Canadian Election

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:21 am

Yep - a thrill for all, especially Americans.

But it promises to be an entertaining event, a true three way race.

The election will most likely be called on Sunday and for Canada it will be a remarkably long campaign of 11 weeks.

Here's a message from the ruling Conservative Party.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:31 am

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:34 am

Now, now. The Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on many occasions.

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:38 am

Pruitt wrote:

I momentarily thought the guy on the lower left was Don Cherry but then my hopes were dashed.

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:45 am

BSF21 wrote:

I'm just gonna wait for the robot vote to come in.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:09 am

I'm fascinated how Alberta will vote Federally. We just voted in an NDP government provincially. The Feds just gave Calgary 1.5 billion to build a new LRT line. Conservatives buying votes in Calgary? They are scared for the first time ever.

I think the popular vote will pretty much be 30-30-30 but how will that translate into seats?

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:08 am

degenerasian wrote:I'm fascinated how Alberta will vote Federally. We just voted in an NDP government provincially. The Feds just gave Calgary 1.5 billion to build a new LRT line. Conservatives buying votes in Calgary? They are scared for the first time ever.

I think the popular vote will pretty much be 30-30-30 but how will that translate into seats?

Not sure.

Can a Trudeau get more than 8 votes in Alberta? And Harper (despite being from Toronto) is a native son. No way the NDP holds on to their seats in Quebec.

And if Trudeau appears in one picture with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, votes will be lost hereabouts.

I'm calling (early prediction) a slim, slim Conservative minority.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:11 am

I'm calling for a large Liberal Minority (close to Majority). I think Trudeau takes Quebec and Ontario. Ontario only voted Conservative last time because they were scared of the Layton wave.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:31 am

degenerasian wrote:I'm calling for a large Liberal Minority (close to Majority). I think Trudeau takes Quebec and Ontario. Ontario only voted Conservative last time because they were scared of the Layton wave.

You may be right.

Quebec is the wild card (as always). Once momentum starts in La Bell Province, it becomes irreversible.

And as I type this, I think of all the material that the Liberals and NDP have been given by the COnservatives just in the past 2 years or so.

I want to change my prediction!

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:45 am

And this is my local MP.

Nailed on breach of ethics a couple of years into his first term...

Postmedia News reported this week that Adler sold $400 tickets to a February 2013 fundraiser to about 30 lobbyists, including many with whom he held official meetings connected to his work on the finance committee.

Sleazy right?

My riding is maybe 30% Jewish and 25% Italian with large numbers of people of Philipino, Korean and Chinese background.

He plays up the multicultural aspect, but his bread is buttered by the Jewish vote.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-ad ... -1.2505212

Guy traveled with Harper (who is beloved by Canada's Jews) to Israel last year. And was caught being really sleazy at the Western Wall (a VERY holy spot for Jews).

Adler was caught on microphone asking Jeremy Hunt, one of Harper's staffers, whether he could get a photo with Harper in front of the wall, a holy site for Jewish prayer.

"Jeremy, Jeremy," Adler said. "Can we get in?

"No," Hunt replied.

Adler was undeterred.

"This, it's the re-election. This is the million-dollar shot," Adler said.

Didn't get the picture.

To me, this is as sleazy as politics get, begging for a photo op at a religious site. But unless the Liberal party runs another start candidate here (former MP was Hockey Hall of Famer Ken Dryden), Adler will run away with the vote.

HaulCitgo · Post by **HaulCitgo** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:05 pm

Not very sleezy. I'm pretty sure I'd whore myself out at the local church were I to become so desperate as to seek political office.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:37 am

Something more civil? The Canadian Leader's Debate last night. I thought it was excellent.

Curious what neutrals (you guys) think. And it's not really 3 hours long, it's 2 hours + talking heads.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:51 am

Since there were only four people talking, they actually got the chance to explain their positions.

I was working, but could hear my wife yelling from the other room. Went in to check and found her in a profane tirade against Elizabeth May. Talk about a visceral hatred - and my wife rarely swears.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:53 am

May is so irrelevant but she got in some good shots. Wish Duceppe was there. He's awesome in English debate because he doesn't give a fuck.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:00 am

degenerasian wrote:May is so irrelevant but she got in some good shots. Wish Duceppe was there. He's awesome in English debate because he doesn't give a fuck.

