Election 2015

[apl16]

"First Past The Post" is not perfect - but it's better than what Greece, Israel or Italy have. When a government can only be formed with a coalition, they are easy to blackmail by the very fringe parties that are recruited to get enough seats to form a government. Greece is busily electing another government that promises to not pay Greece's debts. The fourth such election in 2 years and the second election this year. Each time, the winning coalition has promised to not pay Greece's debt, not raise taxes, not change the pension system. Each time the winning coalition has had to promise the EU that they will impose austerity and higher taxes.

Israel, who once again has to give cabinet posts to the extreme parties. This time they had to give Justice to the party that thinks the only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian and Housing to the the party that represents the Settler movement. There won't be Peace in Our Time in Israel.

Italy, who must allow known members of the Mafia to have Cabinet positions in order to eke out a majority.

Both types of Proportional Representation do not offer a stable government unless the number of legal parties are severely restricted. That's the system the Soviet Union used until 1986 and is still used in China in their direct elections at the "village level" (effectively an elected person for each 2000 citizens). Nominations must be approved by the Communist Party and every real position of power is by appointment.

I don't want Canada to find itself with a "National Church" which could easily happen with Proportional Representation, nor do I want to see a coalition government that will force anyone to parrot a parties dogma.

Lol.....rather than saying.....keep our system because its not the worst....trying going for a better system.......always going for the lowest common denominator......race to the bottom thinking.

 

[AA_Train]

All I know is that if Jack Layton were still alive, the NDP would win in a walk.

 

[summerbreeze]

Unfortunately, both Harper and Trudeau have already proved that they aren't competent to lead Canada. With Harper, only one word is needed. DUFFY Now Duffy isn't the only demonstration of incompetence - however that one word sums it up. There is not anyone that ever worked with Duffy that didn't know what porker he is/was. That's why the reporter from CTV investigated and wrote the initial articles. The reporter had worked with Duffy and knew all about how he padded his expense claims. Anyone that ever worked with Duffy said "couldn't happen to a nicer guy". Everyone in Ottawa knew that Duffy had trolled every PM since P.E. Trudeau for an appointment to the Senate.

Then we have Nigel Wright. Now there is a man that has too much money and too few brains. What did he think was going to happen if he gave $90K to Duffy? The media would say "oh well, Duffy has paid the money back, no story now". Money thrown away to no effect and it was predictable what was going to happen.

What I still have difficulty with is understanding why the Harper Team wanted to save Duffy. They have no trouble throwing Women under the bus. Have people forgotten the Harper Teams treatment of Eve Adams, Helena Guergis, or Bev Oda? None of these women did anything as egregious as Duffy, but the Harper Team instantly threw them under the bus and then circled to go over them again - several times. The Harper Team demonstrably does not like women.

Then we have young Trudeau. Who thought that Eve Adams was the ideal candidate. Who promised open Nominations, but only allows the people he likes to win a Nomination. Who has never seen a broken Liberal promise of the past that isn't worth recycling in this election.

Canadians will most likely vote for whats left. Unfortunately that is Tom Mulcair.

Most Canadians recognize that it is only the party leader that is important. He/She is the one who makes all of the appointments. The remaining MPs - even Cabinet Ministers - are just votes in the House. It's silly to vote for the local candidate and think they will have any influence on what the Party Leader does.

Harper is actually not a bad leader and Canada is in pretty good shape compared to a lot of other countries.

The problem with Harper is he is putting personal agenda's forward and he has such a god complex that none of his senior party members want to deal with him. Problem is that he is the best they have so they have no choice. I would suggest it is his dictatorial style which put everyone off, not the way he runs the country.

 

[sdw]

Harper is actually not a bad leader and Canada is in pretty good shape compared to a lot of other countries.

The problem with Harper is he is putting personal agenda's forward and he has such a god complex that none of his senior party members want to deal with him. Problem is that he is the best they have so they have no choice. I would suggest it is his dictatorial style which put everyone off, not the way he runs the country.

Dictatorial Style and complete refusal to listen to any other advice outside his "Inner Circle". Duffy should never have happened. Everyone in Ottawa had been lobbied by Duffy for a Senate appointment since P.E. Trudeau. His colleagues at CTV hated him and knew that he had a history of padding his expense claims. I'm sure that people warned Harper off of Duffy, but he choose to ignore them.

