Canadian Federal Election

[Truenorth00]

I'm starting to appreciate Harper a lot more. He understood that the PM could not be the attack dog. And he understood that at some point you have to give people a reason to vote for you, not just vote against the other guy.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I'm starting to appreciate Harper a lot more. He understood that the PM could not be the attack dog. And he understood that at some point you have to give people a reason to vote for you, not just vote against the other guy.

On the whole, Harper was a better PM than JT. His accomplishments during his 10 year tenure may be small, but, he was a prudent caretaker of the government and the country. He was not openly divisive like JT.

I do not think JT will be treated kindly by history. In 50 years time he will be considered mediocre at best, and moderately damaging at worst. He will certainly not be in the list of top ten PMs of all time.

[Truenorth00]

Agree. But I wasn't contrasting Harper with Trudeau. I was contrasting Harper with Poilievre.

I still think Poilievre could win. But dude has to fight the election he has, not the one he planned for and wants.

[travis3000]

New Ipsos Poll Just Out:

LPC= 44
CPC= 38


https://x.com/CanadianPolling/status/1906380068768645350

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

So, you think the CBC, our national public broadcaster, paid for by everyone should not be mandatory on the country's cable services???

As for Fox News, our local provider here (Bell Aliant) carries the original unadulterated Fox News from the USA.

Nobody watches it..............

I wouldn't say no one watches Fox News but it's an optional channel you need to pay extra for. It's not part of the basic package.

The main CBC network is part of the basic package across Canada. As is the mainstream French language equivalent SRC. All of which makes sense.

CBC News channel is not on the basic package so you need to pay extra for it. Except in Québec. Whereas the francophone news channel RDI is on the basic package outside Quebec. These quirks are to support official languages minority communities.

Sun News Network was also an optional channel.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I wouldn't say no one watches Fox News but it's an optional channel you need to pay extra for. It's not part of the basic package.

The main CBC network is part of the basic package across Canada. As is the mainstream French language equivalent SRC. All of which makes sense.

CBC News channel is not on the basic package so you need to pay extra for it. Except in Québec. Whereas the francophone news channel RDI is on the basic package outside Quebec. These quirks are to support official languages minority communities.

Sun News Network was also an optional channel.

I think the principle was always that the local broadcast TV (e.g., those stations with a transmitter) was always carried on basic TV. If you the cable operator, your not going to decide to not carry a station that can be picked up with an antenna.

Given CBC had local stations or retransmission in virtually every community that would make sense. These days that is dramatically reduced.

[Truenorth00]

I will say. I think the Chiang issue is Carney's first big mistake. Should turf the guy. Incumbent or not.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I will say. I think the Chiang issue is Carney's first big mistake. Should turf the guy. Incumbent or not.

I wonder whether he was dog-whistling. If yes, we will now have to worry about homeland politics (or whichever word @Acajack uses to describe that) too.
That said, now that PP tries to capitalize on that, I won’t be surprised if there will be 4 fingers pointing back at him.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Hecate

So no proof, just assumptions.

sort of like your "guilty by association" smear of Mark Carney, through his wife's sister's acquaintance of Ghislaine Maxwell.

[Loco101]

I know that the Nanos poll that was just released was posted on here but I wanted to put a couple more things from it.

https://nanos.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-2783-ELXN-FED-2025-03-29-Field-Ended.pdf

LPC: 41.9%

CPC: 37.0%

NDP: 10.6%

BQ: 5.3%

GPC: 2.6%

PPC: 1.9%

-----------------------


Here's where it gets really interesting:


Preferred Prime Minister:

Carney: 48%

Poilievre: 32%

Singh: 4%

Bernier: 3%

Blanchet: 2%

May: 2%

Unsure: 6%

None: 1%

Carney has a massive lead everywhere except thee prairie provinces where he is only behind by two points.

---------------------------


The big thing to watch now is how the next Nanos polls show if the trend continues, stabilizes or reverses.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

...That said, I admit that, if I were working in the auto industry, I'd be having sleepless nights right now...

Yes, we might not be able to sustain auto production if the US goes full protectionist, and we already know that oil and gas have a limited lifetime as the demand changes and the supply dwindles. At some point we may face a situation where the government has to say "sorry, but there's no future in your industry". No slogans, no electioneering, no subsidies to keep things the way they are, just the truth. That would have to be coupled with acknowledging that these industries - these people - have helped build this nation, and that it would only be fair to offer retraining and employment prioritization to help them change careers. There might not be an auto sector - not to the same degree - but why not prioritize these workers for work on the proposed high-speed rail system? For oil and gas workers, there must be parallels in other sectors where they can bring their expertise. Too often, we either get "this industry's bad and it must end" or "this industry employs Canadians, it must stay" - with very little middle ground for working towards an equitable solution.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by casper

I think the principle was always that the local broadcast TV (e.g., those stations with a transmitter) was always carried on basic TV. If you the cable operator, your not going to decide to not carry a station that can be picked up with an antenna.

