ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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- A Thing of Eternity
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha, I'm betting you guys will win again (unless the other parties form an alliance party, then it's anyone's game) but I'm 50/50 on the majority, I hope not. I like how minority governments function (when the opposition isn't being dumb) and I don't like the idea of Conservatives and their shady morality running unchecked.
As to the recovery - BS Conservative tactic. We weathered the storm well precisely due to a system set in place by all the past governments, the Conservative party loves taking credit for it but realistically they have had very little to do with it (not that they haven't done some good things to speed up the recovery, but the fact that we didn't fall far in the first place is 95% of why the recovery is doing well).
No matter which party gets elected we'll come out of this recession in a similar way. We don't have any parties that are extreme enough to crash and burn it that have any possibility of being elected, end of story. We'll be fine regardless of who gets elected.
It's also not the most pressing issue facing us right now, it was 2 years ago when we were trying to minimize the fallout and figure out how to fix it, but everything is already in motion and essentially done.
The main issues for me right now are the same as they've always been. Fixing the healthcare and education systems, basic ethics/human rights issues, and keeping the debt to a minimum while doing so.
Frankly I'm very much unsure how I'll vote this time around.
As to the recovery - BS Conservative tactic. We weathered the storm well precisely due to a system set in place by all the past governments, the Conservative party loves taking credit for it but realistically they have had very little to do with it (not that they haven't done some good things to speed up the recovery, but the fact that we didn't fall far in the first place is 95% of why the recovery is doing well).
No matter which party gets elected we'll come out of this recession in a similar way. We don't have any parties that are extreme enough to crash and burn it that have any possibility of being elected, end of story. We'll be fine regardless of who gets elected.
It's also not the most pressing issue facing us right now, it was 2 years ago when we were trying to minimize the fallout and figure out how to fix it, but everything is already in motion and essentially done.
The main issues for me right now are the same as they've always been. Fixing the healthcare and education systems, basic ethics/human rights issues, and keeping the debt to a minimum while doing so.
Frankly I'm very much unsure how I'll vote this time around.
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Later BB
DON'T STAY GONE SO LONG THIS TIME!!!!
DON'T STAY GONE SO LONG THIS TIME!!!!
What fear is there in the night?
Nothing, but that which is in our own imaginations.
Nothing, but that which is in our own imaginations.
- A Thing of Eternity
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, congrats to BB and his party. I have to say I'm quite surprised, I have a hunch it wasn't so much people likingthe Conservatives as hating the Liberals (I knew those morons should have fired Ignatieff long ago... goofs), but a win is a win, they've got their majority gov now. Hopefully they can be responsible with it and not get up to anything immoral, just leave healthcare, education, and human rights alone and I'll be perfectly fine with them running the country for a while.
Also, seems insignificant, but a major victory for the Green party, with their first ever seat won in the government. I actually voted Green this year, not because I wanted them to win the election, but just because I felt it was a major failing of our system that a party could have a significant % of the vote, but not a single seat in government (plus voting is almost pointless where I live, it's Conservative wins always, 100% for sure, so no matter what I voted it didn't matter).
Also, the BQ was bloody crushed, like just destroyed, even worse than the Liberals in my opinion. Can't say I'm sad about that at all, what a worthless party they are.
As much as I hate to see the Conservatives with a majority, I do enjoy seeing things actually get shaken up, and that's what happened this time around, bigtime!
So Congrats again BB, tell whoever will listen in your party that they'd better not do anything diabolical.![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon/wink.gif)
EDIT: I guess it was also a pretty major victory for the NDP, taking over as official opposition. Not really my party of choice either (none of them are frankly, this whole party system is something we need to get rid of, it's a really foolish oldfashioned way to try to run a country) but congrats to them as well.
Also, seems insignificant, but a major victory for the Green party, with their first ever seat won in the government. I actually voted Green this year, not because I wanted them to win the election, but just because I felt it was a major failing of our system that a party could have a significant % of the vote, but not a single seat in government (plus voting is almost pointless where I live, it's Conservative wins always, 100% for sure, so no matter what I voted it didn't matter).
Also, the BQ was bloody crushed, like just destroyed, even worse than the Liberals in my opinion. Can't say I'm sad about that at all, what a worthless party they are.
As much as I hate to see the Conservatives with a majority, I do enjoy seeing things actually get shaken up, and that's what happened this time around, bigtime!
So Congrats again BB, tell whoever will listen in your party that they'd better not do anything diabolical.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon/wink.gif)
EDIT: I guess it was also a pretty major victory for the NDP, taking over as official opposition. Not really my party of choice either (none of them are frankly, this whole party system is something we need to get rid of, it's a really foolish oldfashioned way to try to run a country) but congrats to them as well.
