WTF eh ?
"Each and every day, I will assure you of one thing -- I will dedicate myself to making Canada more united, stronger, more prosperous and a safer country", Harper.
Hey Canada
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junkyardjew
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yeah, its sort of a shitty deal, but at least harper didn't get a majority, and the ndp have managed to increase their seats, which is great. I truly blame the Bloc Quebecois for a large part of the last couple minority government fiascos. A seperatist party that is unable to persue a seperatist agenda has no business being part of a parliament.
Jared MacKay
mosher wrote:Slowsis wrote:I voted NDP!!!!
Jon's FootBlog
MSN: [email protected]
"It was clean enough to be thin..." - Andrew W.
MSN: [email protected]
"It was clean enough to be thin..." - Andrew W.
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BainbridgeShred
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...
What a depressing day. Canada stood up and did their best impression of the most embarrasing/embarrassed nation on earth. Bible thumpers rejoice. - the new fundamentalist movement has conquered North America.
That said, Harper has probably only won himself enough rope to hang himself with - they probably won't successfully pass a single piece of legislature and they almost certainly won't make it two years before another election. Next time around we could actually see a liberal minority with an NDP opposition, which would be interesting.
What a depressing day. Canada stood up and did their best impression of the most embarrasing/embarrassed nation on earth. Bible thumpers rejoice. - the new fundamentalist movement has conquered North America.
That said, Harper has probably only won himself enough rope to hang himself with - they probably won't successfully pass a single piece of legislature and they almost certainly won't make it two years before another election. Next time around we could actually see a liberal minority with an NDP opposition, which would be interesting.
Colin Kennedy
[email protected]
[email protected]
The NDP is the New Democratic Party, a socially liberal left-leaning political party. They never really get more than 20% of the popular vote, but if the Conservatives make the kind of mess which a lot of Canadians think they will, the NDP might actually become a viable alternative. The problem is that many Canadians WOULD vote NDP, but many strategiaclly vote Liberal, just to try and stop the Conservative.BainbridgeShred wrote:What's NDP?
Did the Conservatives win?
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BainbridgeShred
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HighDemonslayer
- Egyptian Footgod
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HighDemonslayer
- Egyptian Footgod
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I read that Canada's crime rate is now 50% higher than the U.S.??
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news ... 061c3cee14
(...) Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 appears to compare favorably to the homicide totals of the three American cities cited by the Star. But those 78 Toronto homicides in 2005 represent a 28% increase over the 61 homicides recorded in Toronto in 1995. Meanwhile, the three U.S. cities cited by the Star each achieved dramatic decreases over the past decade: Chicago down 46% from 823, Washington down 46% from 365, Baltimore down 17% from 322.
(...)
(....)
More broadly: Canada's overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States. Read that again slowly -- it seems incredible, but it's true. It's true too that you are now more likely to be mugged in Toronto than in New York City.
(....)
I don't know, whenever anybody says "overall crime rate" you have to be suspicious.
Those comparisons are from one decade to the next, but I don't see how Chicago, for example, has a declining homicide rate, because they are adding population all the time, i thought.
-n
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news ... 061c3cee14
(...) Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 appears to compare favorably to the homicide totals of the three American cities cited by the Star. But those 78 Toronto homicides in 2005 represent a 28% increase over the 61 homicides recorded in Toronto in 1995. Meanwhile, the three U.S. cities cited by the Star each achieved dramatic decreases over the past decade: Chicago down 46% from 823, Washington down 46% from 365, Baltimore down 17% from 322.
(...)
(....)
More broadly: Canada's overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States. Read that again slowly -- it seems incredible, but it's true. It's true too that you are now more likely to be mugged in Toronto than in New York City.
(....)
I don't know, whenever anybody says "overall crime rate" you have to be suspicious.
Those comparisons are from one decade to the next, but I don't see how Chicago, for example, has a declining homicide rate, because they are adding population all the time, i thought.
-n
Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?
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-nathan
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-nathan
Your new PM must have read that somewhere because I can remember reading that somewhere too...OR...Erik Chan wrote:"I like cats, and cats have nine lives. Obviously I've got a few lives left." Deep thoughts from our new PM.
(My girlfriend's MSN title)
...okay, I'm actually your new Prime Minister. Yes, I'm really sorry Canada.
