Canada General Discussion: Trudeau II

[DC Al Fine]

Peter Stoffer has found a new job

[DC Al Fine]

A quack was appointed to the Senate advisory board.

Even leaving out the people who believe in the literal word of the Bible for which there is zero evidence for, according to studies virtually every single person believes at least a few weird things.

Just because this woman is more open about her views does not necessarily make her any stranger than anybody else and should not be an automatic disqualification.

If right wingers can be criticized for harbouring creationists, it is perfectly reasonable to pick on lefties for harbouring hippy dippy types.

[DC Al Fine]

Denis Coderre: First of all, you have to allow me a moment to laugh at a guy like Brian Jean, when he says he relies on science. These are probably the same people who think the Flintstones is a documentary..

Since when did Coderre hire Warren Kinsella as an adviser?

Jean: I'm not going to take environmental lessons from a mayor that will release eight billion litres of raw sewage into the river right in front of his community

[DC Al Fine]

A quack was appointed to the Senate advisory board.

Even leaving out the people who believe in the literal word of the Bible for which there is zero evidence for, according to studies virtually every single person believes at least a few weird things.

Just because this woman is more open about her views does not necessarily make her any stranger than anybody else and should not be an automatic disqualification.

If right wingers can be criticized for harbouring creationists, it is perfectly reasonable to pick on lefties for harbouring hippy dippy types.

1.In any federal election there are always a fair number of Conservatives candidates with publicly stated religious views and I've never heard anybody say they shouldn't be allowed to run if some of those might be odd.

2.I never heard any demands on Stephen Harper to resign as Conservative leader when he signed a party fundraising letter (or more likely an automatic pen signed his name to it, but he's still responsible for it) that called Kyoto 'a socialist scheme.'

3.Most people refer to them as 'new agers' not 'hippy dippy types.'  I don't care for 'new age' thinking myself, but I tend to find that most people who hold these views are no more or less rational than anybody else on other things.  So, just because she has odd views in these areas does not automatically prove she is unable to choose people who would make capable senators as per Justin Trudeau's definition of 'capable.'

Also, unlike an M.P who vote on issues where their beliefs that the earth is 6,000 years old or something may influence their votes, I fail to see how this woman's 'new age' beliefs could effect her very limited role of helping to choose 'capable non partisan upstanding Canadians' as senators.

You're missing the point and reading far too much into my comment Adam.

[DC Al Fine]

In other news Peter MacKay has taken a job with a Bay street law firm.

[DC Al Fine]

Gary Burrill has been elected Nova Scotia NDP leader. Bit of a throwback pick since he's a hardline socialist from the religious left.

[DC Al Fine]

Quebec's unemployment rate is lower than Alberta's for the first time in 30 years. Halifax is a solid 1.5% below Calgary. No schadenfreude for me though as my brother in law was just laid off there

[DC Al Fine]

Quebec's unemployment rate is lower than Alberta's for the first time in 30 years. Halifax is a solid 1.5% below Calgary. No schadenfreude for me though as my brother in law was just laid off there

Isn't Halifax a fairly wealthy city?

Yes. We certainly aren't as well off as the oil producing parts of the country, but its definitely easier to achieve a middle class lifestyle than in Toronto or Vancouver. Household incomes are comparable to Toronto or Vancouver, but you can buy a detached house 20 minutes from downtown for 250k.

[DC Al Fine]

Ontario will be experimenting with a guaranteed minimum income. Feds might too.

That's awesome!

As with the Ontario Liberals' pension reforms, the devil is in the details... I like the idea but I'm not confident that Wynne will execute it well.

[DC Al Fine]

Can anyone give me a quick summary of what Trudeau has actually done since become Prime Minister, and what his big proposals are?

Stuff he's done
1) Cut taxes in the 45-90k bracket, raise taxes for people making over 200k

2) Inquiries into the high death and disappearance rates of aboriginal women

To come
3) Consolidating several child benefits into one program. Removing the universal element and making the whole thing income based.

4) Legalizing marijuana

Long term goals
5) Changing the electoral system from FPTP to IRV

6) Expanding the Canada Pension Plan

Other posters feel free to chime in.

[DC Al Fine]

Has Bieber's war on FPTP sunk down to provinical level yet?

Not really, no. Actually things are worse than a few years ago when a few provinces put on (failed) electoral reform referendums.

[DC Al Fine]

OAS eligibility age will be reset to 65.

One of the most fiscally ridiculous and regressive actions of the Liberals to date. Younger seniors as a group are one of the wealthiest demographics in the country. Fixing a retirement system under strain in large part due to low birth rates by transferring funds from folks in their childbearing years is just silly.

The correct solution IMO (and I said this when Harper was in power as well) is to reduce the clawback threshold on OAS. I have clients with household incomes around $100k who still receive their full pension. Such folks do not need income top ups.

[DC Al Fine]

For the record, I am divided about getting rid of Mulcair. On paper he should go, but who replaces him?

If I was in the NDP, I would vote to keep him.

Mulcair was hampered by the public's perceptions of the two progressive parties. Similar to how it took Nixon to go to China, it took the Liberals to take a step to the left. The NDP simply didn't have the same fiscal credibility to pull off what Trudeau did.

[DC Al Fine]

For the record, I am divided about getting rid of Mulcair. On paper he should go, but who replaces him?

