In case anyone didn't hear...

[thebitterguy]

There's been an election called. (What, you heard? What, you listen to the CBC or something?)

Anyway, I'm kinda glad I still don't live in Napanee.

Apparently they elected a guy from the freaking Alliance party in the olden days. That's disquieting.

Anyway, Halton is looking a little more sane, at least. I was hoping to drink the orange kool-aid, but with the look of things (Garth Freaking Turner?) I may have to go 'strategic'. Shame, as I've no love for Carr, as he was weak.

Feh. I hates politics.

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

From what I can see from the States, which admittedly isn't much, Jack Layton looks like a pretty decent guy. I'd vote for him. But the NDP seems capped in the mid 20s and can never quite seal the deal. They always seemed to serve a decent spoiler function, keeping the Liberals from drifting too far to the right. Of course, sometimes that means you gotta spoil.

What the hell is up with Canada anyways, it's either a weird government crisis every six months or the same guy is in power for decades.

[terminal-pariah.livejournal.com]

One of the problems with our current government setup is that, when you get right down to it, there are only two things that separate Paul Martin from Stephen Harper:
1. Martin is okay with gay marriage. Harper is not.
2. Martin is able to deliver a big "fuck you" to the American government (but you've really got to force him). Harper will do anything to make Bush like us, and I think he's going to campaign around that.

This leads to the following situation
Martin: We're gonna give Wal-Mart a huge tax break, and you can't stop us!
Harper: ... shit, that's what I was going to say. Well we should privatize hospitals!
Martin: Damn it. Stop agreeing with me. Uh... softwood lumber?
Harper: Give it away for free!
Martin: Aha! Perfect! Now, can we talk about just that and gays for the next four years?

Also, we're not really used to having our religious conservatives in bed with our economic conservatives. We're all, "I really like the idea of that upper-class tax cut, but do we have to execute abortion doctors, too?"

I'm still voting and helping with campaigns, but I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop my tuition fees from going up or to prevent new poor taxes (Liberals just love cut transit funding). At least if I vote for the NDP it helps them get up in parliament and say, "Okay, we got 17% of the vote and only 7 of the 100 seats. This voting system stole 10 seats from us." Proportional representation is coming. *mad cackling*

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

As long as I've been politically aware I've noticed that Canada follows the US 2-3 years after the fact.

Trudeau was our JFK, only he didn't get shot and continued to rule until he retired willingly.

When Reagan was elected, along came Brian Mulroney four years later, like a puppy dog.

When the Reagan era died and Clinton showed up, along comes Chretien in Canada.

My favorite example: when there were riots in LA in 1992, six months later there was a "riot" in downtown Toronto. no reason, they just wanted to be cool like the americans.

When the American economy is in the tank so is Canada's. When America recovers, it takes Canada a couple
years to start nosing upwards as well. By the time America is overheated and peaking, canada is just getting
going and then boom, there's a crash and both countries' economies collapse simultaneously.

Harper is Canada's GW Bush except he won't get elected due to differences in the electoral system. Hey, even GWB only scrapes into power on wings and prayers and friendly supreme courts.

The divergence has only come in the last five years or so, with America going way to the right culturally, or at least giving unprecetoo far for Canada which is drifting along muddled-center.

Gay marriage is a single issue for me but i must admit a pretty huge one.

if my 2-3 years later theory holds up, Canada is like the parallel America that continued with Al Gore after Clinton. And they're being given the choice to go with a Bush-esque leader or stay the course. Would they? Who knows!