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- A Thing of Eternity
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm happy to see a shake up for sure, and to see the Bloc so decimated. I don't think May really annoys anyone other than C's, and I'm very happy to see Green voters (I don''t count really) at least being represented in some way.
As long as the C's don't do too much damage to those earlier points I mentioned I'm not really concerned about it, those areas are my main concerns and I think even the most rightwing party in Canada isn't right-enough (at least not the majority of the party I hope) to want to mess around with that stuff much. We'll see.
I'd be sad to see the Liberals fold into the NDP, because I like that we (in theory) have more to choose from than just 2 parties, but the reality is that the NDP have moved center enough to take the Liberal's place (since the Liberals moved to... well nobody really knows what they did, they're sort of confusing!). I do hope some kind of 3 major party system continues though.
What I'd really like to see is a complete revision of this whole "party" idea, as it just doesn't work well. Why can't I be for fiscal responsibility AND good social healthcare (the numbers actually prove that those go hand in hand), or for being tough on sex crimes and white collar crimes (those are the 2 kinds of crime I think tougher sentences have ANY effect on) AND for gay/lesbian/trans/etc rights? BUT, that's not going to happen until we have true visionaries in government, willing to make the hard (and RIGHT) decision about revising our whole flawed system. And that ain't going to be any time soon.
It makes no sense, we can't vote for what we actually think is right, we have to vote for groups of people who kinda roughly represent some of it...
Also, we should get rid of the Senate, what a useless piece of junk. You want smaller government? Let's start right there, shut it down tomorrow I say.
As long as the C's don't do too much damage to those earlier points I mentioned I'm not really concerned about it, those areas are my main concerns and I think even the most rightwing party in Canada isn't right-enough (at least not the majority of the party I hope) to want to mess around with that stuff much. We'll see.
I'd be sad to see the Liberals fold into the NDP, because I like that we (in theory) have more to choose from than just 2 parties, but the reality is that the NDP have moved center enough to take the Liberal's place (since the Liberals moved to... well nobody really knows what they did, they're sort of confusing!). I do hope some kind of 3 major party system continues though.
What I'd really like to see is a complete revision of this whole "party" idea, as it just doesn't work well. Why can't I be for fiscal responsibility AND good social healthcare (the numbers actually prove that those go hand in hand), or for being tough on sex crimes and white collar crimes (those are the 2 kinds of crime I think tougher sentences have ANY effect on) AND for gay/lesbian/trans/etc rights? BUT, that's not going to happen until we have true visionaries in government, willing to make the hard (and RIGHT) decision about revising our whole flawed system. And that ain't going to be any time soon.
It makes no sense, we can't vote for what we actually think is right, we have to vote for groups of people who kinda roughly represent some of it...
Also, we should get rid of the Senate, what a useless piece of junk. You want smaller government? Let's start right there, shut it down tomorrow I say.
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- A Thing of Eternity
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not sure that's really why they lost all the votes, because yes, they were closer to 10% of the vote last time. I think it may have been people just shifting to the NDP for other reasons, this kind of thing is really pretty complex, ever person makes decisions for their own reasons. The reason I think that instead of what you said, is because I don't actually think that the kind of campaigning we do in Canada is as hardcore as the US, and I think people are much less influenced by it (which is a good thing).Baraka Bryan wrote:interestingly, she's representing a much smaller group than after 2008. they got about 1M votes in 2008 and under 500K this time around. their vote share dropped below 4% because the party focussed all its resources on winning 1 riding. she essentially had an entire national campaign working to her personal benefit. not a fan.
Sure, they were more "right" than I prefer, but certainly much MUCH better than the current Conservative party. They were a "Conservative" party that I actually would have considered voting for - partially because I believe that being more center is actually more pragmatic (I don't consider the Conservatives as they exist now as a pragmatic party, I consider them very idealistic), and also just because their stronger morality would sit better with me.sounds like you want a return of the Progressive Conservative party! that would be a fairly accurate description of them
Nice, an agreement! Let's just build those losers a golf course and give them all memberships, it'd be a much cheaper retirement home for political buddies than the Senate is! I agree though, not going to happen, would require some insane work, and balls the size of mountains.as for the senate, I know Harper will be bringing in senate reform this term and while I'd love to see it abolished too, it's pretty unrealistic given the constitutional wrangling that would ensue. would it be the right thing to do? yes, but it won't happen
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- Freakzilla
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nader: ‘Almost 100 percent’ chance of a Democratic primary challenger to Obama
The Daily Caller – 14 hrs ago
Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and perennial third-party presidential candidate, announced last month that he would work to find a Democrat to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.
Nader now says that a primary challenge is a near certainty.
“What [Obama] did this week is just going to energize that effort,” Nader promised in an interview with The Daily Caller. “I would guess that the chances of there being a challenge to Obama in the primary are almost 100 percent.”
The only question, he said, is the stature of that opponent and whether it will be either “an ex-senator or an ex-governor” or “an intellectual leader or an environmental leader.”
