2021 Canadian Federal Election

Bull Of Heaven

99 Pounders / 4'3" Feet
is a Pre-Contributor
Today, Canada is wrapping up an absolute garbage-tier election. I didn't see a thread about it, and I guess I could use a semi-anonymous space to vent a little.

For those not from here, the Liberal Party was in government, but had less than a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. They were polling well throughout the pandemic, and thought they saw a chance for a majority. So, over the objections of the main opposition parties, they decided to call an election two years before they needed to, in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is now once again surging in some provinces. Great work, guys.

Anyway, check out our main parties:
  • The Liberal Party (centrist) got into government on a progressive image, and has gotten a few things accomplished (e.g. legal marijuana, carbon pricing) but has overall failed to deliver what many of its voters expected, and has picked up some scandals along the way.
  • The Conservative Party (centre-right) is the only other party at all likely to form the government. It's run a fairly moderate campaign, but it largely relies on a base of voters in oil country, and has weak proposals on key issues like climate change and cost of living.
  • The New Democratic Party (centre-left/socdem) talks a good progressive game, but has run a campaign light on policy substance, which makes me wonder whether it would know what to do if it somehow actually got into power.
  • The Green Party (environmentalist) talks about implementing large-scale progressive change, but, with very little presence in Parliament, is already a disorganized mess. Not promising, in my opinion.
  • The Bloc Québecois (Quebec nationalist) is a separatist party that only runs in Quebec. I'm not from there, and I don't live there, so I won't talk about this party except to mention that they seem to get very offended if anyone tries to start anything resembling a serious conversation about systemic racism.
  • There's also a party running on xenophobia, climate denial, and pandemic-related irresponsibility. But enough said about that.
Personally, I've ended up voting for the Liberals, even though I badly wanted to punish them for calling a pandemic election. I just couldn't justify that as a more important priority than, say, not putting the Conservatives in charge of climate policy. I'm no single-issue voter, but climate seems like the obvious #1 issue right now, and the Liberals: (1) have an unambiguously better plan than the Conservatives; (2) have more credibility than the Conservatives (a low bar); (3) have actual policy, which it's not so clear the NDP has; and (4) have gotten largely positive expert feedback on their plan.

The NDP is the party most aligned with my values, but I wasn't impressed with their campaign, and the Liberals are better-positioned to keep the Conservatives out of government. I do think the Liberal fearmongering about the Conservatives is a little much, but on climate alone a Conservative government really would scare me. And honestly, I think these last couple of years have given me a bit of a crisis of faith in NDP-style progressive politics that I'm very much still processing.

So there it is. I don't think I regret my vote, but I certainly don't feel good about it. I feel like the Liberals have played me, and I knew it, but I just didn't find a better move than to go along with it. If they win my riding, I think my MP will get a letter from me soon.

How's everyone else holding up?
 

Kink

it's a thug life ¨̮
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Today, Canada is wrapping up an absolute garbage-tier election. I didn't see a thread about it, and I guess I could use a semi-anonymous space to vent a little.

For those not from here, the Liberal Party was in government, but had less than a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. They were polling well throughout the pandemic, and thought they saw a chance for a majority. So, over the objections of the main opposition parties, they decided to call an election two years before they needed to, in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is now once again surging in some provinces. Great work, guys.

Anyway, check out our main parties:
  • The Liberal Party (centrist) got into government on a progressive image, and has gotten a few things accomplished (e.g. legal marijuana, carbon pricing) but has overall failed to deliver what many of its voters expected, and has picked up some scandals along the way.
  • The Conservative Party (centre-right) is the only other party at all likely to form the government. It's run a fairly moderate campaign, but it largely relies on a base of voters in oil country, and has weak proposals on key issues like climate change and cost of living.
  • The New Democratic Party (centre-left/socdem) talks a good progressive game, but has run a campaign light on policy substance, which makes me wonder whether it would know what to do if it somehow actually got into power.
  • The Green Party (environmentalist) talks about implementing large-scale progressive change, but, with very little presence in Parliament, is already a disorganized mess. Not promising, in my opinion.
  • The Bloc Québecois (Quebec nationalist) is a separatist party that only runs in Quebec. I'm not from there, and I don't live there, so I won't talk about this party except to mention that they seem to get very offended if anyone tries to start anything resembling a serious conversation about systemic racism.
  • There's also a party running on xenophobia, climate denial, and pandemic-related irresponsibility. But enough said about that.
Personally, I've ended up voting for the Liberals, even though I badly wanted to punish them for calling a pandemic election. I just couldn't justify that as a more important priority than, say, not putting the Conservatives in charge of climate policy. I'm no single-issue voter, but climate seems like the obvious #1 issue right now, and the Liberals: (1) have an unambiguously better plan than the Conservatives; (2) have more credibility than the Conservatives (a low bar); (3) have actual policy, which it's not so clear the NDP has; and (4) have gotten largely positive expert feedback on their plan.

The NDP is the party most aligned with my values, but I wasn't impressed with their campaign, and the Liberals are better-positioned to keep the Conservatives out of government. I do think the Liberal fearmongering about the Conservatives is a little much, but on climate alone a Conservative government really would scare me. And honestly, I think these last couple of years have given me a bit of a crisis of faith in NDP-style progressive politics that I'm very much still processing.

