2011 Canadian election

[ErasOmnius]

You're right. I found this about Canadians and their lack of concern about military action in Libya that Canada is particpating in. It is up to you, Andrew, to make it an issue! Get an answer from your Legislator in the Parliament!

[Andrew]

I don't see Libya as a Canadian issue. Take a map, and Canada is nowhere near it. It's an Africa/Europe issue. Canada just happens to be part of NATO/UN etc. We got our hands full with Afghanistan.

If anything people want to do nothing about Libya. We can't fix Afghanistan, so invading (or at least bombing from sky) another country won't make things better. Leave that to the bigger/closer countries. Canada can help when military/war is over with aid (food/medical/rebuilding/trade). We're good at that.

A Canadian military personnel being the head of the operation doesn't mean a lot since this happens often (I think we were in charge of Afghanistan at one point). More of a formality, and allowing each country to let good military leaders do their job.

[athanasios]

What about soldiers?

[Andrew]

What about soldiers?

Send Canadian soldiers in Libya? I doubt that will happen. As peacekeepers possible in distant future. But I don't see this happening anytime soon. Definitely not before Election day. I don't see why Canadian soldiers would go to Libya.

PMO knew of my criminal past, Carson says

Bruce Carson said he told Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff in 2006 all about his criminal past and no red flags were raised about him joining the Conservative government as a top advisor.

So a criminal for fraud works for Conservative government. Harper says he did not know about criminal past. Guy says Harper did know. I don't understand how Conservatives are doing so well in the polls.

Carson says he admitted record to PM's chief of staff when hired

Carson told The Canadian Press he recalls mentioning his criminal past in early 2006 to Ian Brodie, then Harper's chief-of-staff, when applying for Secret-level clearance.

So a fraudster got secret level clearance? oh my.

[ErasOmnius]

Does the Prime Minister have to get the support of Parliament before committing forces to a war?

[Andrew]

Does the Prime Minister have to get the support of Parliament before committing forces to a war?

I think he does in some form. At least would need majority in support. So if had majority government would not need other parties.

Canada's role in the Afghanistan War

article of canada getting involved in Afghanistan

Doesn't appear to be any vote, but Chretien had majority government, and I doubt many Canadians (no political party) at the time would be against supporting US.

Ignatieff slams Harper over Facebook screening

So two girls got their photo taken with Ignatieff. Conservative background checkers noticed they were in the photo, and thus were removed from a conservative rally.

I guess people should not attend different party rallies. If they want to "fairly" exclude people, they should require party membership cards to be shown before entry for everyone.

Awish Aslam, a second-year political science student at the University of Western Ontario, told CBC News she and a friend were trying to attend a Sunday rally with Harper when they were asked to leave by an RCMP officer.

...

Aslam said she wanted to hear directly from all the main party leaders and had also attended a rally with NDP Leader Jack Layton.

So remember political science students, pick a party and stick with it, as you're not allowed to attend Conservative rallies if you went to another party beforehand.

I could see if they were going to stand behind Harper if in photoshoots (announcements), but normally rallies involve couple hundred people.

Conservative candidate John Baird said Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas is planning on apologizing to Aslam. Contacted earlier Tuesday, Aslam said she hadn't yet heard from Soudas.But Baird wouldn't answer repeated questions from reporters at a press conference in Ottawa about why the students were thrown out and how the screening happens.

Once again not answering questions.

Other stories are now emerging of Canadians being turned away from Conservative Party rallies across the country.

Not good for them.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported on Tuesday that two veterans were also not permitted to enter a Halifax news conference that was held last Friday.

So in this story, Conservatives offended visible minority, student, and veterans.

But I'm sure tomorrow new polls will be released showing Harper is more popular.

Court won't hear Greens' challenge before debates

Umm, that is stupid. You wait until election called to say that greens are not welcome, and then won't hear their case until after the live debates?

Tunley said May created her own urgency by waiting for the election call to plead her case, with the CRTC rule in place since 1995.

