General Election: Oct 21, 2019

[Jarnhamar]

Maybe to some,

Racist behavior is quite different from race metrics.

 

[PuckChaser]

Calculatedpolitics has Libs reclaiming most seats, Cons still holding greater vote share and the BQ-NDP revving up.

This could be an incredibly interesting result. I don't recall in modern history where a party hasn't won more seats but had a larger share of the popular vote. I wonder if the left will be crying for the end of first past the post if they get their way?

 

[Cloud Cover]

It would be especially odd if a second orange crush of the Liberals occurs, this time  outside of Quebec. Another good one would be what if Singh gets more seats than Trudeau, enough to form and head a coalition ...

 

[stellarpanther]

I don't understand why this thing is as close as it seems.  Four years ago people couldn't stand the CPC and Harper and all ran to the Liberals.  Now it's neck and neck with the Liberals and Harper 2.0.  What's wrong with voters?  They don't seem to know what the hell they want.  I also think it's stupid for anyone to waste their vote on the Bloc or Greens or any of those other parties that don't have a change in hell to win.

 

[mariomike]

I picked the guy I liked best at the riding level.

They say all politics is local.

 

[Cloud Cover]

It's a sign that the country is doing so well that nobody can decide what a key election issue might be that every Canadian would vote one way or the other about it.

Free trade, deficits and health care used to mean something big in elections. Now it's what's your privilege to guilt ratio, a cheque for you, you and you, etc.

 

[Halifax Tar]

I don't understand why this thing is as close as it seems.  Four years ago people couldn't stand the CPC and Harper and all ran to the Liberals.  Now it's neck and neck with the Liberals and Harper 2.0.  What's wrong with voters?  They don't seem to know what the hell they want.  I also think it's stupid for anyone to waste their vote on the Bloc or Greens or any of those other parties that don't have a change in hell to win.

I hypothesize that myself and many others were duped by Trudeau and bought into the "boogey man" tales about Harper.  I am very regretful about that vote I cast in 2015 and won’t make that mistake ever again.  I miss Harper. 

 

[Remius]

I don't understand why this thing is as close as it seems.  Four years ago people couldn't stand the CPC and Harper and all ran to the Liberals.  Now it's neck and neck with the Liberals and Harper 2.0.  What's wrong with voters?  They don't seem to know what the hell they want.  I also think it's stupid for anyone to waste their vote on the Bloc or Greens or any of those other parties that don't have a change in hell to win.

Or maybe they know exactly what they don't want.

The Harper gvt suffered from fatigue after 10 years and people wanted change.

Things they didn't want: Hypocrisy, racist acts, different rules for the leader than anyone else, scandals, law breaking and more importantly they wanted someone who was going to do what he said he would do.  A few things could be forgiven but now contrast that to those third and fourth place parties and they start to look good.

If you are a Quebecer maybe they think they can influence more at the federal level with a strong bloc in a minority situation with either liberals or the CPC.  Same with the NDP.  Universal healthcare came about that way.

if you don't understand why it is this close then you haven't been paying attention.

 

[mariomike]

It's a sign that the country is doing so well that nobody can decide what a key election issue might be that every Canadian would vote one way or the other about it.

Our union and pensioner association follow a simple philosophy in supporting candidates – they support those who support us. Regardless of party affiliation or political leanings.

 

[The Bread Guy]

I hypothesize that myself and many others were duped by Trudeau and bought into the "boogey man" tales about Harper.

... combined with a dose of "a lot of PM's get old to the electorate, no matter what team jersey they wear, after a certain amount of time, even if they weren't all that bad."

Meanwhile, on the extreme left, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) seems to think the NDP's promising to spend too much on the military ...

... The rightwing character of the NDP is exemplified by the sections of its federal election platform, “A New Deal for People,” that outline its proposals for the military and foreign policy.

While chock full of pseudo-progressive rhetoric about “human rights,” making Canada a “force for peace,” and promoting “gender equality,” the platform champions a pro-war, militarist agenda. It advocates spending tens of billions of dollars on equipping Canada’s military with new battleships, fighter jets and other high-tech weaponry, paving the way to turn workers and young people into cannon fodder for Canadian imperialism in foreign wars and future great-power conflicts.

No less significantly, the NDP platform voices not a word of criticism of Canada’s ever-increasing integration, under the 2006-15 Harper Conservatives and now the Trudeau Liberal government, in US military-strategic offensives around the world. This includes Canada’s participation in the war build-up against China and the strategic encirclement of Russia.

Tellingly, while the NDP platform is silent on these and other Canadian foreign deployments, it justifies support for squandering tens of billions on new weapons of war by invoking Ottawa’s “international commitments” along with “national defense.” ...

 

[Good2Golf]

The “rightwing” character of the NDP?

Wow!

 

[MilEME09]

The “rightwing” character of the NDP?

Wow!