In approximately a week and a half there will be “another chapter of this effort,” Nader predicted.
The Public Citizen founder said he disapproved of how Obama handled recent debt ceiling negotiations, and claimed the deal’s failings prompted this week’s dramatic stock market drop.
“He made a deal that did not provide for a public works project to create jobs all over the country. All he did was he agreed to cut spending,” Nader said. “And that’s what the market is reacting to.” (RELATED: Obama won debt ceiling fight, says DNC)
President Obama “shouldn’t have even had that problem,” Nader said. “When he surrendered the continuation of tax cuts for the rich last December, the least he could have gotten was the debt ceiling increased. He didn’t even do that. So he set himself up for this hostage situation by the Republicans and it’s his own fault. And the country and the workers are paying the price.”
Asked whether the Tea Party movement was responsible for an unsavory resolution to debt ceiling negotiations, Nader responded: “It’s not really a movement. It’s the conservative non-libertarian wing of the Republican Party.”
Nader continued: “Ron Paul is a conservative libertarian. These are the conservative corporatists that have decided they like the brand name ‘Tea Party’ because the press reports on every movement of the Tea Party. So they’ve jumped on the bandwagon and hijacked it.
“There are a lot of Tea Party people, for example, who wanted more revenues. I think the polls showed that half of them wanted more revenues. And a lot of the Tea Party people want to get out of the wars. But its been hijacked by the corporatists.”
Nader said he doesn’t plan to launch another campaign for president, either as an independent candidate or as a primary challenger to President Obama. (RELATED: Ron Paul: Debt limit ‘super committee’ is unconstitutional)
In 2000, Nader received nearly three million votes as the Green Party’s presidential candidate. Some disillusioned Democrats blamed him for handing Florida, and with it the election, to George W. Bush.
Nader ran for president in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 as a left-wing alternative to the Democratic nominee, but has decided another campaign is “very unlikely.”
“I’ve done my rounds,” he said.
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- Freakzilla
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More voters begin to ‘blame’ Obama for the struggling economy
According to Gallup, 53 percent of those surveyed say Obama bears some of the blame for the struggling economy—the highest number recorded on the question since he took office in 2009. Twenty-nine percent of those polled say Obama bears "some blame" while 24 percent say Obama deserves "a great deal of blame."
Yet more Americans still put most of the responsibility on former President George W. Bush for the nation's current economic predicament. According to Gallup, 69 percent of those polled say Bush bears the blame. (Obama and Bush weren't matched head to head.)
Heading into 2012, Obama has repeatedly argued that he inherited the struggling economy, pointing the finger back at Bush's policies. But the Gallup poll finds Americans less and less willing to get him the benefit of the doubt--doubtless a worrying sign for the strategists spearheading the president's re-election efforts.
Among the most skeptical: self-described independent voters, who are sure to be a critical constituency in next year's presidential election. Sixty percent of independent voters say Obama bears the blame for the dismal economy—a 32 point increase since Gallup first posed the question in July 2009.
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You prefer the non-partisan consensus governments of your territories up north? Or the non-partisan legislature of the US state of Nebraska?I looked it up and I guess it's ok. Each lawmaker has to take positions on issues individually rather than by party. Only one complication though with that. It's not as easy to know if government is taking a conservative or progressive direction. You'd only find out about halfway though a legislative term when there is enough bills/votes passed. Or you'd have to look up where each individual MP stands on the issues. So you won't really know what to expect immediately after election day.A Thing of Eternity wrote:none of them are frankly, this whole party system is something we need to get rid of, it's a really foolish oldfashioned way to try to run a country
Here in Indonesia we have a non-partisan upper house called the Regional Representative Council. The only other non-partisan parliaments I know of are the parliaments of small Island nations in the South Pacific.
Edit: Now I remember; there is also the non-partisan legislature of the Isle of Man.
Last edited by Nebiros on 31 Oct 2011 03:45, edited 1 time in total.
- Omphalos
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Re: ELECTION TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like a blog post in the making!Nebiros wrote:You prefer the non-partisan consensus governments of your territories up north? Or the non-partisan legislature of the US state of Nebraska?I looked it up and I guess it's ok. Each lawmaker has to take positions on issues individually rather than by party. Only one complication though with that. It's not as easy to know if government is taking a conservative or progressive direction. You'd only find out about halfway though a legislative term when there is enough bills/votes passed. Or you'd have to look up where each individual MP stands on the issues. So you won't really know what to expect immediately after election day.A Thing of Eternity wrote:none of them are frankly, this whole party system is something we need to get rid of, it's a really foolish oldfashioned way to try to run a country
Here in Indonesia we have a non-partisan upper house called the Regional Representative Council. The only other non-partisan parliaments I know of are the parliaments of small Island nations in the South Pacific.