Oh man. Where to start? Mr. Gurney first calls out the liberals for demonizing O’Toole “as some scary troglodyte”, and then toward the end of his column calls anyone who doesn’t agree with him “corrosive populists”, or – the “dumb conservatives”. What a laugh.
Here is what he does not understand: Politically astute Albertans are starting to ask, "What good has sending Members of Parliament to Ottawa done for us?" The answer is "very little". You may have noticed there is no difference between federal parties on issues of substance. Both parties need to win votes in Ontario and Quebec. Pollsters tell them what's important to those voters, and both parties make the same promises to those voters. There's no benefit in caring about what is important to Alberta if you're a federal politician who wants to be Prime Minister. We think differently than other Canadians, and what we think does not concern anyone campaigning to form Canada's Federal Government. For instance, polls (https://angusreid.org/federal-election-top-issues/) show “climate change” is the most important issue in Quebec and Ontario. In Alberta, it ranks fifth, and “the amount of taxes I pay” is first. Hence, we see policies that hamper our fossil fuel industry, while paradoxically our tax dollars are used to subsidize the manufacture of fossil fuel burning automobiles and airplanes in Ontario and Quebec. It’s comedy gold!
How could this be, you may be asking. Well, Alberta is grossly underrepresented in Parliament. For instance, 4.4 million Albertans elect 34 MP’s, and yet the 2.4 million Canadians who live in Atlantic Canada elect 32 MP’s. This imbalance disenfranchises two million Albertans!
Compounding Alberta's problem are the seat counts for Ontario and Quebec - 121 and 78 respectively. It's no wonder that all major parties vying to form government happily adopt policies harmful to Albertans - we can't vote them out! Canada's Federal Elections are won and lost in Quebec and Ontario. Federal Political Parties must pander to those provinces if they want to form government. It's not personal, but it is politics.
No, Mr. Gurney, we’re not dumb, and we’re not corrosive. We’re just sick of being Ottawa’s colony. I hope Trudeau wins a majority. Maybe that is what it will take to get Alberta to opt out of confederation. Vive le Alberta libre!
I share your sentiment, but not your proposed solution. As an Albertan, I struggle to see much value add from a federal government that takes substantial portions of my earnings in return for policies that reduce my ability to earn and labels me a redneck for not appreciating the Devine Right of the Laurentian Intelligentsia to command and control. I'm unsure of the solution, but talk of separation would be a pointless distraction.
I finally accept the fate that will fall on Monday. As much as it pains, I want the Evil Empire to win one Alberta seat so that Nenshi isn't appointed to the Senate and named to Cabinet as the token Alberta representative.
Thanks for your commentt, Doug. I suspect you're unsure of the solution because opting out of confederation is really the only solution we haven't tried. You might spend some time at this website in order to appreciate the benefits of independence.
Lougheed started the raids on the Heritage Fund, by for example. using it to fund capital such as hospital construction, but still classifying as a Heritage Fund asset.
Wealth funds don't work at the sub-national level as they breed envy (ex. the comment above that obuscates with mentions of "diversity" and "whole nation") and become targets. Would the the NEP have happened if Alberta didn't have the Heritage Fund? Another example was the Sustainability Fund built up during the Klein years. When the GFC hit, rather than constrain spending, AB continued to over-fund health and education and depleted the ~$16B fund in only a few years. It is very difficult to say "no" to public sector unions when sitting on savings.
I am one of those millions of furious Canadians. Prior to 2015 I was a believer in Canada...now? Now, I am a fervent Alberta separatist. I will go to my grave fighting to remove AB from Canada. Canada has proven itself to be populated by a pathetically uninformed people that have no clue how their incredible standard of living is financed. A population that repeatedly selects a leader that is morally bankrupt. A population that should be ashamed when they look in a mirror. At this point, I couldn’t care less if the rest of Canada slid into one of its bordering oceans. With the exception of Saskatchewan of course.
Amazing how many people forget we already have a Trump - he ‘s called Trudeau - never have I ever so seen so much hate anger in this country - not all are disaffected Conservatives - although the media would have you believe this.
When the Liberals are literally supporting vaccine apartheid, and their leader is literally whipping up hate against 10-20% of the population every time he speaks, it is a little bit late to talk about the Liberals as a bulwark against fascism. O'Toole's problem is that he wouldn't stand against it himself. At the very very least, he should be pointing out that he, and hundreds of thousands of other Canadians, having already had Covid, have immunity far better than the vaccine provides and therefore should not be forced to take it.