I noticed that May was wearing a crucifix. She may have alienated the two Orthodox Jews who vote Green!

travzilla · Post by **travzilla** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:01 am

degenerasian wrote:May is so irrelevant but she got in some good shots. Wish Duceppe was there. He's awesome in English debate because he doesn't give a fuck.

Green Party's irrelevance is kind of a plus for having May in the debate, as she can at least articulately bring up topics the other parties would all like to avoid, and she really has nothing to lose. If all I knew of her was how she came across in debates, I would like her. (Alas, she's a bit of a wacko in real life I think).

I was pretty impressed with the debate overall. Very few instances of people talking over people. Almost no crazy hyperbolic analogies and non-speak. I was actually surprised by the amount of details thrown out (at least compared to the US version).

Trudeau looked like he was going to nail his closing remarks, then it just got really corny, then became a huge joke.

Harper did ok defensively, but didn't have as strong of comebacks for some of the obvious critiques as I thought he would have had.

travzilla · Post by **travzilla** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:10 am

Here is the Canadian fivethirtyeight knockoff for anyone who wants to follow the polling aggregates.

Although Canadian election predicting is much more difficult than the US due to fewer polls in general, and specifically very little individual riding polls.

Current projects (as of Aug 2)

NDP 33% - 127 seats projected
Conservatives 31% - 127 seats projected
Liberals 26% - 82 seats projected
Greens and Bloc Quebecois - each 5% and 1 seat

170 seats needed to form a majority government.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:12 am

Ii think that part of the reason for the lack of yelling is because Canadians have few issues that they feel so strongly about.

Abortion? Nope.

Guns? Vast majority are fine with laws the way they are.

Socialism? We've all lived with socialist programs for all of our lives. They may be expensive, but the world still spins.

Nice to live in a milquetoast country - at least during elections.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:16 am

travzilla wrote:Here is the Canadian fivethirtyeight knockoff for anyone who wants to follow the polling aggregates.

Although Canadian election predicting is much more difficult than the US due to fewer polls in general, and specifically very little individual riding polls.

Current projects (as of Aug 2)

NDP 33% - 127 seats projected
Conservatives 31% - 127 seats projected
Liberals 26% - 82 seats projected
Greens and Bloc Quebecois - each 5% and 1 seat

I could happily live with a minority government.

The wild card - as always - is Quebec. In my voting lifetime (30 years), I have seen that province go from electing Liberals in EVERY riding (and even remember an election where the joke Rhino party finished ahead of the Conservatives and NDP in many ridings), to electing Conservatives in all but a handful of ridings, to electing a regional party (Bloc Quebecois) in the vast majority of ridings, to being a majority NDP province. Trudeau catches fire in that province, who knows what could happen.

Should point out to Americans that the NDP ("New Democratic Party") is a socialist party that was formerly propped up by unions. The Liberals are centrist for Canada (or as they'd be called in the States - "socialists") and the Conservatives are further to the right than they have been in the past. But Stephen Harper would be well to the left of everyone on the stage in Cleveland last night.

travzilla · Post by **travzilla** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:16 am

Pruitt wrote:Ii think that part of the reason for the lack of yelling is because Canadians have few issues that they feel so strongly about.

Abortion? Nope.

Guns? Vast majority are fine with laws the way they are.

Socialism? We've all lived with socialist programs for all of our lives. They may be expensive, but the world still spins.

Nice to live in a milquetoast country - at least during elections.

That is true. I'm not really a fan of the Conservatives but I certainly don't feel like they're doing any real harm to the country, nor would they if they won again this fall. It's basically a matter of marginal differences on fundamental issues and it seems to be relatively civil and also relatively unimportant who wins, which I guess is not a bad place for the country to be.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:24 am

travzilla wrote:
Pruitt wrote:Ii think that part of the reason for the lack of yelling is because Canadians have few issues that they feel so strongly about.

Abortion? Nope.

Guns? Vast majority are fine with laws the way they are.

Socialism? We've all lived with socialist programs for all of our lives. They may be expensive, but the world still spins.