Given CBC had local stations or retransmission in virtually every community that would make sense. These days that is dramatically reduced.

Yes that has always been the rule of thumb for what gets on the basic cable/satellite service but there are now exceptions like APTN and AMI TV I think. These are not over the air channels.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

On the whole, Harper was a better PM than JT. His accomplishments during his 10 year tenure may be small, but, he was a prudent caretaker of the government and the country. He was not openly divisive like JT.

I do not think JT will be treated kindly by history. In 50 years time he will be considered mediocre at best, and moderately damaging at worst. He will certainly not be in the list of top ten PMs of all time.

Except for his attacks on scientists, librarians, bureaucrats, NGO’s, the UN and anyone who gave a shit about Climate Change or the environment. He destroyed irreplaceable historic documents from the National Archives. He muzzled scientists. He dabbled in voter suppression (hello PeePee Poutine!). He tried a Trump style ‘barbaric practices’ hotline to snitch on your non white neighbours. ‘Stop Harper’ was a popular bumper sticker before ‘Fuck Trudeau’ was.

I think as a conservative he offended you less so you don’t recall how divisive he was. Just remember the current swath of populist politicians such as Jason Kenney and Pierre Poilievre came from Harper’s government. He in turn came from the Reform Party.

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Except for his attacks on scientists, librarians, bureaucrats, NGO’s, the UN and anyone who gave a shit about Climate Change or the environment. He destroyed irreplaceable historic documents from the National Archives. He muzzled scientists. He dabbled in voter suppression (hello PeePee Poutine!). He tried a Trump style ‘barbaric practices’ hotline to snitch on your non white neighbours. ‘Stop Harper’ was a popular bumper sticker before ‘Fuck Trudeau’ was.

I think as a conservative he offended you less so you don’t recall how divisive he was. Just remember the current swath of populist politicians such as Jason Kenney and Pierre Poilievre came from Harper’s government. He in turn came from the Reform Party.

Very true. I was at the 2013 and 2014 Pride in Montreal and both times there was a plane flying over the city multiple times that had "F*CK HARPER"

[MonctonRad]

Culture wars have no place in politics. They are a divisive distraction. I am only interested in good governance.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

I will say. I think the Chiang issue is Carney's first big mistake. Should turf the guy. Incumbent or not.

He'll either be turfed tomorrow, or sometime this week he'll step aside saying he doesn't want to be a "distraction". If I were a betting person, anyway.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Culture wars have no place in politics. They are a divisive distraction. I am only interested in good governance.

Indeed. But Harper tried to substantially weaponize government with his culture wars. And to some extent, Trudeau was the reaction to that. Sometimes, I wonder what the reaction will be if Poilievre (who is a reaction to Trudeau culture wars) wins, when we swing back the other way.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Culture wars have no place in politics. They are a divisive distraction. I am only interested in good governance.

IMHO, culture wars seem to be amplified by bad faith actors. Russian trolls, Billionaires owning social media apps, the far right etc, in order to distract us from the real issues. In a way it's like how the prison system operates. They are habitually trying to manipulate the inmates, so that they are preoccupied with their inmate rivals, instead of realising the real issue, is the guard mistreating them.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

He'll either be turfed tomorrow, or sometime this week he'll step aside saying he doesn't want to be a "distraction". If I were a betting person, anyway.

He had better. This is poor judgement on Carney's part. Dude is basically parroting CCP propaganda.

[Takeoff]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Except for his attacks on scientists, librarians, bureaucrats, NGO’s, the UN and anyone who gave a shit about Climate Change or the environment. He destroyed irreplaceable historic documents from the National Archives. He muzzled scientists. He dabbled in voter suppression (hello PeePee Poutine!). He tried a Trump style ‘barbaric practices’ hotline to snitch on your non white neighbours. ‘Stop Harper’ was a popular bumper sticker before ‘Fuck Trudeau’ was.

I think as a conservative he offended you less so you don’t recall how divisive he was. Just remember the current swath of populist politicians such as Jason Kenney and Pierre Poilievre came from Harper’s government. He in turn came from the Reform Party.

Yea the barbaric practices hotline was one of the more despicable things that Harper did. Clearly a dog whistle to the far right wing section of Canada. Even his management of financial side of government was disappointing. The reduction of GST to a point where there was no government surplus and the reduction of investment into health, housing, and social programs really hurt the country in the long run.