If he wants to win as anything at all recognizable as not a Liberal, he has to actually make arguments. For example: the vaccines don't protect against infection, so most people, vaccinated or not, will get Covid over the next year or two. Then he has to fight those arguments out in the press. He can't win by hiding conservatism under a bushel. He doesn't come across as moderate: he comes across as defensive.
The author remains uninstructed by the experience of BC, and one of the three major differences between America and Canada: more than two political parties.
BC does have a viable conservative party: the Liberals. The NDP are a centre-left party here, and the Conservatives are a refugee centre for extremists and diehards. No special reason that the fed Conservatives couldn't just drift off into irrelevance like the BC Conservatives. Parties can change: radically. Austerity-loving Neoliberal warmonger Tony Blair was "Labour", in name.
The other two differences are that (1) Canada has no meaningful Evangelical Christian base to build a fascist party with, and (2) Canadians, statistically, love immigrants *much* more, with 78/20 polls for "immigation is good for the econmy". (Similar question for Americans in 2017 had 49% agreement)
Also, 40% of the nation either ARE immigrants or their children, and a vastly higher amount of the other 60% work with immigrants, have them next door, or their kids have friends in class. The American experience is that more people who don't have immigrants near them in life are the anti-immigrant voters, and Canada has only a fraction as many non-immigrants with no immigrant friends or colleagues.
Canada is also much leaner in anti-gay, anti-abortion idealogues. All told, it would be hard to break out of the single-digits as a "culturally" conservative party.
From that perspective, this reads like a kind of fearmongering: "Vote for the moderate conservatives, or the Fasicsts will devour us all in five years, just like Trump devoured the GOP". It's like threatening communist takeover if we don't vote Liberal to keep out the NDP.
All that said, I would bet cash that the voting patterns will reveal that O'Toole's leftward lean will gain votes, and cost none. That the PPC raided on a percent or two off the Conservative vote, but the Conservatives were able to pull more than that away from Liberals. That analysis will keep the Conservatives noses clean of fascist snot for a few more years, at least.
I don't want this to be a forum for inter-reader arguments, but the issue is on-topic, and I'll repeat a book recommendation from a previous day's comments:
Author Chris Hedges is the son of a Presbyterian minister, spent his youth in Dad's church sweeping up and hosting, went to Harvard Divinity School, and was about to become a minister when he got bit by journalism and spent 25 years covering war for the NY Times. So he knows his religion, and used a 14-point definition of fascism, checking White Southern Baptist Fellowship churches against those points - most think he made his case, but you can check the wikipedia page yourself.
My own crankiness about it would run on far too long. I will timidly offer a link to the essay I put up on line. You'd be about my fifth reader. If that. I was just getting my thoughts in a row and venting some outrage.
Thank you Roy, for your balanced reply. I will try to find the time to visit your blog. I try to judge a tree by the fruit it bears, and the Evangelical Christians I know are delightful. Perhaps your experience has been different. I have not read Chris Hedges book. Does he recommend an alternative faith, or creed? In my view atheism has not worked out well for those societies that embraced it (Here I'm thinking of Eastern Europe under communism), and I wonder what Mr. Hedges recommends. For the record here is the definition I use:
Fascisim - a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
Those I know are delightful people too, including a Calgarian Trump supporter who says that only conservative policies can yield enough national income to support a nation, so one must vote for the only conservative available. He's wrong, but very welcome in my house. Hedge's markers were developed by renowned writer Umberto Eco, concern things like worship of the past, love of military solutions, seeing unity between one race and the land ("blood and soil"), and fear of all outsiders and other ethnic groups. American White Evangelicals poll very differently from other Christians on these issues.
Lyle I'm not sure if you're replying to me, or Roy, but in case it's me...
You can reject both, and I do.
Would you let people tell you who to vote for? I doubt Evangelicals from Texas are interested in taking your advice on voting. When you consider who our Prime Minister is, I doubt anyone will take a Canadian's advice on electing a leader.
It was Marx and Engels that encouraged "snitching". And, of course, they viewed Christianity as competition to their own twisted idealogy. Don't really understand your reference to Texas. By "stasist", do you mean "statist"? Relatively fow of those in The Lone Star State, I think.
