GT: Federal Election

[Knut]

@Marchhare - I have read that only those with incomes between 45k and 89k benefit ? So it is an adjustment to brackets then. Great news.

Looks like my family will lose our child tax benefit though. Sucks, but manageable.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah, I wouldnt get too excited about that yet.

But on the bright side as a Flames fan we should be making a hard pitch for PK Subban!

His top marginal tax rate in Montreal is now going to be 58.75% versus our meagre 45%!

Time to steal PK and Price!

Wow, almost a 60% tax rate.

I know if I was a player I would put Montreal on my NTC just because of that. I get that they're storied and Montreal is a helluva town, but that's a lot of cash.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

Wow, almost a 60% tax rate.

I know if I was a player I would put Montreal on my NTC just because of that. I get that they're storied and Montreal is a helluva town, but that's a lot of cash.

Maybe JT is secretly a Flames fan? But yeah, thats a lot of tax.

Especially not taking into account sales tax or 'Welcome Tax.'

[110%]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Of course Conservatives want to keep fptp. It's the only way they can form majority governments in a country that's centre left.

Actually the last party to receive more than 50% of the popular vote was Mulroney and the PCs in 1984. No party has done it since...not even close.

[N-E-B]

Well I took today to reflect a bit, and I've come to the conclusion that even though I didn't give him my vote, I'm willing to give him a chance and go into this with an open mind. I know lots of people are not thrilled with Trudeau, and I too have some issues with him, but who knows, maybe he turns out to be alright? I also like the idea of a younger PM for some reason.

The way I see it, I can sit and be bitter, or I can accept that there's nothing I can do so I might as well keep an open mind. I'm choosing the latter.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Obviously this poll is lacking women, but just shows it will be a wide open CPC leadership race (lol Oliver)

Where did Peter Mackay end up? He seemed to be the most, I dunno, likeable and competent of the CPC members.

[afc wimbledon]

Wasn't Charest a liberal? Christ this countries politics confuses me.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

The trust (or lack of) is the major issue and I don't blame them, but I really don't want to believe that the Canadian government can't earn it back.

That's why an inquiry into missing aboriginal women is necessary IMO. It's great that the RCMP have determined what might have happened, but that isn't the purpose of the inquiry. The purpose is to figure out the conditions that allowed it to happen and persist for so long. It's stuff like this that will help earn some trust and hopefully enough that one day we can take bigger steps to correct the mistakes that keep them in poverty.

The other problem is that the RCMP have a long history of treating First Nations people with complete contempt and really not taking a lot of the reported crimes seriously, so I think that needs to be a big focus of the inquiry. What I would also like to see is this being a primarily indigenous project. Give them the resources they need to conduct a thorough inquiry but don't have a bunch of white people try to run the show. I'm not saying hand it over to the chiefs and the band leaders either. There are a whole bunch of really intelligent and talented aboriginal men and women across the country who would be extremely valuable if given prominent roles in this inquiry.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I thought that there was an RCMP release that showed that the majority of the woman were killed by people that were familiar to them or in their immediate family

I used to think this way to kinda rid my feelings of guilt or responsibility on the issue, but then I remembered, that ALL murder victims are far more statistically likely to be killed by someone they know. So that answer doesn't mean much. It's disingenuous to point to factors in the culture or on the reserves (which as peter12 pointed out, is a small portion of the aboriginal population) to say we've done all we can do, cause clearly we have not. As others have mentioned as well, I think there's a big trust issue here between the bands and the government and RCMP, and steps we can take to better that relationship should be looked at as they will not only help in this case, but with cases involving bands for other things as well.

Originally Posted by Regorium

Yup. But the answer wasn't one that they wanted to hear. So we will continue to inquire until we get the answer that we agree with.

Again, see above. It's not an answer at all, so they were completely correct in wanting more.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Wasn't Charest a liberal? Christ this countries politics confuses me.

Charest was a QC provincial government liberal. Was Premiere as a Liberal. Thing to note is PC's don't really exist at the Provincial level in QC. If they do it's more akin to the green party.

Before then in the eighties and early 90's he was a rising star in the PC party. I lived in Sherbrooke as a kid during his time as the elected MP there. He was a god. Proof of his popularity was shown when he was one of two PC's to win a seat out of 293 seats held by the PC's in the 93 election, and was he favorite to replace Mulroney. He did end up leader of the party in 97. Only at that time the Reform party was hitting it's height before the merger and the PC's only won 20 seats in that federal election. He stepped down and went into provincial politics.

Interesting guy. remember meeting him a few times as a kid. I think he'd be a good fit this time around with the party having a solid foundation. Can keep the crazy reformer parts tamed a bit I think.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by 110%

Actually the last party to receive more than 50% of the popular vote was Mulroney and the PCs in 1984. No party has done it since...not even close.

Even then, it was only 50.4%, so not an overwhelming majority. Would that 0.4% even equate to a whole seat in proportional representation?

At any rate, it's only been done like twice in the past 50 years or something and the last party to do it is now defunct. The political balance today with the CPC being more right than the old PC which was centre-right, and with a stronger NDP on the left, probably wouldn't allow for a majority if you went with popular vote.

[Thor]

The results of this election are getting a lot of play here in Iceland on the UK news. Everyone seems so interested in the young, handsome new leader.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Thor

The results of this election are getting a lot of play here in Iceland on the UK news. Everyone seems so interested in the young, handsome new leader.

Are any of the news agencies are adding vacuous to his list of characteristics?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Are any of the news agencies are adding vacuous to his list of characteristics?

Someone is bitter

[burn_this_city]

http://business.financialpost.com/fp...ont-be-so-sure

Theories about how climate change will be a vehicle for decimating O&G and the people behind Trudeau.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Anything that prevents what are effectively two different political ideologies from combining purely in the pursuit of power is going to greatly influence political discourse in the country for the better.

There is no way a reform party would have ever gained power without their hostile takeover of the Progressive Conservatives. Having 1 party right of centre is much worse for Canadians than having 2 right of centre, one different than the other.

The last thing this country needs is an amalgamation of the Liberal and NDP party.

I believe, as others do clearly in this thread, that a separate federal PC party would be very popular among socially liberal, fiscally conservative urban voters. Had that party existed it's possible we're looking at a PC minority government with the Reform/Alliance forming the opposition.

But that PC minority is propped up by the reform party in exchange for its social policy to be passed. A PR system gives the extremes more power. And a lib, ndp merger is unlikely as the liberals are closer in economic policy to the cons then the ndp

[Thor]

Odd you'd think the financial post would not fear monger about the liberals, almost like they had a vested interest to do so...

[bizaro86]

Speaking of women, what about Leona Aglukkaq? I know she lost her seat in the most recent election, but she has ministerial experience, isn't very old, and is an aboriginal woman. Potential for an image change for the CPC. That thing about reading the paper during question period was dumb, imo, even though it probably cost her her seat.

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Speaking of women, what about Leona Aglukkaq? I know she lost her seat in the most recent election, but she has ministerial experience, isn't very old, and is an aboriginal woman. Potential for an image change for the CPC. That thing about reading the paper during question period was dumb, imo, even though it probably cost her her seat.

She has done a lot of stupid things in office. It would be a very bad idea to put her in as leader just because she is an aboriginal woman.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Thor

Odd you'd think the financial post would not fear monger about the liberals, almost like they had a vested interest to do so...

Yeah, completely ridiculous for news outlets to start looking ahead at critical economic/environmental issues when they could instead gush over Justin's stunning good looks and post pictures of him strolling on parliament hill or feature video footage from his visit to the metro.