Atleast the NDP isn't 100% on the crack pipe like these people are, the NDP's platform is very vague on defense, for good reason probably. In all honesty I'd rather give someone new a chance then expect a different result from the same two lemons we always get.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

The “rightwing” character of the NDP?

Wow!

Someone has been drinking too much cool-aid.

 

[mariomike]

Are we really at the point where the racial and/or gender make up of parties and candidates matters ? 

I just know what I read in the papers,

The Canadian Press
Global News
https://globalnews.ca/news/6027466/canada-election-diversity-of-candidates/

 

[The Bread Guy]

Someone has been drinking too much cool-aid.

Keep in mind just how left wing the Socialist Equality Party, which these guys are the info-machine for, say they are ...

... The program of the Socialist Equality Party starts not with what capitalism can “afford,” but with what the working class requires. Our program is not tailored to what small-minded opportunists and pragmatists may consider immediately “achievable.” What can or cannot be achieved, in any given situation, is determined in struggle. Those not prepared to fight will never win anything.

The SEP insists that everyone has basic social rights, necessary for life in a complex modern society. We demand that everyone have access to a job with a livable income, that health care and education must be provided as a social right. Young people have the right to a future, and we demand the abolition of student debt. We call for the immediate withdrawal of all US troops from wherever they are stationed abroad, and an end to the drive by the ruling class to restructure the world in its interests. We call for the defense of democratic rights, and the abolition of the police-state infrastructure built up under both Bush and Obama.

The demands raised by the SEP are not separate from the goal of socialist revolution. Rather, each demand by its very nature raises a challenge to the material interests of the corporate aristocrats. As they encounter the resistance of corporations and the capitalist state to their legitimate demands, working people will see ever more clearly the need for the revolutionary transformation of society. The fight for these demands strengthens the working class, unifies its disparate struggles, and in each case poses the necessity of taking political power and establishing socialism in the United States, as part of the socialist reorganization of the world economy ...

More here if you want to check out the rest of what sounds a lot like the old Cold War Communist Party narrative.  If they really believe what they say, I can see why the NDP isn't quite socialist enough for their taste. In his day, even Jack Layton was dinged by different splinters about supporting the troops TOO much.

 

[Jarnhamar]

[quote author=stellarpanther]  I also think it's stupid for anyone to waste their vote on the Bloc or Greens or any of those other parties that don't have a change in hell to win.
[/quote]

It seems what you're really saying is you think it's stupid for someone to vote for anyone other than the Liberals.

 

[brihard]

I don't understand why this thing is as close as it seems.  Four years ago people couldn't stand the CPC and Harper and all ran to the Liberals.  Now it's neck and neck with the Liberals and Harper 2.0.  What's wrong with voters?  They don't seem to know what the hell they want.  I also think it's stupid for anyone to waste their vote on the Bloc or Greens or any of those other parties that don't have a change in hell to win.

I think nobody expected both of the two main contenders to suck this profoundly.

Recognize that with regards to the Bloc, Quebecers don’t see their votes as at all wasted. The Bloc puts a potentially significant number of MPs in the House of Commons. Conceivably they could offer a balance of power. That allows the province to punch well above its weight of seat counts align. The Bloc could extract considerable concessions for propping up a minority.

With current seat projections, we face a very real possibility of either a Liberal or Conservative minority, where either the Bloc or the NDP could each potentially hold enough seats to prop up the minority.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Looks like Trudeau was wearing a bullet proof vest at a campaign stop in Mississauga (no one told him how safe it really is).

Sounds like PMO staffers (allegedly) told the RCMP what to bring, what to wear and how to wear it.
Guess they wanted to ramp up some kind of narrative, wonder what that could be.

RCMP source says ‘security risk’ against Trudeau was contrived by PMO staffers

A retired officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who remains in frequent communication with senior figures inside the federal agency, is telling The Chronicle that the widely publicized ‘security threat’ against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday night in Mississauga was “largely contrived by political staffers” inside the PMO.

Hoping to elicit sympathy in the national political discourse, senior PMO staffers actively instructed the RCMP on which equipment and weaponry to have present, which uniforms protective officers would wear, and which security precautions would be taken at the private invitation-only Liberal Party event.

https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/10/15/rcmp-source-says-security-risk-against-trudeau-was-contrived-by-pmo-staffers/

 

[mariomike]

https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/10/15/rcmp-source-says-security-risk-against-trudeau-was-contrived-by-pmo-staffers/

Regarding the source. Media Bias / Fact Check had this to say,
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-buffalo-chronicle/

 

[The Bread Guy]

https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/10/15/rcmp-source-says-security-risk-against-trudeau-was-contrived-by-pmo-staffers/

Have we seen the injunction against the Globe & Mail the Buffalo Chronicle helped spread the word about earlier in the election cycle?  I'll wait ...  Meanwhile, while titillating, I'll wait for something firmer to confirm.