Federal Politics 2015 Thread

[PostandIn]

Originally Posted by Slava

You don't think that this has even a slightly xenophobic tone?



How about this?



Its full to the brim with that kind of language.

I think we have a different understanding of what xenophobic means. The fire wall letter sought to compel Klein to claim powers granted legally to any Province by the constitution as a protection from federal intrusion, i.e. protection from a government not a 'people'.

[Slava]

Well xenophobic isn't likely the best word, but that's the same sentiment with Trudeau and his comments about Alberta I think.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

When the Ferguson police department has 93% of their arrests against black people, do you honestly think 93% of the crimes being done in Ferguson Missouri are being done by black people?

Well upwards of 70% of the population is Black, and for a great number a reasons the stats skew towards Black Americans being much more likely to have criminal problems. So it would be more shocking to me if Black people did not account for well over 70% of the crime rate.

I'm not really advocating a blame the people stance. I'm saying don't blame a criminal justice system for arresting criminals.

There are allot of people in North American who need better social programs to address the root causes of these problems. Better social policies will do more to address this issue in the long run, than complaining that too many black/native people are in jail, or ignoring a crime because the Blacks have already fulfilled 70% of your annual court case load for Ferguson.

Don't complain about the problem, address the root cause.

I think that North America has been developing a huge problem within the culture of policing, where they believe their safety trumps the safety of citizens. Which is the exact opposite of what they signed up for. It is a different root issue, that is combining with the systemic cycle of broken homes for large groups of people to create the consequences we are seeing too much of now.

I watch too much American TV, and IMO racism is a problem that the right does not address nearly enough, but the left also puts too much weight into it as a issue. It is rare that you get a situation like this past week, when it can so clearly and easily be chalked up to racism. More often you have situations where the system is setup to make people feel they have the authority to abuse others, and they naturally drift towards abusing people with chronic social issues.

Continue to advocate against racism, but don't sum all of these problems up as racist problems. Take the time to address the abuses within the system, and the socioeconomic problems of people falling into these cycles.

[afc wimbledon]

The U.S. Jails a higher percentage of its population than Russia or China, who are supposedly God hating dictatorships. It amazes me that the average yank has no idea he or she has lost his freedom utterly, that everything they supposedly hold dear under the constitution is long gone with their willing partication and yet they still are stupid enough to think they are free as long as they have a gun.

[Flash Walken]

MONTREAL—Stephen Harper’s Conservatives went into the last parliamentary stretch of their majority mandate last January with a breeze in their backs in public opinion and amidst long-awaited signs that Justin Trudeau’s honeymoon with voters was finally at an end.

With a budget replete with tax cuts and a popular piece of anti-terrorism legislation in the making, all seemed to be in place for a timely pre-election realignment of the stars in their favor.

Six months later, the budget has fallen flat. Support for the government’s anti-terrorism legislation has steadily declined. Some of the more able members of the caucus have bowed out — including, as of Friday, Industry Minister James Moore. And while the Liberals have consistently bled support over the first half of the year, their decline has not benefited the Conservatives.

An uptick in party fortunes in Quebec early in the year is increasingly looking like a mirage.

In Ontario and British Columbia, the NDP has been on the move in the polls while Conservative support has stalled or declined. Ditto in Atlantic Canada.
The NDP and the Liberals have long been communicating vessels for opposition votes but there is more than the usual opposition arithmetic at play behind the deficit in support of the Conservatives.

By all indications, a sizeable proportion of the 2011 supporters that they expected to come home as disenchantment with the Liberals set in are keeping their options open and/or are checking out the New Democrats.
That Harper will be campaigning next fall in an environment more hostile than four years ago has always been a given.

Like his predecessors, the Conservative leader has become a more polarizing figure with each passing mandate. Having covered Ontario at the tail end of Pierre Trudeau’s reign in the mid-80s I saw first-hand how rampant fatigue with his ruling party had become by the time he retired.

Now as then, regime change has become an overriding incentive for a record number of voters.

Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe has been getting a taste of that since his return to the fore. Some otherwise sovereigntist-friendly voters have been questioning the wisdom of potentially facilitating Harper’s re-election by further dividing the opposition vote.

With the NDP on the rise nationally, back-to-back visits to Atlantic Canada, Alberta and southeastern Ontario over the past month have confirmed that Quebec is no longer an isolated pocket of anti-Conservative opposition.

Those visits elicited a lot of more Harper-phobia than Mulcair-mania.

