Since you didn't answer the questions about the leaders (and my opinion of the leaders has been previously stated), do you believe May or Mulcair are PM material? Your political ideologies match the party platform, but do they strike a chord with you?
Since you didn't answer the questions about the leaders (and my opinion of the leaders has been previously stated), do you believe May or Mulcair are PM material? Your political ideologies match the party platform, but do they strike a chord with you?
The reason I didn't answer the questions about the leaders is because I didn't know if that would sway the results at the end. I wanted to see where I stood with the parties on policy alone.
As a person I like May more. I've seen her speak live a couple of times before and she comes off as very smart and personable. She is no intellectual lightweight and her passion is unmatched in Parliament. Some of her personal beliefs do concern me a little....she is very religious and I'm an Atheist.....but she seems to be able to keep that separate from her politics. Similar to Preston Manning....who I have a great deal of respect for. (as a side note, I think he would have made a far better PM than Harper)
I became a card carrying NDP member (which I no longer am despite what some might think) so I could vote for their leader after Jack Laytons death. I did not vote for Mulcair. I voted for Nathan Cullen. I had met him once and had a beer with him, really liked him and his politics. He wanted to work with the Liberals to elect whichever MP had a better chance of beating the conservative candidate. A one time only thing with the eventual goal of bringing in some version of proportional representation.
So that being said, I'm not the biggest fan of Mulcair. He was not my first choice, or second for that matter. But I was very impressed with his performance in Parliament. He really put Harpers feet to the fire. I don't really think his math seems to work with all the promises he is making lately and his promise to balance the first budget. I think it's fair to criticize him and the NDP on that front.
To answer your question, I have confidence in both Mulcair and May. At least I have more confidence in them than I do our current PM. May strikes more of a chord for me, but she has no chance. I still don't know who I am voting for yet. I will be voting for whatever progressive candidate has the best chance of winning in my riding. Environment and getting in proportional representation are my biggest issues, and the CONS are the worst on both fronts. So it's ABC for me.
That was a very thoughtful post. I must ask, why do you call the Conservstives "CONS". Are you one of the many who freely use the term "neo-CONS"? I find this particularly interesting because from my experience, the farther "left" a person is ideologically, the more they despise the mud slinging and name calling which is predominant in politics. They want to focus on the issues, not the politicians themselves.
Now regarding Elizabeth May, her public drunken rant was humourous and everyone makes mistakes, so big deal. I find it interesting she is now distancing herself slightly from the environmental front, trying to show they can tackle other issues. Reminds me of the Reform Party, who focussed on the west to form a base, but of course, they had to appeal to the east because without Ontario or Quebec, you cannot win an election (as a westerner this bothers me). Good segue into your Preston Manning comment. Could not agree more. We missed out on a life changing PM there. In fact, Harper was his right hand man and was inconspicuously absent from Manning's memoirs. Something happened there and I would love to know, but it is the main reason I have never really trusted Harper.
"Progressive candidate" eh? Well, I must tell you, I struggle with a lot of things the Conservstive government is doing (C-51 and mandatory sentences for marijuana for instance). I wish there was a Libertarian Party in this country. One where our freedoms are paramount and less government is desired.
I will say this, I am concerned with the direction of our country, no matter who is elected. Worst case scenario? Minority government lead by the NDP. Why? Because to get the coalition, Trudeau will get a cabinet position. Trudeau involved in federal government in any capacity frightens me. He has no idea what he is doing, no party leader has ever said more asinine things (at least that I can remember). This is the worst case scenario because the Liberals have no chance of winning, barring some kind of miracle.
I mostly only refer to the Conservatives as CONS as an abbreviation. Similar to using NDP and not the New Democrat Party. But I will admit I sometimes use it in a disparaging way. I don't use the term neo-cons because not everyone in the party is a neo-con.....even though there are a few.
