Federal Politics 2015 Thread

[killer_carlson]

cbc article on retiring MPs
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/retiri...ment-1.3117798

It includes this:

Rob Anders isn't running again because he lost not one but two Conservative nomination battles in Calgary.

His last speech amounted to a thank you — to gun owners, victims of Communism, parents who home-school their children, police officers and others who, as he put it, "fought in the battle for preventing the moral decay inside Western civilization itself."

Wow. That's been part of Calgary's representation to the federal government. to be polite: i'm not sure if i've ever met many Calgarians who share those views as their priorities in politics... Glad a different perspective will be there.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

cbc article on retiring MPs
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/retiri...ment-1.3117798

It includes this:

Rob Anders isn't running again because he lost not one but two Conservative nomination battles in Calgary.

His last speech amounted to a thank you — to gun owners, victims of Communism, parents who home-school their children, police officers and others who, as he put it, "fought in the battle for preventing the moral decay inside Western civilization itself."

Wow. That's been part of Calgary's representation to the federal government. to be polite: i'm not sure if i've ever met many Calgarians who share those views as their priorities in politics... Glad a different perspective will be there.

His tenure is easily one of the most embarrassing moments in both Calgary and Conservative political history. That Harper actively resisted turfing him for so long is deplorable.

[JohnnyB]

I'm extremely surprised that there's no discussion of bill c-24 in here. I would think that would be a significant issue for many Canadians in an election thread.

Has c-24 not been a big deal in the Canadian media?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I'm extremely surprised that there's no discussion of bill c-24 in here. I would think that would be a significant issue for many Canadians in an election thread.

Has c-24 not been a big deal in the Canadian media?

I actually meant to bring it up a while ago, but yeah it's been buried by the media. Absolutely repugnant legislation.

[rubecube]

And of course this:

Rocco Galati, a Toronto-based constitutional lawyer, told CTVNews.ca Wednesday that a court challenge of Bill C-24 is in the works. He expects it to proceed in the late fall or early winter.

Harper just loves blowing tax dollars on losing Charter challenges.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I actually meant to bring it up a while ago, but yeah it's been buried by the media. Absolutely repugnant legislation.

It doesn't help that the opponents of it are blatantly lying about it though. There's enough bad stuff in it to focus on without working to confuse the issue.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

It doesn't help that the opponents of it are blatantly lying about it though. There's enough bad stuff in it to focus on without working to confuse the issue.

True as well.

[edslunch]

Another Harper Senate appointee goes off the rails. Predictable distancing by the PMO, not a shred of accountability for appointing him

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle25012663

[Slava]

Good lord. Have we ever seen a PM with as terrible judge of character as what we have seen from Harper? He trusts these people completely (obviously, because he never has a clue of what has taken place), and yet it feels like most of hires are engaged in some kind of impropriety. Just ridiculous.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by edslunch

Another Harper Senate appointee goes off the rails. Predictable distancing by the PMO, not a shred of accountability for appointing him

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle25012663

Guy, probably in good standing, gets appointed to the senate. Has a relationship with 16 year old girl. Gets kicked of Caucus.

What is Harper supposed to say?

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Guy, probably in good standing, gets appointed to the senate. Has a relationship with 16 year old girl. Gets kicked of Caucus.



What is Harper supposed to say?

And was being investigated by the senate for serially abusing his staff.

I want Harper to say "I'm a terrible judge of the people I appoint and have left a trail of bodies behind my bus" but I guess that's hoping for too much.

[evman150]

Three polls have the NDP out ahead now:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...oll-finds.html

http://angusreid.org/wp-content/uplo...june-20151.pdf

http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...inue-to-slide/


Forum June 16: NDP 34 Lib 28 Con 26

Angus Reid June 16: NDP 36 Con 33 Lib 23

Ekos June 12: NDP 34 Con 27 Lib 23

Tide shifting? Shifted? Peaking too early?

Looks like the support of C-51 really did Trudeau in. Can't say I'm heartbroken.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by evman150

Three polls have the NDP out ahead now:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...oll-finds.html

http://angusreid.org/wp-content/uplo...june-20151.pdf

http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...inue-to-slide/


Forum June 16: NDP 34 Lib 28 Con 26

Angus Reid June 16: NDP 36 Con 33 Lib 23

Ekos June 12: NDP 34 Con 27 Lib 23

Tide shifting? Shifted? Peaking too early?

Looks like the support of C-51 really did Trudeau in. Can't say I'm heartbroken.

This is quite interesting as well.

This week’s Forum poll also found that a majority of Liberal and NDP voters want the two parties to form a coalition if the Conservatives win a minority government in October.

Among Liberal and NDP supporters, 75 per cent and 76 per cent respectively support a coalition of the centre-left. There was only 12 per cent support among Conservatives for a coalition.

