In the last parliament, Harper introduced legislation to outlaw gay marriage which was made legal when Martin was PM. The motion was defeated by a combination of Liberal, NDP, and Bloc MPs.
Being in a minority position, the CPC had their hands completely tied when it comes to advancing a socially-conservative agenda because the other three parties would unite againt them. If Harper had a majority, his party would be free to pursue whatever right-wing social policies they wanted.
[Edit]
What Blaster said.
Not to mention CPC support to. Oh, you forgot to mention that some Liberals voted for the bill. Interesting you would leave them out.
If you go to http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/ and look at the flash map, and zoom into the GTA there is a riding by riding break down.
Thornhill, Mississauga-Erindale, Oak Ridges-Markham, Whitby-Oshawa where a few of the ridings in the immediate surrounding area that voted conservative. Trinity-Spadina and Toronto-Danforth voted NDP.
The rest of Toronto and immediate surrounding area voted Liberal. Those are the imaginary people in the GTA i am talking about. As you move out of Toronto, then it starts getting blue.
This is what you originally said:
Quote:
If you look at the GTA voting results (not all of Ontario), you will see that GTA is all red.
So while it may not be "Ontario" that blindly votes Liberal, but the majority of people that live in the GTA, do blindly vote Liberal. And the GTA has enough seats to make a difference.
Emphasis added.
Once I pointed out that almost half (31/63) of the ridings in the GTA elected either Conservate or NDP candidates (and the Conservatives actually had a greater share of the popular vote than the Liberals), you moved the goalposts and claimed that you didn't really mean that everyone in the Greater Toronto Area voted for the Liberals, only those in urban Toronto itself. And of course, even that isn't true, since both Toronto-Danforth and Trinty-Spadina are urban Toronto ridings that didn't elect Liberal candidates.
So what exactly is the point you're trying to make? That half the ridings in the GTA elected Liberals and the other half didn't...and that proves that the GTA is as much of a stronghold to the Liberals as Alberta is to the Conservatives?
Thanks Bobble, I didn't know that (I don't live in the city let alone the province). Which one did he attend, because he certainly wasn't at the one I was at with my parents
And edit to add, only 2? What was up with that? That seems pretty weak...
I saw on CBC news before the Season opener at 'Nucks that it was at the university (and he refused to speak to the reporter after).
Then I was looking for info on my riding's all candidates meeting and saw that there were only 2 CPC candidates who attended ANY all candidates meeting in Calgary.
I was kind of annoyed that the guy running in my riding wouldn't attend the meeting. I have no idea who the guy "representing" me really is.
__________________
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I saw on CBC news before the Season opener at 'Nucks that it was at the university (and he refused to speak to the reporter after).
Then I was looking for info on my riding's all candidates meeting and saw that there were only 2 CPC candidates who attended ANY all candidates meeting in Calgary.
I was kind of annoyed that the guy running in my riding wouldn't attend the meeting. I have no idea who the guy "representing" me really is.
Ahh ok, I didn't know about the university one. The one I went to was the community one in the community centre.
I think that's pretty weak that they didn't attend; to me, that is a bit of a slap in the face. Doesn't the CPC say they are based on/support grassroots etc? That doesn't sound very grassroots and listening to the people to me.
Dion probably shouldn't have overreacted during the CTV interview in the first place. Liberals are trying to say he has a hearing problem, and couldn't hear the question, but it was obvious he simply couldn't understand.
I feel bad for the guy having to walk the gauntlet like that just after losing, but it was funny to hear him lose it for a second.
"The last one I want to speak first is CTV, you understand that?"
My mom was working for the NDP campaign in our riding and everyone shared one thought. If the CPC were to get a majority we'd see a lot of socially conservative bills and ideas pop up really fast. This wasn't the message they were giving out to fear monger, but what they genuinely felt was likely to happen. These are people that have been in the political game for ages, so it's not that they're naive.
They also believe that after that majority, we wouldn't see another Conservative party in power for the next 10 - 20 years.
And that's why you wouldn't see the predicting rise of social conservatism - because the tories would want to remain in power and by pushing their social agenda too hard that wouldn't happen.
I don't doubt that the people felt genuinely that way, or suggest their naive, but if they are working for the NDP campaign - they have a pretty clear bias.
Dion probably shouldn't have overreacted during the CTV interview in the first place. Liberals are trying to say he has a hearing problem, and couldn't hear the question, but it was obvious he simply couldn't understand.
I feel bad for the guy having to walk the gauntlet like that just after losing, but it was funny to hear him lose it for a second.
"The last one I want to speak first is CTV, you understand that?"
I felt bad for him too and also felt bad during the interview itself.
But therein lies the problem - I don't want to "feel bad" for the leader of my country. Not the type of feeling I want my PM to evoke.
I think Dion is a very intelligent man with a lot of integrity - but a leader he is not.
I don't have a link but I just heard on CBC news that Mr. Dion is apparently stepping down as the leader of the Liberals. Hopefully this is true and I don't look like a knob.
Is it just me or did Jack Layton not roll his sleeves down all campaign. Even cartoon Jack Layton had his sleeves roled up. Either he's trying to pretend he's getting down to business or he's too hot.
On The Daily Show tonight Stewart mentioned the Canadian election and the Conservative victory and then went on to say Canada is a liberal country and the "Conservative Party" here and they share the same values as the"Gay Nader Fans For Peace Party" in the States.
It was funny. Then Richard Lewis was on and he was unwatchable.
I don't doubt that the people felt genuinely that way, or suggest their naive, but if they are working for the NDP campaign - they have a pretty clear bias.
Bias, yeah I never denied that. But this isn't because of what they've seen from Harper, most of them have never met the guy. This is from seeing the type of zealotry the local CPC supporters and candidates have expressed. Although on the flip side, if they were really that scared they would stop splitting the leftwing vote >.>
I don't have a link but I just heard on CBC news that Mr. Dion is apparently stepping down as the leader of the Liberals. Hopefully this is true and I don't look like a knob.
I think that is the best move for Dion, and the Liberals. Two lost elections, and he clearly cannot garner the support needed from this country to become Prime Minister. Not that I really want the Liberals to get back on their right track, but this is a necessary step in doing so.
I think that is the best move for Dion, and the Liberals. Two lost elections, and he clearly cannot garner the support needed from this country to become Prime Minister. Not that I really want the Liberals to get back on their right track, but this is a necessary step in doing so.
Political parties are not like hockey teams. We need the crappy hockey teams for an easy two-points. Crappy political parties are good for nothing.
The sooner the Liberal party dies out the sooner the Green Party can takes its place. I'm happy they get more and more votes each time around. Hopefully by the time they can make a run for some real seats they have a platform that doesn't have the cost of a loaf of bread tripling over-night.
I'll never vote Liberal again after all the money the Cretien and Martin gov'ts stole and wasted. They're a bunch of lying thieves. And the NDP lives a perpetual pipe dream (even more than the Greens!) of social programs for everything up to wiping your ass with no plan to sustain them.
The Conservatives may hate art, but they love money. And it would seem in today's economic conditions, I'd rather have money oriented people in charge instead of flower power.