Ok, but she was included in 2008 debate, got more votes and now she's not allowed in? If CRTC did not explicitly say after 2008 election they would not be welcome in next election, then no problem.

[athanasios]

They are already heading for Libya:

Canadian navy frigate heads to Libya

... It's mission, for now, is to help with evacuations and humanitarian aid, but the warship's commander says its crew is well trained for numerous kinds of missions...

[Lord J]

Andrew, sorry I didn't elaborate: yes, we're looking at moving to Canada and becoming citizens. The simple fact of the matter is that the US is kind of like a sinking ship and my Chinese zodiac is the Rat. I'm sure that Canadian success is linked to the US, but it at least provides a kind of buffer to what's going to become a black hole.

Of course, maybe I'm wrong and the country will elect a Republican that will dismantle the government and somehow that will increase everyone's living condition. Maybe the Islamic Brotherhood will stage a coup and conquer the US, establishing a harsh, but fair dictatorship resulting in the sort of (relatively) enlightened rule we saw in Spain about 500 years ago, though I'm doubtful ;) And maybe the workers will rise up and overthrow their machine overlords, setting new machines in their place.

I think mostly my wife and I are still young enough to want to see the world and aren't really tied to any one land.

Concerning the Minister of State for Science and Technology: not to start a debate, but it doesn't matter what he believes. He could believe that we're all brains in a vat, or the dreams of Nyarlathotep. What matters is his understanding of science, and unlike ID, natural selection is supported by present findings. I think that's what's so messed up about the idea that scientists "believe" in natural selection. Science is necessarily agnostic: there is either evidence for a certain worldview or there is not.

EDIT: Actually, sorry about that. It does matter what the Minister believes. If he is an elected representative, his beliefs should be the average of his voters. If he has no policy-affecting power, his beliefs should be irrelevant. If he is appointed, and can make policy decisions, his beliefs will be part of his policy, which could reflect poorly on him as a member of the scientific community if the community is atheistic.

[ErasOmnius]

Yeah, moving to Canada would be cool. Get away from the problems of SE Michigan, which has the 2nd highest crime rate in North America and the highest unemployment rate in The Western World.

One crosses the Ambassador Bridge to Nirvana...and Windsor.

[ErasOmnius]

Hate to double post, but I'm not sure where others are:

Andrew, I have convinced my daughter's boyfriend's parents [who are Canadian citizens] to vote Green in the Election in a few weeks.

They said that in their part of London [where they are registered to vote, even though they live part of the time in the States], the Liberal candidate usually wins anyway.

[Andrew]

The great thing about Canadian Federal politics with regards to public funding is that if you vote for someone you like, even if you know they are guaranteed to lose, the party still gets $2 per vote. Unlike US where the candidate gets nothing per vote. So every extra vote helps the the small guys for future elections.

Don't normally vote because unhappy with major parties (think your vote is worthless?)? Screw them both by voting for a party that won't win. Creates competition.

I'm not sure what happens to vote subsidy if someone is running as an independent. Do they get the $? Hmm, after some googling, unregistered parties, and independents do not get subsidy. website doesn't like subsidy as it is a tax on democracy...

Elizabeth May was on The National last night. Really good speaker. Even mentioned that in last election live debates that Harper cheated as he had taken notes (printed by computer) with him which was not allowed. She noticed during debate this but did not mention it.

Video of the interview - 10min. cheating discussion at last 1/4 of interview.

Elizabeth May - "Because Mr. Harper clearly needs his notes". I LOL when she says that.

[ErasOmnius]

I feel good. I have gotten the Green Party 7 votes so far, or $14. 5 in Windsor, 2 in the burbs of London. I guess voting doesn't really matter in the 3 afore-mentioned districts, since the voters believe that their incumbent is going to be re-elected anyway.

FYI--I probably don't agree with the Green Party at all. I am not sure what their platform is. It's more of a rabble-rousing/semi-joke thing for me.

