rip me a new asshole for saying this, but can we just fucking merge our two fucking left-wing parties already?
Yes, I know, two-party systems are bad and the two parties are ideologically separate on a lot of issues. Pragmatically speaking, we will never get another left wing party in power in the country while the Conservatives are consolidated into 1 voting block and the Socialist / Liberals are divided into 2-3 voting blocks.
I want a left-wing party in power. We can sort-out other differences after that happens, can't we?
Of course they should merge the two left-wing parties, but I'm not sure how useful merging the NDP and Greens will ultimately be electorally.
Now, merging the left-wing parties and the one centrist party would be a good idea, but it's not going to happen, at least until the NDP and Liberals find themselves back in some form of parity. Neither is going to want to go into a merger as the other ones subordinate.
So, wtf is going on in Montreal? I live in Edmonton and nobody here can figure out why they're protesting to this extent and this includes everyone I know that was 100% behind the occupy movement last year.
I understand people being a bit miffed that their tuition is going up thousands over the next 5 years but it's still going to be cheaper than anywhere else in Canada and still pretty affordable. When the U of Alberta had to add a ~$350 "maintenance fee" because the province cut their funding and tuition can only be raised every X number of years, the vast majority of students had the opinion that they'd rather pay more and actually get an education than have entire departments shut down. (The administration also made up 66% of the funding deficit by laying off non-faculty staff and other measures, so maybe that helped).
When the Quebec government is saying that tuition hasn't changed in decades and they can't afford to keep subsidizing more and more due to inflation, I have a hard time seeing why so many students are pissed off.
Then you add in the fact that they were disrupting classes that people PAID for and I lose even more respect for them. Even with the much higher cost of tuition here, just about anybody can cover the majority of the cost with a part time job during school and a second summer job.
Now I look at the news and I see that they are protesting in their underwear? Huh? I don't even....
What?
Edit: Something I just realized after posting. Is there just THAT big of a cultural divide between Quebec and western Canada? I mean, I know there is a bit of a cultural difference but I really didn't think it was so big that people would be taking drastic action in Montreal and nobody in Alberta would understand why, or why they are doing it naked and/or dressed as clowns and stuff.
The protests started as a student strike against the tuition hike. Yes it's the cheapest tuition in North America now and yes it'll still be the cheapest tuition in North America after the hike, but that's irrelevant to the protesters. Some fight for a freeze, others to actually reduce and eliminate tuition altogether.
To give you an idea of the mindset, I remember from my undergrad days (10 years ago) talking with a student union guy who would today be out protesting (if he isn't doing it in fact, I have zero contact with him now). We were talking about an increase in university fees, and I argued it wasn't an important issue because it was such a minor increase (I don't remember how much, but IIRC less than $100 per semester). He replied "I don't care if it's 25 cents per semester, it's the principle of it!" So no, the dollar amount the need for the money, and the use of the funds is not important to these people.
Like I said, it started as a student strike against tuition. But now it's grown a lot. The Charest government reacted with an anti-protest law that many people feel is excessive and some legal experts called anti-constitutional, so now there are anti-anti-protest-law protests mixed in. And Jean Charest has been PM for 9 years, so a lot of people are protesting simply because they're tired of him. Unions in particular are pro-Parti-Québécois and like to bring out protesters (they organize bus rides to Montreal to help).
I know that the idea is to stop splitting the vote, but the problem with a merger to solve that problem is that it doesn't apply uniformly across the country. There are a number of regions where the Liberals are effectively dead and have been for quite some time. As far as I know, the only places where significant vote splitting gave the Conservatives seats are in Southwestern Ontario and the GTA and maybe a handful of seats in Atlantic Canada.
Keep in mind that the Liberal brand is incredibly toxic in Western Canada, and Quebec outside of Montreal now, to the point that merging might hurt rather than help in those regions. It could be that a merger might still make sense if the seats gained is more than the seats that are lost, but it's hardly a no-brainer.
The protests started as a student strike against the tuition hike. Yes it's the cheapest tuition in North America now and yes it'll still be the cheapest tuition in North America after the hike, but that's irrelevant to the protesters. Some fight for a freeze, others to actually reduce and eliminate tuition altogether.
To give you an idea of the mindset, I remember from my undergrad days (10 years ago) talking with a student union guy who would today be out protesting (if he isn't doing it in fact, I have zero contact with him now). We were talking about an increase in university fees, and I argued it wasn't an important issue because it was such a minor increase (I don't remember how much, but IIRC less than $100 per semester). He replied "I don't care if it's 25 cents per semester, it's the principle of it!" So no, the dollar amount the need for the money, and the use of the funds is not important to these people.
