Harper Is Going To Call An Election, or, The Official Canadian Election Thread (NO AMERICANS ALLOWED)

I've been reading about Harper cutting art grants. I think it's amazing. He's basically doing it because it goes to "liberal propaganda". He also came out against "art galas" for being too elitist. But......I don't think the government pays for arts galas. They support artists. It's all so weird and surreal.

Seriously, this election is just a big nightmare. You have Harper, who wants to put everyone in prison. You have Dion, who I'm pretty sure doesn't even know where Canada is on a map, and why all those people keep making him give speeches. And then you have Layton, who is only in the race as a joke. The Green party candidate wants you to vote Liberal. The PQ is hoping that most of Canada will just forget to vote on election day. It's a joke of an election. It's so sad.

Although I really do want to see the PQ get a government. Even for 10 minutes. I'd just love to see what would happen with a seperatist PM running the country. That would be really, really fun.

Still no change. Harper continues to be untouchable in the polls, no matter how much "dirt" the Liberal dig up, and Dion continues to be invisible. My biggest hope - though I don't believe it'll happen - is for Layton to be leader of the Opposition rather than Dion. I don't like Layton, I just think Dion is such a clown that a major embarassment for him and his party would teach them all a valuable lesson: don't take public support for granted. Just because you were elected, and you happen to believe in Green this and that, doesn't mean that everyone else does or that they want such policies forced down their throats.

The debate should be good tonight...the French debate is on in a few hours. I'm looking forward to seeing them all speak. I believe this is the only look a lot of canadians will get at a few of them. Personally, I've never seen anything of Elizabeth May live.

I hope the debate is good, but I can't watch it. Stuck working in the emergency room until midnight.... Lousy sick people and their bad timing.

yeah really. Just patch em' up and send them on their way zed.

So the French debate was good. Although I'm not sold on the round-table style.
Strictly on presentation, Harper was the most impressive.
Duceppe too was solid (obviously, he's French). But he wastes valuable time, because everything he said went back to the Feds not leaving Quebec alone. Health care this, arts that...Québec Québec Québec. What are you doing on a national debate when you only run candidates in one province, ultimately forgetting or just not caring about the rest of the country. Quebec has been the spoiled child of Canada for long enough.
You would think Dion would flourish, but he did anything but. He looked nervous. I'll hate to see him in the English debates tonight.
Layton threw down some solid francais and so did May, though neither one of them shook me.

has the english debate happened yet? is it on the internet anywhere because i've been looking for it and can find nothing anywhere

it was thursday night

ok i watched the debate. and i'm a convert. i think i'm going to vote ndp. it's about time we get rid of the other 2 parties federally, they've grown way to comfortable. i also still strongly believe that the bloc should not be involved because they have no federal ambitions and only waste the time of the other parties. however i have changed my mind about elizabeth may, i found her to be extremely educated and professional. she did deserve to be there.

The Bloc absolutely deserve to be there. When they get the overwhelming majority of seats in the second largest, second most populated, second largest GDP, most unique cultural province in the country, they absolutely deserve to be included in the debate.

I realise that Duceppe is there stirring the pot because he wants sovereignty for Quebec, but the separatist movement is over. Quebec already get enough attention within our country. They have something like four of the judges on the supreme court. I guess I just think the party does little for unity.

Harper won.

Hoorah.

Ha ha, Harper called an election and NOTHING CHANGED.

I'm just sad that there isn't more outrage that the PM and every party just wasted everyone's time.

Ugh. And how long until we get to do this again? Either the new leader of the Liberals will have balls and actually let his or her MP's VOTE AGAINST SOMETHING, or Harper will just wait until a year before the next deadline and decide he's better than the law he fucking passed because he wants a conservative majority.

Canada is not conservative. Canada just recognizes that the left wing parties are all stupid.

Well said. We will be back at it in another two years.

all i can say is i pray that ralph goodale runs for leader of the liberals. that would give me reason to vote for them again

All I can say is I hope Ralph Goodale DOESN'T run for leader of the Liberals. Because he's a good guy. And if he were to become any higher-up than he is, he would probably become a "high and mighty" idiot just like the rest of them...

no way dude, we need good people running for office for fuck sakes.

So that they can become bastardized versions of themselves as well!?

well based on that logic all we're going to get is shitty leaders anyway. and besides ralph has been a powerhouse in the liberal party for a long time anyway, i think he's one of the few people who would make a good prime minister

AnnaIsAFuckingStoolPigeon wrote:

So that they can become bastardized versions of themselves as well!?

ahh the futility of anarchy....

I appreciate you aren't fond of politicians. I'm not a huge fan of partisan politics myself. You have right and reason to not vote, or to spoil your ballot. But the fact is, like it or not, some suit is going to be elected to look out for YOUR intrests. Now, wouldn't you rather have that person be someone like Goodale or Frank Mckenna, rather than some currupt asshole?

Although the only curruption I've seen in Canadian Federal politics any time latley was the Liberal sponsership scandal a few years ago.

godisdead wrote:

AnnaIsAFuckingStoolPigeon wrote:

So that they can become bastardized versions of themselves as well!?

ahh the futility of anarchy....

I appreciate you aren't fond of politicians. I'm not a huge fan of partisan politics myself. You have right and reason to not vote, or to spoil your ballot. But the fact is, like it or not, some suit is going to be elected to look out for YOUR intrests. Now, wouldn't you rather have that person be someone like Goodale or Frank Mckenna, rather than some currupt asshole?

Although the only curruption I've seen in Canadian Federal politics any time latley was the Liberal sponsership scandal a few years ago.

I'll be honest, the only reason I said those things was to be difficult.

No, I'm not fond of politicians, BUT,

I really do think it would be awesome if he became Prime Minister. He should run.

i don't think he's going to though, i'd put money on bob rae winning this one

So it seems another election has been called. Harper's such an attack dog, it's frustrating the hell out of me. I don't want no American-style attack ads, I want policy and intellectual debate, it's what politicians are meant to do, damn it!

I hate how it seems that they spend their time disagreeing with each other and threatening elections rather than trying to make compromises with each other.

It's all politics, man, they'll take whatever they can use against each other, unfortunately.