Then we get the truly amazing and certainly disgusting choice of candidates:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jerry-bance-marketplace-1.3217797
Couldn't ask to use the bathroom? One hopes that he washed out the mug.

Whoops! Another day, another Conservative Candidate acting badly. Boy! Harper can pick them! http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/can...ud-conservative-candidate-unicaller-1.3218162
Tim Dutaud thought it was appropriate to harass women by phoning them and pretending to have an orgasm. He then posted the video of the phone call on YouTube under the name of Killian Gray.

 

[sdw]

Lol.....rather than saying.....keep our system because its not the worst....trying going for a better system.......always going for the lowest common denominator......race to the bottom thinking.

lol, you do realize that when the NDP forms their majority government (they will), they won't have 50%+1 of the vote in most of the ridings that their candidate is elected in. Will First Past The Post still be bad ...... race to the bottom thinking? Will the NDP change election law to make a Proportional Representative System? The NDP has a policy of favouring Proportional Representative government, but they or going to find strong opposition in their own caucus and the Supreme Court will rule that it's a Constitutional Change requiring the approval of the Provinces.

 

[hornygandalf]

lol, you do realize that when the NDP forms their majority government (they will)

Unlikely. More likely to be a minority government, no matter who comes out on top.

 

[sdw]

Unlikely. More likely to be a minority government, no matter who comes out on top.

Tom Mulcair has more experience and is tougher than Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau still has over a month of changing feet and waffling on issues. Leger just did a poll that says the primary concern of 60 - 70% of voters is ensuring that Harper can't form a government. Many of those people will vote for the party that they feel has the best chance of achieving a majority. That's the NDP this election. People may be sorry after the election and it may become difficult to find someone that admits to voting NDP, but - think of all the people that won't admit they voted Conservative in 2011. They held their noses and voted Conservative because the "Orange Wave" was clearly evident in Quebec and Ontario and they thought that a Conservative government was a better bet. Well, they got senator Duffy, they got C51, they got Canada dropping bombs on people in Libya, Syria, Iraq and accomplishing nothing but making more enemies of Canada. Justin Trudeau voted with the Conservatives on much of this and the NDP will make sure that the voters remember that on October 19th.

 

[apl16]

lol, you do realize that when the NDP forms their majority government (they will), they won't have 50%+1 of the vote in most of the ridings that their candidate is elected in. Will First Past The Post still be bad ...... race to the bottom thinking? Will the NDP change election law to make a Proportional Representative System? The NDP has a policy of favouring Proportional Representative government, but they or going to find strong opposition in their own caucus and the Supreme Court will rule that it's a Constitutional Change requiring the approval of the Provinces.

?????...... It matters not what party is in power. Make the best system you can, as opposed to making excuses for bad systems.

 

[Cock Throppled]

The Liberals and Conservatives have owned the country since Confederation and have traded power, perks and policies back and forth.

Why not give the NDP an opportunity to break the forever cycle and see what they deliver? I'm always amazed at how entrenched people are in support of one party or other (we've got 24 people right on this site still planning to vote for a party that wants to criminalize them). We have regular elections. Whoever gets in isn't there forever.

Voting for change is always good. Voting for the same thing just breeds complacency and corruption.

 

[sdw]

You know the Conservatives are in trouble when apologist in chief's (Christie Blatchford) first column after the long weekend is:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/na...s+faulted+missing+footage/11345854/story.html

Nanos released their polling from the weekend. The immigration crisis and pee have put the Conservatives in Third place. http://www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls/20150906 Ballot TrackingE.pdf

I think the midweek polls (once the people that were unavailable during the weekend are polled) will be even worse for the Conservatives. Canadians are a forgiving people, but some things are just too disgusting.

Tom Mulcair's take: "hmmmm, looks like Jerry Bance is practicing Harper's trickle down economics"

Said humorous, but on point commentary is why the NDP will win this election. Justin's speech writer was at the cabin this weekend, so Justin's response was even more unintelligible than usual.

 

[badbadboy]

The Liberals and Conservatives have owned the country since Confederation and have traded power, perks and policies back and forth.

