Canadian Federal Election

[casper]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

Gross on so many levels... but does Poilievre have "Conservative" on his plane or has he just renamed the party with his name?

At least the Trump, Trudeau and Liberal planes let the media on them... Pierre and Ana only for theirs...

Interesting.....

The Liberals will win because of Carney not so much the party polices. The party name is on the plane.

The Conservatives (in the remote chance they win) will do so because their polices and despite their leader. The leaders name is on the plane.

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by rousseau

All this Trumpiness is getting out of hand.


https://x.com/Gray_Mackenzie/status/1916188113136648595

Only conservatives are populists!!! Don’t ya know!

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It still blows my mind that's the political class in Ontario. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate having a trashy, low-brow, schoolyard bully to match Trump in shenanigans... but the Ford family pre-dates all that. It's fascinating - we have controversy here because our Premier maintained his license as an orthopedic trauma surgeon while in office, and the Fords are smoking crack and doing whatever used car sales thing they've been up to.

It is genuinely confounding seeing a Neanderthalian bloke galumphing around leading a province that is ostensibly highly advanced and brimming with educated, sophisticated people.
On the other hand, to give DoFo some credit, he has smartly governed really rather moderately. In Ontario, there is nary a peep about the culture wars, thank goodness, and even fiscally he has been middle-of-the-road, not a slash-and-burn partisan. I find him endurable for a conservative.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

I ran population per riding numbers. The higher the number, the less voice that province gets in Ottawa.

Look at the astounding disparity. I understand the territories, they're tiny. But look at PEI. It gets 3 seats, where the same number of Albertans only get one. Prior to redistribution, Alberta was 125k per seat. They got no voice. The Canadian electoral system is completely and utterly flawed and needs structural change. No matter who benefits from it.

https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir/list&document=index338&lang=e
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx/co...ir=cir/red/343list&document=index&lang=e

Did you fail Civics and be History in Middle School? The reason for that seat distribution was covered in Grade 7 and 8 History in Ontario. We have a country because of those deals.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by casper

Interesting.....

The Liberals will win because of Carney not so much the party polices. The party name is on the plane.

The Conservatives (in the remote chance they win) will do so because their polices and despite their leader. The leaders name is on the plane.

Trudeau's name was on the plane in 2015 (before Trump started doing this). Maybe Pierre thought if it worked for Trudeau, it would work for him.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by bodaggin

I ran population per riding numbers. The higher the number, the less voice that province gets in Ottawa.

Look at the astounding disparity. I understand the territories, they're tiny. But look at PEI. It gets 3 seats, where the same number of Albertans only get one. Prior to redistribution, Alberta was 125k per seat. They got no voice. The Canadian electoral system is completely and utterly flawed and needs structural change. No matter who benefits from it.

https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir/list&document=index338&lang=e
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx/co...ir=cir/red/343list&document=index&lang=e

Canada absolutely needs electoral reform, but most would agree any sort of major electoral reform would require opening up the constitution, and require getting the provinces on board, which could make most forms of electoral reform incredibly difficult to realize.

I'm still disappointed the Liberals gave up so quickly on the proposal to introduce a ranked ballot, as it was perhaps the only type of major reform that wouldn't have required changing the constitution, since it would have left our system of ridings unchanged.

I was equally, if not more disappointed to see the NDP under Mulcair basically write off the ranked ballot proposal as a "Liberal ploy", when it was the closest we've ever come to electoral reform realized in Canada. PR would be better, but could be virtually impossible to pull off, because of how difficult it is to change the Canadian constitution. I still think the NDP would have ultimately benefitted from ranked voting in the long run, but they preferred to play politics in 2016 instead.

Yes, I want a proportionally representative electoral system, like the NDP wants, but PR reforms were not going to happen in 2016, and there was no reason for the NDP to have opposed the Liberal's ranked ballot proposal as much as they did. It would have been an improvement on the current system, and could have been a small step forward to eventually seeing proportional representation realized. The only party that would have actually been "hurt" by the ranked ballot proposal was the CPC, since a majority of Canadian voters are not conservatives, but it still would have been a fundamentally more democratic voting process than system we have, which has been virtually unchanged since before Canada was even a country. (Thanks Britain!)