As far as districts changing hands or parties. We have the same situation in the USA. Districts usually only change hands [not Parties] in the Primaries, when someone in the same Party feels like taking on an incumbent.

[Andrew]

Auditor's draft report alleges Tories misspent G8 funds

Possibly illegal.

The findings are contained in a confidential report Sheila Fraser was to have tabled in Parliament on April 5.

The report was put on ice when the Harper government was defeated and is not due to be released until after the May 2 election.

Well there you have it folks, the reason Harper wanted an election. Did not want this corruption to appear until after he had election.

The G8 cost us $1 billion. Big waste of money. Then there was the kidnappings in Toronto by police of protestors.

This should be big ammo for the opposition parties during English debate tomorrow night.

French debate moved to Wednesday because of hockey game Thursday (Montreal vs Boston). That's how serious we take hockey in Canada. :P

There should be streaming video of the debates for anyone wanting to see Canadian political debates. I'll probably post a link.

EDIT:

Harper must reveal G8 report before debates: BQ

Bloc wants report revealed before debate tomorrow night. Conservatives now want it released as well.

Green party had a tv debate of her own Sunday night. darn i missed that.

30min

Looking at where Elizabeth May is running, it will be difficult to win. link. Last election green got 10% of votes. She'd need to get around 7,000 votes from each Lib/Cons voters in order to win. Whereas when she ran in Nova Scotia last election she only needed 3000 conservatives votes to win.

EDIT:

Tories used praise for Liberals to defend summit costs: Fraser

Conservatives misquoted auditor general. They took something positive she said about 9/11 Liberal spending, and used it to defend G8 meeting last year.

Instead, she said, the Conservatives inserted an 2010 comment she made during a CBC News interview on security spending by a previous Liberal government after the 9/11 terrorist attacks a decade ago.

When the government was defeated last month, the committee had just finished studying the more than $1.2 billion the Harper government spent on the three-day summits held in Toronto and in Muskoka cottage country to the north of the city.

$1.2 billion for 3 days.

The Canadian Press reports that a draft copy of that audit slams the Conservatives for spending close to $50 million on dubious summit projects completely unrelated to the international events, and misleading Parliament in the process.

Wait, does this mean Harper government can be found in contempt again?

[Andrew]

Watch Debate Live online Starts at 7PM EST. 15 minutes from original time of this post. alternate live link

Conservatives fattened salaries of aides: report

In one case, a senior aide's salary was raised to $190,000 — $35,000 more than the maximum rate.

Harper met ex-aide Carson's lover at 24 Sussex party

Disgraced former Stephen Harper aide Bruce Carson brought a reported ex-prostitute and money-launderer to 24 Sussex Drive to meet with the prime minister and his wife during a party at the official residence, the Conservatives have confirmed.

[ErasOmnius]

Over a billion dollars! Let's hope that Harper goes bye-bye in early May.

[Andrew]

Guergis questions land on campaign trail

This was a big news item 1 year ago as she was a cabinet minister. And now new info has surfaced. RCMP report released learned that allegations against her were false with no evidence. Harper won't even speak her name and she has not gotten any apology. Conservatives threw her out of cabinet position, out of caucus, out of the party all based on a private investigator claims and he had no proof at all. And she was pregnant at the time, so more sympathy there.

Just watched news conference and she was crying on tv, gave long speech/answer questions. I'd say she's a guaranteed win in that district, and this should hurt the conservatives greatly. Hopefully she remains independent until Harper no longer leader (which she hinted at).

EDIT:

U of Guelph ballots valid: Elections Canada

Students held a vote. Conservative official tried to take the ballot box and have the votes disqualified.

[ErasOmnius]

Andrew, that's a lot of good info.

What do you think of this hydroelectric power plant project?

[Andrew]

Andrew, that's a lot of good info.

What do you think of this hydroelectric power plant project?

