Random International Political Babbling thread

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Monday is the big day for Canada. The Conservatives are likely to win a plurality of votes and the thought is that the far left NDP might actually emerge from this cluster hump as the Official Opposition, surpassing the Liberals for the first time in history.

Many fear a coalition of the NDP leftists, Liberal centre leftists, and separatist Bloc Quebecois. An official coalition would be a death sentence for the Liberals, and likely the NDP. But an unofficial deal might be reached. When that happens, all hard working, decent Canadians will despair, as our pockets will be picked to a degree never before seen in this country, and the money taken thereby given to the lazy, the treasonous, and failed fringe psychos of all stripes. God help us all.

 

I was actually toying with the idea of giving a protest vote to the NDP because:

1. I don't trust Harper any further than I can throw him.
2. Ignatieff is a knob
3. The NDP doesn't have a hope in hell of winning in my riding (so my protest would be fairly safe).

However, I think I'll vote Liberal, beacause the last thing I want is a Conservative majority, and the Liberals have the best chance to beat our Conservative incumbent.

Actually, a Conservative minority with an NDP Official Opposition would be interesting...

 

A solid Conservative majority government! I am a happy camper. Oddly enough, I am also happy for the NDP's massive gains and Official Opposition status -- I may think they are naive demi -- commies, but Layton has integrity, which is more than I can say for Iggy. Seeing both him and also Duceppe lose their seats, as well as both of their parties taking a brutal thrashing, just made my night.

And, heaven help us, some hippies out in BC elected Canada's first Green MP. Unbelievable!

 

The whole election was a surprise, starting with the Conservative majority (I was expecting a minority), the huge gains by trhe NDP (again, I expected them to do well, but not this well), the collapse of the Liberals (unfortunate that it was that bad, but Ignatieff is a twit), the even worse collapse of the Bloc (yay!), and the win of a seat by the Greens (I can live with that).

I was hoping for a Conservative minority. There's no doubt that, with a majority, they'll be great for the economy, but it's everything else I worry about (healthcare, social programs, intrastructure, etc.). Having the NDP as official opposition might help protect the "everything else", but Harper has never given any indication that he gives a rat's arse what others think. Oh well, time will tell.

 

Hey, you have so many trees, you need somebody to hug them .

 

Moral of the story, boy and girls ... don't be a Weiner.

 

Iceland is apparently mulling over adopting the Canadian Dollar as their currency. This is far from certain to go ahead but it is interesting. Culturally they are much closer to Europe and as they're officially trying to join the EU that would entail Euro membership as well. I can see this making sense though. They seem to eb worried about turmoil over the EU financial situation.

 

I cannot imagine Canada going for this. What benefit would it give us? Also, our beloved Uncle Sam would not like it-- some days it seems like one if their foreign policy lynchpins is dominating Canada and pushing us around. In terms of optics it would look like Canada had aspirations of sovereignty and self determination, and the US can't have that!

 

Self determination? We Americans are insulted. Don't you understand the U.S has the best and only way to live and it is everyone else's job to support our global hegemony?

 

From the article :

 

I know that stuff. I just don't buy it. I see Canada getting dragged into more problems than opportunities.

 

Nz politics is so simple compared to most other countries.

 

Taking the other view I can't see any drawbacks for Canada. Iceland only has 300,000 people, Canada 34,000,000. That's less than 1%. Iceland isn't going to be able to influence the value of the loonie no matter what they do, it'll still be down to how Canada is doing.

 

Politics update from the Great White North. In keeping with my well-known reputation as being completely non-judgemental and strictly neutral in these matters, the following will be strictly journalistic in nature and will be totally unbiased.*

Item One: On Monday, March 26, 2012, an election was called in the Province of Alberta by the current Premier, the embattled and despised Alison Redford, who really didn't have much of a choice in the matter due to recent changes in election laws that required an election to be called soon. it was not an auspicious time for her to drop the writ, but with things going as crappily for her as they have been, there was never going to be a good time.

The Progressive Conservatives have been in power in Alberta for over 30 years. They currently hold 66 seats in the Legistative Assembly. Some are saying that like the Social Credit psychopaths before them, their time has come, and it may come at the hands of the Wildrose Party, led by the fiery Danielle Smith. If such a thing is possible, this party is even further to the right than the PCs, but it is branding itself as the real voice for conservative ideology, accusing the PC party of being corrupt, out of touch, and otherwise evil. Recent scandals support their accusations. The Wildrose currently holds four seats. Many of them are disaffected former PCs. At least on their bus, they have moved to the right, for two big, round, obvious reasons.

