Time for an election, Canada

[Tracker]

For those of you who don't know yet, Stephen Harper just called for an October 14 federal election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7602864.stm

To be honest, I really doubted this was going to to happen. I was hoping for a repeat of last spring, where everyone geared up for an election, but no one made a move. It was kind of obvious with "Greenshift" floating around and the delayed bills, but I personally never got it. Interesting to note is that Harper claims Parilment is "deadlocked", but nothing has changed in terms of MPs over the last year. It seems that the Liberals really got together and resisted the Conservatives. Notice that last year, Conservatives managed to push bill after bill through the house, but now it's the opposite according to Harper. 3 elections in 4 years is also kind of a weird statistic.

Any thoughts?

 

[Firestorm]

I usually don't pay attention to politics but will try considering I am of voting age. I wish the parties had likeable leaders instead of bumbling idiots. Honestly, this election is such bullshit. We're going to wind up with a minority conservative government again and all we'll have done is spend a lot of useless cash.

 

[Vampy34]

I usually don't pay attention to politics but will try considering I am of voting age. I wish the parties had likeable leaders instead of bumbling idiots. Honestly, this election is such bullshit. We're going to wind up with a minority conservative government again and all we'll have done is spend a lot of useless cash.

Exactly, completely, totally this.

Although I honestly hope there are enough people disgusted with the way the Conservatives favour a very American approach to conducting politics with their attack ads to sway the election away from them =.=

 

[Tracker]

Although I honestly hope there are enough people disgusted with the way the Conservatives favour a very American approach to conducting politics with their attack ads to sway the election away from them =.=

Just last week the Liberals met to discuss how to go with their ads. It was a choice between attacking Harper or convincing people of Greenshift. I believe Greenshift won, so I was pleased with that.

 

[Misty]

The conservatives just want a fresh mandate so they can ride out the coming economic crisis.

 

[Shigeru]

The entire thing is being overshadowed by the activity down south. Nothing is really going to come out of this.

 

[gorm]

I kinda feel bad for Dion, the dude is a decent guy but not a politician. He's a thinker, not a talker, and makes it easy for Harper to play up his charisma.

 

[Vineon]

Liberals shot themselves in the foot when Ray and Igniatieff supporters wouldn't vote for each other, allowing Dion to take the Liberals leadership position.

But Dion has nothing to do there, he doesn't have a single ounce of charisma, can barely, I am generous, speak english and while you might think he'd get at least some support in Québec for being a francophone, he is probably the most hated leader in the province. I very much doubt Dion will manage to get through the next vote of confidence, Ignatieff is still waiting on the side for his turn.

Moreover, that tax on carbon just insures perpetual conservative reign in the west and the left vote is divided between many parties. Harper believes in his chance to get a majority government although he wont publicly say it.

 

[Bologo]

But Dion has nothing to do there, he doesn't have a single ounce of charisma, can barely, I am generous, speak english and while you might think he'd get at least some support in Québec for being a francophone, he is probably the most hated leader in the province. I very much doubt Dion will manage to get through the next vote of confidence, Ignatieff is still waiting on the side for his turn.

I agree with this 100%. My bro and some of the other members of his journalist team were able to ask Dion some questions after some conference, from what I remember correctly. Basically, my bro told me that Dion has no charisma (the exact same things you just said), barely speaks english, and a lot of the times when they asked him a question, he'd just refuse to answer it, which is bullshit, since from what he told me, they were not personal questions or anything.

The campaign commercials are just awful now...I haven't seen very many actual commercials where Harper is actually trying to promote himself. All I keep seeing is him attacking Dion in his commercials. I really wonder how much competition there's actually going to be here though, because from what it looks like, Dion isn't doing very good...

Also, this website's loading pic is hilarious, even though Stephen Harper had to apologize for it. :P

 

[Olie]

imho, Stephen Harper is being a real (BAN ME PLEASE) by spending millions of taxpayers dollars for an election that is not really required. Damn shitty government.

 

[Vineon]

imho, Stephen Harper is being a real (BAN ME PLEASE) by spending millions of taxpayers dollars for an election that is not really required. Damn shitty government.

Well these elections spawned a 4 billions investment announcement in Québec on infrastructures and roads.

Might end up paying more than costing us, here at least.

Gotta love being the swing vote. Must suck to live in the west now though, where your vote is taken for granted.

 

[Deck Knight]

Here is America we just elect the morons that run our country every 2/4/6 years (depending on position) and like it.

3 elections (I'm going to assume presidential level) in 4 years is ridiculous. And people say America is screwed up.