If I was in the NDP, I would vote to keep him.

Mulcair was hampered by the public's perceptions of the two progressive parties. Similar to how it took Nixon to go to China, it took the Liberals to take a step to the left. The NDP simply didn't have the same fiscal credibility to pull off what Trudeau did.

Very true, but it's very clear the NDP needs to tack left now if they want to differentiate themselves from the Liberals. Going to the centre is all well and good when the Liberals are in third, but there's no room there now. I doubt Mulcair can pull the party to the left, but who will?

My guess is Mulcair gets about a 60% approval and is forced to step down.

How much of a left wing tack do you think the NDP needs? You know I'm not a fan of the cling to the centre theory of electioneering, but there's a huge difference between differentiating the party from the Liberals and adopting the NDP Socialist Caucus platform.

I'm getting the impression, at least on Facebook, that NDP supporters are turning into the Canadian version of those GOPers who think that every defeat is caused by not being conservative enough, but that sort of thinking would be disastrous. Personally I think the NDP is in a no-win situation until the Trudeau government turns into the second coming of Paul Martin, or some Liberals get caught with their hand in the till.

[DC Al Fine]

Oh, here's an interesting graph outlining the difficult situation the provincial governments are in:

[DC Al Fine]

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The possible names I've read are Nathan Cullen, Megan Leslie, Niki Ashton.

If Mulcair gets 60%, which could be seen as a slap in the face, will he stay as MP or start looking for another job and resign in the short term and let the NDP try to hold the riiding of Outremont.

If I were him, seeing the number of ex-caucus members or current not supporting me, I would exit the party as quickly as possible if I had another interesting job opportunity.

I have no idea what Mulcair would actually do, but if I was in that situation I would say f[inks] you, resign my seat and let the Liberals take my riding to embarass whoever put the knives in my back. Then again I have a tendency to hold grudges

[DC Al Fine]

It will be interesting to see what the NDP does with the principles of the Leap manifesto. In opposition you can be more against oil and pipeline than in a general election in which your opponents will attack you for hurting the economy and lose potential votes.

Parties adopt policies but they also choose what they put in the election come election. The manifesto seems to question capitalism. The party tried to be seen as a potential responsible government. If they become too radical they will lose that. Maybe they will prefer ideals over electability. I hope they don't think the more left they go the more popular they will be.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tom-mulcair-oil-ground-manifesto-1.3523849

The NDP does need to tack left to win both to keep their base turning out and win back promiscuous progressives. The question is by how much. If they go too far they risk alienating the centre leftists they need to recover strongly.

[DC Al Fine]

To add to Hatman's point about Mulcair:

The electoral map in Quebec is quite precarious. The NDP won a mere 6 seats by  >5% and one of those was Mulcair's. If the new NDP leader does not have any regional appeal the NDP could be reduced to a couple popular MPs and progressive enclaves due to a marginal favourite son effect wearing off.

[DC Al Fine]

Details leaking out about the new assisted suicide law.

The bill will apparently take a fairly conservative approach and avoid some of the more controversial suggestions out there such as allowing assisted suicide for minors, or requiring physicians to euthanize despite conscience concerns.

Frankly, this is a lot better than I was expecting.

[DC Al Fine]

Formee interim NS NDP leader Maureen MacDonald has resigned her seat.

Her riding is quite NDP friendly, but the Liberals are still polling well above their 2013 result, and MacDonald was quite popular personally. Liberals may win the by-election, but I still give the NDP the edge.

[DC Al Fine]

IRV would hit Bloc worst, I assume?

I think so, but there hasn't been any Quebec 2nd choice polls released to confirm as far as I know. It's possible that there are some scenarios where they could benefit (soft nationalists disliking Liberals, anti-Muslim sentiment, ABC etc.)

[DC Al Fine]

Hopefully Brown refuses to sign this asshole's nomination papers. Problem solved.

PC can't afford to upset the Ontario Landowners Association. They are the reason John Tory lost his by-election and they are quite powerful in rural Eastern Ontario.

Such a thing exists? Sounds like a 19th century throwback.

The funny thing is that it only came into existence in 2006

[DC Al Fine]

Maybe Harper wants to maintain a public profile because he sees himself pulling off another Diefenbaker or Trudeau Sr.

What public profile? As a few media members have pointed out, the guy has been a ghost. Besides, Harper has already written a book about historical hockey, so I'd surmise he just likes writing books.

[DC Al Fine]

If Canada was warmer than the US instead of colder I would probably be looking into dual citizenship

It's called a coat.

I'm talking about sunshine and being able to sunbathe on a hammock in your backyard and never deal with shoveling snow or driving in snow

*is from New England

[DC Al Fine]

So the Libs in Newfoundland are planning to shut down half of the province's libraries and are putting a tax on books. Lord tunderin' jesus b'y.

The Newfoundland government was relying on oil roughly to the same extent as Alberta was, but without Alberta's strong starting position. The budget was about as nasty as required and had both cuts and tax hikes, but I don't know what they are going to do without another oil boom. Newfoundland's fiscal and demographic position is awful even by Atlantic Canadian standards.

Anyways, the result of all this is the first good news poll for the NDP in a long time. Brackets indicate change from last election.

Lib: 37% (-20)
NDP: 32% (+20)
PC: 30% (nc)