Canada Election 2015

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Hey O-Tac! I like you! You're definitely more savant in your posts than Migs.

But you do appear to have a bee in your bonnet these days...

Merci Acajack!

I don't know why I'm so argry these days. I think the prospect of Harper winning combined with MIGS' stupid comments are really setting me off. The local forum is dead lately as most projects are either under construction or on hold. If you want to see my less serious side just head over to the discussions about Vancouver's new VAG.

I just hope that we get a progressive government this election or that Harper gets a minority and loses the non confidence vote and the NDP and Liberals form a coalition government. It's amazing how since the NDP unseated the Conservatives Provincially here I actually really like the Alberta government for the first time in my life.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by RWin

I should not have read that with a mouth full of coffee

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Merci Acajack!

I don't know why I'm so argry these days. I think the prospect of Harper winning combined with MIGS' stupid comments are really setting me off. The local forum is dead lately as most projects are either under construction or on hold. If you want to see my less serious side just head over to the discussions about Vancouver's new VAG.

I just hope that we get a progressive government this election or that Harper gets a minority and loses the non confidence vote and the NDP and Liberals form a coalition government. It's amazing how since the NDP unseated the Conservatives Provincially here I actually really like the Alberta government for the first time in my life.

Some people have never heard of the ignore list. My god... if I tried to respond to all the crazy sh*t posted on here I'd be "Old conservative guy at convention centre" angry too!

[Migs]

Originally Posted by lio45

By what metric? Unemployment rate? GDP?

I think you're the one who's kidding here... or else you haven't left your cave lately.

US debt will have doubled to over $20T by the time Obama leaves office (if it reaches $23T the U.S. will be Greece). Unemployment rate doesn't seem low, that's is because there are hundreds of thousands less in the workforce. Guess what the real unemployment rate is? Also, % of families living in poverty has skyrocketed since he took over. Median household income is down. Youth unemployment rate has skyrocketed. U.S. Credit has been downgraded twice.

I can go on and on.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara...ilure-by-his-own-self-imposed-standards/

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Migs

US debt will have doubled to over $20T by the time Obama leaves office (if it reaches $23T the U.S. will be Greece). Unemployment rate doesn't seem low, that's is because there are hundreds of thousands less in the workforce. Guess what the real unemployment rate is? Also, % of families living in poverty has skyrocketed since he took over. Median household income is down. Youth unemployment rate has skyrocketed. U.S. Credit has been downgraded twice.

I can go on and on.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara...ilure-by-his-own-self-imposed-standards/

Why is it that only Obama is responsible for the state of the U.S. economy? Aren't there many state Governors, members of congress, Senators, Mayors, etc. who make economic decisions that Obama has no part in? And private businesses also play a role...

[Loco101]

There is a lot of talk about how the NDP has fallen in the polls but I just saw a Forum Research poll that is predicting the party will still win just as many seats as last time. And there was another that predicted a gain of 15-20 seats. I have no idea what the outcome might be but even if the NDP keeps most of their seats it will still be pretty amazing for them. I just don't see many NDP incumbents losing in Quebec and even elsewhere.

[Migs]

Guess which year the NDP was voted out of Saskatchewan.

[Ayreonaut]

Right around the time China starting buying up all the potash and massive companies were moving in to establish new mines? Did China vote out the NDP?

[ssiguy]

Avoid Migs {like everyone else} as he is ideologically blind and everything even marginally centrist is heresy and everything from a right-wing perspective is ordained by god. The man is truly incapable of intelligent conversation.

[ssiguy]

It will be interesting to see how this interview in Quebec works out for Mulcair.

He has been a let down in the debates and on the campaign trail. He definitely has not been at his best. Maybe it's just that he is experiencing the opposite of what Trudeau is...........everyone expected Mulcair to be a good leader and it set up unrealistic expectations while expectations were so low for Trudeau {thanks to the Conservative "just not ready" ads} that when he performs reasonably well he gets huge accolades.

Mulcair is an intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, and generally likeable character. He is kind of like a good school teacher.........you are not going to invite them out for coffee but everyone is generally fond of you. A good showing in this interview could be the turn around he desperately needs in Quebec or at least to stop the bleeding.

During this campaign as opposed to before it, it seems like Mulcair is more comfortable discussing issues on a one to one basis as opposed to debates where he seems uncharacteristically unsure of himself and seems to lack the passion that is needed in nation wide debates.

Quebecers are a fickle lot and they can turn on a dime so it's still up for grabs in La Belle province.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Migs

Guess which year the NDP was voted out of Saskatchewan.

Guess what year the prices of ALL of our major commodities skyrocketed in tandem?

It would take an incredibly inept government to be unable to ride the quadruple wave of Uranium, Potash, Oil, and Agriculture upward.

The Sask Party spent like sailors on shore-leave over the 6-7 years since gaining power (some of which were projects that were definitely overdue, due to us not being able to afford them previously) and has had to pull back a fair bit lately (sometimes along ideological lines).

We tend to vote in right parties when the economy is good/(and they spend like left parties), then when things tank, we vote in a left party (that is forced to act like a right party to get the books balanced again).

Also parties have to shift toward centre to gain power, and if they pull too far away from centre, they tend to fall out of favour. It's a fairly interesting process in Saskatchewan.

But now out of Saskatchewan politics and back to federal...

[Migs]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Avoid Migs {like everyone else} as he is ideologically blind and everything even marginally centrist is heresy and everything from a right-wing perspective is ordained by god. The man is truly incapable of intelligent conversation.