Nice to live in a milquetoast country - at least during elections.
That is true. I'm not really a fan of the Conservatives but I certainly don't feel like they're doing any real harm to the country, nor would they if they won again this fall. It's basically a matter of marginal differences on fundamental issues and it seems to be relatively civil and also relatively unimportant who wins, which I guess is not a bad place for the country to be.

It's Bill c-51 that divides as it would give the government a lot of powers of surveillance.

But I get so frustrated with people (and I see this on Facebook constantly) who equate Harper with people like Ted Cruz. A result of the prevalence of American media up here as well as the social media driven need to make extreme comments. Harper has been in power for close to a decade, and neither abortion rights, capital punishment, socialized medicine nor our liberal immigration laws have never been under threat.

Personally, I am not sure who I will vote for, as my choices change from election to election. But my local MP is sleazy as all hell (see above), and now has a three storey tall banner up on the side of a building in the neighbourhood where the second of his five bullet points is "Son of a Holocaust survivor." That is immaterial and offensive.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:30 am

A serious and big question for you Canadians. Do you think your federal government represents the will of and the best interests of the people? And has this materially changed in recent decades?

(In contrast to some other countries I won't bother to name or describe right now.)

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:49 am

Yes, mostly because of the allocation of money. A simple way to answer that question would be to watch the debate and see which issues would affect you directly.

Because the federal government controls Pensions and Old Age, that allocation of that money is important for retirees. Raising the retirement age from 65 to 67 was a big bill the current government passed last year. The left will argue that people who can no longer work will not get money until 67 and those are work until 67 delays young people entering the workforce two years.
The NDP is proposing a $15 minimum wage and $15/day national daycares. Is that a big deal or will the provinces fight it?

Obviously going to war and protecting citizens is federal jurisdiction which makes Bill C-51 (mentioned above) a talking point. Then there is taxes, allocation of money to the provinces which funnels down to the cities.

As Pruitt said, there aren't major issues in Canada but I think there are more differences in this election then in previous. We have a clear left, right and middle.

travzilla · Post by **travzilla** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:52 am

howard wrote:A serious and big question for you Canadians. Do you think your federal government represents the will of and the best interests of the people? And has this materially changed in recent decades?

(In contrast to some other countries I won't bother to name or describe right now.)

In terms of representation, one of the Liberals key platform points is getting rid of first-past-the-post in place of an unspecified form of representative democracy. In a 3+ party system there are definitely times when a significant portion of votes went unrepresented in parliament (the NDP would get about 15-20% of the national vote but it only translated into about 6% of the seats).

In my opinion the parliamentary system, even as it is now, does a pretty decent job of representing the country as a whole. A single riding is certainly a much smaller constituency compared to an entire state (electoral votes or senator), so there isn't too much unrepresentative-ness.

The only thing people really complain about is vote splitting, but even that has gone both ways just in my life time, and I think the Liberals and NDP are different enough that you can't really just say they're splitting the left vote.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:37 am

travzilla wrote:
howard wrote:A serious and big question for you Canadians. Do you think your federal government represents the will of and the best interests of the people? And has this materially changed in recent decades?

(In contrast to some other countries I won't bother to name or describe right now.)
In terms of representation, one of the Liberals key platform points is getting rid of first-past-the-post in place of an unspecified form of representative democracy. In a 3+ party system there are definitely times when a significant portion of votes went unrepresented in parliament (the NDP would get about 15-20% of the national vote but it only translated into about 6% of the seats).

In my opinion the parliamentary system, even as it is now, does a pretty decent job of representing the country as a whole. A single riding is certainly a much smaller constituency compared to an entire state (electoral votes or senator), so there isn't too much unrepresentative-ness.

The only thing people really complain about is vote splitting, but even that has gone both ways just in my life time, and I think the Liberals and NDP are different enough that you can't really just say they're splitting the left vote.

Good points here and above.

The government still does a pretty good job of representing the people - huge reason is the lack of money that is thrown around. There are no Kochs here, no billionaires buying candidates. It's more of a traditional thing whereby the parties in power will do anything to cling to power mainly for the sake of their own power. There are certainly interest groups that influence policy, but I never get the feeling that on a basic level, good of the people and the will of the majority is being subsumed by lobbyists and fundraisers.

