Canada's Election '08

[freebird]

Canada's Election in October 2008

Originally Posted by renrich

PB, give us the lowdown on your government and what you think about it. Perhaps in another thread.

Originally Posted by pbfoot

You'd probably like our elections as we make it simple there is and you'll like this
a conservative party
a liberal party
our left wing guys called the new Democrats
and the Green party

Oh don't forget the Separatist "Bloc Quebecois" Pb...


If you are interested in Canada's election Ren, you {Americans} might be well advised to look at our problems as to the danger of having a small interest group holding the balance of power. {In our case French Canadians, in your future perhaps Mexican Americans }

[Njaco]

Free, I have no clue (my own fault) as to what the elections are in CanuckLand or who is running. Maybe you could give us the candidates and what the major issues are. I sometimes get lost in this little saurez we have down here and need a breather.

[Bluehawk]

I'm just beginning to get a picture of how Canadian government actually functions, let alone what direction you are heading politically.

By American standards, yours is about as complicated as ours is from what I can tell.

The French problem isn't quite like our Hispanic one though - in that your French have lived where they are (as I understand it) from the beginning, whereas our Hispanics were, for all intents and purposes, expelled from their homeland when our government bought or took it over a long time ago.

Our Hispanics not only want to "overcome"... they actually want to "OVERWHELM" - and take back the land they lost or gave up.

A cautionary note though, is that your bi-lingual issues are almost identical with ours, albeit for slightly different reasons.

We bitch constantly about being asked whether we WANT our information in Spanish on the phone or in writing. Problem is that we've got Chinese, native Tribes and about 16 other ethnic groups who are demanding that THEIR languages be made official!

My dear friends in Toronto also bitch about things having to be in French.

Bottom line is, when I'm in Canada I feel at home there, for some reason. You people seem to tolerate Americans fairly well, except the ones who go around trying to make themselves better than you.

Canada is a beautiful place with good people... the ONLY other nation I could ever imagine living in. I'm very protective of Canada and Canadians down here.

[freebird]

Originally Posted by Bluehawk

I'm just beginning to get a picture of how Canadian government actually functions, let alone what direction you are heading politically.

By American standards, yours is about as complicated as ours is from what I can tell.

Yes indeed, because our Prime Minister is not elected by the people, he is the leader of the largest group in Parliment. So one advantage over the US system is that we don't get "gridlock" like when you have a President from one party, and Congress controlled by another. However we do get "Minority Governments" when the government party is the LARGEST but still has less than 50% of the seats. We have this right now with the Conservatives with 124 seats out of 308, and the remaining 184 divided up between 3 other parties.

Originally Posted by Njaco

Free, I have no clue (my own fault) as to what the elections are in CanuckLand or who is running. Maybe you could give us the candidates and what the major issues are. I sometimes get lost in this little saurez we have down here and need a breather.

The 3 major parties OUTSIDE of Quebec are the Conservatives, the Liberals {moderate left of center} and the NDP {Socialists, far out lefties!}

The biggest issues so far are:

1.)The debate over our troops in Afganistan {the mandate ends in 2011}
2.)The liberal proposal for a "Carbon tax" to tax all business, the Consevative say that it will cost too much
3.) Spending of social programs vs. paying down the national debt

Originally Posted by Bluehawk

The French problem isn't quite like our Hispanic one though - in that your French have lived where they are (as I understand it) from the beginning, whereas our Hispanics were, for all intents and purposes, expelled from their homeland when our government bought or took it over a long time ago.

Our Hispanics not only want to "overcome"... they actually want to "OVERWHELM" - and take back the land they lost or gave up.

A cautionary note though, is that your bi-lingual issues are almost identical with ours, albeit for slightly different reasons.

We bitch constantly about being asked whether we WANT our information in Spanish on the phone or in writing. Problem is that we've got Chinese, native Tribes and about 16 other ethnic groups who are demanding that THEIR languages be made official!

Yes indeed, we have our Eeast Indians & Chinese too, the Liberals want to bring in as many as possible, as they support the Liberals about 2 to 1 over Conservatives.