Lauri Jaakkola
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HighDemonslayer
- Egyptian Footgod
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- Joined: 17 Jun 2003 19:34
- Location: Arizona
...
It seems that many ellipses are needed to express myself on this topic...
A very brief summery of the things that worry me the most:
1 - there will be little attempt made at keeping the balanced budget which has been maintained for several years, and has actually produced some record surpluses in recent years. He's coming in with too much tax relief combined with significant increases in spending, especially in military.
2 - increase in military spending / more likely to be a lapdog for the US in international affairs, ie missile defence shield
3 - simply insane child care program proposal. I'm pretty sketchy on this one, since I'm too old to really remember needing supervision and too young to have reached the stage where a bunch of my friends have kids. The gist is that families will receive $100/month/child under 6 (a little under 5 bucks per workday). In itself, this is all fine and good, but it's scrapping several years of work and a lot of invested cash which was building a national child care program modeled after the absurdly successful (and affordable) public program that Quebec has been running for several years. This could get dicey because several (all? I don't know) provinces had already signed agreements with the previous government to the effect that this now scrapped program is underway.
4 - that haircut may become mandatory - it seems that 2/3s of the leading party is wearing it now.
5 - moving towards privatization of health care - This is a dicey one for me, since it's true that our health care is in shambles and needs major work. For example, I twisted my ankle 6 months ago and have yet to receive a satisfactory diagnosis of the injury. I intend to see an orthopedist soon, but I can expect to wait at least a couple of months to have an ultrasound done on the joint, and at least a year for an MRI if they even let me on the list.
Despite the potential benefits, many Canadians (myself included) feel that private health care is contrary to a pretty strongly held belief in total equality when it comes to medical needs.
6 - cutbacks in equalization payments - Canada's equalization program is basically an income tax for provinces - the rich guys pay a bunch, and the poor guys get a return. There's a fairly large geographic economic disparity in Canada. In actuality, we have three provinces (Alberta (oil), Ontario (industry) and British Columbia (pot)) which are independently wealthy and pay significant amounts into the equalization plan, while some receive big kickbacks (ie, Newfoundland). the new government intends to remove non-renewable resources (oil) from calculations determining your worth for the equalisation payments, which will drastically reduce the amount that Alberta pays in, and result in a greater burden placed on Ontario and BC and reduced support for everyone else. Also, Alberta could become (even more) insanely rich. It's not hard to imagine why the conservatives won every single Albertan riding.
A bit of an aside here - it's interesting to see that the economic growth that the socialist government (especially Martin himself, who was finance/prime minister for most of this time) has overseen for the past 10 years has produced enough rich Canadians that we elected a tax break party which will almost certainly leave us worse off, and in fact intends to run a budget deficit.
7 - Minority / social issues - Gay marriage, abortion, etcetera. In Canada these are almost uniformly tolerated, with the exception of Alberta where there is a significant divide typical (from what I see) of the US. The fact that one half of one province (as well as fanatics from other provinces) is up in arms over an issue does not make it a priority. There's no actual chance of policy change here, but the fact that it's come up at all is embarrassing.
Abbreviated, but it's my honest answer to your question. That's the list, but in reality I'm not particularly worried. The governing party is too small to act unilaterally - the opposition is large enough to veto just about everything. The likely turnout is that Harper will have to call an election after the public becomes sick of the deadlock, and the months between now and then will probably be sobering for the public which elected the conservatives more as a stab at the previous PM and some of his cohorts for a monetary scandal some years back. The liberal leadership came out of those investigations squeaky clean, but still payed the price. It's sort of our version of Warring Iraq as revenge for 9/11.
Best case scenario is that Harper explodes, and sinks the conservative party. This is unlikely, but not impossible. A PM who won't bow to public pressure for an election will become very unpopular.
Dan - do you have any idea where you live? It seems to me that the US is history's best example of a two party democracy.
It seems that many ellipses are needed to express myself on this topic...
A very brief summery of the things that worry me the most:
1 - there will be little attempt made at keeping the balanced budget which has been maintained for several years, and has actually produced some record surpluses in recent years. He's coming in with too much tax relief combined with significant increases in spending, especially in military.
