Canadian Federal Election

[Takeoff]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

We may not see her much.

She had a pretty embarrassing gaff back in the day when she said that the $7700/week living expense was not enough.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Takeoff

She had a pretty embarrassing gaff back in the day when she said that the $7700/week living expense was not enough.

My sense is that she's just not a "political wife" (or not a politician's wife) Plus, she's English, so there's that.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

We may not see her much.

And that's a good thing. I'm sick of this country pining for a first family. It goes against our tradition of the PM being first among equals.

Would be good to have politicians leave their families out of the spotlight.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

You see how volatile this is? Listen to the centrists like @travis3000 @Marty_Mcfly on SSP and revisit the polls when the election is called.

I appreciate the kind words.

Polling is in a complete state of chaos right now, which is pretty typical of a landscape undergoing dramatic change at a quick pace. Things should hopefully settle soon enough. I do suspect the Liberals are ahead nationally, maybe by around 3 to 5 points.

I do think, for fun though since they're actually hilarious, that we should look at the EKOS regionals numbers; it'll give you a sense of how they managed to get the LPC at 50% nationally. It's up to you to decide whether you believe these cross-tabs or not, but if you do believe the Prairie numbers them I may have some magic beans to sell you

[BlackDog204]

Let's not forget everyone's favourite Canadian: Kevin O'Leary.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

Well there is a Separatism movement in Alberta too.

If the Bloc ran candidates in the rest of Canada, they would probably beat the PPC in most of them.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

And that's a good thing. I'm sick of this country pining for a first family. It goes against our tradition of the PM being first among equals.

Would be good to have politicians leave their families out of the spotlight.

Bingo!

[elly63]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

Let's not forget everyone's favourite Canadian: Kevin O'Leary.

First of all, why should we care. even for you far leftists your commentators are totally clueless about Canada as well, ever check the comments Canadians put on Pod Save America and Bulwark videos? Also, aside from Peterson, most of those guys couldn't pick Pierre if they saw a picture of him.

[samne]

The more I hear Carney, the more unremarkable and uninspiring he is. Just a low energy Technocrat reading a script.

I don't think many Canadians have seen anything much past headlines and actually heard him speak or in action with people.

I cannot see him motivating swing voters in an election. Singh is much better at motivating his base. Trudeau was a terrible Manager, but incredible politician/communicator. This matters.

Libs are going to work extremely hard to hammer on the fear factor of Pierre and Trump to compensate for this. Only option.

[jamincan]

Originally Posted by elly63

First of all, why should we care. even for you far leftists your commentators are totally clueless about Canada as well, ever check the comments Canadians put on Pod Save America and Bulwark videos?

Is The Bulwark far left?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by samne

Libs are going to work extremely hard to hammer on the fear factor of Pierre and Trump to compensate for this. Only option.

I agree, I just watched the Peter Mansbridge podcast and they were saying that for anyone seen to be conciliatory to Trump would be political suicide at this moment.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by jamincan

Is The Bulwark far left?

They're not? And I know the political background of a few of them. I also consider anyone a leftist who isn't a classical Liberal because there are very few of those left. Sarah is as close to a Liberal as they get.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by casper

Here you go. The federal Liberals have been reducing head count in the federal public service for several months.

The Union has its perspective. That said, it sounds like it is targeted.

https://psacunion.ca/canadas-public-services-risk-psac-pushes-back


If your suggesting Carney has to "real private sector" experience you do know he had a senior leadership role in a major publicly traded investment fund that focused on the green agenda. Early on before going to the Bank of Canada he worked for Goldman Sask. You can't get more free market capitalism that wall st investment banking and global investment funds.

As someone who works in the federal public service I am very aware that there will be reductions in the number of public servants in the near future. I am a member of the PSAC and we recently had our annual meeting and the government has officially informed us that they will be eliminating a certain percentage of people where I work. They will start with those who are not indeterminate which means those on term but will also be getting rid of some indeterminate (permanent) positions.

Nobody is happy about this happening but we all knew it was coming. We have had crazy workloads up until this year and extra people were hired. The post-pandemic stuff is now all done. We are now actually caught up so obviously not everyone is needed. We're just hoping that things are done fairly.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Well we have a new and much smaller cabinet and I think that is a sign to come in terms of how Carney intends to govern. He will not be the spendthrift that Trudeau was and will reign in our deficits and bloated civil service.

He has gotten rid of the gender equality of the Cabinet but is still pretty much even at 13 men and 11 women. Most notable is that there are now just 2 cabinet ministers west of Thunder Bay and none in Ab/Sk/PEI. Conversely he did add a post from London. Not a major one but at least he acknowledges that not everyone in Ontario lives in the GTAH. Ontario had 16 cabinet posts and all but 2 where from the GTAH and none from KW/Nia/Lon/Win. I think this shows how he intends to win the election much like Trudeau's father................sweep Ont/Que/AC and just let the Western Canadian chips fall where they may.