Meh. This isn't America. We're not locked into a two-party system. Quebec has shown us that a regional party can be important (obviously -- the English debate prominently featured a bellyaching French Canadian nationalist running in a single province).
I think the small c conservative movement in Canada would be better off hiving in two. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the BC interior could have a neo Reform Party, and Ontario and Atlantic Canada could get whatever milquetoast Red Tory strikes their fancy. And they could occasionally form coalitions.
Strategically speaking, the Conservatives, whenever they win a majority again (2040?), should enact the Liberal pledge of eliminating FPTP. But instead of ranked choice ballots, they should put in proportional representation. This would mean the Liberals would until the end of the time be constrained to a minority (and Andrew Scheer incidentally would have won the most seats in the last election had some kind of national PR been used).
That said, this kind of reform would no doubt give Matt Gurney the vapors since it could mean that the PPC would capture something like 30 seats if their 10 percent support holds out on election day. Like Layton's Orange Wave in Quebec, those seats would almost certainly be filled with dramatically unqualified MPs. No one said democracy was supposed to be pretty!
There is a lot to what you say, I have a hard time with the idea that our democracy depends on the survival of a big tent. I've thought that we might be better served with smaller parties that force people to cooperate to form governments.
Moderates are now the Liberals that have been shed from the new progressive Liberal Party of Canada that does not stand for Liberty of any kind. They should be made to change their name.
Well, thanks Matt. If I wasn't feeling politically homeless before I certainly am now. I've traditionally floated between the Liberals and the NDP but that changed in the last 18 months. I'd always thought of the Liberals as being on the right side of issues like free speech and women's rights. I was so unbelievably wrong!! As far as I'm concerned, the Liberals have become the fascists they claimed to be fighting. Their Internet censorship bill, C10, should have more people worried. The 'elites' have a special knack for claiming they are fighting for your safety, but it's usually a cover for silencing dissenting voices. The CPC also seem willing to stand up to the CCP (here's hoping it's not just talk).
Meghan Murphy and Dr Jordan Peterson tried to warn us about the consequences of Trudeau's Bill C16. Because of this bill, the boy who raped and murdered Nina Courtepatte on an Edmonton golf course, was transferred to Fraser Valley Inst for Women. He got kicked out but is trying to get back in. He now claims he is a transwoman. There are, sadly, more examples of male sexual abusers serving time in women's prisons. This is wrong on so many levels!
We also now have biological men taking over in women's sports. Frankly, the number of mediocre male athletes who transition and become elite female athletes tells us all we need to know. Linda Blade, of Alberta, has been fighting this for years and just released a book, "Unsporting...". In Florida, a man who served in the US Special Forces for years now claims to be a woman and is an MMA fighter. Here's a clip of him beating up a woman and people are cheering him on. Where do we draw the line???!! Or is there even a line?
At least with the CPC, I believe we can actually start to openly talk about these issues. Leslyn Lewis is more than willing. It's conservatives like her that caught my attention.
Those two recent bills — C10 and C36 — are reason enough for the Liberals to lose. Whatever comes on Monday, if it helps put some truly awful legislation out of its misery, I'll consider it a win.
It isn't about policy or even reputation, it's ultimately about culture, tribalism and identity. The Liberals are culturally the political expression of the Laurentian Consensus and those who want their kids to be one of the Central Canadian elites. Atlantic Canada voted for whoever gives them the most resources to continue their lifestyles. The Conservatives are culturally an expression of the Prairies, warts and all. The Liberals are only competitive in immigrant majority ridings of the South Asian persuasion there.
Matt you're a few years late to the party on this issue. Scott Gilmore did a Cross Country Tour lamenting the demise of the CPC in 2017 https://www.macleans.ca/politics/changing-the-future-for-canadas-conservatives-one-dinner-at-a-time/. I live out here on the Left Coast and attended his session in Vancouver. By his own admission he's very much removed from the reality of what people are experiencing outside of the Ottawa/Ontario bubble, and what you've expressed here leaves no doubt that your own experience is similar to Gilmore's. I have two kids who just reached voting age and I can assure you the up and coming voters in this country have had just about the same amount of tolerance for political b.s. that the Libs/Greens/NDP keep harping on that many of us older folks roll our eyes at. Their priorities are the same as ours: jobs, hoping to afford a house, and clean up the planet. Many of these "kids" work in the Hospitality Sector and are fed up with entitled older folk who walk around without their masks on demanding service. So despite your wringing of the hands of the lack of accountability in Ottawa in keeping the Libs in check, this crap has been going on for a long time, and yet there are many, many of us who are not interested in jumping ship just because some statisticians/pollsters are going out of their minds due to the jump in PPC numbers.
