Federal Election Called for Oct 19, 2015

[Looch City]

Wait are talking US politics or Canada? Because I really don't know the difference anymore.

Conservatives are going full Republican.

[Drak]

Originally Posted by rubecube

The fact that he actually made the distinction between homosexual and "normal" is completely unforgivable.

Bigots.

[rubecube]

LOL

@august_mk 4m4 minutes ago
Has the #CPC started up that hotline yet? It seems we need to report @JagdishGrewal for supporting #BarbaricCulturalPractices. #elxn42

[Caged Great]

By all means, CPC go full republican. Given Trudeau a majority. That's all that will happen from this excess of stupidity.

[Bunk]

It will be interesting to see what Harper does with this candidate. Will he boot him right away, or will he say it's too late and will be up to the voters to decide (calculating that such a comment might actually appeal to enough people)?

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It will be interesting to see what Harper does with this candidate. Will he boot him right away, or will he say it's too late and will be up to the voters to decide (calculating that such a comment might actually appeal to enough people)?

There's a pretty compelling case to be made that *not* booting bigoted candidates cost Danielle Smith the election in 2012. I wonder if Harper learnt anything from her mistake.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It will be interesting to see what Harper does with this candidate. Will he boot him right away, or will he say it's too late and will be up to the voters to decide (calculating that such a comment might actually appeal to enough people)?

He supports him in anyway and he will get punished in places like Ontario and Quebec which would be catastrophic to his campaign.

This is the boogey-man people have trotted out in regards to the CPC since 2006.

[MarchHare]

ThreeHundredEight has the Liberals with a 90% chance to win Mississauga-Malton. Harper must surely figure he's not going to win this riding anyway, so he'd be best served by dumping the candidate. Then again, doing so might alienate some of the bigots in the CPC base who likely see nothing wrong with what Grewal wrote. Very interested to see Harper's reaction here.

[IliketoPuck]

I found this an interesting read today. Comments section is worth a look too.

http://boereport.com/2015/10/06/reme...eau-the-elder/

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

ThreeHundredEight has the Liberals with a 90% chance to win Mississauga-Malton. Harper must surely figure he's not going to win this riding anyway, so he'd be best served by dumping the candidate. Then again, doing so might alienate some of the bigots in the CPC base who likely see nothing wrong with what Grewal wrote. Very interested to see Harper's reaction here.

Honestly, where else are the bigots going to go?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I found this an interesting read today. Comments section is worth a look too.

http://boereport.com/2015/10/06/reme...eau-the-elder/

Interesting in that it's completely irrelevant to the current campaign? I'm more interested in talking about what's actually going on in the present, such as our most recent example of CPC bigotry.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Honestly, where else are the bigots going to go?

Stay home and not vote at all.

That's why the Republicans keep pandering to the Evangelical Christians in the US. They need that voting bloc to be energized and show up en masse on election day.

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I found this an interesting read today. Comments section is worth a look too.

http://boereport.com/2015/10/06/reme...eau-the-elder/

Interesting read, but the author kind of skips over a decade's worth of Liberal government in telling the story. Basically it leaves Trudeau's name as the only link between now and then (which, I suppose, is all there really is). I can't fathom the NEP would play into the reasoning of any but the most bitter Alberta voters.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

ThreeHundredEight has the Liberals with a 90% chance to win Mississauga-Malton. Harper must surely figure he's not going to win this riding anyway, so he'd be best served by dumping the candidate. Then again, doing so might alienate some of the bigots in the CPC base who likely see nothing wrong with what Grewal wrote. Very interested to see Harper's reaction here.

If it's a riding that they were prepared to lose anyway, they would be much better off turfing him now. It might build up enough goodwill to at least prevent the spillover into other ridings where some people will take keeping him as support.

