Canadian Federal Election on May 2nd

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Jack Layton's only 60.

He's still the oldest of the chiefs, if memory serves. And has had health issues not too long ago, if you'll remember.

Last edited by phil777 on 03 May 2011, 10:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ontario has forced the plague of Harris onto the whole of this country. Idiots. It's always the same. Economy's bad in the '90s? It's Bob Rae! In the late '90s? It's Jean Chretien! In the '00s? It's McGuinty! That's what the media tells them, after all. They lap it up.

Quebec tried to change the government for the better in Ottawa and failed thanks to Ontario. That failure may end up costing Canada its existence.

Last edited by xenon13 on 03 May 2011, 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Information control!

Don't worry, we'll see more of it in the coming years thanks to the Conservatives now. =.=

I'll miss Infoman.

The totalitarian mentality of the hard right so-called conservatives in the US and Canada makes the thought of giving them the levers of power that goes with a majority government in Canada very scary. Their propaganda sounds like that of a totalitarian power and they demand that all other voices be stamped out.

It is the polarization that troubles me.

If the Liberal Party does not reinventi itself and NDP remains true to itself, then the Conservatives have secured the keys to 24 Sussex for, I would guess, 30 of the next 40 years. Canadian voters have demonstrated time and again at the provincial level that given a stark choice between the Conservatives and the NDP they will, more often than not, opt for the Conservatives. This is not a hard and fast rule, I grant you, but it is a solid trend.

I'm hoping (for lack of a better word) that four years under a Harper majority will bother (or freak out) enough Canadians that the 2015 election will be very, very different. If you think Harpo was autocratic, opaque, dismissive of science, and dismissive of democracy with a minority, well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

If Provincial politics were transferable to Federal politics than the NDP would have more seats in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. What will probably happen is the NDP will go through a New Labour style moderation and many young urban progressive voters will bleed to the Greens.

Red this! topic

I do hope the Liberal Party does reinvent itself, and rise again. But they have to work hard to elect a leader that has vision, imagination, and can connect with the people. It is the leader that the voters rejected. I think Mr. Ignatieff needs to find a new job, whether or not in Canada, where he may or may not be just visiting. He was gracious in defeat, judging by his speech. And if Bob Rae has any designs on leadership this time around, I think it would be foolish of him. Too much baggage. I can see Justin Trudeau perhaps taking more of a leadership role now, even if he is young and still inexperienced. Someone, not just Jack, has got to stand up against Harper, as we are now stuck with him for another 4 years.

I have said before that I am glad there is no coalition, and I still stand by this. It was not handled right by Parliament, and unfortunately I have a suspicion that the antiliveral voting gave Jack more seats but inadvertantly aided in giving harpy that ugly majority. Yet, on a more positive note, we also need, as Vigilans has posted, a change in the way voting works in Canada, to proportional represesentation, and I can see this happening in the coming years, certainly in my lifetime.

The Prime Minister is smarter than that. There will be no attack on same-sex marriage, no attack on abortion, no moves on the death penalty.

The Prime Minister will switch on "warm and fuzzy mode" and move to solidify a death grip on the centre. Of course the autocracy, and the rule of the minions in the Langevin Block will remain unabated.

I wish I was old enough to be able to properly compare to the Harper government to the Mulroney government, who was in power for the bulk of my childhood.

All I can remember about him is that he had a son, who became a very annoying host of an entertainment news program.

Many similarities between Lyin' Brian and Harpo, IMHO. An arrogant disdain for anyone who dared to "think different" is the biggest point, I think, along with a disdain for social programs and a hard-on for big corporate interests. And both share a desire to make the PMO more like a presidential office, which doesn't really "fit" with a Westminster-style parliamentary system.

You have a different crystal ball than I. I see no basis on which any party is going to argue for electoral reform--and most importantly I see no reason for the Conservatives to touch this issue. Proportional Representation is a dead letter in this country, and STV has failed on the few occasions where serious proposals have been made to introduce it.

Now a genuine effort on Senate reform could open the door, partially, but since neither Québec nor Ontario have any reason to forego their current blocs of 24 seats in the Upper House, how can we expect any concerted efforts by the Prime Minister and the provinces to change the composition or method of selection of Senators? (The Prime Ministers woeful "advisory elections" is likely to die an ugly death in the courts).

Mulroney wrecked the economy with right wing dogma and successfully either blamed others like Bob Rae for it or explained that the damage was an inevitability of globalisation. I expect more of the same. Mulroney's time was an orgy of belt-tightening. Harper is going to make people suffer, be sure of that. His most ardent partisans are demanding it, particularly wanting to damage Quebec as much as possible. These are the winning conditions for Quebec to say goodbye.

And thus Quebec says good bye to Federal equalization payments and the Canadian currency and becomes a total xenophobic s**t hole- wait, it already is a total xenophobic s**t hole, the difference being it still gets Federal 'bribes'. I wonder how many 'no' votes they would throw out this time around if it ever came to a referendum? What a totally honest and legitimate movement that really cares about the Quebecois

Didn't the Bloc do pretty awfully out of this election?

The Canadians should give the Quebecois a referendum. If they vote to maintain the union with Canada then they really need to be told to stop moaning and being quite so bigoted.