Canada's Next....

[civiltech]

The minority government (Fiberals) lost a vote last night 153 to 150. Though not a non confidence vote, the first one to come up in the House of Commons will be May 16. T(he leader of the Conservatives attached a nonconfidence ammendment to a Finance Committee Bill to be present to Commons on May 16.) It's expected to play out the same way. The Liberals cannot run the government without the confidence of the House of Commons....so we think after last nights vote.

Coincidently, a few weeks ago, the Conservative Party recieved direction from that national office to have our local candidtates ready no later than May 15. (This Sunday). It seems logical to have that in place prior to the non confidence vote.

Great Britain had there election, Canada's next. And our shared Crown is coming home for a visit shortly! I know she hates getting pulled into partisan politics, it will be interesting to see if she changes Her plans in Alberta, and Sask. this summer...

[ThatReallyHurt]

I'm so tired of Steven Harper and the rest of the Conservative party. Yes, the Liberals did some horribly stupid and arrogant things, and yes, they should pay for it - but all you see Harper doing is barking about how they're going to bring the Liberals down or how the Liberals are scared and desperate. A few weeks ago, a third of his own party was saying that they didn't want to go to an election now because they were worried about losing their seats. They condemn the Liberals for working with the NDP, but then work with the Bloc Québécois (who, by the way, are there to destroy Canada by pulling Quebec out of it). The Conservatives had a slight lead in the polls, now the lead is slipping.

The opposition is an integral part of the government in Canada. The conservatives (and the Bloc, for that matter), should start acting like the opposition and quit acting like some 13 year old bully who's taunting the skinny kid during lunch hour. They'll get their chance to properly "bring down the government" shortly. I'm no fan of the Liberals and the mess they've made for themselves and the rest of the country, but Steven Harper has irritated me (and freaked me out) to the point where I'll never vote for the Conservatives again. Enough of the posturing, already - get in there and govern...

[glowstix]

ok...what am i getting myself into by trying to move to canada at the end of the year??

[Fencergrl]

Our provincial election is next week and the mud slinging has begun.... I'm going to vote, but it's hard to feel enthusiastic, as almost every leader we've had in the last 30 years has been run out of office over some scandal or criminal charges laid.

Federally… I’m not a fan of the Conservatives or the Liberals. Trudeau insisted we have French on our cereal boxes in the morning. The cost of administering and policing this has exceeded our National debt. It could be said, that we would not have a debt if it wasn’t for Trudeau’s need to placate Quebec.

As for the Conservatives… we can’t forget Mulroney selling us out with Free Trade.

The NDP…. Frankly they don’t seem very effective group, particularly at a Federal level.

I’ve considered going Green…at least they don’t offend me. Failing that, being from BC, I can always vote for the Marijuana party.

[scrapinpeg]

So a contested issue is put to a vote, the majority party wins the vote by a majority, and the margin of that victory indicates the contested nature of the issue.

Why does this mean everyone now has to run for office again? Calling a sudden election implies that the elected officials no longer represent their constituencies, so what is the basis for such a presumption?

[civiltech]

Originally Posted by scrapinpeg

So a contested issue is put to a vote, the majority party wins the vote by a majority, and the margin of that victory indicates the contested nature of the issue.

Why does this mean everyone now has to run for office again? Calling a sudden election implies that the elected officials no longer represent their constituencies, so what is the basis for such a presumption?

The governing power does not have the confidence of the house of commons. There are more people voting against the governing powers legislation than voting for it. That basically means an impotent government that cannot enact it's own proposed legislation. Budgets cannot be passed, etc. The next step is for the Queen's rep. (The governor general) to await a call from the Prime Minister if he feels he cannot keep a government. If he can, they carry on, if he can't, the Gov Gen will approach the other parties to see if they can form a gov't. If they can't then parliament will be dissolved, the GG will "Drop the writ" for each Member of Parliament, AND THEN THE MUD SLINGING BEGINS!!!

The Liberals are getting slammed for the party's high level kick backs and corruption.

The Conservatives are getting slammed because the leader is a little to "right" regarding same sex marriages, and more traditional values. (The attacks because of Brian Mulroney is B.S. That was a different party, and almost 15 years ago. Basing decisions on that is like me blaming Ronald Regan for Iraq.....)

The NDP are reaping some rewards right now. Lets face it, for a closet case "socialist" /communist party with no practical economic platform...they are rocking Canada.

