Saskatchewan re-elects Saskparty

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by troutman

http://greenparty.ca/media-release/2...tchewan-greens

"The Green Party of Saskatchewan ran a candidate in every district and is now the third place party. It will take time, but citizens are responding to the alternatives that the Green Party offers. Greens have a long-term vision and are continually influencing the platforms of other parties. I'm very proud of our continual progress in Canada," said May.

That's not really anything to brag about -- no Green Party candidates were elected, and they got less than 3% of the popular vote despite running in every riding. Saskatchewan is pretty much a two-party province; small remnants of the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties still exist after they merged to form the Saskatchewan Party, but out of the provinces 58 ridings, they only ran candidates in nine and five, respectively. The Green Party effectively "won" third place by default.

[macker]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

An article from 2001?

Most recent Stats Can/Globe and Mail released rankings in 2008 and they were both in the top 10. The link doesn't work anymore though
http://healthandfitness.sympatico.ca...o.CMS/404.aspx
These trends don't reverse course very easily...I am sure someone else can come up with the 2008 study/results.

[TorqueDog]

BMI isn't a terribly scientific way of determining whether or not a person is overweight anyway. It overestimates fat in active/athletic people while underestimating it in excessively sedentary folks.

Body-fat percentage is a better way of doing it, but it's a much harder statistic to gather since it requires equipment. BMI is way easier to make a story out of.

[zuluking]

[QUOTE=Slava;3370441]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

Let me know when one policy defines an entire party?

They've lowered business taxes, cut royalties, ran balanced budgets, lowered personal taxes, supported dissolution of the wheat board, and reduced the role of unions and organized labour within government.
/QUOTE]

Thats amusing, buts its more than one issue. Its pretty central to a right wing ideology. The point is government staying out of private business. Wall went as far as he could to block the sale, which is definitely nowhere near a right-wing position. Truth be told I think that he had to block that sale and it was the right thing to do....but that doesn't make it right wing either.

Slava, you forgot to explain how all of crazy_eoj's other points are indicative of a "small gap" between Sask Party and NDPs. Personally, I don't see a small gap at all. These points are pretty much ideologically opposed from an NDP perspective. As he stated, cherry-picking one and attributing it to being THE fundamental issue is misleading. Find one ideologically-pure party of any persuasion (viable party, that is.)

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Thor

lol socialism sucks...for every 1 Greece there's Germany, France, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Holland, etc..

Socialism by virtue of being itself doesn't suck...problem is how substainable some of them are (I'm not sure the UK counts anymore). Certainly Germany and Sweden are doing pretty well, but Norway and France, according to the guys I know there, are starting to wonder how to balance the books well. Guess that'd be a conversation for another thread as it would probably engulf this thread pretty quick though...

An article from 2001?

Hey. We have to hold onto a Grey Cup wins for around 20 years before we can get another...in an 8 team league! Why would you be surprised that we would still use stats from 2001?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

BMI isn't a terribly scientific way of determining whether or not a person is overweight anyway. It overestimates fat in active/athletic people while underestimating it in excessively sedentary folks.

Body-fat percentage is a better way of doing it, but it's a much harder statistic to gather since it requires equipment. BMI is way easier to make a story out of.

The percentage of the population that is muscular enough that it throws them out of the "normal" range of BMI is likely less than 1.

My range for "Normal" is between 164 and 222lbs. I'd say that's giving a lot of leeway....

[Slava]

[QUOTE=zuluking;3370528]

Originally Posted by Slava

Slava, you forgot to explain how all of crazy_eoj's other points are indicative of a "small gap" between Sask Party and NDPs. Personally, I don't see a small gap at all. These points are pretty much ideologically opposed from an NDP perspective. As he stated, cherry-picking one and attributing it to being THE fundamental issue is misleading. Find one ideologically-pure party of any persuasion (viable party, that is.)

Ya, and I get that. I would say meddling in the business affairs of one of (if not the) largest corporation in the province is a fairly significant point though? I wouldn't consider that to be cherry picking at all. You are either for government involvement in business (Saskatchewan Party and NDP position) or you're against it (no party in Saskatchewan).

You might like to try to downplay this as "one issue" and thats fine, but its a huge issue. Its one of the defining characteristics of an ideology in fact.

[Dodsdomd]

Originally Posted by kirant

Socialism by virtue of being itself doesn't suck...problem is how substainable some of them are (I'm not sure the UK counts anymore). Certainly Germany and Sweden are doing pretty well, but Norway and France, according to the guys I know there, are starting to wonder how to balance the books well. Guess that'd be a conversation for another thread as it would probably engulf this thread pretty quick though...


Hey. We have to hold onto a Grey Cup wins for around 20 years before we can get another...in an 8 team league! Why would you be surprised that we would still use stats from 2001?

Who isn't wondering how to balance the books nowadays.

[macker]

Originally Posted by Dodsdomd

Who isn't wondering how to balance the books nowadays.