2 - increase in military spending / more likely to be a lapdog for the US in international affairs, ie missile defence shield
3 - simply insane child care program proposal. I'm pretty sketchy on this one, since I'm too old to really remember needing supervision and too young to have reached the stage where a bunch of my friends have kids. The gist is that families will receive $100/month/child under 6 (a little under 5 bucks per workday). In itself, this is all fine and good, but it's scrapping several years of work and a lot of invested cash which was building a national child care program modeled after the absurdly successful (and affordable) public program that Quebec has been running for several years. This could get dicey because several (all? I don't know) provinces had already signed agreements with the previous government to the effect that this now scrapped program is underway.
4 - that haircut may become mandatory - it seems that 2/3s of the leading party is wearing it now.
5 - moving towards privatization of health care - This is a dicey one for me, since it's true that our health care is in shambles and needs major work. For example, I twisted my ankle 6 months ago and have yet to receive a satisfactory diagnosis of the injury. I intend to see an orthopedist soon, but I can expect to wait at least a couple of months to have an ultrasound done on the joint, and at least a year for an MRI if they even let me on the list.
Despite the potential benefits, many Canadians (myself included) feel that private health care is contrary to a pretty strongly held belief in total equality when it comes to medical needs.
6 - cutbacks in equalization payments - Canada's equalization program is basically an income tax for provinces - the rich guys pay a bunch, and the poor guys get a return. There's a fairly large geographic economic disparity in Canada. In actuality, we have three provinces (Alberta (oil), Ontario (industry) and British Columbia (pot)) which are independently wealthy and pay significant amounts into the equalization plan, while some receive big kickbacks (ie, Newfoundland). the new government intends to remove non-renewable resources (oil) from calculations determining your worth for the equalisation payments, which will drastically reduce the amount that Alberta pays in, and result in a greater burden placed on Ontario and BC and reduced support for everyone else. Also, Alberta could become (even more) insanely rich. It's not hard to imagine why the conservatives won every single Albertan riding.
A bit of an aside here - it's interesting to see that the economic growth that the socialist government (especially Martin himself, who was finance/prime minister for most of this time) has overseen for the past 10 years has produced enough rich Canadians that we elected a tax break party which will almost certainly leave us worse off, and in fact intends to run a budget deficit.
7 - Minority / social issues - Gay marriage, abortion, etcetera. In Canada these are almost uniformly tolerated, with the exception of Alberta where there is a significant divide typical (from what I see) of the US. The fact that one half of one province (as well as fanatics from other provinces) is up in arms over an issue does not make it a priority. There's no actual chance of policy change here, but the fact that it's come up at all is embarrassing.
Abbreviated, but it's my honest answer to your question. That's the list, but in reality I'm not particularly worried. The governing party is too small to act unilaterally - the opposition is large enough to veto just about everything. The likely turnout is that Harper will have to call an election after the public becomes sick of the deadlock, and the months between now and then will probably be sobering for the public which elected the conservatives more as a stab at the previous PM and some of his cohorts for a monetary scandal some years back. The liberal leadership came out of those investigations squeaky clean, but still payed the price. It's sort of our version of Warring Iraq as revenge for 9/11.
Best case scenario is that Harper explodes, and sinks the conservative party. This is unlikely, but not impossible. A PM who won't bow to public pressure for an election will become very unpopular.
Dan - do you have any idea where you live? It seems to me that the US is history's best example of a two party democracy.
Colin Kennedy
[email protected]
[email protected]
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junkyardjew
- BSOS Beast
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HighDemonslayer
- Egyptian Footgod
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Thanks for the explanation, I assumed ahead of time, there would be some concern over military spending.
Some of the other stuff helped me (I think)with my somewhat spotty knowledge about Canadian politic/reality. Maybe it re-enforced my incorrect assumtions. lol Some of your paragraphs are very telling about your own views.
I'll have to dig deeper, and ask a few questions about a few of Newf's points. And i'm SURE I will piss off a few Canadians in the process.
-n
Some of the other stuff helped me (I think)with my somewhat spotty knowledge about Canadian politic/reality. Maybe it re-enforced my incorrect assumtions. lol Some of your paragraphs are very telling about your own views.
I'll have to dig deeper, and ask a few questions about a few of Newf's points. And i'm SURE I will piss off a few Canadians in the process.
-n
Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?
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-nathan
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-nathan