The relationship between Manning and Harper has always been complex and – from Manning’s point of view – painful. Manning hired Harper back in 1987 to work for the Reform Party but Harper was to betray his mentor on numerous occasions. Manning was still recovering from those wounds when in 2002 he published a book called Think Big: My Adventures in Life and Democracy. In it, he described Harper as elitist,cruelly disloyal, and a quitter. Harper’s actions toward Manning anticipated the self-preserving ruthlessness he has shown as Prime Minister. What follows here is an edited version of a piece that I published on this blog in April 2009 about what Manning had to say about Stephen Harper in his book.
My results. I didn't like the questions about the leaders and parties at the end.....so I rated them all the same.
81% Green 81% NDP 68% Liberal 39% CONS
Pretty good scientific test. My results; Con 60% Lib 53% NDP 47% Green 38%
I still am not quite sure how the Green party even made my scorecard.... What is surprising though is the party that I am going to vote for may or may not be reflected in my results.
I don't think this is political maneuvering at all. This is how I would see the breakdown of what the current candidates would say if they were in office and had this thrown at them.
May - "Who is Mohamed Fahmy and what did he do to the environment"?
Trudeau - "We need to really understand the root cause of why he committed these crimes abroad and not here in his native land called Canada"
Mulcair - "I promise to pay for his plane ticket back home so he is not burdened with that expense"
I don't think this is political maneuvering at all. This is how I would see the breakdown of what the current candidates would say if they were in office and had this thrown at them.
May - "Who is Mohamed Fahmy and what did he do to the environment"?
Trudeau - "We need to really understand the root cause of why he committed these crimes abroad and not here in his native land called Canada"
Mulcair - "I promise to pay for his plane ticket back home so he is not burdened with that expense"
Political maneuvering? Crimes? ...and where is your Harper quote/satire?
Have you followed this story at all?...or did you even read the article you posted? The guy has been wrongfully imprisoned for 18 months and it took the conviction of another journalist for canada to even request his release. I'd say our government owes him a plane ticket at the very least.
^^^ I have no satire for Harper. But here is his very own quote on the situation from the article “Canada continues to call on Egypt for the immediate and full release of Mr. Fahmy, and full co-operation to facilitate his return home,”
I see nothing wrong with this. He is not a magician and dealing with foreign countries takes months when dealing with crimes. Egypt did not "make up" these crimes against Fahmy but if they did then this certainly explains the months of messy waiting and bullshit this guy has to sit through.
What crimes? Have you looked into this at all? The thing that's wrong with it is that they let journalists just doing their job rot for years before making a formal request to Egypt. Now they're saying they 'continue to call on egypt' as if they've lifted a finger to help them before this.
Egypt is prosecuting foreign journalists for writing negative articles about them and calling it terrorism. So yes, they're made up charges.
Recession? The average person wouldn't be able to tell if the economy shrunk .5% or grew .5% As a matter of fact, the average person's basic understanding of economics is horrible, which makes it an election issue (when it isn't an issue at all) Do you know how little a .5% deflation in the economy matters in a 1.9 Trillion dollar economy?
Recession? The average person wouldn't be able to tell if the economy shrunk .5% or grew .5% As a matter of fact, the average person's basic understanding of economics is horrible, which makes it an election issue (when it isn't an issue at all) Do you know how little a .5% deflation in the economy matters in a 1.9 Trillion dollar economy?
I see someone has been drinking the Harper cool-aid
It's an issue because Harper has tried to make it his #1 issue.He wants to run his whole campaign on the economy. Regardless of a positive or negative .5%......is that anything to be proud of? Something to point to as a strength? If you think it is you're an easy man to please. At the same time the US GDP in the second quarter grew by 3.7%
I may not be good at math.....or an economics professor......but those numbers don't look that great.
Recession? The average person wouldn't be able to tell if the economy shrunk .5% or grew .5% As a matter of fact, the average person's basic understanding of economics is horrible, which makes it an election issue (when it isn't an issue at all) Do you know how little a .5% deflation in the economy matters in a 1.9 Trillion dollar economy?