Relax.
I'm all for accountability and have spent a great deal of energy and advocacy doing just that in the public school system. The woke madness/right wing nutbar groups have their days numbered. Young people won't tolerate it. Get out more and talk to them.
I disagree. I think the moderates are just propping up and validating the wing nuts. Let them unmask themselves, join the PPC, then we know where they are and who to ignore.
"dudebros" I think not, instead they are vigilantes looking for a home, for someone to carry them across the threshold and they think O'Toole is that guy, they may be right. The price to find out is far too high more Jason kenney anyone?
It wasn't a honeymoon. Until the late Harper days, the CPC actually supported its own policies. Since then, not only has it shifted positions too many times, it seems to shy away from whatever it allegedly believes at that point in time.
I simply can’t believe that a majority of Canadians think the Liberal party should be re-elected. Are they blind? Stupid? Or simply not paying attention, and falling back on the old trope: “Liberals good; Conservatives scary”. At this point I truly believe that just about anything is better than giving Trudeau and his PMO another crack at wrecking this country.
I think Canadians just recognize the superiority of what the Liberal Party offers. The flag will stay at half mast until 2067, you will get pharmacare (probably a bit after 2067), there will be $10 daycare for everyone (probably a bit after that), and you can watch it all unfold from a rented closet because the median home price in Canada will hit $1 million (in the next few years). What's not to like?
Oh man. Where to start? Mr. Gurney first calls out the liberals for demonizing O’Toole “as some scary troglodyte”, and then toward the end of his column calls anyone who doesn’t agree with him “corrosive populists”, or – the “dumb conservatives”. What a laugh.
Here is what he does not understand: Politically astute Albertans are starting to ask, "What good has sending Members of Parliament to Ottawa done for us?" The answer is "very little". You may have noticed there is no difference between federal parties on issues of substance. Both parties need to win votes in Ontario and Quebec. Pollsters tell them what's important to those voters, and both parties make the same promises to those voters. There's no benefit in caring about what is important to Alberta if you're a federal politician who wants to be Prime Minister. We think differently than other Canadians, and what we think does not concern anyone campaigning to form Canada's Federal Government. For instance, polls (https://angusreid.org/federal-election-top-issues/) show “climate change” is the most important issue in Quebec and Ontario. In Alberta, it ranks fifth, and “the amount of taxes I pay” is first. Hence, we see policies that hamper our fossil fuel industry, while paradoxically our tax dollars are used to subsidize the manufacture of fossil fuel burning automobiles and airplanes in Ontario and Quebec. It’s comedy gold!
How could this be, you may be asking. Well, Alberta is grossly underrepresented in Parliament. For instance, 4.4 million Albertans elect 34 MP’s, and yet the 2.4 million Canadians who live in Atlantic Canada elect 32 MP’s. This imbalance disenfranchises two million Albertans!
Compounding Alberta's problem are the seat counts for Ontario and Quebec - 121 and 78 respectively. It's no wonder that all major parties vying to form government happily adopt policies harmful to Albertans - we can't vote them out! Canada's Federal Elections are won and lost in Quebec and Ontario. Federal Political Parties must pander to those provinces if they want to form government. It's not personal, but it is politics.
No, Mr. Gurney, we’re not dumb, and we’re not corrosive. We’re just sick of being Ottawa’s colony. I hope Trudeau wins a majority. Maybe that is what it will take to get Alberta to opt out of confederation. Vive le Alberta libre!
I share your sentiment, but not your proposed solution. As an Albertan, I struggle to see much value add from a federal government that takes substantial portions of my earnings in return for policies that reduce my ability to earn and labels me a redneck for not appreciating the Devine Right of the Laurentian Intelligentsia to command and control. I'm unsure of the solution, but talk of separation would be a pointless distraction.
I finally accept the fate that will fall on Monday. As much as it pains, I want the Evil Empire to win one Alberta seat so that Nenshi isn't appointed to the Senate and named to Cabinet as the token Alberta representative.