Like I said, it started as a student strike against tuition. But now it's grown a lot. The Charest government reacted with an anti-protest law that many people feel is excessive and some legal experts called anti-constitutional, so now there are anti-anti-protest-law protests mixed in. And Jean Charest has been PM for 9 years, so a lot of people are protesting simply because they're tired of him. Unions in particular are pro-Parti-Québécois and like to bring out protesters (they organize bus rides to Montreal to help).
Wow, that's so stupid. I can see them being mad about that anti-protest law but from what I hear, the police haven't even used it yet and it'll likely be declared unconstitutional.
I was involved with student associations when I was in university (graduated 2 years ago). I was invited to a meeting with the student union when the fee was being added and nobody in the U of A's student union was like that. We looked over all the reasons for the fee, why it was happening, what else the administration was doing about it, etc. (Turns out, the government reduced the yearly funding increase from 3% to 0% which caused a shortfall of over $60 million. Natural gas prices tanked so the province was short billions). The only issue we saw with it was no provision to have the fee removed if funding was restored and no long term plan to lobby the government to restore funding when the economy get's better. This was brought up with the administration and the government. I believe the administration agreed, who knows how the government felt about it.
I know they aren't even close to the same situation but they are somewhat similar and we handled it in a far more mature manner.
Solves the vote-splitting problem without merging parties that are pretty different from each other and turning us into a two-party system.
Ya, we really need a change to something like STV.
In the last federal election the conservatives won 27/28 seats in alberta but only had 66% of the votes. I moved to the only riding in alberta that's capable of electing someone non-conservative so it's the first time I felt like my vote actually counted
Unfortunately, I believe they want to change the ridings around so that this riding is divided in half and each half is with a massively conservative area to the east or west. Yay democracy...
I know they aren't even close to the same situation but they are somewhat similar and we handled it in a far more mature manner.
Or you took the easier out by not fighting the changes. I mean, you can spin the story any way you want to.
The fact is, heavily subsidized tuition has been a staple of post-secondary education in Quebec for a long time, and is something that the people there feel strongly about. They are perfectly within their rights to protest the decisions of the government. It's really the only course of action we have to act against the government's decisions.
Also the government really threw gasoline onto the fire with the anti-protest law. It doesn't matter if it hasn't been used, or may eventually be removed due to being unconstitutional. It was a direct attack against the only recourse people felt they had to addressing an issue. I don't blame them for being pissed off.
The fact is, heavily subsidized tuition has been a staple of post-secondary education in Quebec for a long time, and is something that the people there feel strongly about. They are perfectly within their rights to protest the decisions of the government. It's really the only course of action we have to act against the government's decisions.
Except for, you know, actually voting on who forms the governemnt and makes the decisions. The last election in 2008 had a voter turnout of 57%, the lowest in 70 years. And students aren't a high-turnout demographic, even by that standard.
Here is a helpful video (or it just may confuse you further) - I personally admire them for what they are doing and wish the rest of the country would rise up too.
Edit: Whoops, posted this already. Still, looks like Cadmus didn't bother watching it.
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Wait, did someone remind the people there they live in Thunder Bay? You aren't supposed to say that. Don't they know the rules!
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We missed you too much.
I made the trains run on time joke. Couldn't help myself.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/pipeline-spill-sends-22000-barrels-of-oil-mix-into-alberta-muskeg/article2447765/
My favourite comments to the article (so far):
UN food envoy blasts inequality, poverty in Canada
Canada lags on fighting child poverty, report finds
UN condemns Canadian security practices over risk of torture, rights violations
UN urges Canada to ban solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners
Also, as the brouhaha in Montreal continues, I'm so frustrated by this.... Look, for years, we've been concerned about extremely low voter turnouts amongst young Canadians and their increasing disconnection and dissatisfaction with Canadian politics. They are, without a doubt, feeling cynical towards and disenfranchised by our political system. So finally, FINALLY, a large group of young Canadians has gotten together to fight for an actual political goal, and our response is, "You guys already have it plenty good. Back in our day, ... And over in Somalia, they don't even get ..." and "Won't someone think of the Grand Prix?!"
When I look at what's happening in Montreal, I don't even see the tuition problem, because I can't see anything but a hugely blown opportunity to engage a politically active, young Canadian demographic and a complete disconnect between the established boomer generation and their own children. Students don't take to the streets because that's their first choice of expression; telling them to go vote isn't a valid response from their perspectives, and, if anything, just demeans their situation. "If you don't like something, go vote! And if you think the voting system is rigged and that we older people are selling you out, well then, tough, because we outnumber you!" It's just a baffling, baffling response. I can't help but interpret it as, "We want you young people to engage in politics, but only on terms, on our sides of our issues," and it's just so incredibly tone-deaf.
And saying "go to the voting booth" is also bullshit cause the tuition will already be doubled by the time the next election rolls around and it'll be too late.