I see someone has been drinking the Harper cool-aid
It's an issue because Harper has tried to make it his #1 issue.He wants to run his whole campaign on the economy. Regardless of a positive or negative .5%......is that anything to be proud of? Something to point to as a strength? If you think it is you're an easy man to please. At the same time the US GDP in the second quarter grew by 3.7%
I may not be good at math.....or an economics professor......but those numbers don't look that great.
Recession? The average person wouldn't be able to tell if the economy shrunk .5% or grew .5% As a matter of fact, the average person's basic understanding of economics is horrible, which makes it an election issue (when it isn't an issue at all) Do you know how little a .5% deflation in the economy matters in a 1.9 Trillion dollar economy?
I see someone has been drinking the Harper cool-aid
It's an issue because Harper has tried to make it his #1 issue.He wants to run his whole campaign on the economy. Regardless of a positive or negative .5%......is that anything to be proud of? Something to point to as a strength? If you think it is you're an easy man to please. At the same time the US GDP in the second quarter grew by 3.7%
I may not be good at math.....or an economics professor......but those numbers don't look that great.
I'm not drinking anything, except the gin and soda on my nightstand Listen, Harper is making it an issue, Trudeau is making it an issue, Mulcair is making it an issue. The government is a steward of the economy, they get too much credit when it is going well, and too much blame when it isn't. They want growth around 2.5 percent, its sustainable. It the U.S. Kept growing at 3.7 percent, they would up the interest rates to slow it down. People are getting sucked into a non-issue. It's POLITICS and most of the sheep of Canada "drink the koolaid" you are talking about
Good government keeps corporate tax reasonable, so they hire people to pay taxes (keep in mind the taxes an employee pay come from a corporation) to run the country. Everyone pays.
(I would never vote Green Party though, unless I had a reason to give them my throw away vote (which I have done once), because I don't have enough faith in their ability to manage the economy properly)
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
New Democrat Fin Donnelly, acting in his capacity as MP, said he brought the B.C. family's case to Alexander's attention earlier this year. It was later rejected
During a Wednesday panel appearance on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, he defended the Harper government's response to the Syrian refugee crisis, and said the media had failed to "put it in the headlines where it deserves to be."
Well, it looks like Alexander is getting what he wants.....
I don't blame the man for rejecting the offer that came WAY too late. Just like the Harper government to deny such a request (a PRIVATE sponsorship for refugees who are relatives of a Canadian resident for god's sake!), and then back pedal only after 3/4 of the family are dead because they wouldn't say yes to a completely reasonable application based on humanitarian necessity. What the fucking fuck??
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
I've reached out to the Libertarian Party. Looked at their platform online, seems interesting.
The part where they want to move the Bank of Canada responsibility away from the government is disturbing (although depending how deep you want to look into it, the Bank of Canada might not be a government institution, if you don't believe me do your own research)
Riding and driving around Victoria and all the associated municipalities, I'm struck by what I'm seeing in terms of election signs. Green Party/Elizabeth May signs are everywhere - no joke, they're just about in every block, on personal property. There are a smattering of Liberal signs. Haven't seen a single NDP sign yet. Until today hadn't seen a Conservative sign either, but today one popped up - on a road median, not in a yard, meaning it was just put there by the party. I know I'm in May's riding and having the party leader in your riding always generates a bit of buzz, even with a small party, but this is really noticeable. What are others seeing in their areas?
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
Comments
Recent polls suggest that the Tories may be in danger of being leap-frogged by the Liberals
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-grenier-polls-aug28-1.3206184
Opportunity is knocking
My results. I didn't like the questions about the leaders and parties at the end.....so I rated them all the same.
81% Green
81% NDP
68% Liberal
39% CONS
Your political ideologies match the party platform, but do they strike a chord with you?