Thanks for your commentt, Doug. I suspect you're unsure of the solution because opting out of confederation is really the only solution we haven't tried. You might spend some time at this website in order to appreciate the benefits of independence.
https://wildrosenation.com/why-independence/
Lougheed started the raids on the Heritage Fund, by for example. using it to fund capital such as hospital construction, but still classifying as a Heritage Fund asset.
Wealth funds don't work at the sub-national level as they breed envy (ex. the comment above that obuscates with mentions of "diversity" and "whole nation") and become targets. Would the the NEP have happened if Alberta didn't have the Heritage Fund? Another example was the Sustainability Fund built up during the Klein years. When the GFC hit, rather than constrain spending, AB continued to over-fund health and education and depleted the ~$16B fund in only a few years. It is very difficult to say "no" to public sector unions when sitting on savings.
Prentice was right. He called for austerity.
Hey guys. Gonna shut this down. Don’t want comments on articles this old. Causes moderation headaches.
I am one of those millions of furious Canadians. Prior to 2015 I was a believer in Canada...now? Now, I am a fervent Alberta separatist. I will go to my grave fighting to remove AB from Canada. Canada has proven itself to be populated by a pathetically uninformed people that have no clue how their incredible standard of living is financed. A population that repeatedly selects a leader that is morally bankrupt. A population that should be ashamed when they look in a mirror. At this point, I couldn’t care less if the rest of Canada slid into one of its bordering oceans. With the exception of Saskatchewan of course.
But he looks good in a suit, exudes charisma when the volume is muted and shovels free money out the door. If it feels good, do it.
Well said, Rob.
Amazing how many people forget we already have a Trump - he ‘s called Trudeau - never have I ever so seen so much hate anger in this country - not all are disaffected Conservatives - although the media would have you believe this.
When the Liberals are literally supporting vaccine apartheid, and their leader is literally whipping up hate against 10-20% of the population every time he speaks, it is a little bit late to talk about the Liberals as a bulwark against fascism. O'Toole's problem is that he wouldn't stand against it himself. At the very very least, he should be pointing out that he, and hundreds of thousands of other Canadians, having already had Covid, have immunity far better than the vaccine provides and therefore should not be forced to take it.
If he wants to win as anything at all recognizable as not a Liberal, he has to actually make arguments. For example: the vaccines don't protect against infection, so most people, vaccinated or not, will get Covid over the next year or two. Then he has to fight those arguments out in the press. He can't win by hiding conservatism under a bushel. He doesn't come across as moderate: he comes across as defensive.
The author remains uninstructed by the experience of BC, and one of the three major differences between America and Canada: more than two political parties.
BC does have a viable conservative party: the Liberals. The NDP are a centre-left party here, and the Conservatives are a refugee centre for extremists and diehards. No special reason that the fed Conservatives couldn't just drift off into irrelevance like the BC Conservatives. Parties can change: radically. Austerity-loving Neoliberal warmonger Tony Blair was "Labour", in name.
The other two differences are that (1) Canada has no meaningful Evangelical Christian base to build a fascist party with, and (2) Canadians, statistically, love immigrants *much* more, with 78/20 polls for "immigation is good for the econmy". (Similar question for Americans in 2017 had 49% agreement)
Also, 40% of the nation either ARE immigrants or their children, and a vastly higher amount of the other 60% work with immigrants, have them next door, or their kids have friends in class. The American experience is that more people who don't have immigrants near them in life are the anti-immigrant voters, and Canada has only a fraction as many non-immigrants with no immigrant friends or colleagues.
Canada is also much leaner in anti-gay, anti-abortion idealogues. All told, it would be hard to break out of the single-digits as a "culturally" conservative party.
From that perspective, this reads like a kind of fearmongering: "Vote for the moderate conservatives, or the Fasicsts will devour us all in five years, just like Trump devoured the GOP". It's like threatening communist takeover if we don't vote Liberal to keep out the NDP.
All that said, I would bet cash that the voting patterns will reveal that O'Toole's leftward lean will gain votes, and cost none. That the PPC raided on a percent or two off the Conservative vote, but the Conservatives were able to pull more than that away from Liberals. That analysis will keep the Conservatives noses clean of fascist snot for a few more years, at least.
Is it me, Roy, or did you just call Evangelical Christians Fascists? If so, I suspect your definition of "fascist" is "anyone who disagrees with you".