I don't know if this peaking too early or more the anti-Harper tide swelling. If the NDP represent the best chance to take out Harper, and it's not close between them and the Liberals, I think you can say goodbye to any vote-splitting on the left.

[Slava]

I still can't believe Harper didn't call the election in the earlier Spring, prior to the Duffy trial. There is no way that can be helping him, and with Nigel Wright expected when the trail resumes in August its not going to get better for him.

[Jacks]

This is the guy people want running our economy?

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...r-in-the-polls

Then on Wednesday, Mulcair told CBC Radio’s The Current that the existing corporate tax rate is “about 12, 13 (per cent), something like that right now.”

In fact, the corporate tax rate, which Mulcair has vowed to raise by an unspecified amount, is 15 per cent.

“We’ve always said one thing,” he said outside the NDP’s weekly caucus meeting. “We want to make sure that the Canadian tax rate for our large corporations remains below the U.S. combined rate and we’re going to continue to work on that.”
......
Last September, Mulcair told Maclean’s magazine that Canada’s corporate tax rate has “dropped way below the OECD average, way below what the Americans are paying.

He said an NDP government would keep corporate taxes below the American rate and “we’ll also wind up below the OECD average. But we’re so far below both right now it doesn’t make any sense.”

In fact, Canada’s tax rate is already slightly above the average 26.0 per cent imposed by the 34 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Related
......
Since that interview, Mulcair hasn’t mentioned the OECD and has talked instead about bringing Canada’s corporate tax rate more in line with the average of G7 industrialized countries.

“We’re way below the G7 average so those are our main trading partners, countries with economies similar to ours,” he told CTV’s Canada AM in January.

The average corporate tax rate for G7 countries is 29.9 per cent, 3.6 percentage points higher than Canada’s.

During his radio interview Wednesday, Mulcair said an NDP government would hike federal corporate taxes to “something in the 18 to 19 (per cent) range” – a three-to-four-point increase he said would bring Canada in line with the G7 average.

But a few hours later outside his party’s caucus meeting, he didn’t mention the G7 at all and talked only about staying below the U.S. rate, which is the highest among all the OECD and G7 countries.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Jacks

This is the guy people want running our economy?

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...r-in-the-polls

Seriously, is this the Conservative trump card for everything? You do know that the economy is not the only important aspect of governing, especially when you're driving the country backwards socially and environmentally at a mind-boggling rate, right? It's especially ridiculous when you consider the fact that the Conservatives under Harper have been middling to poor when it comes to the economy anyways.

I'm much more concerned with the fact that our current government has no problem wasting billions of dollars on failed crime and drug policies, or implementing incredibly worrying surveillance and security protocols, than I am with a guy not knowing the corporate tax rate off the top of his head. One of those things is a lot easier to fix.

EDIT: That came off more dickish and abrasive than it was intended. My point was, I just don't get logic that says "I mean they're kitten-strangling Nazis, but my god they manage the economy well."

[nik-]

It's not the only important thing, but it's the thing people will vote for as a priority pretty much every time. Like it or not.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Seriously, is this the Conservative trump card for everything? You do know that the economy is not the only important aspect of governing, especially when you're driving the country backwards socially and environmentally at a mind-boggling rate, right? It's especially ridiculous when you consider the fact that the Conservatives under Harper have been middling to poor when it comes to the economy anyways.

I'm much more concerned with the fact that our current government has no problem wasting billions of dollars on failed crime and drug policies, or implementing incredibly worrying surveillance and security protocols, than I am with a guy not knowing the corporate tax rate off the top of his head. One of those things is a lot easier to fix.

EDIT: That came off more dickish and abrasive than it was intended. My point was, I just don't get logic that says "I mean they're kitten-strangling Nazis, but my god they manage the economy well."

"I mean they won't run the economy well, but they won't kitten-strangle nazis"

See what I did there?

[Senator Clay Davis]

The irony of the economy argument of course is the CPC has done a mostly poor job on it. So it's not like they're a great option for the economy, their track record pretty clearly shows they aren't. Better than the Liberals or NDP? Maybe so, but not significantly better. But that's going to the CPC's go to card this election: "Yeah we may not be great, but Trudeau and Mulcair are worse". Realistically they have nothing else to run on besides the fear card. They don't have a lot of great things they can specifically run on.

But if those poll numbers are even slightly accurate, imagine a NDP provincial, NDP federal government? The Alberta separation movement will hit it's zenith at that point.

[nik-]

They really haven't done a great job. I don't really trust any of them to do a great job. Honestly, Trudeau has no chance. He screwed himself with his base by supporting C-51 and they're going to lose a lot of votes to the NDP as a result.

I've said it before, but maybe this will finally teach the Liberals to stop it with "star" candidates and put someone up with some real substance. First Ignatieff and now Trudeau. They may be interesting at the start, but it gets boring quick and then they lose.