Nonsense. You just hate the fact that there is a far right participant swimming in a fishbowl thread full of far left supporters. I have no issue with many left leaning issues like gay marriage or govt run healthcare. It just pains you & others that there is someone participating in this thread that believes Harper has done a great job for this country & is one of the best PMs in our great countries history. God forbid I have the same political beliefs as the idealistically blind Wayne Gretzky.

[Migs]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Guess what year the prices of ALL of our major commodities skyrocketed in tandem?

It would take an incredibly inept government to be unable to ride the quadruple wave of Uranium, Potash, Oil, and Agriculture upward.:

At that specific point in time all was good. Since that time the price of oil has crashed, Potash prices dropped significantly thanks to the Russians, there was a global economic crisis (where Sask didn't fall into recession), & alas the trajectory of the graft remains constant.

[Migs]

Originally Posted by Ayreonaut

Right around the time China starting buying up all the potash and massive companies were moving in to establish new mines? Did China vote out the NDP?

Damn Ruskies.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1005249/potash-corp-to-cut-hundreds-of-jobs/

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Migs

At that specific point in time all was good. Since that time the price of oil has crashed, Potash prices dropped significantly thanks to the Russians, there was a global economic crisis (where Sask didn't fall into recession), & alas the trajectory of the graft remains constant.

The resources crashed (and some have somewhat recovered) at varying times, not all at once... and oil only took its dive fairly recently, so there is still a bit of a delay in reaction (hence why the Sask Party has had to ratchet down projections again).

We also, thankfully, still have a plethora of crown corporations that helps to bring stability. When Saskatchewan grows, they also automatically grow since they service the whole province.

Furthermore, the rest of Canada is also mostly either treading water or still hurting. If Ontario or BC or Alberta (whither we are still losing people) were going gangbusters, we'd be pooched; immigration would slow to a trickle (basically the only thing holding up our population growth... that and the high native population birthrates) and our high outmigration to better pastures would recommence... until the next commodity cycle anyway. We are hurting, but so is the rest of Canada, which in a bit of a schadenfreude way, is good news for Saskatchewan's population growth numbers.

Edit: I will add that Wall has been a very strong leader, and has done many good things for Saskatchewan... but he has also slipped into partisanship from time to time and done quite a bit of harm. Take for example, the Sask Party's unwillingness to rethink the film tax credit changes. It forced them to create a whole bunch of other grants in order to avoid the embarrassment of the Corner Gas movie being filmed elsewhere. It was poorly thought out for the "benefit" of saving a couple million dollars, all while destroying a segment of diversification in the economy outside of resources (and it was mostly centred in Regina too). We are now struggling with thinking up new ways to make use of the excellent soundstage we have that mostly lays empty now.

And the problem I have with people who blindly toe party lines and praise everything they do (no matter the political stripe), is that they tend to push moderate people to take a contrarian opinion on the party in question, even if they agree with some of what a party has done.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Migs

Nonsense. You just hate the fact that there is a far right participant swimming in a fishbowl thread full of far left supporters. I have no issue with many left leaning issues like gay marriage or govt run healthcare. It just pains you & others that there is someone participating in this thread that believes Harper has done a great job for this country & is one of the best PMs in our great countries history. God forbid I have the same political beliefs as the idealistically blind Wayne Gretzky.

I don't see any far left people on here. I would say the discussion is centre to centre-right for the most part. You're just so far right that everything looks left.

[travis3000]

New NANOS numbers released this morning have the Liberals back in the lead at 33.5% , the Tories in second at 31.9%, and the NDP falling back to third with 25.9%.

The Liberals lead Atlantic Canada, Ontario, and BC. The NDP leads Quebec, and the Conservatives lead the Prairies.

It's very interesting how NANOS is getting totally different results then the other pollsters. They are also the only pollster using live callers. Interesting....

http://www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls/20151001%20Ballot%20TrackingE.pdf

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Migs

US debt will have doubled to over $20T by the time Obama leaves office...

Ontario (main province), ~$50k US per capita (fed.+prov. debt)
California (main state), ~$60k US per capita (fed.+state debt)

If they're Greece then we're also nearly Greece.

Unemployment rate doesn't seem low, that's is because there are hundreds of thousands less in the workforce.

And you don't think it's the same thing in Canada? We can compare labor participation rates if you prefer...

And did you actually take a look at the youth employment rate in Canada? It skyrocketed under Harper!!!!!!! Click on that link and then select "10Y"... Sure, it's been trending down since, but it's still higher than it was under the federal Liberals!

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/youth-unemployment-rate

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by Migs

Nonsense. You just hate the fact that there is a far right participant swimming in a fishbowl thread full of far left supporters. I have no issue with many left leaning issues like gay marriage or govt run healthcare. It just pains you & others that there is someone participating in this thread that believes Harper has done a great job for this country & is one of the best PMs in our great countries history. God forbid I have the same political beliefs as the idealistically blind Wayne Gretzky.

I gotta say, you are fairly right wing, especially by Canadian political standards. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Each to their own. You have just as much right to post your far right views as a socialist does theirs. I believe Obama has been one of the best Presidents ever for the US. I have stats to back to that up. You disagree and have stats to back up your point. When it comes to Harper you view him as one Canada's best and have stats to back that up. And I have a whole whack of stats to prove just the opposite. (Non stop deficits, neglecting environment, muzzling scientists, fear mongering, not speaking to reporters, secrecy, focusing on increasing sentences when crime has been falling for 25 years, and the list goes on).

That's politics for you. Everyone will have an opinion.

[SteelTown]

A few things from the Nanos poll is that the Liberals are at the highest and vice versa for the NDP, lowest ever. Liberals are highest ever in the BC poll. In the Atlantic the Conservatives are now ahead of the NDP, big still a huge gap with the Liberals.