Federal Election Called for Oct 19, 2015

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I tried to move on. You chose to go back with a hilariously sanctimonious statement. Perhaps you need to spend some time reviewing your own behavour.

Yeah typical of you. Pick a scrap than as you say sanctimoniously try to move on when you get called out.

[Jets4Life]

I just checked out www.threehundredeight.com. Looks like the NDP lead has increased significantly, and another "Orange wave" will engulf BC and Quebec. I'm not necessarily a fan of the NDP, but as long as Harper and the Conservatives are booted out of office, I will be happy.

[jayswin]

Oh boy, we're off to a great start, haha. So I guess mods should just do a scheduled lock one day per week, like scheduled maintainence?

[Canuck-Hater]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

I just checked out www.threehundredeight.com. Looks like the NDP lead has increased significantly, and another "Orange wave" will engulf BC and Quebec. I'm not necessarily a fan of the NDP, but as long as Harper and the Conservatives are booted out of office, I will be happy.

I hope it doesn't stay this close near the end hopefully NDP can gain some ground. Not overly excited about voting for Mulcair but he's the lesser of 3 evils IMO.

[Fire]

I don't understand all the complaints about a 11 week campaign. I find it very easy to ignore politics if I want to. All you have to do is not seek it out.

[Duruss]

Originally Posted by Fire

I don't understand all the complaints about a 11 week campaign. I find it very easy to ignore politics if I want to. All you have to do is not seek it out.

I think it is the attack adds we will see and are already seeing.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

I just checked out www.threehundredeight.com. Looks like the NDP lead has increased significantly, and another "Orange wave" will engulf BC and Quebec. I'm not necessarily a fan of the NDP, but as long as Harper and the Conservatives are booted out of office, I will be happy.

This website is no longer relevant. I, for one, will be getting my info from threehundredthirtyeight.com

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

I just checked out www.threehundredeight.com. Looks like the NDP lead has increased significantly, and another "Orange wave" will engulf BC and Quebec. I'm not necessarily a fan of the NDP, but as long as Harper and the Conservatives are booted out of office, I will be happy.

It is going to be very interesting to watch the polls this election. They can fluctuate a great amount over a normal election period but with this extended period anything could happen. There is a much longer time and therefore a greater chance something will happen that could alter voting preferences. For example, leaders now have to try to keep all of their candidates in line for eleven weeks whereas they sometimes have a hard enough time doing it for five weeks. I don't know how much importance the polls will hold at this stage.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

The real reason Harper is having a long campaign is because it will benefit the Tories.





Here's the kicker, it's actually going to cost taxpayers more for this long campaign since the parties will be spending more.



http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/07...n_7901736.html

The whole reason for the early call is to maximize their spending advantage. The whole reason parties get more money for each day of campaign length is Harper put that in the "Fair Elections" act - parties couldn't do this in previous elections. This has been planned for over a year and for them to suggest they were forced into it is complete and utter B.S.

Sadly as other posters have said this is inside baseball and the average voter doesn't care.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Fire

I don't understand all the complaints about a 11 week campaign. I find it very easy to ignore politics if I want to. All you have to do is not seek it out.

I don't think the serious complaints have to do with about ignoring politics (why else would we be getting heated Iin a political thread? Obviously we're interested and invested) though people do get sick of the negativity of attack ads. The serious complaints are about the damage it could do to the election process. More election time makes things messier, costs more money, bores the larger electorate with noise ultimately frustrating them and discouraging them.

And if it gets truly out of hand, like it has in the States, actually takes important time away from governing. Too much time is spent campaigning (and kissing keester and raising funds). We're not there yet, but it's a road we don't wanna go down and would be near impossible to get back from.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Duruss

I think it is the attack adds we will see and are already seeing.

Not singling you out in any way - just quoted yours instead of several other possible ones.

Does anyone really actually cares about that - seriously?

If you live in this country that is blanketed with snow 6 months of the year and you are spending your time, now, inside watching Canadian network TV, worried that you will see and then fretting about campaign attack ads - then I don't know what to say to you. We're forced onto the couch throughout the winter, but not now. I haven't turned the TV on on, other than to watch the Stamps or the Jays for more than 40 days now. I haven't seen a single ad, I'm happy to say, and I don't plan to see one for most of the campaign, hopefully.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

I hope it doesn't stay this close near the end hopefully NDP can gain some ground. Not overly excited about voting for Mulcair but he's the lesser of 3 evils IMO.

When you get right down to it, Trudeau isn't bright enough to be evil.

Problem is, he is also unable to make an impact in either direction. The Liberal brain trust really misjudged when they brought in a last name to stand in as leader. Which makes the Conservative ads both accurate and pointless. Trudeau is not capable of leading this country, and we really didn't need that message carpet bombed all over the TV to see it.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

When you get right down to it, Trudeau isn't bright enough to be evil.

Problem is, he is also unable to make an impact in either direction. The Liberal brain trust really misjudged when they brought in a last name to stand in as leader. Which makes the Conservative ads both accurate and pointless. Trudeau is not capable of leading this country, and we really didn't need that message carpet bombed all over the TV to see it.

