Ontario 2011 (6th October)

[minionofmidas]

Somebody put the date of this election into the subject header or at least the opening post, or I'll have this man



raised from the dead to abduct him.

[minionofmidas]

That sort of thing in the middle of a campaign is never good news. It might be damage control, but it's not good news.

[minionofmidas]

That sort of thing in the middle of a campaign is never good news. It might be damage control, but it's not good news.

What? It's great news. I guess you don't know who Barry Weisleder is! We want to distance the hell out of him.

I am dimly aware. But there's a difference between him not selected anywhere, and him being deselected by some hard-to-judge bureaucratic process in the middle of the campaign. The latter probably is a better reminder of his existence than if he just silently ran in some unwinnable riding.

[minionofmidas]

What would be a likely seat distribution if the three parties poll equal shares?

[minionofmidas]

Uniform swings of that sort aren't really much more likely or sophisticated than of the other type... but I guess I'd take that result.

[minionofmidas]

Actually by reducing the number and not applying any swing you don't get a uniform swing at all.

Sure. It's just following a different rule, but it's still regular.

[minionofmidas]

It comes from a series of Bloomberg-esque micro-regulations. He's banned, among other things: junk food sales in public schools; pit bulls; smoking on patios; displaying cigarettes in stores (in Ontario now you have to ask for the employee to get you cigarettes from behind this weird screen); smoking in cars with children in them (even your own car and your own children). A certain flavour of libertarian-conservative really hates this sort of thing.

Okay, so all of these but the first belong in Arch-HP territory to me. Though there are worse things governments get up to, they are things I could absolutely not support under any circumstances.

[minionofmidas]

It comes from a series of Bloomberg-esque micro-regulations. He's banned, among other things: junk food sales in public schools; pit bulls; smoking on patios; displaying cigarettes in stores (in Ontario now you have to ask for the employee to get you cigarettes from behind this weird screen); smoking in cars with children in them (even your own car and your own children). A certain flavour of libertarian-conservative really hates this sort of thing.

  I thought smoking on patios is still legal, at least it was when I moved here in 2006.  As for the cigarette displays, they are provincial laws but every province has passed them now.  I should also note Britain plans to pass similiar ones even with a Conservative government.

Uh, if there's one kind of politician from which a deviation from the nannystatist position can never be expected or considered a possibility, it's a British Conservative.

[minionofmidas]

Majority missed by one seat? Lol.

[minionofmidas]

I'm sure you know the demographic I mean, even if you don't use the term - retirees who have swapped the city for the quiet and relaxed atmosphere of the country. They want to preserve the environment for their grandkids.

This is a contradiction

How is it a contradiction? People don't retire in Canada? Or when they retire, they only ever live in the same area they lived before they retired? If you hadn't noticed, people from New York retire to Florida, these are seachange retirees. Perhaps people retiring to a quiet, rural setting is unique to Australia (or at least does not happen in the US and Canada) but it's certainly no contradiction to expect you to recognise a particular demographic, even if you use a different term to describe them.

No one (of IQ>60) who wants to preserve a particular environment retires to it from elsewhere.