As a person I like May more. I've seen her speak live a couple of times before and she comes off as very smart and personable. She is no intellectual lightweight and her passion is unmatched in Parliament. Some of her personal beliefs do concern me a little....she is very religious and I'm an Atheist.....but she seems to be able to keep that separate from her politics. Similar to Preston Manning....who I have a great deal of respect for. (as a side note, I think he would have made a far better PM than Harper)
I became a card carrying NDP member (which I no longer am despite what some might think) so I could vote for their leader after Jack Laytons death. I did not vote for Mulcair. I voted for Nathan Cullen. I had met him once and had a beer with him, really liked him and his politics. He wanted to work with the Liberals to elect whichever MP had a better chance of beating the conservative candidate. A one time only thing with the eventual goal of bringing in some version of proportional representation.
So that being said, I'm not the biggest fan of Mulcair. He was not my first choice, or second for that matter. But I was very impressed with his performance in Parliament. He really put Harpers feet to the fire. I don't really think his math seems to work with all the promises he is making lately and his promise to balance the first budget. I think it's fair to criticize him and the NDP on that front.
To answer your question, I have confidence in both Mulcair and May. At least I have more confidence in them than I do our current PM. May strikes more of a chord for me, but she has no chance. I still don't know who I am voting for yet. I will be voting for whatever progressive candidate has the best chance of winning in my riding. Environment and getting in proportional representation are my biggest issues, and the CONS are the worst on both fronts. So it's ABC for me.
I must ask, why do you call the Conservstives "CONS". Are you one of the many who freely use the term "neo-CONS"?
I find this particularly interesting because from my experience, the farther "left" a person is ideologically, the more they despise the mud slinging and name calling which is predominant in politics. They want to focus on the issues, not the politicians themselves.
Now regarding Elizabeth May, her public drunken rant was humourous and everyone makes mistakes, so big deal. I find it interesting she is now distancing herself slightly from the environmental front, trying to show they can tackle other issues.
Reminds me of the Reform Party, who focussed on the west to form a base, but of course, they had to appeal to the east because without Ontario or Quebec, you cannot win an election (as a westerner this bothers me).
Good segue into your Preston Manning comment. Could not agree more. We missed out on a life changing PM there. In fact, Harper was his right hand man and was inconspicuously absent from Manning's memoirs. Something happened there and I would love to know, but it is the main reason I have never really trusted Harper.
"Progressive candidate" eh? Well, I must tell you, I struggle with a lot of things the Conservstive government is doing (C-51 and mandatory sentences for marijuana for instance). I wish there was a Libertarian Party in this country.
One where our freedoms are paramount and less government is desired.
I will say this, I am concerned with the direction of our country, no matter who is elected. Worst case scenario? Minority government lead by the NDP. Why? Because to get the coalition, Trudeau will get a cabinet position. Trudeau involved in federal government in any capacity frightens me.
He has no idea what he is doing, no party leader has ever said more asinine things (at least that I can remember). This is the worst case scenario because the Liberals have no chance of winning, barring some kind of miracle.
I mostly only refer to the Conservatives as CONS as an abbreviation. Similar to using NDP and not the New Democrat Party. But I will admit I sometimes use it in a disparaging way. I don't use the term neo-cons because not everyone in the party is a neo-con.....even though there are a few.
As far as Preston Manning and Harper, I was of the understanding that Harper stabbed him in the back. http://www.dennisgruending.ca/2014/03/preston-manning-and-stephen-harper/
The relationship between Manning and Harper has always been complex and – from Manning’s point of view – painful. Manning hired Harper back in 1987 to work for the Reform Party but Harper was to betray his mentor on numerous occasions. Manning was still recovering from those wounds when in 2002 he published a book called Think Big: My Adventures in Life and Democracy. In it, he described Harper as elitist,cruelly disloyal, and a quitter. Harper’s actions toward Manning anticipated the self-preserving ruthlessness he has shown as Prime Minister. What follows here is an edited version of a piece that I published on this blog in April 2009 about what Manning had to say about Stephen Harper in his book.
My results;
Con 60%
Lib 53%
NDP 47%
Green 38%
I still am not quite sure how the Green party even made my scorecard....