Flaherty.....er um......maybe not. Plan to shrink the deficit from $33.2 billion this year to surplus of $3.7 billion by 2014-15 is now unlikely, if not impossible. Likely to announce this in Calgary today....The blame will be heaped on Europe's doorstep.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by Dodsdomd

Who isn't wondering how to balance the books nowadays.

Fair point. I'll have to clairify it with them whether they meant "find a way to actually get to surplus again" (which most countries are stuck in) or "we were struggling pre-credit crunch and we're just now even more in the red".

[crazy_eoj]

[QUOTE=Slava;3370570]

Originally Posted by zuluking

Ya, and I get that. I would say meddling in the business affairs of one of (if not the) largest corporation in the province is a fairly significant point though? I wouldn't consider that to be cherry picking at all. You are either for government involvement in business (Saskatchewan Party and NDP position) or you're against it (no party in Saskatchewan).

You might like to try to downplay this as "one issue" and thats fine, but its a huge issue. Its one of the defining characteristics of an ideology in fact.

That could be true if you weren't conflating the issues. It's just not that simple. The Saskatchewan Party clearly is against government involvement in business demonstrated by their support of elimination of the Wheat Board and resistance to organized labour movements' involvement in government.

On the other hand, the Saskatchewan Party exhibits nationalistic policies by protesting the foreign takeover of a stong private provincial corporation.

However, the insinuation that nationalism = left wing ideology is not true.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

The percentage of the population that is muscular enough that it throws them out of the "normal" range of BMI is likely less than 1.

My range for "Normal" is between 164 and 222lbs. I'd say that's giving a lot of leeway....

You don't need to be that muscular to throw off your BMI. It isn't a very good indicator for men under 30.

At 6'3 the "healthy" range is 148 - 199 pounds. The low end of that range is very thin. There isn't a lot of room for muscle weight in that range.

[zuluking]

[QUOTE=Slava;3370570]

Originally Posted by zuluking

Ya, and I get that. I would say meddling in the business affairs of one of (if not the) largest corporation in the province is a fairly significant point though? I wouldn't consider that to be cherry picking at all. You are either for government involvement in business (Saskatchewan Party and NDP position) or you're against it (no party in Saskatchewan).

You might like to try to downplay this as "one issue" and thats fine, but its a huge issue. Its one of the defining characteristics of an ideology in fact.

...sorry, that's your opinion, not fact. It's not downplaying as "one issue"; it is one issue, in fact. The stark differences in ideology between Sask party and NDP outweigh the similarities by a large margin, meaning there is a large gap between the SP and NDP - not small.

And, as you've stated, the largest corp in the province was about to be taken over by a foreign company. Ideologically, you may not want to meddle in business affairs, but ideology has to be weighed against the risk / harm to your constituents. In this case, the determined risk outweighed pure ideology and decisions were made to intervene. Does this mean that the Sask Party is now on the same end of the political spectrum as the NDP? Not even close. If this was a small drilling company in the SE corner of the province, would they make the same decision? Not a chance. Situational, not ideological.

[Vansmack]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Pretty sure I've heard Saskatchewan called Saskabush a lot more than I've ever heard it called the other two listed there.

I would still disagree, maybe it is just my family that picked that terminology. Regardless, we can all agree it is definitely not Saskatchabush.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by macker

Flaherty.....er um......maybe not. Plan to shrink the deficit from $33.2 billion this year to surplus of $3.7 billion by 2014-15 is now unlikely, if not impossible. Likely to announce this in Calgary today....The blame will be heaped on Europe's doorstep.

If the Conservatives would push through the cuts that are needed to balance the books people would be screaming bloody murder.

They could start by reversing the costly 'crime' bill.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by woob

From what I heard on CBC this morning, sounds like their plan is to keep things pretty status quo for the time being?

You just described every government body ever.

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Socialists! Obama Sucks!! RANDOM EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!

That is the spirit! You forgot Socialist suck!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

That's not really anything to brag about -- no Green Party candidates were elected, and they got less than 3% of the popular vote despite running in every riding. Saskatchewan is pretty much a two-party province; small remnants of the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties still exist after they merged to form the Saskatchewan Party, but out of the provinces 58 ridings, they only ran candidates in nine and five, respectively. The Green Party effectively "won" third place by default.

The Green Party is always satisfied with a participation ribbon.

[Thor]

Not to mention the word socialist is deeply misunderstood and misused in North America, well mostly America.

Germany has some of the highest taxes in EU, while also having some of the best social benefits, strong economy, strong unions and worker´s rights.

While America routinely mocks the EU for their socialist countries, these nations mostly have continued to have a healthy middle class while having universal healthcare and way more benefits than anyone out here could dream of.

[zuluking]

Originally Posted by Thor

Not to mention the word socialist is deeply misunderstood and misused in North America, well mostly America.

Germany has some of the highest taxes in EU, while also having some of the best social benefits, strong economy, strong unions and worker´s rights.

While America routinely mocks the EU for their socialist countries, these nations mostly have continued to have a healthy middle class while having universal healthcare and way more benefits than anyone out here could dream of.

Yeah, they're doing awesome over there!