I see the “Biebs” got dressed up for the occasion…
We had the very same discussion in the US in 2000. It made no difference.
I think you mean 2004?
I’m holding out hope that we manage to boot these maniacs. But based on the number of people I’m seeing still talking about the fucking niqab/Syrian refugee issue (yay, xenophobia!), I feel like the odds of that are ever dwindling.
While they say otherwise, they have totally mismanaged the economy. Especially, their favourite fossil fuel resource.
Fine, if we put all our eggs in the oil basket why not do what Norway has done and build up a fund with it. Alberta’s Heritage fund (started in 1975 by Peter Lougheed) is around $16 billion and hasn’t been added to since the mid 90s. Norway started its sovereign wealth fund in 1992 and it is now nearly one trillion $, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. Even tiny East Timor has done better with its oil resource than Alberta.
While it is ironic for a supposedly free market party to be picking winners, the Conservatives have bent over backwards for big oil meanwhile thanks to the petrodollar which moved in lock-step with oil prices manufacturing jobs moved south. (Canadian manufacturing peaked in 2002 with a 67 cent loonie and as the dollar went up at least 300,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. Now the lower dollar does help manufacturing jobs return, but if a plant closes and the continuity and skills are lost it is harder for those jobs to come back. So while Alberta did really well in those years, the rest of Canada not so much. The problem with the oil resource though is that because of the free trade agreement Canada cannot charge more for its oil in the US than in Canada, but could get a lot more on the world market - hence the pipelines. However for years Canadian crude was shipped to Cushing Oklahoma and the refineries there were at capacity and paid a lot less for Canadian crude (something like $40 per barrel discount, which cost Canadian producers billions per month). And yet no one suggested building more refineries in Canada. Suncor for instance has its own refinery and gets a lot more for its oil than First Natural Resources.
Harper and the Conservatives like to take credit for Canada weathering the financial storm in 2008 better than most G7 but then this year Canada was the only G7 in recession and it was “because of global conditions outside our control”. In fact Canada did well in 2008 because former Prime Minister Paul Martin did not allow the big banks to merge and required stringent mortgage rules - and in the 90s as Finance Minister he paid down the deficit. Harper in contrast was about to de-regulate banking similar to the US system but in the summer of 2008 had to backtrack for obvious reasons.
there are plenty of other things, muzzling scientists, election shenanigans (robo-calling supporters of other parties and directing them to vote in non-existent voting stations)
cutting old age security -moving it back another 2 years to 67 -without ever mentioning this before the last election.
Reducing the waterways protection act from thousands to a handful of lakes - (all in the name of pipelines),
cutting back scientific research stations, destroying scientific data libraries (because his party doesn’t believe in climate change).
Honestly, I’m counting on the usual trend of kicking either party out after 3 terms, but really the problem is the center left vote is split between the NDP and the Liberals so if Harper does win a fourth term the NDP and Liberals should seriously consider merging.
”Every terrible thing Canada’s Stephen Harper government has done in the past four years"
I like how BB chose the Bieber photo as THE represention of Harper’s government’s misdeeds. Very clever.
Into what?
A party that represents more than half of Canadians?
It must have been a tough call between that one and the Chad Kroeger one.
No, I meant Bush v Gore. After four years of corruption and mismanagement, we reelected Bush just in time for 9/11.
OK, then they would have to blend ideologies then. …which is kind of weird.
Ha! That makes me think of the Southpark movie when the Canadian Prime Minister tells the American interviewer that Canada has apologized for Bryan Adams on multiple times. If only Canada truly cared for other countries they’d revoke Bieber’s passport. But I can understand why they’d want him traveling.
In many parliamentary democracies it’s actually pretty normal for parties that agree on many things to form a coalition, where they compromise to get those things done. That way you can have a multi-party system and still not worry as much about the interests of the majority vanishing through vote-splitting.
In fact, I’d say compromises of this type often reflect the populace better than picking any party would. I can remember a residence taking a vote on when quiet hours should begin. I forget what won, but most people voted for 9 PM or 11 PM, so it was one of those. Barely anyone went for 10 PM, but it was obvious it would have satisfied the most people.
For Canada I gather the NDP have been interested in a coalition, but the Liberals were not, even though they both want many similar things. So now neither has been getting them at all, and the Conservatives get to decide everything – or really the Reform, who took them over despite their own ideological differences.
Why anybody would think this is a better way to represent the people, I have no idea.
Y’all made him a star! Not us! That’s on you guys! He’s yours now! No takebacks!
Politics isn’t about representing anything but who you see on the T. V.
Bit sad really.
You are forgetting about Celine Dion.
As much as a normal lefty would like to see something like this happen, it ain’t. Although sometimes their proposed policies may look similar, the Liberals and the NDP really come from quite different places. The NDP tend to really value social justice and government intervention, while the Liberals tend to favour neo-liberal economics. Those are just fundamental differences between the parties and their not ever going to come together, even though they tend to act similarly on non-economic issues.
Vote splitting is terrible and undemocratic. Which is why if the Conservatives do not form a government, we need to push for electoral reform (especially since the other two parties promised that they would do something).
To beat a dead horse, this is why we need electoral reform.
Damn Stephen Harper for Justin Bieber … Oh and Ted Cruz too. Please take both of them back.
