Canada General Discussion

[MaxQue]

I know little about Canadian Politics. One question, is the Liberal Party socially and fiscally liberal, or is it one of those "liberal" parties which aren't really fiscally right wing, like they would have been at the start of the 20th century.

Depends of their leaders of their mood. Last year, they managed to attack the NDP from the left and the Conservatives from the right on economy in the same week.

On average, it's near the center, through.

[MaxQue]

The problem is than MacKay is the former and last PC leader, so firing him would send a signal which could be harmful to him.

[MaxQue]

The problem is than MacKay is the former and last PC leader, so firing him would send a signal which could be harmful to him.

MacKay has no influence in the party. Nor do any of the Reds.

Oh, I know that. I'm talking of the media which would say than Harper is trying to get rid of the PCers and than the new Conservative Party is Reform/Alliance in other clothes.

[MaxQue]

Too bad than they didn't chose a true conservative, but a corporate sellout.

[MaxQue]

Heenan has also hosted PET and the Strangler, so it isn't completely blue.

Oh, I know that, hence the comment. Heehan Blaikie doesn't care about the party, as long it passes laws enlarging the powers of big business. It also hosted the "commissionner" Bastarache, which cared more about Jean Charest than about truth.

Not a fan of them.

They are simply neoliberal.

[MaxQue]

Well, links between most provincial Liberal parties and the federal one were severed years ago, too.

[MaxQue]

Well, links between most provincial Liberal parties and the federal one were severed years ago, too.

I never actually knew that. Was that due to the NEP?

Only the 4 Atlantic ones are still linked. As the Alberta breaked out in 1976, probably because NEP. Quebec was in 1964, probably due to the Quebec then-raising nationalism.

[MaxQue]

prorogation.

Wow, it's almost like Stephen Harper doesn't enjoy having to work with a Parliament or something! Either that or, does prorogation work differently, politically speaking, with a majority government?

Well, prorogation happens a couple times during Parliament. It allows to do a new Throne Speech and allows parties to switch members around committees, change the committees chairs...

[MaxQue]

Oh, okay. So when Harper prorogued Parliament before I think it was the 2008 election, that was controversial because of the specifics of that circumstance? Forgive me; I didn't really start following Canadian politics until sometime in 2010.

There were two: one was in December 2008 during the coalition crisis. The other was December 2009 to March 2010, holidays and Olympics.

Those were controversial, because the first one was done to make the coalition deal crash and the second was to mute opposition during early 2010.
Now, it is not controversial, as the Parliament doesn't sit usually in summer either way.

[MaxQue]

Hopefully that neopotism brings Conservative popularity even lower.

[MaxQue]

Delta (where  former councilor Vicki Huntington looks safe).

A question. I remember than she is that Independant elected in a Liberal riding.
Does she leans on a side?

[MaxQue]

At PQ victory party, someone fired on 2 persons and arsoned the building.

The two victims are in critical state, and the fire is under control. Marois is safe.

[MaxQue]

Mulcair said that in light of the PQ victory the plans for NPDQ are on hold.

Next up: Session starts on the 17th, if we don't get some Liberal candidates declaring beforehand.

Is Mulcair not trying to win anymore?

In a minority context, elections can be at any moment and launching the party and giving solid footing would at least take a year or two.
Going too quickly would only hurt the party.

[MaxQue]

It's interesting that Harper doesn't want to touch social issues, since he was pro-life and traditional marriage. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but I believe that Harper's reluctance to deal with such issues is part of a greater goal of replacing the Grits with the Tories as the de facto ruling party of Canada.

Well, its mainly than he had his majority government because of suburban Ontario, which doesn't approve of social conservatism. A purely socially conservative party has an high floor, but the celling is below the majority threshold.

[MaxQue]

If any Liberal is listening here, please get rid of MacAulay, Lamoureux and the two Scarborough MPs.

Thanks.

[MaxQue]

So, Chow in Toronto and Coderre in Montreal?
Well, that would be in improvement over Ford (the tea partier) and Tremblay (the clueless guy which is never aware of anything and seems incredibly naive).

[MaxQue]

Ontario PM, Dalton McGuinty resigns.

[MaxQue]

At least, people will stop confusing "Musée des Civilisations" (in Ottawa, federal) and "Musée de la Civilisation" (in Quebec City, provincial).

[MaxQue]

I think the only reason that the Liberals did so "good" in the previous election was Hudak, and because McGuinty is no novice, and was able to siphon quite a bit of NDP-leaning voters to give him his minority. But he's even more tainted now, and on his way out, so Ontario is aligning itself with the rest of the country and becoming orange versus blue (although, since Dexter sucks so much, Nova Scotia is orange versus red at the moment). Just interesting that it took this long. The final holdouts seem to be New Brunswick and PEI.

With the very notable exception of Quebec.

[MaxQue]

At least, news are refraining of using the word "surprising" in all that story, given the name of the current witness.

[MaxQue]

I saw a poll that had the Liberals with JT as leader polling at 39%. Perhaps the NDP should be focusing on not going back to 3rd place.

Not needed. Justin Trudeau is an awful politician, it will go down as soon Canadians hear him.

[MaxQue]

Various news outlets are reporting than the mayor of Montreal will resign at 7PM, tonight.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/regional/montreal/201211/05/01-4590621-le-maire-tremblay-quittera-la-mairie.php

[MaxQue]

One has to wonder what the Liberals are thinking by trying to go toe to toe with the PQ on language. There is no way they are going to win the votes of hardcore French nationalists. This will alienate their best supporters and risk another Equality Part. showing up.

Equality Party was a disaster which only marginalized Anglos. It looked to the average French voters than the Anglos were unable to accept than they were a minority and weren't ruling Québec as before the 60's. I'm quite sure than a rerun wouldn't work.

Liberals are making a wonderful work of making Anglos voting for them by scaring them with the risk of independantists having the most seats in Assembly if they don't vote Liberal.

[MaxQue]

(also, for those more fluent in French, what is "l'obligation d'utiliser un générique en français avec un nom de commerce anglais"? The only sense I can make of this is that it's about things like saying "un mouchoir" instead of "un kleenex", but surely they're not going to write that into the law?)

No, it's not that. Its the stores which must have a French name. The government already requires it, but some businesses aren't willing to follow, saying they interpret the law another way. It's on the way to the courts.

To solve that, PQ wants to clearly write it in the law. For example, Starbucks Coffee is called Café Starbucks and Staples is called Bureau en Gros, Giant Tiger is called Tigre Géant.

Other businesses must add a generical French name to their name (magasin, électronique, etc.). Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, Gap, Old Navy and Guess are suing.

[MaxQue]

Tonight's an all-nighter on 3000 Brison amendments- consecutively, no debate. He's one of my favourite MPs, but seriously, 3000 amendments is just douchy.

I've always wondered if other MP's would sit down and "have a chat" with the people who make them stay up voting Nay all night. After 1000+ amendments, I'd be ready to punch him out no matter what my party affiliation was.

If I remember well, the Alliance invented that trick (over Indian treaties), so they aren't in a position to complain.