Canadian Politics Thread

Thoughts on the Senate appointments? This is sort of the approach to the Senate that seemed to make the most sense to me for a while so it's refreshing to see Trudeau following through.

senate appointments seem fair enough, in line with what trudeau campaigned on. i would prefer the senate to be abolished but im sure im in the minority there.

so the budget. any thoughts? i don't really have many - glad they're spending some money, hope it has a positive effect on the economy.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeaus-first-budget-aims-to-spur-growth-with-29-billion-deficit/article29335996/

goodbye Tom

*crickets*

A mistake imo. Unfortunate election for him - had to follow the NDP's best ever election, which happened in a slump for the Libs, then fight against a strong Lib candidate while that party was in an upswing against the now hapless Conservatives. With hindsight they fumbled the policy stuff, but that only became truly apparent after they lost. Still got better results than Layton in his first election or two! And a good leader of the opposition and still the potential to get a lot of people behind him.

The stuff Mulcair said about Trudeau and Trump a couple of weeks ago--that Trudeau should join him in calling out Trump as a fascist--was, politically, either disingenuous, naive, or just stupid in the extreme.

What killed him in the election was his stance on the niqab. It turned off the Qubecers he was relying on for a large chunk of votes. Bad politics, but it was the right stance.

The denouncing trump thing is just dumb. I think he must have been scrambling for an issue to build himself up with.

The niqab explanation doesn't make sense to me. Why did Quebecers vote for the Liberals, then, who had the same stance?

Mulcair was a great Opposition leader but the NDP election campaign was pretty disappointing to me. By the end, I barely felt any connection to the party anymore. The balanced budget pledge was pretty foolish and unnecessary. As was discussed on this thread, it would have been hard to do that and implement a daycare programme without making serious cuts elsewhere. Otherwise, their policy priorities seemed to be virtually impossible (abolishing the Senate), trivial (a federal minimum wage that would only impact a tiny number of workers), or pointless ('pro-Quebec' policies about federalism that Quebecers didn't even care about anymore) to me. (A day care programme is probably a good idea but I'm not sure it should be done at the federal level.) On macroeconomic policy, there wasn't too much ideological distance between them and the Liberals anymore. I think someone new might revitalize the party.

I mean, idk, Mulcair does have strengths and it's possible that he could come around stronger for the next time. I'm not even really sure what the NDP is about at this point. The Greens probably offer a stronger left-of-centre critique these days?

the NDP policy platform was really confused and uninspiring, but in hindsight there was no stopping TrudeauGod so it doesn't really matter. can't see the libs losing too much ground the next election or two, so maybe it's best to let the lunatics run the asylum for a decade. i kinda hate Avi Lewis though

Also don't like Avi Lewis. Seems unlikely that he'd stand, or win. He's never been elected to anything has he?

The niqab explanation doesn't make sense to me. Why did Quebecers vote for the Liberals, then, who had the same stance?

for whatever reason the media zero'd in on Mulcair over this. i wasn't even sure of Trudeau's stance, tbh. and – those votes were the NDP's to lose going into the election – I don't doubt he'd have performed way better if he had the opposite stance.

dude, just imagine if mulcair had been anti-Niqab how much ppl would have shit on him

he'd have lost my vote...

Mine too, for sure, and it would have ripped the party apart. If anything, I thought JT made the stronger statement on this in the French debate. I can't believe that people in Quebec were unaware of Pierre Trudeau's son's position on a multiculturalism issue.

I have never been impressed by Avi Lewis but he is not likely to lead the NDP, is he??

This is disappointing, although the commenters are probably right that there is no real surprise: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/liberals-quietly-approved-arms-sale-to-saudis-in-april-documents/article29612233/

to me the bulk of the disapointment came from the balanced budget promises. the niqab thing was just noise (Quebec already answered that question indirectly with the precedent prov. elections) and did not affect my views on the NDP.

American politics was getting too combative and negative so I tuned back into Canadian politics for this: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-conservative-whip-1.3588407

sunny ways!

dear oh dear

lay off the meat and boxing trudeau

this is about the stupidest thing you can get in trouble for

love how they took a jab at harpo tho

also "I'm certainly someone who knows that sometimes it's a challenge to always be positive and be welcoming" is not something a pm should say

there was some safety talk from ndp mps that was a bit smh

trudeau is such a goof

don't mean to make light of the situation but my feeling is trudeau elbowing brosseau was an accident, but it was a consequence of not controlling whatever heartbreak he was having when he, of all things, wanted to hurry along the opposition whip (even i feel stupid writing this), and now the ndp mps are blowing this thing out of proportion

That sounds about right tbh.

I think he gave a good apology.

was it better than the komagata maru apology?

okay too early too early

I loled.