The thing that really pisses me off though is the goddamn "Well, I payed X amount!" as if that's an argument. Hey assholes, maybe you got ripped off?? It reminds me of the "We are the 47%" bullshit from when OWS was going strong. Apparently many people's reaction to people complaining is to say "I got shit on worse, so fuck you!".
/shakeshead
http://www.greenparty.ca/c-38/video?utm_campaign=C12.EVE&utm_source=massmail&utm_medium=email
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6527/125/
Oh come on guys! I thought we were the piracy capital of the universe. What happened, facts getting in the way again?
Ford's response: It’s the people’s fault
Honestly they should have just banned plastic bags from the beginning.
WTF?
So vote to scrap 5 cent plastic bag fee? Passes.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2014? Fails.
Vote to ban all plastic bags by 2013? Passes.
Huh? There were two councillors who thought 2014 was too far off, and had foreknowledge that a 2013 motion was to come and get votes?
This is amazing: Everyone remember how happy and delighted Ford was to see City Hall crowded all night by citizens who wanted to voice their opposition to his tax plan, and how he listened and changed his mind to obey the will of the people?
In other news, MPs vote to drop some hate-speech sections of Human Rights Act. So this is removing the section regarding hate speech on the Internet or over the phone. Their argument is that hate speech against groups and individuals is already adequately covered under the criminal code, and incidents of such should be investigated by police, not civil parties.
I don't know that I understand all the ramifications but...I think I agree?
He is the worst leader. Pretty much the greatest sin for a leader is to insult his followers for failing to follow him. That's not a failing of them as followers; that's a failing of you as a leader. Hell, they're not just not following him now, but they're actively running in the opposite direction!
Rob Ford is basically the apotheosis of the empty-suit populist leader.
He's a guy who people voted for cause he yelled about the shit they cared about. But ultimately, he has no idea wtf he is doing and has no real solutions or policy positions.
If protection from hate speech was adequately covered under the criminal code, then we wouldn't have created hate-speech laws in the first place. Our judges and police officers are not exactly sitting idle right now, so that we can dump more things on them to do. And like it or not, when you destroy one body dedicated to investigating a specific type of crime and put the workload on a general body, you're causing a drop in the quality of the investigation.
Given all this, it's no surprise that this motion was approved by Conservatives. Just look south of the border to see the party they want to grow up to be. When their platform will be openly anti-gay, anti-immigrants, anti-minorities, anti-lower-class, anti-left, and anti-women, they don't want those pesky hate speech laws in the way getting every single one of their MPs getting sued for every single speech they make. This change is a step towards creating a more fanatical far-right discourse.
Councillors move amendments to the original motion and after everyone moves amendments, they're all voted on sequentially, and then they vote on the finalized motion, so everyone knows what's going to get voted on by the time they start voting.
What happened was that the very original idea which came from Berardinetti on the Executive Committee was to see if they could get retailers to donate the proceeds of the fee to the tree canopy project. This got hijacked by Ford and got changed to scrapping the fee, which was presented at council. At council, Perruzza moved to amend the motion to ban bags by 2014. Then out of nowhere, Shiner moves to amend the motion to ban them by 2013. Then they voted on Perruzza's amendment, which failed and after that, they voted on Shiner's amendment, which passed. The finalized motion that was voted on was to scrap the fee and ban bags starting in 2013. The way the finalized motion reads, Ford loses either way: either he wins and inadvertently bans bags or he loses and the bag fee is kept.
In non-Toronto news, it looks like the LPC is going to let Bob Rae run for the leadership. What could go wrong?
Uh... we create stupid additional laws all the time dude.
I don't follow internal Liberal Party politics and maybe he's the best they have right now, but I totally knew that was BS way back when.
[Edit]
What I mean is, I don't know that this is a bad/good thing, but I just wanted to say "called it!"
His biggest disadvantage is probably that's he's been around forever.
I went to the same school as Bob Rae's daughter. I recall 18-year old me thinking that he was a pretty intelligent, pragmatic person. The NDP baggage will just murder him in Ontario though; not necessarily because the NDP are tainted goods here - because they're really not, as much as the pundits would have us believe - but rather that the Liberals are third-place to an NDP party that seems full of new talent and passion right now. With his history with the NDP, progressive voters, I think, would have a hard time finding a reason to vote for the Rae Liberals instead of the Mulclair NDP.
Yes, I know, two-party systems are bad and the two parties are ideologically separate on a lot of issues. Pragmatically speaking, we will never get another left wing party in power in the country while the Conservatives are consolidated into 1 voting block and the Socialist / Liberals are divided into 2-3 voting blocks.
I want a left-wing party in power. We can sort-out other differences after that happens, can't we?
For Rae it's a bit more difficult. Yes he did good stuff. But holy shit you want to see someone 35+ possibly get into a furor here? Simply mention Rae-Days! That is the kind of baggage that makes Ignatieff's HoC voting record look like chump change for the Con campaign team.