JT still had a majority at the time, and deserves ultimate blame for not just going through with the ranked ballot electoral reform proposal, but I get why Trudeau just gave up on it, when even the NDP wouldn't support their proposal that would have slightly improved our electoral system.

I think the NDP will very much regret their opposition to the ranked ballot come Monday night, as if we had a ranked ballot, I don't think the NDP's official party status would be at risk like it is right now.

[whatnext]

Of Blanchet doesn’t believe Canada is a real country, why is he running to be in its parliament? What a hypocrite!

Nova Scotia premier blasts Bloc leader for calling Canada 'artificial country'
Houston says Blanchet should take more pride in Canada 'or step aside'
Darren Major · CBC News · Posted: Apr 26, 2025 8:39 AM PDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is stepping into the federal fray, blasting the leader of the Bloc Québécois for calling Canada an "artificial country."

At a campaign stop earlier this week, Yves-François Blanchet said he felt like he was a member of a "foreign parliament."

When asked about those comments on Friday, Blanchet doubled down...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nova-sc...er-comments-artificial-country-1.7519562

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Gresto

It is genuinely confounding seeing a Neanderthalian bloke galumphing around leading a province that is ostensibly highly advanced and brimming with educated, sophisticated people.
On the other hand, to give DoFo some credit, he has smartly governed really rather moderately. In Ontario, there is nary a peep about the culture wars, thank goodness, and even fiscally he has been middle-of-the-road, not a slash-and-burn partisan. I find him endurable for a conservative.

The culture war is less seen in Ontario. My wife's a teacher. They now allow people with no teaching degrees at all, or even any degree work as supply teachers or even full time teachers in some cases. These changes were partly justified by talking about "woke" teachers. My wife routinely complains about her less qualified colleagues not following the curriculum. Another kindergarten teacher just plays songs and YouTube videos for the kids. The consequences aren't fully obvious now. But they will be in a few years.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

The culture war is less seen in Ontario. My wife's a teacher. They now allow people with no teaching degrees at all, or even any degree work as supply teachers or even full time teachers in some cases. These changes were partly justified by talking about "woke" teachers. My wife routinely complains about her less qualified colleagues not following the curriculum. Another kindergarten teacher just plays songs and YouTube videos for the kids. The consequences aren't fully obvious now. But they will be in a few years.

Agreed - the full effect of Doug's programs won't really hit until he's likely gone. He's metered this with minimal culture war stuff as noted and a lot of infrastructure spending (which is good, despite how it's been handled in some cases). And of course the Trump thing which he had the sense to jump on.

I wouldn't really consider Ford to be truly part of the Political Class, but he's savvy enough to keep the OPC ones satisfied. It was actually looking like a trainwreck in his first term when he let his staffers call the shots but he backed down from that.

[ToxiK]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Of Blanchet doesn’t believe Canada is a real country, why is he running to be in its parliament? What a hypocrite!

Because real country or not, Québec is still part of the Canadian Federation.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by ToxiK

Because real country or not, Québec is still part of the Canadian Federation.

It’s an attempt just before election day to call separatists back home.

[kwoldtimer]

Better to focus on why he says what he says, not what he says. The Bloc is struggling to avoid getting clobbered on Monday - desperate times call for deserate measures.

[kiwi4353]

Just a couple of hours remaining. Everyone needs to do their part and vote this is the most important election in our lifetime.

[bodaggin]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I want a proportionally representative electoral system

I'd prefer scrapping the party system entirely and switching to direct democracy where we only vote for ministry heads and a leader. Regional representation makes zero sense in today's age.

In the current party system, we elect a bunch of proxies (MP's), based on archaic formulas. Then, ministry heads are chosen from that pool of elected proxies. The person leading the ministry of health may know nothing about health. Same for defense, finance, etc. This is absolutely insane! It's like hiring a mechanic to be your dentist.