The point I was making, suppose you had about a dozen Hispanic-Americans elected as a third party from South Texas or AZ, NM etc. If neither the Dems or GOP can get a majority, this "ethnic party" has the balance of power, which is exactly what we have now in our Parliment, we have 124 Conservatives, 132 Liberals/Socialists and the Quebec Separitists have the balance of power right now with 52 seats. So in order to pass a budget or any other bill, they have to put in some "Pork" for Quebec to bbribe the Separitist to support it

Originally Posted by Bluehawk

Bottom line is, when I'm in Canada I feel at home there, for some reason. You people seem to tolerate Americans fairly well, except the ones who go around trying to make themselves better than you.

Canada is a beautiful place with good people... the ONLY other nation I could ever imagine living in. I'm very protective of Canada and Canadians down here.

Thanks for that!

[pbfoot]

The major issues here in this order are the economy, enviroment, afghanistan is a non issue
the polls stand at
38% Conservative
25% liberal
and the others are at 12% +/- each

[pbfoot]

My riding changes parties almost every election but I think will remain Conservative as my Member of Parliment is the Minister of Justice or the same as Attorney General

[freebird]

Originally Posted by pbfoot

The major issues here in this order are the economy, enviroment, afghanistan is a non issue
the polls stand at
38% Conservative
25% liberal
and the others are at 12% +/- each

National polls are a bit misleading too.

The NDP are somewhere about 18% not 12% last I saw. The 12% Bloc Quebec support is concentrated ONLY IN QUEBEC so it translates to about 40% in that province, they should get a little over half the seats there, perhaps 40 -45.

The Conservative support is also very strong out in the 4 Western provinces, where they have about 55% popularity, and will get about 65 - 70 seats out of 90 in the West. The big battleground is in Ontario, where the Conservatives are almost tied or just ahead of the Liberals.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by pbfoot

My riding changes parties almost every election but I think will remain Conservative as my Member of Parliment is the Minister of Justice or the same as Attorney General

Tell the Americans what a "riding" is, please.

[pbfoot]

Originally Posted by Bluehawk

Tell the Americans what a "riding" is, please.

An equal district or area population wise there are 308 of them we vote for the local politician or member of Parliment and the party with the most members form the Gov't

[Njaco]

sounds like our districts that they reform every few years or so (depending on the party) so they get more votes.

And I agree with Bluehawk - I've always thought of Canada as a brother country albeit a very large brother! The one country I really don't have a b*tch about except all the French tourists that flock to the Jersey shores every summer!

[FLYBOYJ]

Where's the Rhinos????

[freebird]

Originally Posted by FLYBOYJ

Where's the Rhinos????

They're back!!!

The Rhinoceros party is heading back into the political jungle by launching a $50-million lawsuit and making plans to run in its first Canadian election race in 17 years.

The party's president, Brian (Godzilla) Salmi, said Tuesday he will run as a Rhino in the Sept. 17 federal byelection in Montreal's Outremont riding.

Salmi, who has legally changed his name to Satan, is running on the promise to rename the country Nantucket if he's elected.

Salmi's venture into politics marks the first time a Rhino candidate has entered a federal race since Bryan Gold ran unsuccessfully for the Rhinos in the 1990 byelection in Beauséjour, N.B.

Salmi said Tuesday he has also filed a lawsuit in a Federal Court in Montreal, contesting the election reform law that stripped his party of its registered party status in 1993.

Given Salmi's new name, the lawsuit is filed as Satan versus Her Majesty The Queen.

The Rhino party formed in 1963 with a promise to keep none of its promises. The satirical party picked the rhinoceros as its mascot, claiming that rhinoceros, like politicians, are thick-skinned, slow moving and dim-witted.

The party last ran in a full federal election in 1988, fielding 74 candidates. None were elected.

Rhino party escapes extinction to run in September byelection

CBC News In Depth: The Rhinoceros party

The next Prime Minister of Canada?

[FLYBOYJ]

[mkloby]

PB and Freebird - thanks for the information on the Canadian gov't.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by Njaco

sounds like our districts that they reform every few years or so (depending on the party) so they get more votes.

And I agree with Bluehawk - I've always thought of Canada as a brother country albeit a very large brother! The one country I really don't have a b*tch about except all the French tourists that flock to the Jersey shores every summer!

I'm glad they've got our 12 o'clock, eh?