[Knut]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Interesting read, but the author kind of skips over a decade's worth of Liberal government in telling the story. Basically it leaves Trudeau's name as the only link between now and then (which, I suppose, is all there really is). I can't fathom the NEP would play into the reasoning of any but the most bitter Alberta voters.

It certainly does. My Parents and their generation who had to live through this have vowed to never vote for the liberals again. It may be unfounded, but the hurt is still there.

Candidates like Kent Hehr have really helped the liberal get a boost locally + the fear of NDP governence.

[rubecube]

From a strategic perspective, this was played brilliantly by whichever NDP or Liberal staffer leaked it. You just know they were sitting on it for months and this was the perfect time to drop it. Completely kills any momentum Harper gained from the niqab and TPP, got it our on a Tuesday instead of Friday so the CPC can't wait for it to get washed out in the weekend news cycle, and to top it off they leak it right before Thanksgiving weekend, when everyone is going to be talking about the election with their families, and now this becomes a key component of that discussion.

EDIT: Just going by the fact that Mulcair got off the first tweet on it, I'm guessing the NDP were the ones who got it to the press.

[Hemi-Cuda]

If Harper doesn't turf him, then essentially he's supporting anti-gay rhetoric. And Muclair/Trudeau should absolutely blast him endlessly for it

[flylock shox]

Originally Posted by Hesla

It certainly does. My Parents and their generation who had to live through this have vowed to never vote for the liberals again. It may be unfounded, but the hurt is still there.

Candidates like Kent Hehr have really helped the liberal get a boost locally + the fear of NDP governence.

Yeah, that's what I mean. If you'd lost your job, house, etc, as a consequence of the NEP and blacklisted the Liberals forever I could see how that bitterness might survive in the way you might forever hold a grudge against a childhood bully.

But if you don't fall into that camp, or you did but are able to shine a light on your grudge and look at things without those old emotions clouding your judgment, I bet you're in line with the vast majority of Albertans for whom the NDP, if any party, is the new economic boogeyman.

[Dion]

Trudeau's economic claims just not truthful

"Stephen Harper has fallen out of touch with our middle class," Trudeau says in the ad, which began airing this week. "He doesn't feel the frozen incomes, the rising cost of living, the disappearing jobs."

Trouble is, none of Trudeau's claims are true. Not even close, actually.

Median income for families in Canada increased to $76,550 in 2014 from $68,410 in 2010. That's an annual average increase of 2.8%, well above Canada's inflation rate of 1.8% during that period. Average weekly wages also grew 2.3% on average from 2010 to 2014.

The relative wealth of the middle class is also on the rise. The median net worth of the middle class -- total assets minus debts -- increased 45.2% from 2005 to 2012. That's ahead of the top 20% of wealthy Canadians whose net worth increased by 40.6% during that period, according to Statistics Canada.

No matter how you slice the numbers, the middle class is not falling behind economically. At least not in recent years. If you go back several decades, including to the 1970s when Trudeau's father was the prime minister and in the 1990s when the Liberals were in power, you can group years together that show the middle class has lost ground to the wealthy. It depends what years you choose.

But that's not what Trudeau is arguing. He's arguing that under Harper, the middle class has lost ground in recent years, which is patently false.

Trudeau also claims that under Harper, Canada is shedding jobs, which is not true. The number of jobs in Canada grew to 17.8 million in 2014 from 16.96 million in 2010. That's not a decrease, it's an increase of some 840,000 jobs. And most of the job creation has been full-time.

Those aren't opinions. Those are facts laid out by Statistics Canada.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2015/10/0...t-not-truthful

[chedder]

I posted one link, but you can google search "income splitting gender equality" and see that it is a common concern among public policy researchers.[/QUOTE]

Read as 'ivory tower academics'. Doubtfully in touch in any way with the real world.

One parent staying at home is definitely not for every family but my wife works part time and would love nothing more than to not have to work or have the time to start her own small business (which wouldn't make much money)

And there nowhere does it say it has to be the woman staying home or making the smaller wage.