CANADIAN POLITICS
Hey. HEY! I thought we should have a topic about this.
I think politics are important guys and gals. Lets talk about em.
Yes even when they're up here in cold, cold Canada.I kind of write all of this as if I was addressing people who know nothing about Canadian politics, so bear with me. Even though its unlikely anyone from outside of Canada (or anyone, really) will be interested to read any of it.
I thought that could be an interesting way to start a discussion, so people have something to respond to instead of just blurting out who they vote for and how much they hate Harper/love Jack Layton. Keep in mind that this is my own understanding of things, and so naturally it is biased! Feel free to tell me if you think I am misrepresenting something or being particularly unfair.
I am also kind of writing this for me. Writing down all of this is a good way to make the point on where the country is at in politics and where you stand with them.
So basically this is kind of like me talking out loud in the shower as some sort of conversation with myself to hear whether what I think sounds stupid or not. (yes, I actually do that. Very often. Surely I am not the only one?!)
And hopefully if I got the wrong idea, people will tell me and we can all learn together!
How wonderful this Internet is!Also a friend of mine,
C-man read it and suggested I add some things, which I did. I added some lines I called
C-man says.
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We got a peculiar position in Canada with politics, here is my rough understanding of them, for non-canadian people who might be interested or canadians who just dont know what the hell. I also took some bits from wikipedia, especially about the precise official policies.
A problem we got right now, is that we got a bunch of political parties, and they are all pretty popular, so whoever wins will win by a relatively small portion of votes. This is sort of the opposite problem to the two-party system of the united states.
Roughly 35% of voters go for the right-wing, Conservative party, and the rest of the votes are spread among the Liberal party, the Bloc Quebecois, the new democratic party and the green party, four very left-wing parties which, compared to the conservative party, share very similar agendas, just with slightly different focuses and levels of extremism.
They all lose to the 35% conservatives, since none of the four parties are popular enough over the others to reach the right wings' 35%. So we end up with a government that 65% of the population hates! This created a strange movement called "Strategic voting" where people are urged to vote in a strategic way so that wherever they are, anyone except the conservatives win. Peculiar!
Here is my understanding of the political parties running:
The conservative party
led by Stephen Harper
The conservative party is the one currently in power.
They're more or less like the republicans in the USA, but a bit more lefty in general. They're generally for lower taxes, smaller government, decentralized government power, and tougher laws and prison sentences.
Stephen Harper says he is for capital punishment (abolished in Canada) but does not plan to try and make any law about it. He is against abortion (which is currently legal and unrestricted in Canada), opposes same-sex marriage (which is currently legal in Canada).
He's been criticized for cutting foreign aid to Africa by $700 million. When he came to power, the previous, liberal government had eliminated a 42 billion dollar deficit in four years and now had a budget surplus. Since the conservative party was in power, the federal deficit went back up, and beyond, raising it to the largest deficit in Canada's history. Though to be fair, there was a recession along the way.
The conservatives were also criticized for being the first party in Canada to use really slimy smear campaigns during elections, broadcasting dirty ads with very dubious claims, something that did not happen much before (now all political parties do it which I think is pretty sad). They are also notorious for being really really horrible at handling environmental issues and for making Canada an international joke with this issue. Stephen Harpers' blunders with this and his foreign policies in general are considered the main reasons we could not get a seat at the united nations last year.
Their current policies are to lower taxes to big companies to create jobs; eliminating their deficit by 2014 by cutting on spending; creating new laws to make the streets safer and protect the children and elderly; and give more funding to the Canadian Armed Forces.
C-man says: Stephen Harper did solve several small issues the liberals had been blocking due to legacy politics, possibly to spite them, things regarding relations with Québec; things regarding relations with natives and that story with
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was considered a terrorist by the US government and was deported to his native Syria where he was detained and tortured. Harper fought to have him taken off the terrorist list. Despite being portrayed as a drone of the USA, someone who mechanically agreed with whatever Bush said, he fought surprisingly hard on this issue. He had very little to gain over it and it chafed US relations for a while.
I have to add that, Harper's Conservative party was NEVER in a solid majority that would have allowed him to run wild. A lot of people feel this has kept a lot of his more radical policies in check, so thats something to consider.
Something else, they should have been ousted from power when the opposition decided to form a coalition against them. Harper reacted through really slimy smear tactics, painting Michael Ignatieff as a sore loser going for a desperate, unlawful power grab. For the first time in history, the governor general did not approve of the coalition and so it never happened. As a result, the entire government was pretty much frozen in inaction for a long while.
My own opinion on these guys: Theyre okay. Maybe obvious in my biased description of them, I don't like em much. But I think they are sometimes comically demonized. I didn't pull my hair last time they won, really. Their vision of a government and of Canada is quite different from mine, but not so much that I want to pull my hair out. Heres an example of the kind of stuff floating around Twitter and Facebook recently:
Shit Harper did Honestly, a lot of stuff like that feels like awkward hyperbole and out of context, disingenuous bullshit. This one is particularly bad though.
The Liberal party
Led by Michael Ignatieff
The liberal party is center-left. They were in power uninterrupted for a very long time, but had some pretty nasty stories of corruption a few years ago which is arguably what cost them the power to the conservatives, who stayed in power ever since.
The liberal party led by Paul Martin eliminated the federal deficit completely when it was in power until 2006. They also legalized same-sex marriage and the use of Cannabis for medical purposes, and proposed complete decriminalization of possession of small amounts of Cannabis.
