Canada, time to vote

[Iommic Pope]

The old and brittle vote Conservative. EVERY. TIME. No matter what. They're card-carrying members. "Don't know what's going on - I've been voting blue since I was knee-high to a grassharper!."
But they vote! And there's a lot of 'em...
It's sad, how people get all complainy, but can't get off their asses to vote. I mean... I get it... I can't remember a time in my life, where I've actually been excited to vote for someone and felt like it'd make a change. Sadly, my 'strategy' has pretty much always been like... "okay.. which one of these douche-y fucks is a slightly less douche-y fuck? Hmmmmmm...". It's a tough call!
But what good is pretend democracy, if you don't pretend!?
VOTE

This is the current state of affairs. The wave of the elderly as well as the unprecedented return to conservative paranoia and "moral" xenophobia embraced by an alarming amount of young people makes it pretty hard for politicians to set policies that are fair and equal (when they're interested in actually doing that). Sadly as most places are constantly in election mode, this step to the right that all parties world over has made is simply a survival mechanism in a seemingly conservative voting environment.

[D.o.S.]

Welcome to, uh, America.

(the US not one of our South/Central American CIA playgrounds).

[Faldoe]

Looks like the Liberal party is gonna win, ya?

Do you think that will have any effect on the Keystone pipeline, at least on Canada's end?

[oscillateur]

Ok so in France (where I come from), politically, Liberal means not left-wing at all. Like, not at all.
I know that in the US it has a slightly different meaning but it's still more about "free economy"/whatever than anything else. Is it the same in Canada ?

I'm basically an old-school socialist/green I guess so I'm more interested in people who focus on public services (health/education/social security/etc.) than on this utopian free-for-all-economy bullshit...

[kaeth]

Once upon a time, the Liberal party was quite left-wing, though still a far cry from socialism. Nowadays, they're basically the centre party. Their policy bends to whatever gets them elected, so they kinda have one foot on either side. They're better on public services than the Conservative party, but they bow down to billionaire corporations just the same.

[snipelfritz]

I extend my utmost congratulations to President Poutine.

May his reign be long and mapley!

[sylnau]

I'm happy to see Harper go!
Trudeau won't do worst... even tho I don't really like his party either.

[kaeth]

There's a lot of potential there. If he actually delivers on his campaign promises (and he has the majority vote to do it), he'll be a great PM. I just can't muster the confidence that he'll follow through.

[DADGBD]

I found it interesting, that the highest (seemingly ONLY) concentration of Conservative votes was in Alberta...
Can't - for the life of me - figure out why THAT might be...
(rolls eyes)

Someone asked about the tar-sands/pipeline, earlier in the thread. That's what I'll be keeping my eye on as well. There's a whole lot of other things (economical, environmental and geopolitical) tied to that as well. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm going to stay optimistic and open to being surprised; but I think I could make a fairly accurate prediction of what's going to happen there.

[D.o.S.]

Ok so in France (where I come from), politically, Liberal means not left-wing at all. Like, not at all.
I know that in the US it has a slightly different meaning but it's still more about "free economy"/whatever than anything else. Is it the same in Canada ?

I'm basically an old-school socialist/green I guess so I'm more interested in people who focus on public services (health/education/social security/etc.) than on this utopian free-for-all-economy bullshit...

In real life liberally means not-left-wing, too (it's fairly centrist), but in the US, at least, we're so far to the right anyway that 'liberal' is essentially our extreme left. That's an oversimplification, obvs., but it's part of where the discourse comes from.

[Faldoe]

I found it interesting, that the highest (seemingly ONLY) concentration of Conservative votes was in Alberta...
Can't - for the life of me - figure out why THAT might be...
(rolls eyes)

Someone asked about the tar-sands/pipeline, earlier in the thread. That's what I'll be keeping my eye on as well. There's a whole lot of other things (economical, environmental and geopolitical) tied to that as well. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm going to stay optimistic and open to being surprised; but I think I could make a fairly accurate prediction of what's going to happen there.

Well it looks like Trudeau supports Keystone XL the same as Harper:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ener ... -pipeline/

Hopefully Trudeau means what he says regarding relationships with First Nations peoples.

[WayToHip]

Trudeau is going to do the same things Harper did, just with a cuter face.

It is a shame that the Conservatives are the opposition now, but that's better than another 4 years of Harper. I feel I need to apologize that Alberta is stuck being Federal Conservative, until you get into the two major city centers. The largest city in the province has a really progressive mayor, and the provincial government is the left of center, but the rural areas are xenophobic; distrusting of others and government backwaters. The words "Liberal" and "Socialized" are scary words to some/most in this province because they're Communist ideas.

[Chankgeez]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4KJhJCUtr0[/youtube]

[Mudfuzz]

Trudeau is going to do the same things Harper did, just with a cuter face.

It is a shame that the Conservatives are the opposition now, but that's better than another 4 years of Harper. I feel I need to apologize that Alberta is stuck being Federal Conservative, until you get into the two major city centers. The largest city in the province has a really progressive mayor, and the provincial government is the left of center, but the rural areas are xenophobic; distrusting of others and government backwaters. The words "Liberal" and "Socialized" are scary words to some/most in this province because they're Communist ideas.

so.. you guys are really a extension of Montana… that's depressing...

[WayToHip]

^Texas mostly; Texans came here when we found oil and told the people here to stop drinking tea and playing polo and to drink coffee and ride bulls. Really really.