I make it my policy not to comment on the elections of other nations, but I must say, for America being so hated an awful lot of World Leaders seem to like us more than their predecessors.

There might be a way Dion can win though: Claim he is actually Celine Dion's uncle and can get you naughty pictures.

 

[Tracker]

Harper will do anything to get a majority. But getting a majority is much harder than winning a minority. For Harper to win the election, he can just sit back as the NDP steal votes from the Liberals. Using attack ads is a much better idea than promoting the Conservatives. The idea is to make Dion lose votes, not necessarily win them himself.

 

[Layell]

Deck Knight you have no idea why there were three elections, so don't try to comment on it.

For one thing our election was only called recently and voting date is on October 14th.

I've been able to see a few Tory attack ads and it looks like they've been planning for this election for a while now. I can see this hurting Dion but those ads won't hurt the Liberals a bit in my riding (Vaughan), and nearby ones. Mostly because of all the immigrants that got to come in because of the Liberals, and that all the Italians seem to vote is Liberal too.

 

[Jackal]

just give harper his majority then maybe something will get accomplished xD

 

[Vineon]

Here is America we just elect the morons that run our country every 2/4/6 years (depending on position) and like it.

3 elections (I'm going to assume presidential level) in 4 years is ridiculous. And people say America is screwed up.

That isn't exactly the norm. It is caused by a minority governement. The Prime Minister is allowed to dissolve it at any time, (and in a way, so is the opposition) therefore it usually doesn't last very long.

Should we elect a majority governement, like we did in all the 80s and 90s, we would only vote every about 4 years.

What is hypocrisy about it is that Stephen Harper 2 years ago set a fixed-date for elections law so that political parties don't take advantage of tides going their way to launch elections. 2 years later he just ignored his own law and took advantage of a loophole within it to still launch elections.

 

[Tracker]

What is hypocrisy about it is that Stephen Harper 2 years ago set a fixed-date for elections law so that political parties don't take advantage of tides going their way to launch elections. 2 years later he just ignored his own law and took advantage of a loophole within it to still launch elections.

How did I miss this?


Adding to the topic: our current government is the longest-running minority government in the history of Canada. Just shows you the amount of initiative Dion has.

 

[Olie]

Actually, here in Alberta, I've been seeing lots of Stephane Dion bashing, but I really don't understand some of them.
ie. "Dion will take 1200$ that belongs to your family".
well, for really poor families, this may be of some concern, but This $1200 is only give to families with very young children...
Factoring all that in, and you've got a much smaller target audience.

 

[Vineon]

Actually, here in Alberta, I've been seeing lots of Stephane Dion bashing, but I really don't understand some of them.
ie. "Dion will take 1200$ that belongs to your family".
well, for really poor families, this may be of some concern, but This $1200 is only give to families with very young children...
Factoring all that in, and you've got a much smaller target audience.

Can I see some of those ads if you can find them.

I assume they are a lot different over there than they are here.

 

[Layell]

I've seen them too, what is weird is that they have some of those ads on YTV, that one kids network. My brother was watching it and it just popped on.

From what I heard however Harper when a Reform party member supported forcing young people to do military service. Going to do a bit of research on that though.

Althoguh even if he did do with a majority goverment he'd be killed in the next election, so I'm not even sure how much that matters.

 

[Olie]

Can I see some of those ads if you can find them.

I assume they are a lot different over there than they are here.

It's usually on TV, I'll try to find one though.
edit: This is the one I was talking about.
http://www.conservative.ca/EN/4579/104379

actually, here's another one I liked. This one makes much more sense though.
http://www.conservative.ca/EN/

 

[Vineon]

A good idea would be to add a poll to this thread, similar to the one in the thread about the american elections.

Simply to see what Canadians on smogon favor.

 

[Tracker]

Well, mabye, but remember we don't directly vote for candidates. We vote for local MPs of your particular riding. For example, unless you live in Toronto-Danforth, you can't vote for Jack Layton. You vote for the NDP representative.

Adding a poll sidelines people who are voting for local issues and independents.

 

[Vineon]

what...

Do you know your candidates well enough to do that?

I sure don't. Most people don't even know their MPs, even less every candidate in their riding. I will definitely vote for the party and its leader and this is what most people do.

Independants being part of "others".

 

[Tracker]

I don't either.

That's the flaw with bureaucracy in Canada. Everyone elects figureheads with no real power. I was just pointing out the problem with a theoretical representative democracy and adding a poll to this topic.