Why not give the NDP an opportunity to break the forever cycle and see what they deliver? I'm always amazed at how entrenched people are in support of one party or other (we've got 24 people right on this site still planning to vote for a party that wants to criminalize them). We have regular elections. Whoever gets in isn't there forever.

Voting for change is always good. Voting for the same thing just breeds complacency and corruption.

I tend to agree with this post.

I have voted for the Cons, Libs, Alliance and Reform in my riding; none of which really impressed me enough to continue supporting them.

The C36, C51 and Coast Guard closures are my hot buttons which make it impossible to vote for Harper's Garden Gnome ever again.

I did meet my Green Candidate and was suitably impressed with her breadth of knowledge of the issues that were not Green related.

I definitely have some thinking to do when it's time to vote. I don't think any vote is a throw away vote and there will be a minority Govt this time. How they sort out the leadership is another story.

 

[badbadboy]

Bump, plus - anyone think C-36 lack of enforcement so far is a plan?

What if the Cons get another majprity? Will they start pressuring law enforcement agencies to crack down?

Maybe the 10 (so far) on this site planning to vote Conservative have forgotten they could be targets of the current government.

Thing is The Cons say they are all about law enforcement but have actually cut back on spending for the national police force.

The RCMP operate more now than ever before with a lot less "tools" to do the job.

I sell stuff to their technical departments and their budgets are no where near what they were ten years ago. They are still using stuff that went out during the Cold War.

 

[sdw]

63% of Canadians want Harper gone http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=6973
Not as many ridings "in play" as people may think http://www.innovativeresearch.ca/si... xlsx/150906_IRG_Hill_Times_Sept_6_Slides.pdf
People trying to decide between Mulcair and Trudeau - but don't think Trudeau is ready http://poll.forumresearch.com/post/1372/half-think-mulcair-is
48% agree with NDP on how many refugees should be taken by Canada http://www.scribd.com/doc/279392314/Mainstreet-Refugee-Crisis
Nanos has the NDP in the lead, Liberals in Second, Conservatives far behind

 

[summerbreeze]

NDP and Green Party do not have enough substance to fill out minister posts

issue of bench strength, even if they had a strong leader, rest of the party are a bunch of newbies getting the alternate vote

voting for the least problematic party is not so inspiring however good candidates seem to go in cycles, we are in a thinning out and rebuild cycle with the conservatives with Harper determined to eliminate any internal competition to his leadership and a vacuum left as a result

 

[Cock Throppled]

NDP and Green Party do not have enough substance to fill out minister posts

issue of bench strength, even if they had a strong leader, rest of the party are a bunch of newbies getting the alternate vote

voting for the least problematic party is not so inspiring however good candidates seem to go in cycles, we are in a thinning out and rebuild cycle with the conservatives with Harper determined to eliminate any internal competition to his leadership and a vacuum left as a result

The Greens are not going to form government, so that's not even an issue.

Have you seen some of the prize winners who have been in cabinet from the Consrvatives? And under our current system they are simply told how to vote from the PMO. What do you know about experience in the NDP ranks? They have been official opposition the last four years and have many long serving MP's. New blood and fresh ideas are what the country needs.

 

[bcneil]

The Syrian refugee crisis is really making the conservatives look bad.

Then on the opposite side of the spectrum. Moonbeam wants to bring 20,000 to Vancouver.

 

[Lo-ki]

The Syrian refugee crisis is really making the conservatives look bad.

Then on the opposite side of the spectrum. Moonbeam wants to bring 20,000 to Vancouver.

There's refugee crisis everywhere.......time for Canada to roll up the welcome mat and put it away.
As for moonbeam...hey...Hasting St could handle an other 20,000

 

[CAEC]

Okay, I get the point, but your local candidate represents the Leader and the party.

True for all but the Green Party candidates. They represent their constituents rather than the party. No whipped vote in the Green party. They also have the most positive sex work policies.

 

[sdw]

lol, You Think? :doh: Mulcair and Trudeau agree, no chance of either supporting a Conservative minority.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/can...nment-canada-election-party-leaders-1.3238875

And there go my dreams of the Conservatives supporting a minority NDP government.

 

[sdw]

True for all but the Green Party candidates. They represent their constituents rather than the party. No whipped vote in the Green party. They also have the most positive sex work policies.

hmmm, I understood that May may whip herself often