So there it is. I don't think I regret my vote, but I certainly don't feel good about it. I feel like the Liberals have played me, and I knew it, but I just didn't find a better move than to go along with it. If they win my riding, I think my MP will get a letter from me soon.

How's everyone else holding up?
I absolutely love how you didn't even mention PPC by name. The other day one of my old "friends" from highschool and her PPC Candidate partner posted how the current restrictions re: Vaccine passports was akin to ostracizing the Jews in Nazi Germany prior to genocide. I found this atrocious and immediately deleted them both. If you're PPC, we're not friends and I don't support your views.
 
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Bull Of Heaven

99 Pounders / 4'3" Feet
is a Pre-Contributor
Dang what's it like having so many parties

t. American
We're sort of in a weird middle ground, where we have two main parties that trade off governing, but a few of the smaller parties actually do win some seats.* Makes it easier to find a party that mostly fits with your views, but it can be tricky to figure out whether you should vote with your heart for that party or settle for the better of the big ones.

But also, since the governing party isn't guaranteed a majority of the seats, they sometimes have to rely on support from at least one smaller party, which can give that party a little bit of real influence here and there.

*The NDP actually won more seats than the Liberals in 2011, and had the 2nd-most overall, only to drop right back to 3rd/4th in the next election.
 
The part of me that's into classical history honestly can't tell if the PPC choosing a colour associated with the aristocracy because it used to be too expensive for the common person to obtain is intentional or not. Suffice to say, my local candidate for that party's "official website" being his twitter was not the only reason I voted for someone else.

It'd be so much better if we could be mocking the Rhinocerous party instead, they're at least trying to be funny.
 

Shellnuts

Rustiest Player Around
is a Community Contributor
How's everyone else holding up?
Pretty poorly, our healthcare system is collapsing (for those not in the loop, the 4th wave has gotten so bad that they're likely to activate triage protocols in the next week or so and have cancelled most surgeries, including ones for people with cancer), thanks to Jason Kenney nuking restrictions at the start of July which let the 4th wave get out of control, adding an election to the shit that's going on atm is only making it worse.
 
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Gravity Monkey

Que des barz comme si jtais au hebs
is a Top Artist
There's also a party running on xenophobia, climate denial, and pandemic-related irresponsibility. But enough said about that.


On a more serious note, this was a very exciting election for me as it's the first time I get to exercise my vote :]
I voted NDP, not because I particularly hope it goes to power but half by process of elimination and half by i think they'd make a great opposition party. Not particularly a fan of how the Trudeau administration has been going on for a while so liberal was out of the gate for me. I considered voting Bloc Québecois since its the one most likely to represent my direct interests (considering I am in fact from Québec) but 1- it kinda feels like throwing a rock in the ocean 2- they seem to try to appeal way too much to Québec's current administration which honestly? not a big fan of (the new law on state "laïcité" is something I think is really fucking stupid). Everything else was just out the question from pretty much the get-go. So yeah, looking forward to the electoral night and hoping that the next elections won't be so fucking piss bad lol
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Top Artist Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
It's too soon to say if this was a "bad election", no it didn't get Trudeau the majority he wanted.

But O'Toole has to be a bit deflated, and NDP are not going to want to trigger a non-confidence vote without getting their funding up again. Whichever party triggers the next election is going to be voted against.

Hopefully, this means we keep a decently progressive mandate propped up by NDP and Bloc when necessary.
 

Bull Of Heaven

99 Pounders / 4'3" Feet
is a Pre-Contributor
The NDP was kind of in that position already, but I get your point. O'Toole talked a lot in his speech last night about not wanting Trudeau to call another election too soon (some "in 18 months" thing that I hadn't heard about before but I can only assume has had some life in Conservative media).

I'm starting to hear some buzz about whether O'Toole will stay on as leader, and I think I probably hope he does? He'll probably be our next PM if he stays, and he's probably one of the best that party can come up with.
 

Kink

it's a thug life ¨̮
is a Tutor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
The NDP was kind of in that position already, but I get your point. O'Toole talked a lot in his speech last night about not wanting Trudeau to call another election too soon (some "in 18 months" thing that I hadn't heard about before but I can only assume has had some life in Conservative media).

I'm starting to hear some buzz about whether O'Toole will stay on as leader, and I think I probably hope he does? He'll probably be our next PM if he stays, and he's probably one of the best that party can come up with.
Andrew Scheer was a potato. O'Toole seems like he's resonating with the moderate Canadian base. I was never (and will probably never be) a Progressive Conservative but I can also agree that if sentiment towards Trudeau continues then I think he'll be pm in a few years.
 
Coming from an overwhelmingly rural town in southern Ontario, I was extremely glad to be living in Nunavut this year and having my NDP vote count for once! Like Kink, I was pretty disappointed with Singh's very pointed lack of policy, which I think is part of the reason they're not getting more votes: they talk a big game but don't have the numbers to back it up. I think this is partly why people like Bernie Sanders so much in the U.S.: say what you will about his policy, he at least backs it up with numbers and specific language.

Sad to have seen few NDP seats overall (taking only +1 from 2019 for a measly 25) but I suppose we'll see how things play out over the coming years.
 

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