And while the current government is certainly more secretive and has a (rare for Canada) adversarial relationship with the media, it isn't radically different than the previous government in terms of economic policies. Maybe a bit more into sabre rattling, but realistically, we don't pose a military threat to any country other than those like, say, Jamaica.

And I really think - and have said this before - a major reason is that there are more than two parties that can and do shape policy. Keeps things much more consensus based. Often the provincial versions of the parties are at odds with the federal versions. And there simply aren't parties at the local level. This keeps it from becoming a vertical monopoly.

In my life, I have voted for each of the three major parties based upon candidates as welll as the kind of job that the incumbents have been doing. Being in my middle years, I am not susceptible to "sky is falling"rhetoric. And rhetoric like that still doesn't go over well here. This is what made the Rob Ford years such an anomaly (ignoring all the other garbage). He cast himself as a populist, a regular guy fighting the tax-sucking socialists at city hall. Doing anything to protect Joe Citizen's tax dollars. When Rob Ford got sick, his brother (the smarter, more sober version) ran on a more clearly focussed campaign based on that simplistic message. And he lost.

Not only that, but he floated a trial balloon to see if he could get enough support to run for the leadership of the Ontario Conservative party against three relative unknowns. He certainly had more name recognition than the other candidates. The response from the party was lukewarm and he decided against it. Instead throwing his support behind the woman who was at the time leading in the polls. She ended up with 38% of the support of party members in what was ultimately a two candidate race. The budding Ford dynasty in Ontario politics has thus ended. We don't do one note populism up here.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 11:50 am

A war between Canada and Jamaica (over Ben Johnson?) would be entertaining.

Thanks for the thoughtful answers, guys.

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 5:46 am

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 8:39 am

While I was away from home, my local MP got some national attention for a huge sign he has hanging at a major intersection near my house.

Outrage that he was capitalizing on his parent's misery and people across the country wondering how being the son of survivors made him qualified to sit in Parliament.

He has a defence... he was just so proud to be the first such person ever elected that he felt he had the right to highlight this fact.

Adler’s claim, contained in the second sentence of his online biography – originally posted on his official website and repeated on his campaign site – is that he is “the first child of a Holocaust survivor to ever be elected as an MP.”

Only he isn't.

But the distinction apparently belongs to Raymonde Folco, who served as a Montreal-area Liberal MP from 1997 to 2011.

Folco was born Raymonde Goldgrav in Paris in 1940, two months before the Germans entered the city. She was hidden by two Christian families outside the capital during the Nazi occupation.

Her father escaped from an Auschwitz-bound transport, and he and her mother later fought in the French Resistance. Both her parents survived the war by several decades.

Oh... well perhaps the community still feels pride in his accomplishments?

In an email to The CJN, Folco said she found it “disgusting” for Adler “to use the Holocaust in this way, for personal ends.” She later told The CJN that as an MP, she never publicized her status as a child of Holocaust survivors, while Adler is “profiting” from it.

Still, I got home from my maritime jaunt to see the streets around my house covered in his signs.

http://www.cjnews.com/canada/mark-adler ... -survivors

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 12:05 pm

Newpoll numbers (8 weeks to go)

NDP 37.4% (+3.6)
CPC 28.1% (-1.1)
LIB 25.9% (-1.6)
GRN 3.8% (-0.9)
BQ 3.7% (-0.2)

I don't think the conservatives can win this any longer, they are too far to the right. They can't take votes away from the leader, maybe take votes away from the Liberals? That's tough.

Liberals actually have a better chance at winning cause they are in direct competition with the NDPs. Could it happen? Unlikely.

So it looks like I'll have an NDP government both Provincial and Federal. Should I just give my money away now?

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:46 pm

Too early to be definitive, but the Conservatives are running a horrible campaign. High handedly limiting media access to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minster staying mum during an escalating economic crisis - except for select speeches at Bay Street Clubs (ie - "Canada's Wall Street").

The Conservatives are forcing reporters to submit questions in advance and have publicly announced that certain respected members of the press will not be given the opportunity to question the Prime Minister.

Justin Trudeau lacks his father's charisma and speaking skills, and embracing Kathleen Wynne (literally and otherwise) will kill him on parts of Ontario. This is beginning to smell like an NDP minority government, but the campaign has barely started...