What is surprising though is the party that I am going to vote for may or may not be reflected in my results.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/opposition-urges-harper-to-break-from-campaign-to-help-fahmy/article26157865/
I don't think this is political maneuvering at all.
This is how I would see the breakdown of what the current candidates would say if they were in office and had this thrown at them.
May - "Who is Mohamed Fahmy and what did he do to the environment"?
Trudeau - "We need to really understand the root cause of why he committed these crimes abroad and not here in his native land called Canada"
Mulcair - "I promise to pay for his plane ticket back home so he is not burdened with that expense"
Have you followed this story at all?...or did you even read the article you posted? The guy has been wrongfully imprisoned for 18 months and it took the conviction of another journalist for canada to even request his release. I'd say our government owes him a plane ticket at the very least.
I have no satire for Harper.
But here is his very own quote on the situation from the article “Canada continues to call on Egypt for the immediate and full release of Mr. Fahmy, and full co-operation to facilitate his return home,”
I see nothing wrong with this.
He is not a magician and dealing with foreign countries takes months when dealing with crimes.
Egypt did not "make up" these crimes against Fahmy but if they did then this certainly explains the months of messy waiting and bullshit this guy has to sit through.
Egypt is prosecuting foreign journalists for writing negative articles about them and calling it terrorism. So yes, they're made up charges.
This place always needs a heel
Heelarious
Did you take the test above Drowned?
Curious to see the results....
NDP - 76%
Lib - 72%
Con - 40%
In other news, I guess were in a recession. Second one while Harper has been in power. I thought he was our great economic guy....steady as she goes.
The average person wouldn't be able to tell if the economy shrunk .5% or grew .5%
As a matter of fact, the average person's basic understanding of economics is horrible, which makes it an election issue (when it isn't an issue at all)
Do you know how little a .5% deflation in the economy matters in a 1.9 Trillion dollar economy?
No one told me about it otherwise I for sure would be more NDP for this election.
Damn you Harper!
It's an issue because Harper has tried to make it his #1 issue.He wants to run his whole campaign on the economy. Regardless of a positive or negative .5%......is that anything to be proud of? Something to point to as a strength? If you think it is you're an easy man to please. At the same time the US GDP in the second quarter grew by 3.7%
I may not be good at math.....or an economics professor......but those numbers don't look that great.
http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/5-things-to-know-about-the-economy-this-week-8-28-2015/2
Listen, Harper is making it an issue, Trudeau is making it an issue, Mulcair is making it an issue.
The government is a steward of the economy, they get too much credit when it is going well, and too much blame when it isn't.
They want growth around 2.5 percent, its sustainable. It the U.S. Kept growing at 3.7 percent, they would up the interest rates to slow it down.
People are getting sucked into a non-issue. It's POLITICS and most of the sheep of Canada "drink the koolaid" you are talking about
Good government keeps corporate tax reasonable, so they hire people to pay taxes (keep in mind the taxes an employee pay come from a corporation) to run the country. Everyone pays.
NDP - 69%
LPC - 58%
CPC - 39%
(I would never vote Green Party though, unless I had a reason to give them my throw away vote (which I have done once), because I don't have enough faith in their ability to manage the economy properly)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/syria-migrants-canada-drowned-migrants-1.3213772
And now it looks like there might be some fallout for Chris Alexander because of this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-alexander-refugee-crisis-1.3213869
New Democrat Fin Donnelly, acting in his capacity as MP, said he brought the B.C. family's case to Alexander's attention earlier this year. It was later rejected
During a Wednesday panel appearance on CBC News Network's Power & Politics, he defended the Harper government's response to the Syrian refugee crisis, and said the media had failed to "put it in the headlines where it deserves to be."
Well, it looks like Alexander is getting what he wants.....
Wonder how much Canadian this cjpme group is.
What stupid ads.
Looked at their platform online, seems interesting.
The part where they want to move the Bank of Canada responsibility away from the government is disturbing (although depending how deep you want to look into it, the Bank of Canada might not be a government institution, if you don't believe me do your own research)