Canada 2011 Official Thread

[Хahar 🤔]

Eugh, I hate how centre-left parties seem to be doing so badly, all over the world.

Such blanket statements are never accurate. At best they're true for a small subset of the world.

At any rate, the Liberals aren't really of the left in any sense.

[Хahar 🤔]

Eugh, I hate how centre-left parties seem to be doing so badly, all over the world.

Such blanket statements are never accurate. At best they're true for a small subset of the world.

At any rate, the Liberals aren't really of the left in any sense.

It's Canada. They're fine.

I'd never argue otherwise.

[Хahar 🤔]

Will the fact that Liberal leader Ignatieff spent more than three decades away from Canada come back to haunt him in this campaign?

Already featured on Tory adverts. Not pleasant, even if it's mildly amusing to see the leader of a nationalist party on the wrong side of a base appeal to nationalism.

Saw one of them when I was in Canada. My group was thoroughly bemused by the idea that the Conservative Party was making those attacks.

[Хahar 🤔]

Though this article does not say so explicitly, it suggests that a Conservative parliamentary majority would be good for the Canadian left, bringing greater pressure to bear on the Liberal, New Democratic, and Green parties to unite in a merger 'formal and definitive' the way the various parties of the right eventually fused to form the Conservative Party after more than a decade of Liberal electoral dominance:

Defection, debate challenge may signal seismic shift in Canadian politics
 
By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News
March 31, 2011 4:26 PM

Erstwhile NDP candidate Ryan Dolby's defection to his Liberal rival in London, Ont., on Wednesday — an apparent bid to prevent vote-splitting and thus defeat the riding's Conservative candidate — was cheered by Liberals but has prompted accusations of betrayal from the jilted NDP and "coalition" from the Conservatives.

But on a day when Green party leader Elizabeth May also faced exclusion from the televised leaders' debate, and NDP leader Jack Layton was left out of a proposed one-on-one showdown between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, could Wednesday's campaign highlights portend a much deeper, even seismic shift in the Canadian political landscape?

Eight years after the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada ended a long and bruising battle to "unite the right" and set the stage for this election's potential Harper majority, Dolby's shocking bolt and the proposed narrowing of debate lineups — each storyline raising the spectre of consolidation on the centre-left side of the country's political spectrum — offered a glimpse of what may be the ultimate solution for so-called "progressive" Canadians aiming to halt the rise of the right.

The Liberals are on the centre of the Canadian political spectrum, so I don't know why anyone thinks the NDP and the Greens should merge them.  I would be in favour of a green-NDP merger, however. Even bring on the BQ, eventually.

The Greens are basically Liberals that don't like the color red, though.

[Хahar 🤔]

What sort of Arabs are there in Ottawa South?

[Хahar 🤔]

If somehow the dream becomes a reality, then Canada would only have to adopt cricket as a major sport and they might fit in with the rest of the club

Fortunately Canada's bat-and-ball sport of choice is the superior one.

[Хahar 🤔]

Duceppe just sounded like a lunatic to me half the time, but that may just be because I'm not used to hearing separatists.

Duceppe's always struck me as a decent fellow, but he doesn't really have a reason to care about the English debate.

[Хahar 🤔]

Presumably even the Outaouais is far more different from Anglo Canada than any part of Scotland or Wales is from England.

[Хahar 🤔]

It's also the place where prostitutes were turned into sausages, don't forget. Adding a degree of gothic to the more run-of-the-mill urban blight and inner city depression.

The area has been held by the CCF/NDP since 1930 with just two breaks.

I remember seeing a prostitute there. Come to think of it, it probably wasn't the best idea to wander around there at night without any adults present.

[Хahar 🤔]

Two seats for the NDP in Saskatchewan is a bit optimistic, no?

[Хahar 🤔]

I'm assuming that NDP number in the Atlantic provinces is completely meaningless.