Of course they should merge the two left-wing parties, but I'm not sure how useful merging the NDP and Greens will ultimately be electorally.
Now, merging the left-wing parties and the one centrist party would be a good idea, but it's not going to happen, at least until the NDP and Liberals find themselves back in some form of parity. Neither is going to want to go into a merger as the other ones subordinate.
I understand people being a bit miffed that their tuition is going up thousands over the next 5 years but it's still going to be cheaper than anywhere else in Canada and still pretty affordable. When the U of Alberta had to add a ~$350 "maintenance fee" because the province cut their funding and tuition can only be raised every X number of years, the vast majority of students had the opinion that they'd rather pay more and actually get an education than have entire departments shut down. (The administration also made up 66% of the funding deficit by laying off non-faculty staff and other measures, so maybe that helped).
When the Quebec government is saying that tuition hasn't changed in decades and they can't afford to keep subsidizing more and more due to inflation, I have a hard time seeing why so many students are pissed off.
Then you add in the fact that they were disrupting classes that people PAID for and I lose even more respect for them. Even with the much higher cost of tuition here, just about anybody can cover the majority of the cost with a part time job during school and a second summer job.
Now I look at the news and I see that they are protesting in their underwear? Huh? I don't even....
What?
Edit: Something I just realized after posting. Is there just THAT big of a cultural divide between Quebec and western Canada? I mean, I know there is a bit of a cultural difference but I really didn't think it was so big that people would be taking drastic action in Montreal and nobody in Alberta would understand why, or why they are doing it naked and/or dressed as clowns and stuff.
To give you an idea of the mindset, I remember from my undergrad days (10 years ago) talking with a student union guy who would today be out protesting (if he isn't doing it in fact, I have zero contact with him now). We were talking about an increase in university fees, and I argued it wasn't an important issue because it was such a minor increase (I don't remember how much, but IIRC less than $100 per semester). He replied "I don't care if it's 25 cents per semester, it's the principle of it!" So no, the dollar amount the need for the money, and the use of the funds is not important to these people.
Like I said, it started as a student strike against tuition. But now it's grown a lot. The Charest government reacted with an anti-protest law that many people feel is excessive and some legal experts called anti-constitutional, so now there are anti-anti-protest-law protests mixed in. And Jean Charest has been PM for 9 years, so a lot of people are protesting simply because they're tired of him. Unions in particular are pro-Parti-Québécois and like to bring out protesters (they organize bus rides to Montreal to help).
Keep in mind that the Liberal brand is incredibly toxic in Western Canada, and Quebec outside of Montreal now, to the point that merging might hurt rather than help in those regions. It could be that a merger might still make sense if the seats gained is more than the seats that are lost, but it's hardly a no-brainer.
Solves the vote-splitting problem without merging parties that are pretty different from each other and turning us into a two-party system.
Wow, that's so stupid. I can see them being mad about that anti-protest law but from what I hear, the police haven't even used it yet and it'll likely be declared unconstitutional.
I was involved with student associations when I was in university (graduated 2 years ago). I was invited to a meeting with the student union when the fee was being added and nobody in the U of A's student union was like that. We looked over all the reasons for the fee, why it was happening, what else the administration was doing about it, etc. (Turns out, the government reduced the yearly funding increase from 3% to 0% which caused a shortfall of over $60 million. Natural gas prices tanked so the province was short billions). The only issue we saw with it was no provision to have the fee removed if funding was restored and no long term plan to lobby the government to restore funding when the economy get's better. This was brought up with the administration and the government. I believe the administration agreed, who knows how the government felt about it.
I know they aren't even close to the same situation but they are somewhat similar and we handled it in a far more mature manner.
Ya, we really need a change to something like STV.
In the last federal election the conservatives won 27/28 seats in alberta but only had 66% of the votes. I moved to the only riding in alberta that's capable of electing someone non-conservative so it's the first time I felt like my vote actually counted
Unfortunately, I believe they want to change the ridings around so that this riding is divided in half and each half is with a massively conservative area to the east or west. Yay democracy...
The fact is, heavily subsidized tuition has been a staple of post-secondary education in Quebec for a long time, and is something that the people there feel strongly about. They are perfectly within their rights to protest the decisions of the government. It's really the only course of action we have to act against the government's decisions.
Also the government really threw gasoline onto the fire with the anti-protest law. It doesn't matter if it hasn't been used, or may eventually be removed due to being unconstitutional. It was a direct attack against the only recourse people felt they had to addressing an issue. I don't blame them for being pissed off.
Except for, you know, actually voting on who forms the governemnt and makes the decisions. The last election in 2008 had a voter turnout of 57%, the lowest in 70 years. And students aren't a high-turnout demographic, even by that standard.
Edit: Whoops, posted this already. Still, looks like Cadmus didn't bother watching it.
THIS, SO MUCH THIS! QFT!