Ministers are like our country's C-Suite. They need to be competent in their discipline!

So deploy direct democracy from your phone, via blockchain. Fully FOSS, anonymous, and not on a scheduled 4yr basis. The public hires competent, skilled minsters via voting. Ministers handle petty departmental admin and agenda on their own. For more important issues, they or public can petition a vote in real-time to decide the issue. Providing instant decision latency, not a 4yr wait. And if the minister ignores the will of the people, the minister/leader can be fired by citizen petition at any time, for any reason, within 48hrs, provided a pre-agreed voting threshold is achieved. Runaway power clingers are never allowed to occur. Low latency, adaptive, and actually democratic.

[Loco101]

Blanchet is obviously getting desperate. He knows things aren't good so he's attempting a "hail Mary" or rather "Je vous salue Marie" and hoping it has some sort of positive effect for his party's support mainly from hardcore separatists. I find it rather strange that he suddenly decides to criticize Canada with the whole Trump 51st state stuff going on. In my opinion it was a very bad move but it's almost certain he is finished as party leader. It's hard to believe that he said it in Val-d'Or in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Region which borders where I live. That region has a LOT of jobs that depend on raw natural resources being trucked in from Timmins and the rest of Northeastern Ontario.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Of Blanchet doesn’t believe Canada is a real country, why is he running to be in its parliament? What a hypocrite!

Nova Scotia premier blasts Bloc leader for calling Canada 'artificial country'
Houston says Blanchet should take more pride in Canada 'or step aside'
Darren Major · CBC News · Posted: Apr 26, 2025 8:39 AM PDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is stepping into the federal fray, blasting the leader of the Bloc Québécois for calling Canada an "artificial country."

At a campaign stop earlier this week, Yves-François Blanchet said he felt like he was a member of a "foreign parliament."

When asked about those comments on Friday, Blanchet doubled down...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nova-sc...er-comments-artificial-country-1.7519562

It's not illogical.

I found it perfectly normal to witness Brits send a bunch of UKIP MEPs to Brussels back during the PMship of Brexiteer Boris Johnson, for example.

(What else would you do...? Honest question.)

[Architype]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Of Blanchet doesn’t believe Canada is a real country, why is he running to be in its parliament? What a hypocrite!

Nova Scotia premier blasts Bloc leader for calling Canada 'artificial country'
Houston says Blanchet should take more pride in Canada 'or step aside'
Darren Major · CBC News · Posted: Apr 26, 2025 8:39 AM PDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is stepping into the federal fray, blasting the leader of the Bloc Québécois for calling Canada an "artificial country."

At a campaign stop earlier this week, Yves-François Blanchet said he felt like he was a member of a "foreign parliament."

When asked about those comments on Friday, Blanchet doubled down...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nova-sc...er-comments-artificial-country-1.7519562

So then, Quebec is also not a real country. I think we can say that honestly enough, since they were a major part of the foundation!

Will the "real" Canada please stand up!

Who is the real father of this child?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Architype

So then, Quebec is also not a real country. I think we can say that honestly enough, since they were a major part of the foundation!

Correct (right now), and the Bloc aims to fix that. As you'd know if you paid attention. It's the whole point.

I don't think it's controversial to point out Czechoslovakia "wasn't a real country" (Austria-Hungary even worse, if you want to go back even further in time) while Czechia and Slovakia both are...? I mean, it's fairly simple to grasp...

[Loco101]

Quebec has voted to remain within confederation twice since being an original founder of confederation.

It's a long shot but imagine if Blanchet loses in his riding of Beloeil—Chambly? And an even crazier scenario would be if the Liberals have a way better expected outcome and all party leaders lose their seats except Carney. A lot of people thought that Gilles Duceppe would never lose so I guess there is always a remote chance.

[kwoldtimer]

Anybody else feel that PP has had more steam these last few days than Carney? I'm thining Carney was wise to go for the shortest possible campaign period.