Canadian Election

[slow]

FYI, we are having our federal election today with no obvious good choice of platform or leader. Sound familiar?

We will probably end up with another minority government and can look forward to another multimillion dollar election two years from now, (third in a row). What a waste of money.

[mahatma]

Slow,

You know, as an American I believe we all owe Canada a great thanks. A dear friend of mine is Canadian and he told me years ago that in Canada individually wrapped cheese products are call Canadian Cheese. Of course, in American it's called American Cheese. It's a true friend that shoulders part of the shame for a neighbor. Can't thank you guys enough for that one.

[mahatma]

As for politics - well, I try to forgive them. After all, they're politicians. It can't be easy waking up day after miserable day and lying to everyone you meet.

[slow]

How true. :D

[darobbert]

that sucks about canada...=[

sorry to hear it...

politics in america, i was so ridiculously undecidedly independent until late august.

Sarah Palin.

She killed the McCain campaign in my eyes, with her constant hate speeches, labeling obama as a terrorist, and using scare tactics to get votes...and so many people actually think obama is a muslim. I dont know, personally, im an idealist, so i really am bothered by poitics recently in general. As cynical as that sounds, like everyday i wake up and see more and more of people downtalking john mccain for having cancer, saying he cant lead, which is wrong, and people labeling obama as a terorist, also wrong.
At the end of it all, what does it get us? friends divided over political views...mudslinging over such ridiculous ideas like obama being a terrorist, or mccain being too old to do the job. And what do we lose, talk over real issues, ive watched many rallies and many debates, and i still never hear as much talk about issues as i do about pointless "he said this" "he did this", bringing up 40 year old claims about obama being a terrorist, and saying McCain wont live long enough to make it...

And i see the effects, ignorance, people shouting "terrorist" and "kill him" and "hes an arab" at mccain and palin rallies, what kind of election is that?

i sort of went on a tangent here, but politics is a topic that has been bugging me for awhile now.

[mahatma]

Darobbert,

You are right. 100%. Now, what do you think those people (politicians and their teams) think of us when that's their focus. You don't find that incredibly insulting? The issues don't matter. Age, gender, religion, skin color. These matter. I suppose one could reasonably argue that health matters but if a person is healthy enough to survive the vetting process I'd say they're healthy enough to run the country. Age can come into play as Reagan unfortunately proved but it's less of an issue than even health is. I personally could care less about the other things. Regardless, the way I see it is everyone is dirty. No one is clean in this process. But, for whatever reasons the Republicans had 8 years to fill their agenda and didn't have the strength to pull it off. Just that simple. So, I guess it's time for a change. That doesn't mean I agree with the Democratic platform I'm just saying the Republicans didn't accomplish anything good so that means time to give some other dirtbag a chance.

[darobbert]

i completely agree, i dont like everything obama stands for, and i know hes done just as much mud-slinging as mccain and palin, but its time for a fresh start. I guess politics when you really look at it is cynical by nature, always having to decide between the lesser of two evils. And im not going to necessarily place the blame on the candidates. They cant take full responsibility for being in a broken system. They need to play the game that way to advance. So this being part of it, by the time they get to sparring for the presidency, theyre already so corrupted by way of getting there that they keep it up to win.
bottom line, politics is ugly, and i personally think pure, uncorrupted socialism would be the best option, but thats so idealic that its unrealistic, so from 2012 onward i fear ill be forced to pick the lesser of two evils, again and again...

[mahatma]

Well, whatever word people give things to bottle a way of thinking/acting is just a word. I'm not arguing either way. We as Americans need to get down to the business of holding ourselves to a higher standard. That's what's wrong. The standards of human, social and moral conduct have evaporated. It has come time to stand tall as individuals. Our systems have degenerated to the point recovery will take generations. History will view these as dark times.

[slow]

BTW: We will have another minority government in Canada, actually the same one we had prior to today's election. The positive potential outcome is that the main opposition leader will probably have to step down and then there may be a real alternative going forward.

Hope things all work out in the US election. It affects us north of the border more than you may realize. (Most Canadian know more about the US election than their own!)

