Isn't that the truth. The media and CPC supporters jumping all over these candidates is somewhat silly. Sure they got elected because of the party that they ran for...that's been happening in Alberta for years though. Tell me that Jason Kenney was the most qualified when he first got elected? There have been a lot of excellent candidates in Alberta who ran for other parties and thus were not elected.
The other point is that poor girl who booked a trip to Vegas, didn't think that she would win and went on the trip anyway. if I were running for the Liberals or NDP here I would do the same thing. How is she supposed to predict that people will flock to the NDP? Funny how no one seems to really care that most of the CPC candidates here didn't show up at any public forums, or like the aforementioned Kenny spent all of the campaign somewhere other than his riding. I get that she is a rookie, and rode the tide in....but they aren't exactly the first ones to benefit from the colour of their signs.
Big difference. One is a placeholder expected to win while the other is a placeholder expected to lose.
To be honest, I think he's still way too green to be in that kind of position. However, if he does well and his voters are happy with his work, then so be it.
I would even probably take this kid over guys like Rob Anders, whom is on pace for stepping down sometime in the year 2252. Ugh.
I wonder if the people in the bartender's riding woke and realized what just happened. They essentially elected a recently high school graduated teenage bartender who doesn't speak French. Good luck representing them in the House of Commons. That riding just became a national joke. I'd honestly be kind of embarrassed if I had voted for the girl.
Hey good for her, she went from being a bar person with no applicable skills to making $157,000 per year plus expenses plus an office budget. She can't speak the language of her riding, she's suddenly going to have a massive spotlight on her from both her party and from her constituents.
To be perfectly clear, nobody voted for her, she benefited from people being tired of the bloc's crap and from a terrible Liberal Campaign.
She'll become the poster girl for wasted money.
Its the Peter Principle gone mad.
These Candidates will become the rallying cry of why the NDP success will be short lived.
Everyone is glowing for the first couple of weeks, look we got 103 seats, its to bad that we put some cardboard cutouts in those seats.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
If the NDP bartender girl ran as a Conservative in almost any riding in Alberta, she would have been elected there too.
Quebec isn't the only place that people pick the party over the candidate.
This point is invalid given that she would never get picked to run in any CPC riding in Alberta. In fact, I will follow this up by saying that even in ridings that the CPC does not expect to win they run far more qualified "placeholders" or "sacrificial lambs" than this (ie. Trottier).
This point is invalid given that she would never get picked to run in any CPC riding in Alberta. In fact, I will follow this up by saying that even in ridings that the CPC does not expect to win they run far more qualified "placeholders" or "sacrificial lambs" than this (ie. Trottier).
Hypothetical =/= invalid. Hypothetical situations are indeed very valid in debating.
Do you think that someone like her would still win a riding in Alberta despite her background? Would it have been an issue? I think you're kidding yourself if you think the Conservatives don't keep few oafs in strongholds where they know nothing is going to stop people from voting for them.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-04-2011 at 11:26 AM.
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The great thing about some of the people who got elected is now the electorate can see that when some parties say they run a candidate in every riding, they dont mean a candidate that is compitent, just someone who has a name on the ballet.
The sooner the vote subsidy ends the better. I can only imagine the quality of green party candidates across the country.
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Rudy was the only hope in 08
2011 Election: Cons 40% - Nanos 38% Ekos 34%
The great thing about some of the people who got elected is now the electorate can see that when some parties say they run a candidate in every riding, they dont mean a candidate that is compitent, just someone who has a name on the ballet.
The sooner the vote subsidy ends the better. I can only imagine the quality of green party candidates across the country.
I don't know if the Green party's candidates would be as bad as some. They seem generally to know at least a bit about the issues that they hold dear. Beyond the environment they seem to lack knowledge about the government but, I don't think they lack intellegence or commitment.
Now there's issues with our favorite bartender's paperwork. Seems as though signatures were forged.
Quote:
Two people whose names appear on the nomination papers for the NDP's newly elected MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau say they never provided their signatures.
Radio-Canada reported Wednesday that the signatures of Rene Young and his wife are on Brosseau's papers, but the couple doesn't remember agreeing to endorse her.
Young says the signature looks like his, but he has no recollection of being asked to support Brosseau as a candidate in the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé. He said his wife's name is also on the list but the signature bears no resemblance to hers.
It will be very interesting to see how the NDP fair now that they will have a spotlight on them. In the past, and even in this election, Jack-o could promise anything in the world as he knew he would never have to actually live up to his promises. The press knew it, most of the public knew it, and certainly Jack-o knew it. Even in this election after the polls seemed to suggest Jack-o was gaining momentum, the MSM started to look more closely as his campaign promises and Jack-o admitted some would have to wait as there was no money.
Now add to that some of the outright joke MPs he'll have sitting behind him, folks that can't speak the language of the riding they were elected in and have never actually been to that riding, much less live in it. Candidates that don't even really know how the government works.
I think Jack-o will have an incredibly hard time keeping all those seats come 4 years time. The extra scrutiny did not help the ADQ when they had a huge breakthrough one year, and I can't imagine it is going to help nutso Jack-o.
I think that these unqualified MP's will probably force all parties to ensure that all their candidates are at least moderately qualified from now on. This is going to draw a lot of attention and I suspect that it will be brought back into the spotlight 4 years from now when the next election looms. Sometimes it takes getting embarrassed to address an issue such as this. In the meantime, Layton stays true to his word. He spoke about helping single mothers and here he goes out and single-handedly gets one of them a sweet 6 figure salary.
Interesting... the increased scrutiny has started, and not well for Mr. Layton's team.
I think the thing is, every party that runs placeholder candidates must have a bunch of fake signatures in all recent elections. If the threshold is 100 signatures for residents in their particular riding I have a hard time imagining that the Green Party, Liberals, and NDP all got valid signatures for all candidates in Alberta for instance. Heck in some ridings 100 signatures would be 10% of a particular candidate's voter turnout. The reason for all of this nonsense is the vote subsidy, if each vote wasn't worth $2, then resources wouldn't be devoted to candidates whose sole purpose is to raise money via the vote subsidy.
I think that these unqualified MP's will probably force all parties to ensure that all their candidates are at least moderately qualified from now on. This is going to draw a lot of attention and I suspect that it will be brought back into the spotlight 4 years from now when the next election looms. Sometimes it takes getting embarrassed to address an issue such as this. In the meantime, Layton stays true to his word. He spoke about helping single mothers and here he goes out and single-handedly gets one of them a sweet 6 figure salary.
Gimme a break. You guys must really be scared of the NDP. Are the Layton attack ads coming out this week as well, or are they still in production?
Gimme a break. You guys must really be scared of the NDP. Are the Layton attack ads coming out this week as well, or are they still in production?
What do you mean? I'm not scared of the NDP at all. In case you haven't noticed, we have a majority government now. I've never been less worried about Jack Layton before in my life. I thought I was actually being positive in my last comment, suggesting that this would now force ALL parties to ensure that their candidates are at least moderately qualified, lest they should suffer the same bad press that the NDP currently are. Kinda figured you would be on board with me here...
sigh... it was a joke about Layton, one that I will make no apologies for. Hyped up rhetoric indeed...
I got it... even snickered a little.
I'd be very curious to see how the bartender does over the course of the next 12 months. Will she take it as a joke, put in her time but little effort and collect her huge payday for the next 4 years, or will she actually try and turn into a politician and get to know her riding, the language, the people and the issues.
The second sounds like a lot of work for a bartender...