I'm a little puzzled why Gordon Brown couldn't walk around the pack of MPs. There was plenty of open aisle.

imagine being an oppo politician and having to act like you gaf about this

come on trudeau is basically jian gomeshi

The manufactured outrage around this is hard to swallow. And Brosseau acting all Celine Dion, choking back tears about how she was assaulted — by a self-purported feminist, no less! I was expecting something like the guy who elbowed the Trump protester in the face.

I'm a little puzzled why Gordon Brown couldn't walk around the pack of MPs. There was plenty of open aisle.

Was he trying to? My impression was that he and other MPs were sort of dawdling and chatting. I'm not entirely clear on what JT's issue was, whether it was just that for some reason, he wanted them to pick up the pace? If anything concerns me, it is more the way JT accosted Brown, which is Royal Galipeau level. Elbowing Brosseau was definitely unfortunate but almost definitely an accident, although it wouldn't have happened if JT hadn't lost his temper in the first place.

Lol, breakdown: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/what-happened-in-the-house-of-commons-a-scene-by-scene-look-at-trudeaus-confrontation

Looking forward to Oliver Stone's three-hour HoC.

Multiple elbowers!

Tom Mulcair:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjE2ODEyOTU2NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTA5MjIzOA@@._V1_UY317_CR4,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

why did trudeau want to hurry things along? was brown trying to win over some votes against trudeau's assisted dying bill?

why did trudeau get in a word fight with mulcair? or was this just built-up anger from earlier this year?

i couldn't really give a shit. all this faux outrage is what's pissing me off. a bunch of jackass partisans acting like fucking children. their over reactions are dishonest to the point of being offensive. i think i'm done with the NDP. screw these clowns – when i saw how they were acting, I don't blame Trudeau one bit for losing his patience. i think most Canadians would have reacted way angrier if they were stuck in a room with that fucking behavior.

one dipshit conservative (Alberta) MP likened Trudeau's behaviour to that of a fucking drunk driver. that one had me livid. we just lost some friends of the family (almost an entire family – three very young children and a grandparent) to a drunk driver. i was kind of not-too concerned with what was going on until i saw that and totally lost all. fuck all these faux outrage assholes. i'm so fucking mad a bout that drunk driver comment. Elizabeth Fucking May is the only voice of reason here so far.

it's a step up from proroguing parliament

i think it was about the liberal attempt to make the parliament even more majoritarian...which while not as bad as proroguing, is not great: http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2016/05/19/Parliamentary-Brawl-101/

trudeau would have been so self-righteous if harper ever pulled anything like this

Elizabeth Fucking May is the only voice of reason here so far.

Agree with this btw.

Still working out what I think of the actual assisted dying bill (which seems to have gotten forgotten in all of this).

so the senate, rightly as far as actually complying with the SCC ruling, wants to amend the assisted dying bill so that it is available to people who are not necessarily close to death, and trudeau gov and jody wilson-raybould the justice minister (and mp for my riding) are not too happy.

also electoral reform, what the heck is happening with that?

i am personally a fan of mixed-member proportional representation but that would p much guarantee that neither of the big two parties would ever have a majority government so that will never happen

i haven't followed the assisted dying bill's journey at all. most of my attention when it comes to can pol news has been focused on ridiculousness of vancouver's and toronto's housing market.

I feel like im burned out on the housing market stuff living here in Vancouver as it justs dominates so much airtime and column inches. I know I will never be able to afford to buy here, luckily for me im not from here, nor do I want to live here long-term. I do feel awful for the people that I meet who grew up in Vancouver and can't hope to remain in the city if they want to be a homeowner.

Also obv there's homelessness crisis, which is just getting worse, and the affordability of renting, which isn't exactly great either (tho tbh the rent prices while steep are not as exorbitant/crazy as prices of buying real estate) and these things are not unrelated to the housing market. also the sheer amount of poor people on assistance who have the most abominable housing (rat and bedbug infested SRO rooms for $450 pcm)and pay half their monthly welfare check :/ but no level of government is going to do anything about that, as that would involve building livable social housing (and I guess the crazy real estate prices don't help in securing land for such housing).

I have real misgivings about any policy (including the current status quo) that allows assisted suicide for some people but not others, on the grounds of disability.

STV is probably my preferred voting system but I think people are realising (as we did years ago on this thread) that reforming the electoral system might likely require a constitutional amendment.

Time for a new thread? There are over 2000 posts on this one.

Makes sense. New(ish) government, new thread.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-now-the-second-biggest-arms-exporter-to-middle-east-data-show/article30459788/

utterly disgusted by this

sunny ways

Because It's 2016: Canadian Politics in Sunnier Days