The Greens are someone to look out for. They used to be a single issue party, but now are a threat in pulling popularity from the NDP. they have a solid stance on the environment, and are now providing a full platform with better economics than the NDP could ever dream of!

Then there is the Bloc. The cousin everyone wishes would never come to dinner, but has to be invited..........oh well. (Pierre Trudeau is not to blame for this....that's B.S. as well.)

[kalivor]

Originally Posted by civiltech

The Greens are someone to look out for. They used to be a single issue party, but now are a threat in pulling popularity from the NDP. they have a solid stance on the environment

I really find this funny, because it's untrue. The Green Party has a very weak environmental stance. There's no substance to it. They count on their history as being "The Green Party" to give them the environmental voters, and then try to go elsewhere. They're a "we love the environment" party, with no actual environmental policy backing that position.

In reality, the Green Party is a right-wing party trying to attract left-wing votes. It's strange, though I think that they'd provide a much more sane right-wing vote than the Conservatives do. Unfortunately, the core right-wing voters all see them as tree-huggers.

The NDP has the most environmentally-friendly policy of all Canadian parties, by far. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the Liberals have a better environmental policy than the Greens do. The NDP has no real fiscal policy because they don't need it. They know that they have no real chance of being in power, and that their role is to fight for certain social policies. There's little need to be concerned about fiscal responsibility if you're never going to have any.

Of course, that's the same kind of view which screwed over the Ontario NDP -- they were very prepared to be the Opposition, but not at all prepared to be in charge.

[Fencergrl]

Originally Posted by civiltech

The Conservatives are getting slammed because the leader is a little to "right" regarding same sex marriages, and more traditional values. (The attacks because of Brian Mulroney is B.S. That was a different party, and almost 15 years ago. Basing decisions on that is like me blaming Ronald Regan for Iraq.....)
Then there is the Bloc. The cousin everyone wishes would never come to dinner, but has to be invited..........oh well. (Pierre Trudeau is not to blame for this....that's B.S. as well.)

Hats off to you, as you gave a very good brief analysis of what is happening politically in Canada.

I admit I have got a jaded outlook on politics. Frankly, I feel battle worn from all mud slinging and scandals that I have to hear on my radio every morning. It is even worse than usual as we are so close to our provincial election. To make matters worse, I get an inside view of Federal politics as my husband is a high level bureaucrat.

To clarify…. my snipes on Trudeau have nothing to do with the Bloc…. I frankly forget of the Bloc as a party… regional differences. You’re right; it’s an old issue and nothing we can do about it. In many respects I admire the man if not his party and some of his decisions.

The Liberals tend to be largely in favour of making Quebec happy. Quebec is one province, and seem to take more than they give from our revenue. We are a large country and we are all distinct in some way. Unfortunately, I think the language issue dates back to our constitution… because around that time, I believe we had more or less equal number of French-speaking and English-speaking citizens…. so yes indeed it’s a very old issue.

As for Mulroney, again I think Free Trade has really hurt this country. I don't like that the US treating our resources as theirs for the taking. Again, I was made aware of this as my husband's in the energy sector, and commented that Bush made reference in a document to our energy. There had been no negotiations, he just assumed we'll give it to them. I am deeply concerned that the US will rape our resources. We already supply a lot of their water, electricity petroleum, minerals, wood, gas, etc... we do not have an unlimited supply of these.

I agree since the merge of the Conservatives and the Reform, it is a different party, but it still seems to be the same old values. I haven’t heard anything from them that has made me change my mind, although there have been the odd leader/ member that I have liked over the years.

As for comments your on the Green Party… I agree. In all honesty, they have been the only party I have heard from that has any fresh ideas. I really would like to see some changes in government.

To sum it up, I am tired of people taking office for their own personal gain.

[gojujay]

Originally Posted by civiltech

The minority government (Fiberals) lost a vote last night 153 to 150.

Oh, that one is good. Mind if I borry it?

[kalivor]

Originally Posted by gojujay

Oh, that one is good. Mind if I borry it?

Why is it a good one? I see "Fiberals" a lot, mostly from uncreative supporters of the Conservative party. I don't get it. Politicians have lied? Oh, my!

I suppose that the Conservative party has never broken a campaign promise, but that's only because they haven't had an opportunity.

They're all liars, and I've never seen name-calling convince anybody of anything.

[ThatReallyHurt]

You've got to admit, though - Preston Manning must be pretty upset - look at what Stockwell Day did to the party he worked so hard to build... now look at what it's become - I don't currently see any direction in the Conservative party besides its drive to shut down the government at any cost...