Also in the race is the Liberal Party, led by former PC Member of the Legislature (MLA) Raj Sherman, who jumped ship over corruption and underfunding in the Alberta Health Care System. Why Sherman thought that going to the Liberals was a good idea is one of the great mysteries of Alberta politics. The reason being that in Alberta, calling someone "Liberal" is significantly more insulting than calling him a "baby raping Nazi". Ever since Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program (which basically raped Alberta's economy in order to buy votes in Central Canada), Liberals have not fared well in Alberta. They currently hold 6 seats.

Oddly enough, the New Democratic Party (an outgrowth of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation of the 1930s, which was socialist in name, Communist in agenda) has a better reputation in Alberta than the more centrist Liberals. The party does particularily well amongst idealistic University professors and their somewhat deluded students. Their leader Brian Mason has been described by some as "a nice guy but I wouldn't trust him to run a lemonade stand". They currently hold 2 seats. They might make significant gains this election.

Lastly, it is required by all standards of morality if not realism to mention the Alberta Party, led by Dave Taylor. if you looked up "loony fringe party" in the dictionary, you'd see their logo. They are considered to be too right wing. In Alberta, for the love of all that's holy. That should tell you something. The party currently holds one seat.

The election will be a tough fight, with the Wildrose splitting the right-wing vote with the PCs, and the left wing vote being split by the NDP and the Liberals. In a first past the post system, this could be a Mongolian Cluster Fight. The Wildrose are seen as a credible threat, the first one the PCs have faced since 1971. I see a possible minority government here, which means all sorts of bad things. We'll see how it plays out.

Item Two: In Federal politics, the federal NDP just elected a new leader to replace the beloved Jack Layton, who passed away last year. They selected Thomas Mulcair, a bearded verteran who is reputed to have a wicked bad temper. He was selected in order to appease the Quebecois whiners, who threw their support to the NDP in the last election rather than vote for the separatist Bloc Quebecois yet again. This leaves the big three Federal parties with Old White Guys at the helm, which will do nothing to increase voter turnout. Bu that won't be a problem anytime soon, given that the next Federal election will be around late 2015.

LKD is a little unsure about why such a fuss has been made about the NDP leadership race, other than to distract us from the fact that we are still being boned at the gas pumps (and in pretty well every other consumer transaction). Despite their gains in the last election, the NDP has never formed a Federal government, and given their strong socialist (read: Pinko) message, they likely never will. Canada as a whole has been firmly rejecting their tax and spend Nanny State policies for over 70 years. I don't see that changing any time soon.

Fellow Canadians, and foreigners of a political bent, please join me in expressing your opinions of this political update.

*This is what is known in academic circles as "a damned lie".

 

You had me captivated at "things going as crappily for her". The thing I liked the best about it is that you recognize your bias (as opposed to what passes for real jounalism).

 

Just as an update, for the few who care, the Alberta election was held last night. It was a bit of a shocker, as many thought the Wild Rose Party would do better than they did -- early in the campaign they were thought to be able to win a majority. They got 17 out of 87 seats, which admittedly is an improvement over the 4 seats they held before the election. Still, the Progressive Conservatives got 61 out of 87 seats, and formed a comfortable majority. Two mini issues likely contributed to the deflation of the Wild Rose.

1: A candidate who happens to be a Protestant Minister had a video turn up wherein he opined that homosexuals will burn in hell. Despite the fact he never advocated doing anything to hurt homosexuals in this lifetime, it hurt his chances of election and his party.

2: Another candidate was asked if being a caucasian would hurt his chances of election. In response, he said he was proud to be caucasian. Well, as we all know, that means he wants to kill all non-caucasians. At least in the minds of the reactionary "I have a right to never be offended at anything and I go out of my way to twist things 9 ways from Sunday in order to get offended" folks.

Neither are really serious issues, and the platform was clear in that the Wild Rose Leader Danielle Smith said she had no interest in opening contentious moral issues like homosexuals, abortion, or the like. The media and the other parties pounced like Hobbes on Calvin and their slanderous warping of the truth worked.*

The NDP is quite proud of themselves. They doubled their seats in the house. What an accomplishment! What heroes! This signifies a shift to the left in Alberta! Moral victory! The cold mathematical fact? They went from 2 to 4 seats in an 87 seat legislature. NDP is an old Cree word for delusional, methinks.

The Liberals went from 6 to 5 seats, proving that the Liberal brand in Alberta is, as I said, a lost cause. Their own leader barely won his seat.

The Alberta Party got nothing.

People are surprised, but mostly happy in that they feared the Wild Rose was too right wing. They went with the status quo, and in so doing, the Alberta PCs are on their way to becoming the longest unbroken party in Canada's provincial political history, beating out a long run the Liberals had in some Maritime Province in the late 1800s -- early 1900s.

 

I'm shocked that the PC's won again. Not. But I'm a bit surprised WR didn't do better.