Heh, the image of Layton with bridge in background was taken near where I live. Looking out window as I type this I can see bridge.

In this article no mention of power cable in bridge (behind Layton) which is a hot topic in provincial politics.

Eventually we do need a power cable inside of bridge. It makes a lot more sense than underwater cables (easier to keep safe/maintain). Maybe 4 years ago a ship dropped anchor and damaged cable cutting power to 1/2 of our province. One of the 2 underwater power cables is just down the road from me.

As for the hydro plant in Labrador, I don't know much about it. All I know is that Quebec was the usual douchebag selves and made it difficult to have transmission lines there. So I think Atlantic Canada said "screw you" and now wants their own cable to bypass Quebec. Another hot topic in NB with gov trying to sell gov owned power company to Quebec gov made that government get overthrown in election.

One thing about transmission lines in our province is that they built new ones to export wind power to USA. Which not too many were happy about. Why taxpayer pay for lines for a for profit electric company so they can export wind electricity to USA instead of selling it to us here? Also we buy I think 80% of our electricity from a nuke plant in New Brunswick. So we export electricity we create and import it which makes no sense. Of course wind can't power everything here (if no wind), but when it is generating we might as well consume it here.

It was nice when our power did fail couple months ago and it was windy out so wind power had enough to power about 1/2 of those without power.

PEI gov announced electric rate costs would decrease 6 months ago(?), but in order to do this they took on a bunch of the power companies debt. It was mostly a move to buy votes, while not actually helping anyone. Just like when they announced they would decrease gas taxes (which they did), didn't solve any problems and only hurt their revenues so more debt. But it bought a lot of votes for people who only see headlines and too dumb to know it doesn't make a difference.

I suppose I'm in favor of a cable from Labrador->NFLD->NS->NB->PEI. The only concern I'd have is how easy would it be to fix if it got damaged in the ocean. It would have been nice (and cheaper theoretically) to have going over land through Quebec, but since they are out of the picture I guess underwater cable is only option. and if they were going to put lines going from Labrador all the way to St. John's NFLD, then not much further to add a link going to Cape Breton in NS.

I drew a quick picture of what transmission lines would probably look like.

[ErasOmnius]

Thanks for the info. Now I understand this better.

New issue, the second Bridge Link to Windsor, which is the number 1 issue in SE Michigan right now. Many people are trying to get clarification from the current what-may-be-corrupt [you would know more about Mr Harper than I would] Canadian administration's promise of a $550 million loan to fund the second Detroit-Windsor Bridge.

According to this clip from Parliament, there is no such money and it is a big hoax. That would be a shame, since Michigan is completely broke, and has no extra money to build anything. This article makes it sound like it is a running joke.

If it is true, and the half billion-plus dollars are not a true offer, then it sounds like it's time for a change in Ottawa.

Now look at the this, the Harper government wants to put a nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron, right across the water from Michigan. I find it hard to believe that the Government of Canada can't find a better spot for this. Maybe up in northern British Columbia, where nobody lives. Certainly not 150 miles from the 5 million people of Metro Detroit, or 150 miles from the 4 million people of Metro Toronto/Hamilton!

[Mr.Atreides]

I cant vote yet, but I know my parents and grand parents are voting NDP; personaly I would also vote for NDP.

I've met jack layton before, I waved to him on my way to school a few years back, he seems like a good leader, plus im more lefy wing anyway.

[ErasOmnius]

It looks like the easiest way to stay in power in Canada is to keep your opponents attacking each other. Hearkens back to the days of the Byzantine Greek Empire/

[athanasios]

But sometimes the outcome can be disastrous.

[ErasOmnius]

Here's another article about the same phenom, the NDP(Socialist?) Party surging.

[athanasios]

I foresee that NDP will be the real winner of the elections.

[ErasOmnius]

This was on local Detroit and Windsor media this week. That the Canadian Prime Minister visited SW Ontario

.

Look at this comment from Detroit's News Station about the Canadian Election