What happens if they force an election and another minority Liberal government gets elected? Are they (all the opposition parties) going to pull the same silliness all over again? What if the Liberals get a majority? Don't laugh too much at the prospect - this is the same country where pretty much everyone but one person claimed to hate Brian Mulroney and Free Trade, but somehow, somewhere, enough people voted for his party to get him another four years...

I think the only really smart guys here are Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe - the NDP will probably never form a government in Canada at the federal level, but Jack's trying his hardest to get some of the things the NDP stands for done... If, on the other hand, the Conservatives win an election, then Mr. Duceppe's got a party in power that will pretty much play into the Bloc's hands - the Liberals may be generous to Quebec, but remember that the current Conservative party has a very high percentage of Reform party people in it, and as a whole, the Reform party never really thought a lot about Quebec...

Guh... politics. Why don't they just armwrestle or something...

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

I’ve considered going Green…

I thought you already had.... isn't that how you got the bigger avatar? :)

-B :)

[Fencergrl]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

I thought you already had.... isn't that how you got the bigger avatar?

-B

I'm assuming you're talking about some discussion about me being a paying member... sorry to disappoint, but I'm as cheap as the rest of you!

[Have At You]

If Canada is its own country, how come the Queen of England is its head of state?

[civiltech]

Originally Posted by Have At You

If Canada is its own country, how come the Queen of England is its head of state?

Don't you mean, if England is it's own country, how come the Queen of Canada is its head of state?

We share the same monarch. There are 16 countries in which the Queen is head of state including Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, etc.

All separate with the same Head of State. She resides in England.

[jBirch]

Y'know what? I just want a civilised debate. I'm tired of the mudslinging rhetoric that means nothing.

Misc Party: Vote for us!
Electorate: Why?
Misc Party: Because we're not them!

*sigh*

I kinda want a mutant party anyways. I'll take the fiscal and foreign policy of the Conservatives (minus their desire to be the 51st state) and couple that with the social and domestic policy of the Liberals (minus their desire to funnel money to themselves), add a dash of NDP environmentalism and drug policy (minus their support for Eco-terrorism and unions) and maybe add just a smidge of Bloc education policy (minus their desire to teach only French).

'Course, it'll never happen. We're likely to vascillate between the Liberals and the Conservatives for a while.

And for crying out loud, can we get someone just the slightest bit charismatic? Martin sounds like a drunken grandfather, Harper sounds like he's just, well, harping, Layton sounds like a used car salesman and Duceppe sounds like a member of the French Revolution.

James.

[lochinvar]

When I read the title of this thread, I thought we'd decided to invade Canada next instead of Iran or North Korea...

[Pointy]

Originally Posted by jBirch

I kinda want a mutant party anyways. I'll take the fiscal and foreign policy of the Conservatives (minus their desire to be the 51st state) and couple that with the social and domestic policy of the Liberals (minus their desire to funnel money to themselves), add a dash of NDP environmentalism and drug policy (minus their support for Eco-terrorism and unions) and maybe add just a smidge of Bloc education policy (minus their desire to teach only French).

I wholeheartedly agree with you on this one. None of the parties particularly appeals to me. The Conservatives are almost wearing white sheets on their heads, the Liberals are crooks, the NDP sometimes sound like crackpots .... Heck in the last election I would have voted Bloc if I could have! (I ended up voting for some Tory breakaway group that didn't have a hope in hell of winning)

Originally Posted by jBirch

And for crying out loud, can we get someone just the slightest bit charismatic? Martin sounds like a drunken grandfather, Harper sounds like he's just, well, harping, Layton sounds like a used car salesman and Duceppe sounds like a member of the French Revolution.

I nearly fell off my chair when I read this! So, so true. I mean, yes, PET was a prick but he had charisma, elan, and, well, chutzpah. Mulroney was slimy but he had a presence. The same goes for Chretien. All the current "leaders" seem like faceless non-entities and totally devoid of charisma! The only one who, I think, has any charisma is Duceppe and I can't vote for him!

[kalivor]

Originally Posted by Pointy

The same goes for Chretien.

Chretien always amused me this way -- I mean, the man couldn't speak English *or* French properly, but he somehow always got his point across and had you smiling -- even when he was choking people!

Amazing.

[kalivor]

... Canada might not be next after all. Belinda Stronach makes a surprising defection!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../BNStory/Front