I don't want this to be a forum for inter-reader arguments, but the issue is on-topic, and I'll repeat a book recommendation from a previous day's comments:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fascists
Author Chris Hedges is the son of a Presbyterian minister, spent his youth in Dad's church sweeping up and hosting, went to Harvard Divinity School, and was about to become a minister when he got bit by journalism and spent 25 years covering war for the NY Times. So he knows his religion, and used a 14-point definition of fascism, checking White Southern Baptist Fellowship churches against those points - most think he made his case, but you can check the wikipedia page yourself.
My own crankiness about it would run on far too long. I will timidly offer a link to the essay I put up on line. You'd be about my fifth reader. If that. I was just getting my thoughts in a row and venting some outrage.
http://brander.ca/blog/evangelicals/evangelical_bw.html
Thank you Roy, for your balanced reply. I will try to find the time to visit your blog. I try to judge a tree by the fruit it bears, and the Evangelical Christians I know are delightful. Perhaps your experience has been different. I have not read Chris Hedges book. Does he recommend an alternative faith, or creed? In my view atheism has not worked out well for those societies that embraced it (Here I'm thinking of Eastern Europe under communism), and I wonder what Mr. Hedges recommends. For the record here is the definition I use:
Fascisim - a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
Those I know are delightful people too, including a Calgarian Trump supporter who says that only conservative policies can yield enough national income to support a nation, so one must vote for the only conservative available. He's wrong, but very welcome in my house. Hedge's markers were developed by renowned writer Umberto Eco, concern things like worship of the past, love of military solutions, seeing unity between one race and the land ("blood and soil"), and fear of all outsiders and other ethnic groups. American White Evangelicals poll very differently from other Christians on these issues.
Lyle I'm not sure if you're replying to me, or Roy, but in case it's me...
You can reject both, and I do.
Would you let people tell you who to vote for? I doubt Evangelicals from Texas are interested in taking your advice on voting. When you consider who our Prime Minister is, I doubt anyone will take a Canadian's advice on electing a leader.
"Fixed", though at night, it's actually easier reading. (I date back to glowing mainframe text terminals and DOS.)
Just a little joke on the "Black and White" part of the title.
It was Marx and Engels that encouraged "snitching". And, of course, they viewed Christianity as competition to their own twisted idealogy. Don't really understand your reference to Texas. By "stasist", do you mean "statist"? Relatively fow of those in The Lone Star State, I think.
Are you speaking of the "Stasi"? If so I doubt you've ever been to Texas, or have met many Texans. Just my opinion.
Meh. This isn't America. We're not locked into a two-party system. Quebec has shown us that a regional party can be important (obviously -- the English debate prominently featured a bellyaching French Canadian nationalist running in a single province).
I think the small c conservative movement in Canada would be better off hiving in two. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the BC interior could have a neo Reform Party, and Ontario and Atlantic Canada could get whatever milquetoast Red Tory strikes their fancy. And they could occasionally form coalitions.
Strategically speaking, the Conservatives, whenever they win a majority again (2040?), should enact the Liberal pledge of eliminating FPTP. But instead of ranked choice ballots, they should put in proportional representation. This would mean the Liberals would until the end of the time be constrained to a minority (and Andrew Scheer incidentally would have won the most seats in the last election had some kind of national PR been used).
That said, this kind of reform would no doubt give Matt Gurney the vapors since it could mean that the PPC would capture something like 30 seats if their 10 percent support holds out on election day. Like Layton's Orange Wave in Quebec, those seats would almost certainly be filled with dramatically unqualified MPs. No one said democracy was supposed to be pretty!
There is a lot to what you say, I have a hard time with the idea that our democracy depends on the survival of a big tent. I've thought that we might be better served with smaller parties that force people to cooperate to form governments.
Moderates are now the Liberals that have been shed from the new progressive Liberal Party of Canada that does not stand for Liberty of any kind. They should be made to change their name.
Well, thanks Matt. If I wasn't feeling politically homeless before I certainly am now. I've traditionally floated between the Liberals and the NDP but that changed in the last 18 months. I'd always thought of the Liberals as being on the right side of issues like free speech and women's rights. I was so unbelievably wrong!! As far as I'm concerned, the Liberals have become the fascists they claimed to be fighting. Their Internet censorship bill, C10, should have more people worried. The 'elites' have a special knack for claiming they are fighting for your safety, but it's usually a cover for silencing dissenting voices. The CPC also seem willing to stand up to the CCP (here's hoping it's not just talk).