[Хahar 🤔]

And what's all this about the Bloc being left with a single-digit seat count...?

Presumably it's the same sort of idiocy as explained here:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Хahar 🤔]

Bob Rae is a dirty traitor like Ujjal Dosanjh, and an incompetent at that. It would please me greatly to see him made leader.

Wouldn't the NDP surge be good for Harper? They do hold less seats than the Liberals, and compete for a similar bloc of voters as them which could lead to the possibility of several marginals going the Tories way because of vote splitting. It seems kind of similar to how the PC and Reform parties divided the right throughout the 90's.

Canada has a long and proud tradition of strategic voting, so vote-splitting is less of a boon to the Tories than it might be. Moreover, the rising NDP tide will certainly engulf a number of Conservative seats; Conservative-NDP marginals aren't that uncommon.

[Хahar 🤔]

Wait, I know it's not a federal question, but how can BC have a premier that's not even an MPP? That's possible?

She's running in a byelection on May 11 in Campbell's seat.

General election, but yeah.

My Tory friend is in NDP-mass-panic mode and doesn't find the Liberals as evil as before.

Save the fact he wore a Habs jersey for votes, Layton seems like a good, competent leader...unlike the others.  It won't be soooo bad.  If at all.

It doesn't bother me all that much that he did that, considering that he's from Montreal. If the Maroons were still around, he'd presumably be a fan of that team, but they're not.

[Хahar 🤔]

O Boardbashi:

Atlantic: Con 34, NDP 33, Lib 28, Greenies

Presumably there should be a number here, yes?

Harper seems to be positioning himself for a coalition with the party which he spent years accusing of lusting for power via undemocratic coalition. How appropriate.

The Liberals shoot themselves in the foot a lot, but that would be more like shooting themselves in the head.

This was done in British Columbia in the late 1940s. It didn't work very well.

[Хahar 🤔]

Inspiration: http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/provincial_territorial_politics/clips/5192/

Strange to see the NDP in green.

[Хahar 🤔]

Western Conservatives might conclude that their grip is slipping and decide to ditch him for a more western leader.

It's hard to think of a more Western leader than Harper, unless by the very act of forming government he has ceased to be Western (and the Reform Alte Kämpfer might see it that way).

[Хahar 🤔]

Western Conservatives might conclude that their grip is slipping and decide to ditch him for a more western leader.

It's hard to think of a more Western leader than Harper

Preston Manning.

Fine, a more Western Prime Minister. Manning and Day would never have been able to win pluralities.

Had a dream last night that the Tories won a 200+ seat majority and the NDP came in third. Sorry guys.

The night between the 28th and the 29th I had a dream I was invited to Kate and William's wedding. I'm pretty sure you can relax Lief.

If we're discussing bad dreams we had, I dreamed that Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum were traded for Tim Hudson and Tommy Hanson.

[Хahar 🤔]

Any plans for a new results thread?

That's how things are usually done around these parts, yes.

[Хahar 🤔]

Do you think there is any chance that the polls have over estimated the NDP, and that once in the voting booth people casts their ballots for either the Grits or Tories because they know and trust their policies?

Yes.

Not really comparable, for reasons that have been explained.

[Хahar 🤔]

New thread

[Хahar 🤔]

Hedy Fry '09!

Hedy Fry '11!

[Хahar 🤔]

How about the German Greens? Have they ever elected someone under the FPTP portion of MMP and if so when?

There's one constituency in central Berlin that straddles the Wall which elects a Green, I think.

And then of course there's Baden-Württemberg.

[Хahar 🤔]

Do you think the NDP will make a "MP bail", where they ask their filler MPs to resign and replace them with more qualified candidates in by-elections?

This isn't serious, is it? Of course they won't.

[Хahar 🤔]

Remember that Canadian MPs are automatons. Their function is to vote as the leader directs. When it is time for Mulcair to select his cabinet, all the Quebec MPs will have plenty of experience. For now it does not matter.