[mahatma]

Slow,

I must admit great ignorance towards Canadian Politics. You speak of minority and therefore fair to assume majority parties. Do these parties represent way of thinking in the sense that say the minority party is always progressive or conservative or are they a matter of raw numbers. More people of a certain thinking hold seats so now they are the "Majority Party"?

[Roussel]

total waste of money...

we use a parliamentary representative system, there are 310 or so seats in the country, a Majority government controls more than half of those seats, minority less than half. we also have 4 major political parties which makes winning half of the seats much harder


its a shame this election was even called, i dont see what other outcome could have happened. conservatives where close to getting the majority, only because liberals lost votes to the green party and NDP. the left is divided in 4 parties if you count the bloc.

I must admit tho harper has done a good job in uniting the right, maybe this needs to happen to the left also?

the real shift over the last decade or so is the liberals losing the middle-income-suburban ridings slowly but constantly to conservatives, which have become stronger because of the merger of the right-winged parties.

in my opinion, jack layton ran the best campaign, its a pity no one opens up to the NDP tho.

[slow]

$300,000,000 for more of the same. No party is much better off than before.

Roussel, good job on explaining our 5 dominate political parties.

Just to add, we vote for a local candidate that represents one of the various political parties. The political party with the most elected candidates (in this case the right wing Conservative party) is invited to form the next government with the party's leader becoming the Prime Minister.

[DennisEvans]

I am going to spam this thread real fast


NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER NADER

[Roussel]

$300,000,000 for more of the same. No party is much better off than before.

Roussel, good job on explaining our 5 dominate political parties.

Just to add, we vote for a local candidate that represents one of the various political parties. The political party with the most elected candidates (in this case the right wing Conservative party) is invited to form the next government with the party's leader becoming the Prime Minister.

i was looking for obama on the ballot but didnt see him :P hahaha

[DennisEvans]

haha

[mahatma]

Hey guys, thanks for the 10 second ticker on Canadian politics. 5 parties. Wow. We can't handle 2 major parties with a sort of non-existent but there none the less Independent party. I think those are referred to as "swing voters" as no one from that party ever actually wins anything but the numbers are enough that the major parties have to cater to them to a degree. It makes things cute.

[Kaiu]

haha last time there was an ndp government we got into major debt @@


Unfortunately this year I don't support the Conservatives or the Liberals @_@, but my riding has been Liberal for I dunno, since I was born, so there goes my useless vote lol.....

[Roussel]

haha last time there was an ndp government we got into major debt @@


Unfortunately this year I don't support the Conservatives or the Liberals @_@, but my riding has been Liberal for I dunno, since I was born, so there goes my useless vote lol.....

we've never had a NDP government... closest was in '88 with 43 seats, which isnt even official opposition.

[mahatma]

Oh boy. Wait, wait. Let me get some popcorn. Don't want to miss this. OK, I'm back. Let the games begin.

[Greco]

you guys made the "news"


<embed FlashVars='videoId=188573' src='http://www.thedailyshow.com/sitewide/video_player/view/default/swf.jhtml' quality='high' bgcolor='#cccccc' width='332' height='316' name='comedy_central_player' align='middle' allowScriptAccess='always' allownetworking='external' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed>

[slow]

:D

Thanks for the laugh G.

[DennisEvans]

appearently I am, quote, gay, unquote, because I am voting for nader? That is slightly offensive to me but the rest was incredibly funny.

[Roussel]

i cant play that video... because im in canada haha, no joke.

[mahatma]

Hmm, Japan must be big into Canadian politics. I can't play it either.

[slow]

Navagate into the site and find the video and play it from there.

[It must be a test of Canadian internet use knowledge. Are you up to the challenge?]

[Roussel]

i had to go onto the Comedy channel (comedy central's canadian channel) to be able to play it.

[mahatma]

OK, seen it. In my case it was a matter of Adobe Flash player not integrating into 64 bit browser. (Adobe - please wake up and smell the architecture). A vote of 7 to 4. Very cute.