Meghan Murphy and Dr Jordan Peterson tried to warn us about the consequences of Trudeau's Bill C16. Because of this bill, the boy who raped and murdered Nina Courtepatte on an Edmonton golf course, was transferred to Fraser Valley Inst for Women. He got kicked out but is trying to get back in. He now claims he is a transwoman. There are, sadly, more examples of male sexual abusers serving time in women's prisons. This is wrong on so many levels!
We also now have biological men taking over in women's sports. Frankly, the number of mediocre male athletes who transition and become elite female athletes tells us all we need to know. Linda Blade, of Alberta, has been fighting this for years and just released a book, "Unsporting...". In Florida, a man who served in the US Special Forces for years now claims to be a woman and is an MMA fighter. Here's a clip of him beating up a woman and people are cheering him on. Where do we draw the line???!! Or is there even a line?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtmDMvC5qIg&list=WL&index=21&t=18s
At least with the CPC, I believe we can actually start to openly talk about these issues. Leslyn Lewis is more than willing. It's conservatives like her that caught my attention.
Those two recent bills — C10 and C36 — are reason enough for the Liberals to lose. Whatever comes on Monday, if it helps put some truly awful legislation out of its misery, I'll consider it a win.
It isn't about policy or even reputation, it's ultimately about culture, tribalism and identity. The Liberals are culturally the political expression of the Laurentian Consensus and those who want their kids to be one of the Central Canadian elites. Atlantic Canada voted for whoever gives them the most resources to continue their lifestyles. The Conservatives are culturally an expression of the Prairies, warts and all. The Liberals are only competitive in immigrant majority ridings of the South Asian persuasion there.
This isn't going to change anytime soon.
Matt you're a few years late to the party on this issue. Scott Gilmore did a Cross Country Tour lamenting the demise of the CPC in 2017 https://www.macleans.ca/politics/changing-the-future-for-canadas-conservatives-one-dinner-at-a-time/. I live out here on the Left Coast and attended his session in Vancouver. By his own admission he's very much removed from the reality of what people are experiencing outside of the Ottawa/Ontario bubble, and what you've expressed here leaves no doubt that your own experience is similar to Gilmore's. I have two kids who just reached voting age and I can assure you the up and coming voters in this country have had just about the same amount of tolerance for political b.s. that the Libs/Greens/NDP keep harping on that many of us older folks roll our eyes at. Their priorities are the same as ours: jobs, hoping to afford a house, and clean up the planet. Many of these "kids" work in the Hospitality Sector and are fed up with entitled older folk who walk around without their masks on demanding service. So despite your wringing of the hands of the lack of accountability in Ottawa in keeping the Libs in check, this crap has been going on for a long time, and yet there are many, many of us who are not interested in jumping ship just because some statisticians/pollsters are going out of their minds due to the jump in PPC numbers.
Relax.
I'm all for accountability and have spent a great deal of energy and advocacy doing just that in the public school system. The woke madness/right wing nutbar groups have their days numbered. Young people won't tolerate it. Get out more and talk to them.
Time to start at the bottom and work the way to the top. CPC has been too bad for to long. There is no hope for CPC in my foreseeable future.
I disagree. I think the moderates are just propping up and validating the wing nuts. Let them unmask themselves, join the PPC, then we know where they are and who to ignore.
Don’t forget many PPC voters sre refugees from the left
"dudebros" I think not, instead they are vigilantes looking for a home, for someone to carry them across the threshold and they think O'Toole is that guy, they may be right. The price to find out is far too high more Jason kenney anyone?
It wasn't a honeymoon. Until the late Harper days, the CPC actually supported its own policies. Since then, not only has it shifted positions too many times, it seems to shy away from whatever it allegedly believes at that point in time.
I simply can’t believe that a majority of Canadians think the Liberal party should be re-elected. Are they blind? Stupid? Or simply not paying attention, and falling back on the old trope: “Liberals good; Conservatives scary”. At this point I truly believe that just about anything is better than giving Trudeau and his PMO another crack at wrecking this country.
I think Canadians just recognize the superiority of what the Liberal Party offers. The flag will stay at half mast until 2067, you will get pharmacare (probably a bit after 2067), there will be $10 daycare for everyone (probably a bit after that), and you can watch it all unfold from a rented closet because the median home price in Canada will hit $1 million (in the next few years). What's not to like?
/sarcasm
Sadly, I think using the vaccines as a wedge has helped Trudeau.
Due to the Kenney effect?