Post by **brian** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:48 pm

Not sure why it always seems like conservatives are in power in Canada when Democrats are in power in the U.S. and vice versa (liberals vs. Republicans). Or if that's just my imagination.

(And with the caveat that I'm well aware your conservatives are nothing like ours. So Harper and Obama are probably pretty similar in a lot of their politics.)

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 4:01 pm

brian wrote:Not sure why it always seems like conservatives are in power in Canada when Democrats are in power in the U.S. and vice versa (liberals vs. Republicans). Or if that's just my imagination.

(And with the caveat that I'm well aware your conservatives are nothing like ours. So Harper and Obama are probably pretty similar in a lot of their politics.)

The previous Liberal administration had been in power for the previous 13 years. It was a stale group that was immeshed in a sleazy scandal, and the time was just ripe for the Conservative Party to win. Which they barely did in 2006, winning a minority government.
Two years later, they won a bigger minority with the Liberals running this guy as their leader:

I urge you to watch this, it is beyond belief.

And he was gracious in defeat as well:

The Conservatives won their majority in 2011 as the Liberals ran another unappealing, but more coherent leader, but imploded before and during the campaign. Huge gains by the further left leaning NDP who had a charismatic and intelligent man at the helm.

Which set the stage for this campaign with the NDP siphoning off traditional Liberal support in places like Alberta and Southern Ontario. It really should be an exciting campaign as it heats up.

(Just a note - the NDP has never led the country, but has ben in power in a number of provinces)

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:42 pm

Can you imagine if Jack Layton was running this campaign? He might have won 300 seats!

Brian: just recently

From 84-92 was Republican and Conservative
93-00 was Democrat and Liberal

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 11:26 am

Pruitt wrote:Too early to be definitive, but the Conservatives are running a horrible campaign. High handedly limiting media access to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minster staying mum during an escalating economic crisis - except for select speeches at Bay Street Clubs (ie - "Canada's Wall Street").

The Conservatives are forcing reporters to submit questions in advance and have publicly announced that certain respected members of the press will not be given the opportunity to question the Prime Minister.

Justin Trudeau lacks his father's charisma and speaking skills, and embracing Kathleen Wynne (literally and otherwise) will kill him on parts of Ontario. This is beginning to smell like an NDP minority government, but the campaign has barely started...

Trudeau just drew a line in the sand. He's going with the Wynne model of running deficits at least until 2019 so that Canadians can get important stuff, like factories and infrastructure.

That's the question now in Ontario. Harper will argue that voting Liberal will basically voting Kathleen Wynne into Ottawa. Trudeau will argue that Wynne has done well for Ontario with her recent majority win.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:19 pm

degenerasian wrote:
Pruitt wrote:Too early to be definitive, but the Conservatives are running a horrible campaign. High handedly limiting media access to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minster staying mum during an escalating economic crisis - except for select speeches at Bay Street Clubs (ie - "Canada's Wall Street").

The Conservatives are forcing reporters to submit questions in advance and have publicly announced that certain respected members of the press will not be given the opportunity to question the Prime Minister.

Justin Trudeau lacks his father's charisma and speaking skills, and embracing Kathleen Wynne (literally and otherwise) will kill him on parts of Ontario. This is beginning to smell like an NDP minority government, but the campaign has barely started...
Trudeau just drew a line in the sand. He's going with the Wynne model of running deficits at least until 2019 so that Canadians can get important stuff, like factories and infrastructure.

That's the question now in Ontario. Harper will argue that voting Liberal will basically voting Kathleen Wynne into Ottawa. Trudeau will argue that Wynne has done well for Ontario with her recent majority win.

And he will lose the election because of it.

NO ONE in this province likes Wynne, she was merely the least awful choice for many Ontarians in the last election - the holdover of a corrupt, incompetent administration who is now acting like she is FDR in the 30s.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/05/04/ne ... mbers-drop

Premier Wynne has the approval of fewer than three in 10 voters (29%), down from a third last month (33%)," said a statement issued by the polling firm. "Her net favourable score (the people who approve of her minus the number who disapprove of the premier) is a dismal minus 30--down from minus 20 last month."

If an election were held now, 36% of voters would support the Progressive Conservatives, 29% would cast ballots for the Liberals, 24% would back the NDP. Another 9% would vote for the Green Party.

