On a separate note, I thought this was a really interesting article on the electoral strategy and success of the conservative party. Interesting regardless of individual political leanings.
I really hate that it is all about winning and power. Do whatever ti takes to appeal to whatever segment of vote you need, whether it is good policy, or part of the core of your beliefs. You can see this with Harper's home reno credit. Its totally at odds with his market agenda, but will get him votes with the dullards, so he does it. It's infuriating and depressing.
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I really hate that it is all about winning and power. Do whatever ti takes to appeal to whatever segment of vote you need, whether it is good policy, or part of the core of your beliefs. You can see this with Harper's home reno credit. Its totally at odds with his market agenda, but will get him votes with the dullards, so he does it. It's infuriating and depressing.
Yeah, it feels as though rather than electing a political party that upholds an actual platform to appeal to and represent voters, in the conservatives Canadians have elected an election-winning-machine whose main platform is continuing to win elections. To compete, other parties may also need to become similar election-winning machines with the same mandate and tactics. Ultimately, which election-winning-machine holds power in Ottawa will be determined by having more money to dump into marketing and more influence biasing the electoral process as a privilege of incumbency. And, the swing voters are those who don't take any real interest in politics or the government, so none of the discussions in this thread are likely to make any difference in the least.
Joyful. Welcome to American politics Canada!
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"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
More flat out lies from Harper. I seriously hope Canadians can see through his BS, I don't think I could handle another 4 years of this A-hole.
I do see thru his lies, and I hate the way he uses fear ("the world has never been a more dangerous place"), but I still feel the conservatives are better for this country than the alternatives.
Weed is one (unimportant) thing (that he's lying about), but they still want to fight the good old fashioned War On Drugs™, which is the real problem. I mean really, how many decades of failure does it take?
Weed is one (unimportant) thing (that he's lying about), but they still want to fight the good old fashioned War On Drugs™, which is the real problem. I mean really, how many decades of failure does it take?
Unfortunately, success for the Conservatives is measured at the ballot box rather than by the quality of life of Canadians. Mobilizing the base with tough on crime rhetoric is far more important than informed, researched, and creative policy choices.
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I think Steve see's this as a game at this point. The end goal is to get in and prove political strategical and tactical superiority, political ideology is secondary. At the heart of it he is a policy wonk/political strategy academic egg-head nerd and he gets off on this stuff. This is why the only real muscle of the supporting cast has had enough and bailed/resigned.
The anti marijuana stuff and the anti-Trudeau ads are absolutely nauseating but I still want the Conservatives in as a minority for my own self serving reasons (admittedly I vote largely based on what affects my family and finances directly, but in defense I also think most of the general public vote this way).
I want these guys to get their pee pee's slapped a bit. Ideally Stevie gets a minority government, gets rattled to his core by the opposition, has enough and steps down and some knight in shining armour like Peter McKay steps up to bring them back to former glory.
It's too formulaic, at this point if the Liberals had a competent leader like Mark Garneau with a half palatable platform I would have considered them right now. Instead they went with their hearts and nominated Trudeau, he would have been so much more effective in a supporting role. Instead we have the insanity of Angry Beard gaining steam. As far as direct harm/consequence impact to Canada and more important to me and my family directly, Angry Beard makes ISIS looks like a kitten. Because of this I will vote for Steve-bot.
I'm sure they've done their market research and know that because of my demographic and socioeconomic category they have my vote but what happens if I get apathetic and don't vote or if the NDP find a way last minute to whip up a fervour and get the knucklehead youths to vote...
I really hate that it is all about winning and power. Do whatever ti takes to appeal to whatever segment of vote you need, whether it is good policy, or part of the core of your beliefs. You can see this with Harper's home reno credit. Its totally at odds with his market agenda, but will get him votes with the dullards, so he does it. It's infuriating and depressing.
You mean like how every political party acts? The NDP and it's $15/day daycare...
Weed is one (unimportant) thing (that he's lying about), but they still want to fight the good old fashioned War On Drugs™, which is the real problem. I mean really, how many decades of failure does it take?
Failure to stamp out the illegal drug trade is a win for law enforcement.
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I do see thru his lies, and I hate the way he uses fear ("the world has never been a more dangerous place"), but I still feel the conservatives are better for this country than the alternatives.
How so? Are you sure your gut feeling isn't just an association with the conservative label? budget wise, they made the same mistake Redford made in projecting a balance budget in 2015 by assuming the average price of oil would be much higher. They also used some pretty shady methods to balance the budget in the first place and make way overly optimistic projections in comparison to the Bank of Canada;
"If their projection for two-per-cent growth is off by just a single percentage point, Ottawa's $1.4 billion surplus turns into a $3.4-billion deficit this year. It gets worse over time – if their projections for next year and beyond are off by just a single percentage point, Ottawa could be facing a deficit of $4.4 billion two years out."
The percentage of Canadians that support marijuana Legalization/Decriminalization. He claims that the majority of Canadians agree with his opposition on marijuana, its simply not true according to the latest polls.
Maybe "fudging the numbers" is more accurate than "lying", but he's still bull####ting...
He said today: "Most Canadians if you ask them do not want the full legalization of marijuana...".
Here are the numbers from a Department of Justice poll from last summer:
Among the poll’s highlights:
37.3% say marijuana should be legalized;
33.4% want possession of small amounts of marijuana decriminalized, leading to a fine rather than a criminal record;
13.7% say the marijuana laws should stay the same;
12% want penalties increased.
So yeah, it doesn't say "most Canadians think it should be legalized" (though more people picked that than anything else), he's using that to say that we should spend more on prohibition and being 'tough on crime'.
Assuming he's using this poll to get his "data", 70% of people in this country want either legalization or a relaxing of the laws. But nope.
Maybe "fudging the numbers" is more accurate than "lying", but he's still bull####ting...
He said today: "Most Canadians if you ask them do not want the full legalization of marijuana...".
Here are the numbers from a Department of Justice poll from last summer:
Among the poll’s highlights:
37.3% say marijuana should be legalized;
33.4% want possession of small amounts of marijuana decriminalized, leading to a fine rather than a criminal record;
13.7% say the marijuana laws should stay the same;
12% want penalties increased.
So yeah, it doesn't say "most Canadians think it should be legalized" (though more people picked that than anything else), he's using that to say that we should spend more on prohibition and being 'tough on crime'.
Assuming he's using this poll to get his "data", 70% of people in this country want either legalization or a relaxing of the laws. But nope.
I hear you, but he's not wrong, most canadians 50%+ don't want full legalization, only around 1/3 do.
I do see thru his lies, and I hate the way he uses fear ("the world has never been a more dangerous place"), but I still feel the conservatives are better for this country than the alternatives.
I cannot agree with you more on this. I'm absolutely sick of Harper but in my opinion Trudeau or Mulcair would be an even bigger disaster. I understand wanting change, but change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing, and in my opinion is a stupid way to vote. Until something better comes along, I'll stick with the devil I know as opposed to the devil I don't know.
I don't get how people think Harper is the better choice. What has he accomplished in the last 10 years that makes him more qualified?! You can't just base your decision on a few controversial tweets and sound bytes.
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From what I can tell, and I definitely could be wrong, but the conservatives are the only option that won't go postal on the oil and gas sector which is what feeds my family and keeps me working. Given the already insane myriad of challenges facing industry and my skill set, as much as I agree with other party's social policies the fact that they have the most mindbogglingly stupid platforms towards oil and gas which by the way, is important to the Canadian economy and my future, there aren't really options as I value having a job above marijuana being legal or not.
None of the other options seem like good news to alberta. The NDP sound like an absolute train wreck coming to this province.
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