It will still be a race but the clear loser in either a Tory or Liberal gov't will be the NDP as much of the surge in Liberal support has been due to the plunge in the NDP. Singh, by not bringing down Trudeau when he had the chance, has taken the NDP down to near irrelevance and it's a fate they justly deserve.

I'm hoping that Carney runs in an Edmonton riding and attempts to win a few more Alberta seats. I always like to see a cabinet with representation from all provinces.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Loco101

As someone who works in the federal public service I am very aware that there will be reductions in the number of public servants in the near future. I am a member of the PSAC and we recently had our annual meeting and the government has officially informed us that they will be eliminating a certain percentage of people where I work. They will start with those who are not indeterminate which means those on term but will also be getting rid of some indeterminate (permanent) positions.

Nobody is happy about this happening but we all knew it was coming. We have had crazy workloads up until this year and extra people were hired. The post-pandemic stuff is now all done. We are now actually caught up so obviously not everyone is needed. We're just hoping that things are done fairly.

I don't work in the public sector. I am not directly impacted.

Depending on the numbers and time frame, sometimes this can be done just with not hiring new people for a year or two. However sounds like they need to reduce heat count a bit faster than that.

Slow rational target process that involves the unions sounds much better than what is happening in the US.

[missing_middle]

Originally Posted by samne

The more I hear Carney, the more unremarkable and uninspiring he is. Just a low energy Technocrat reading a script.

I don't think many Canadians have seen anything much past headlines and actually heard him speak or in action with people.

I cannot see him motivating swing voters in an election. Singh is much better at motivating his base. Trudeau was a terrible Manager, but incredible politician/communicator. This matters.

Libs are going to work extremely hard to hammer on the fear factor of Pierre and Trump to compensate for this. Only option.

Carney definitely has some liabilities that just have not really been exposed to the wider Canadian public yet.

His sort of technocratic/corporate boardroom speaking style runs the risk of turning off certain types of voters that the Liberals are banking on this election. Yesterday he was referring to Canada as a "client". ie "We're his largest client/Trump's not respecting his clients". Like I get what he is saying but that style of speech will give off a certain vibe.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by samne

The more I hear Carney, the more unremarkable and uninspiring he is. Just a low energy Technocrat reading a script.

I don't think many Canadians have seen anything much past headlines and actually heard him speak or in action with people.

I cannot see him motivating swing voters in an election. Singh is much better at motivating his base. Trudeau was a terrible Manager, but incredible politician/communicator. This matters.

Libs are going to work extremely hard to hammer on the fear factor of Pierre and Trump to compensate for this. Only option.

The LPC is already doing that. They are basically saying that it's a choice between someone who knows economics and someone who is much like Trump in many ways.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by casper

I don't work in the public sector. I am not directly impacted.

Depending on the numbers and time frame, sometimes this can be done just with not hiring new people for a year or two. However sounds like they need to reduce heat count a bit faster than that.

Slow rational target process that involves the unions sounds much better than what is happening in the US.

Absolutely! What is happening in the US is making their country unstable and vulnerable.

We are hoping that enough people retire soon but I don't think that will happen. A lot of people retired during the pandemic and there was quite a hiring spree to replace them and also to ensure service backlogs could be eliminated. In my specific work unit, we have been told that the government is looking at a 3% cut in the workforce. But other units within where I work are looking at 10-15%. We do get people who quit because they can find better jobs elsewhere so hopefully that happens.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Absolutely! What is happening in the US is making their country unstable and vulnerable.

We are hoping that enough people retire soon but I don't think that will happen. A lot of people retired during the pandemic and there was quite a hiring spree to replace them and also to ensure service backlogs could be eliminated. In my specific work unit, we have been told that the government is looking at a 3% cut in the workforce. But other units within where I work are looking at 10-15%. We do get people who quit because they can find better jobs elsewhere so hopefully that happens.

I wonder what the natural attrition of the public sector is. Could they simply attrit over the next 4-5 years to more reasonable levels?

Also, some of the frustration is that people are not allocated in the right places. We're routinely short at DND. So when people talk about all this public sector growth, we're left wondering when it is going to get to us.

[jamincan]

Originally Posted by elly63

They're not? And I know the political background of a few of them. I also consider anyone a leftist who isn't a classical Liberal because there are very few of those left. Sarah is as close to a Liberal as they get.

I confess I've only watched a few of their videos, but I thought pretty much everyone on it are disaffected Republicans.