Forum Research said this level of support would yield a minority PC government.

And this was when the PCs were without a leader.

She has announced that she will run deficits after campaigning in denial that this would happen. And what factories are being built by a broke provincial government that has shepherded Ontario into official "have not" province status? Honestly, Trudeau is getting some absolutely horrible advice and the Liberals are in danger of handing over a lot of ridings to the NDP.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:38 pm

Union Station renovations!

Trudeau continues to play the middle saying Harper will give you nothing to balance the budget and Mulcair will tax you do death to balance the budget. Is balancing the budget the be all and end all is his argument.

Hes playing the honest politician role casting the others as snakes. Bit of a hail mary if you ask me.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:24 pm

degenerasian wrote:Union Station renovations!

Trudeau continues to play the middle saying Harper will give you nothing to balance the budget and Mulcair will tax you do death to balance the budget. Is balancing the budget the be all and end all is his argument.

Hes playing the honest politician role casting the others as snakes. Bit of a hail mary if you ask me.

A unique stance for a Liberal!

And those Union Station renovations - 25% over budget (estimated $800 million and counting) and due to be completed two years late.

And why should no sane person believe a government cost estimate (at least in Canada)?

From the Globe and Mail:

The report also says that when the project’s original budget of $640-million was approved in 2009, detailed drawings and technical information were not yet available.

So what was the budget based on?

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 8:19 am

I don't think I've ever been this disgusted with a politician and his party.

Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration was on a national news show to discuss the European refugee crisis and Canada's feeble response to it. Earlier in the day it was revealed that an opposition MP had petitioned the minister (Chris Alexander) personally on behalf of the family that was seen washed up dead on a beach (I can't in good conscience post the pictures as they are too upsetting). Denial, denial, denial and then this ham fisted attempt at spin where the minister blames the host of the show for not having any episodes devoted to the crisis. (For the record, last night's show was the 32nd episode that this particular news show dedicated to the crisis.

This sadly is what our ruling party has resorted to - blaming the media, substituting ridiculous spin for truth, avoiding all levels of accountability (we were told by the Prime Minister that despite all economic indicators showing that Canada is in a recession, things are actually going well!)

Disgusting.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chris-a ... -1.3213514

With a highlight here:

"Mr. Alexander, that is completely false." A political epitaph, and a quote that will haunt the Conservatives for the remainder of the campaign.

The Minister has suspended his campaign in order to "focus on the migrant crisis."

This party is doomed, and they only have themselves to blame.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:59 am

It's pretty crazy how this government cannot handle a refugee crisis situation and has to lie about it.

The actual crisis isn't much different from the 1979 Vietnamese Boat people crisis and how lucky we Vietnamese were that countries like Canada welcomed us.

The short lived and forgettable Joe Clark government in 1979 was the one who opened Canada's doors allowing more than 60,000 Vietnamese into Canada. External Affairs minister at the time Flora MacDonald is a famous name for Canadian-Vietnamese people. She died last month.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 10:10 am

degenerasian wrote:It's pretty crazy how this government cannot handle a refugee crisis situation and has to lie about it.

The actual crisis isn't much different from the 1979 Vietnamese Boat people crisis and how lucky we Vietnamese were that countries like Canada welcomed us.

The short lived and forgettable Joe Clark government in 1979 was the one who opened Canada's doors allowing more than 60,000 Vietnamese into Canada. External Affairs minister at the time Flora MacDonald is a famous name for Canadian-Vietnamese people. She died last month.

Mulroney too was very welcoming to immigrants and refugees.

Hell, I would guess that half of all Canadians are no more than third generation Canadians. Fairly open doors is the Canadian way. But it's not just the policies or lack of that angers me. What disgusts me is the slimy lack of accountability. Nothing is ever their fault. They may have been in power for 9 years, but don't even infer that these assholes are accountable for anything that is going on. And blaming the media? Canada's big media outlets live up to the stereotype that people have of us - polite and dedicated to not offending. So to infer that one of the reasons that a 4 year old Turkish boy was found washed up on a beach is because a political interview show had not brought the migrant crisis to the attention of people is as ridiculous as it is repulsive.

I was undecided until this morning. I am going to call my local Liberal candidate's office to get a sign put on my lawn. (NDP are no hopers in my riding).