Well the interesting thing is, the Conservative campaign saw that was the message in the polling, so they parroted the message to give it more legs. Solid strategy.

I think most of us do feel that way. Right down to the 'just not ready' tag line. The polling said that people feel they might like him down the road, but aren't ready for him yet.

The Mulcair ad strategy will be interesting to see if it works, or if it backfires, as the polling suggests as far as the three leaders go, Mulcair is the most trusted. Their aiming right at his strength. Could backfire. Canadian's react more strongly to negative ads than other nations.

[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by John Doe

I just watched the show (had to pvr it!) and I am very curious to know why you had such a reaction to Trudeau's interview. I didn't hear anything outrageous and on the few occasions where he did try to avoid answering the questions Rosie Barton came back with the question again he did answer her.

Rempel was on with an NDP and Liberal candidate. If she is going to answer questions the way she did (basically attacking the other candidates rather than defending the Conservative's record), then yes, things are going to be tough for her and the Conservatives. She frankly sounded like she was in Question Period and I don't think that style will cut it during the election, at least later on when the majority of people start paying attention.

Hmmm. I wonder if I missed the other part of the interview with the candidates. I only recall Rempel. Odd. Rempel certainly didn't "win".

Trudeau's comment that the Conservatives haven't grown the economy in the last 10 years was the part that made me turn it off. Attack them on the economy now, but do not try to reinvent history with how they handled the effects in Canada of the global recession.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Hmmm. I wonder if I missed the other part of the interview with the candidates. I only recall Rempel. Odd. Rempel certainly didn't "win".

Trudeau's comment that the Conservatives haven't grown the economy in the last 10 years was the part that made me turn it off. Attack them on the economy now, but do not try to reinvent history with how they handled the effects in Canada of the global recession.

Amazed Rempel even showed up for the interview. See if she make sit to any debates this time.

[MoneyGuy]

I don't necessarily agree with these guys but this #heavesteve thing is well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWgYC6wWNWU

Apparently one of the people behind this video is the local NDP candidate so no bias at all.

But I loved the video. Would watch again.

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Hmmm. I wonder if I missed the other part of the interview with the candidates. I only recall Rempel. Odd. Rempel certainly didn't "win".

They had one person from each party (Jinny Sims from the NDP and Bill Morneau from the Liberals). Frankly, nobody stood out in a positive way. Like I mentioned about Rempel, Sims acted as if she was in Question Period also (attacking the others and spouting talking points rather than answering questions). The Liberal guy wasn't quite as bad but wasn't that good either. I wouldn't give any of them the "win".

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

Trudeau's comment that the Conservatives haven't grown the economy in the last 10 years was the part that made me turn it off. Attack them on the economy now, but do not try to reinvent history with how they handled the effects in Canada of the global recession.

To be fair, the Conservatives try to reinvent history when they talk about the recession as well. For example, we were already in a structural deficit when the recession hit but they won't take any blame for that. They also take credit for the infrastructure spending when they were forced into it by the opposition parties.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

I hope it doesn't stay this close near the end hopefully NDP can gain some ground. Not overly excited about voting for Mulcair but he's the lesser of 3 evils IMO.

Are you voting on your perception of personality through the news media or did you mean to say that the NDP platform is the lesser of 3 evils? and evil? Like Putin evil? The evil doers Bush kept talking about?

Anyways I am confident you have done your research and the NDP platform is what best fits with your personal beliefs

[The Fonz]

I have heard a lot of cries from the pro-NDP crowd that Harper is anti-science. How do those same people feel about the NDP's anti-GMO stance?

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

I have heard a lot of cries from the pro-NDP crowd that Harper is anti-science. How do those same people feel about the NDP's anti-GMO stance?

While I feel the fear mongering about GMO health risks is uneducated and wrong, I still have problems with how the large conglomerates do business with respect to their patents and the smaller companies they battle. I think patenting food put too much power at the top of the industry and will lead to huge problems down the road. I'm not saying they shouldn't benefit from their hard work, just that the rules benefit them far too much right now. Like the top of the banking industry, things are getting out of control.

Also remember, while I totally agree that the health concerns of GMO foods are hooey, there is a problem with concentrating the genetic sample of common foods down to that small a pool. That is proven by science. Our banana population was nearly wiped out in the 50's cause we bred too much of the same, not enough diversity. It's cause many fruits and vegetables don't breed naturally anymore, we've made new plants through genetoc selection through splicing. I am worried, and others, that GMO might repeat these mistakes. One resistant bug or mold could wipe out the whole species. Granted, they'd probaby be in a better place to fix the problem, but it's still a concern.

Lastly, while I do think GMO foods are important to an ever growing population, I wouldn't put the problem with those who fight the in the same league of importance as the anti climate crowd for a few reasons. The most important being that the corporations are winning the GMO battle. They are still making a ton of money and their produce is everywhere. So no huge problem. By the same token, the corporations are also winning the climate battle right now. And this is catastrophic. So yes, that problem is far more important.