Their current platform is based on more investment in education, reducing the deficit back to 0, quadruple renewable energy production, and supporting Canadian Farmers.
C-man says:They had started out as the most leftist party in Canada, but shifted to being pretty solidly centrist over the years.
My own opinion on these guys: They're pretty okay! They did some nice things and I like their policies, and I think our money is in better hands with em. They're also the most likely to beat the conservatives out of the four lefty parties. They had been in power for a terrifyingly long time before the conservatives kicked them out, which I believe is inherently problematic and is almost certain to lead to more corruption.
The new democratic party
Led by Jack Layton
The New Democratic party is like a more socialist liberal party.
Their platform, they say, is based on gender equality and equal rights for LGBT residents, improving environmental protection through regulation, increasing taxes to corporations, aggressive human rights protection, expanding public health care, aboriginal peoples' treaty land and constitutional rights, a foreign policy that emphasizes diplomacy, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid instead of offensive military action, renegotiating the north american free trade agreement, and ending the Canadian war on drugs, possibly legalizing recreational drug usage.
They were never the federal government though, so we don't really know how they'll do if they're ever in total federal power. They did enjoy some influence over the government in the past few years during minority governments.
C-man says: They are criticized for hopping all over the parliament striking out deals, as they are often the "balance of power", tipping the votes that are otherwise split between conservatives and liberals. It helped Jack Layton to get a lot of his own policies approved, but some people have criticized that he is ultimately compromising too much on things he would flat out disagree with just for the political favors he gets in return (though these favors are admittedly about his party's agenda, not about receiving a ton of money and whores)
My own opinion on these guys: They're pretty okay too. I feel their brand of socialism and their platform in general is closer to my own political ideas, but they were never in power, so there's always the risk that it turns out they're dumbasses who don't know what they're doing and will lead our country into oblivion.
The Bloc Québecois
Led by Gilles Duceppe
This is kind of a strange party. It basically exists not in the hopes of becoming the new federal government party, but to protect Québec's interests within the house of commons, and to promote Québec's separatist agenda.
See, many people from Québec want to split off of Canada and have Québec become a country. The movement reached its biggest point in 1995 where a referendum was held to decide whether to separate or not. The results: 50.58% No, 49.42% Yes, 1.82% rejected ballots. The participation rate was of 93.52% of all citizens. From there... the movement kind of lost its fervor and dwindled away as years went by.
The bloc's political agenda is mainly stuff related to how Québec should have more political freedom, how Québec's culture should have more recognition, how the French language should be protected further. Apart from that, its more or less the same as the NPD and Liberal party: lefty, socialist, liberal.
C-man says: Gilles Duceppe the current leader is probably the most moderate leader the Bloc ever had, and isn't actively trying to screw over Canada despite his "Quebec first" policy. He seems to feel as strongly about Quebec's claimed values of leftism and socialized government services as he does about independence. His campaign right now almost avoids the issue of separatism entirely until someone asks him about it, at which point he froths at the mouth, hops on the table, screams VIVE LE QUÉBEC LIBRE and recites Gilles Vigneault songs until shot with a tranquilizer dart.
My own opinion on these guys:I am a Québecois and my primary language is French, I love the french language, I love living in Québec, and I love everything about our culture, but I always thought this movement was nothing but stupid tribalism. I think the idea of protecting a language is ridiculous. Language is created and modified by people, and lives through people using it, not through government decrees and laws. I have no problem with the French being "assimilated" into the English-speaking majority. It would not retroactively delete Molière and Rabelais from history, it would not invalidate how awesome Harmonium was or how great Malajube is. Fuck this cowardly tribalism, if people stop speaking French, so be it.
Other than that, their political agenda is pretty similar to the other lefties, so they're pretty much okay in my book.
The green party
Led by Elizabeth May
Their basic principles: Ecological wisdom, non-violence, social justice, sustainability, participatory democracy and respect for diversity.
Their current policies:
Reduced payroll on polluters, increased taxes on polluters, income splitting for families, a national childcare plan, support for family farms, government transparency, proportional representation, legalization of Marijuana.
My opinion on these guys: They're okay, but kind of nutty and idealist and you just know they cant possibly get elected. I don't like when a lot of your party`s vague, hip basic principles all make me want to scream, "WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!". Respect for diversity? You mean, you're not racist? Gee wellickers, thats great! Also, Ecological wisdom?! What!?
Elizabeth was not invited to the leaders' debates this year which is really lame. That probably hurt their credibility. I like that this party exists and especially I like that they actually get quite a bit of votes. I think its good to have some idealists rocking the boat and affecting the debates. I don't think I would vote for them as they are right now however.
EDIT: apparently they support and want to fund "alternative medicine" like homeopathy and stuff. Whoops theyre dumbasses who dont know what the fuck theyre doing
So yeah. My basic conclusion thus far, I feel everyone is basically okay. Some are just a bit more okay than others. As it currently stands, I will probably vote for the NDP.
Cmon Canadians, who do you vote for?! Do you know something I don't, did I totally misrepresent a party or two? I didnt put much dirt on the liberals, if anyone cares to bring to light some terrible things theyve done, go ahead!
LET US ALL GORGE OURSELVES ON OUR COLLECTIVE INFORMATION AND BE MERRY
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