But perhaps what struck me most was how few people were willing to speak up in defence of the government. As opposition to Harper has become more vocal, support for his re-election has become more discreet.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...ent-hbert.html

The bolded is what I notice too, this forum being a great example.

[Weitz]

The vocal minority rings a bell.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Weitz

The vocal minority rings a bell.

Uhhh what? I don't think even the most ardent Conservative supporter would claim to be part of a majority.

[edslunch]

The arrival of PACs in Canadian politics - on both sides - is a very unwelcome development.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...service=mobile

[rubecube]

^^Ugh.

[edslunch]

Apparently Canadian PACs don't have as much money as the American ones, judging by this pathetic effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQKKzjU3TG8

[White Out 403]

as childish and stupid as the con ads are against trudeau i almost dont mind at this point. let people get turn off on the pc's and liberals and bring more votes to the NDP camp.

keep up the attack ads plz!

[Fozzie_DeBear]

The last thing we need is unregulated money influencing politics. If the NDP were smart they would get out in front of this as a Campaign issue

[rubecube]

Enacts legislation banning terrorist propaganda? Uses said propaganda in election ad. Stay classy, Conservatives.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/lates...-law-1.2440047

A new Conservative attack ad takes aim at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s position on the mission against the Islamic State, but it uses the terrorist group’s own horrifying propaganda images.

In the online ad, posted on the Conservative Party’s Facebook page, Trudeau is shown in a CBC interview saying he would end the CF-18 bombing campaign against the terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The ad uses Islamic State propaganda, including gruesome images of prisoners facing death by drowning and beheading -- and those images may actually violate the government’s own anti-terror law.


The new C-51 legislation gives a judge “the power to order the seizure of terrorist propaganda or, if the propaganda is in electronic form, to order the deletion of the propaganda from a computer system.”

“Here they are using the music and images of a terrorist organization. So not only does it undermine decency, but it undermines the credibility of the Conservatives on their own bill,” NDP MP Paul Dewar told CTV News.

[Canuck-Hater]

The language Harper uses could actually be classified as terrorism under bill C-51. Go figure, just shows you how vague the definition of terrorism actually is.

[KelVarnsen]

Looking forward to the day Harper is out of power.

[Nehkara]

http://www.threehundredeight.com/

[Resolute 14]

This federal election is going to look a lot like the provincial election: Pick the best of three bad options, and expect to get screwed no matter the result.

[Coach]

The only thing that freaks me out about those numbers is getting into a situation like the US where a bunch of partisan BS doesn't allow for any actual action on the part of the government. IE NDP is in, but the Liberals and the PCs are ticked off about it so they block everything they try to do.

Normally I like a minority government, it helps keep them in check. But the usual way of the big two parties (especially the PC) seems to be that if they didn't get their way, no one gets their way.

[Kavvy]

Originally Posted by MattyC

The only thing that freaks me out about those numbers is getting into a situation like the US where a bunch of partisan BS doesn't allow for any actual action on the part of the government. IE NDP is in, but the Liberals and the PCs are ticked off about it so they block everything they try to do.

Normally I like a minority government, it helps keep them in check. But the usual way of the big two parties (especially the PC) seems to be that if they didn't get their way, no one gets their way.

This a thousand times over.

The early Harper minority governments were some of my favorite governments - new blood to our government (sorta), with new ideas and pro-transparency, while being forced to cater to the other side.

The opposition parties were forced to compromise as well as everyone was terrified of being the party who forced the election.

However, if we turn into a system where the minority government can't pass anything, that is worse.

Our saving grace (when compared to our american friends) might actually be something I hate about our system - confidence votes.

If the opposition parties block everything, wouldn't the logic follow that they should be calling a vote of non-confidence and triggering an election? They can only block so much before logic dictates they have no confidence in the government.

Then, hopefully from the fear of voters penalizing whomever they voters feel is at fault for the election (the minority government for proposing a 80% income tax bracket, or the oppositions for not working for them) the parties work together!

[Slava]

Would a minority government move that way though? Like say the election is October 19th. The NDP wins a minority and the others aren't too pleased...are they going to go out of their way to force an election right away? I doubt it. First they will get rid of their leaders and retool before they take the NDP down.

To me that leads to one of the more hilarious things though, because in that case I hope the Liberals keep Justin just to re-run the stupid CPC ads of today and proclaim himself ready to be the PM now.