So Canada is having it's own little federal election eh? How quaint
 

How cute.

Nevermind the fact that it will take all of 6 weeks to complete, a mere couple of hours to count the ballots and disclose the results.

What, this piddly little so-called "nation" to the north of the big bad Eagle thinks they are showing anyone up? Yeah, so what if in the USA it takes them a full year (or is it two?) to decide who's even running for president and then another three months to "campaign" (as in dig up dirt and sling a nice even mix of mud and poo at the other side) before it's time to actually go to the polls. Then finally it's election time, at which point the votes will be counted and the winner declared based on...wait, NOT the popular vote but via the indirect method of voting called the electoral college. Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, U.S. citizens cast votes for electors. Electors are technically free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, but in practice pledge to vote for specific candidates.

Much superior way of electing one's leaders than this silly Canadian "six week campaign plus the 1-2 hour bush league way of tallying to figure out who has the most votes" thing. PFFT! Probably only costs 1/1000th of what a typical US election costs. Canadians, I tell you. :D

Anyway it seems there's a [tee hee] little story in this election in Canada. Apparently their version of the Conservative party won a minority government last time, and has called this election in order to try and win a majority. The Libs have a new front man, some guy named Stephane Dion that nobody likes, and there's another party called the "New Democrats" (who never win) led by Jack Layton. Um...what did they do to the old democrats? Nevermind, you don't want to know. What's important, in a small mickey mouse kind of way, is that these three are about to square off along with a handful of also-ran parties like the "Green" party (lol) and a few others no one can remember until they see them on the ballot. Why would any country need more than two parties? Silly silly Canadians. :1orglaugh

Will it be that this Steven Harper guy (the current Prime Minister) gets his majority, or is he dreaming and just wasting taxpayer's money only to get the same minority handed back to him? (effectively telling him that Canada has SOME confidence in him, but not THAT much) Time will tell.

Anyway, while those crazy canucks sit up in their igloos and laugh at the convoluted long-winded pompous way the US drags out their year of endless campaigning, conventioning, media-circusing etc, those in the US (the ones who realize Canada even has elections) are having a good chuckle at the cute Canadians who are again doing the monkey see - monkey do thing that they always do. "We have an election, they have to have an election"... lol.

Watch, pretty soon now they'll even be having their Thanksgiving, a month before the US does, and even THAT they copied.

Bastards!

If they didn't squawk about it on message boards no one would even know they were even having an election up there. Isn't the tundra too frozen, how do they put up yard signs? :winkwink:

God bless Americah, 'n Canada too. :thumbsup

Good post!

Stephane Dion is really hated here in Quebec... He'll beat the all time record of low percentage of vote... Same for the Bloc.. a lot of people are now questionning their existence... Seems like the Harper team will win more county than the last one...

I want to see how Ontario are going to vote: they've always been libs but voting for Stephane Dion is probably going have them think twice before they put the X where their fathers and their father's fathers have always put it...

I'll leave my own position out of this thread since it brings nothing to the debate!

It must really throw the US for a loop that we have options. Not choices. Options.

We can pick from a bunch of people. Liberals, democrats, green, bloc, reform... they've all held their own during one election or another.

Hell, we even have freedom parties and communist parties and a "Party for People with Special Needs". These ones don't usually do so well.

But when all is said and done, we end up with a mish mash of political views and opinions all sitting together passing laws and making decisions.

The US has.... 2. Ok, I know there are some other "independents" and such, but seriously. Every election it comes down to a choice. Is this guy less evil than this guy or is this guy less evil than the other guy?? Which do I choose? I know, the same one I always vote for, I'm sure he will do the same stuff all his predecessors did.

And you end up with a room full of 2 groups of people who really... when there's only 2 groups, obviously the bigger one wins. There's no mish mash, no mixed views.

It's truly bizarre what us crazy Canadians will do.

Yea Dion is a lost cause.. God knows why they picked him. Problem continues that Harper really does seem to be in the best position possible for PM, not sure what i'll be doing

A few questions/comments

Canadians don't actually elect a prime minister. Correct? You elect a party?

Stuart, you mentioned that you can pick from a bunch of parties but isn't it true that nearly every Canadian federal election ends with the liberals or progressive conservatives winning? The US has a lot more than just republicans and democrats. There are independents, libertarians, green party, Constitution party and so on but yeah, in the end just a few dominate. Isn't it the same way in Canada?

Yeah, those two always win... which is pretty stupid, but it's very rarely as close to 50/50 as it tends to be in the US. Our smaller parties tend to have decent showings in the elections which brings closer to a healthier mix (in my opinion).

For example, from 1993:
"Lucien Bouchard's separatist Bloc Québécois become the official opposition, and the right-wing Reform Party, led by Preston Manning, becomes the third party. Meanwhile Audrey McLaughlin's New Democrats and Campbell's Progressive Conservatives both have their worst electoral results ever, with 9 and 2 seats, respectively."

The liberals won that one, but 2 other parties were virtually power houses as they could out number the liberals should they ever choose to.
And the conservatives? They didn't have much of a voice.

So while it's true that we primarily stick to 2 parties as leaders, we divvy up their powers and spread out the "thinking" to a lot more parties once they have to decide on anything.

We vote for an MP (member of parliament). The party who gets the most MPs elected gets to form the government. The leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister.

Only two parties in Canada have ever formed the government - the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party (formerly Progressive Conservatives before merging with the Canadian Alliance (formerly Reform Party)).

Two other minor parties always get MPs elected, but never enough to win - the New Democrat Party, and the Bloc Quebecois (Quebec only separatist party).

Then there are a ton of fringe parties that run but never get anyone elected - the Green Party, Marijuana Party, Communist Party, and a bunch of others. There are also independents who don't belong to any party and some have even been elected before. Anybody can get their name on the ballot if they want to run.

I can't wait to vote for Harper. Guy is fantastic.

I'm still waiting for verified sources showing how crappy he is, like so many idiot brain-frozen canucks say he is. Send me some proof, I want to see what he has done that's so awful.

While you're waiting why not go ahead and list all the reasons why you think Harper is fantastic? You know, just for discussion's sake.


And I thought you hated Canada and won't ever live here again. Why do you continue to vote?

To piss off at least one feverant liberal/ndper. :)
Who gives a fuck why I think that - and why I never want to live there again. Mind your own business. Pesky little fucker.

I'd like to know what Harper has done that's been great as well... Seriously.. I haven't followed things too much but from what I HAVE seen, he's ridden the coat tails of probably a decade and a half of hard decisions and policies made and undertaken by the liberal party to get our spending under control and reduce our debt... I'm definately not a hardcore liberal and they did a lot of shit wrong as well, but they did what was needed.. Unlike all the sheep, I actually am perfectly willing to support leaders that increase taxes when it's required to keep the country healthy. I should also note that I give credit to the hated Mulrooney for having the balls to get the GST in and free trade signed.. Both of those were also critical to bringing about the situation Canada is in now. And yes, neither was perfect either but nothing ever is.

As a result of those leaders, Harper gets too look good overseeing a good economy, budget etc... Harper gets to also cut the GST as a result and make himself look good to all the morons out there... I truly hate that decision as it was purely political and not in the best interest of the country.. what SHOULD have occured was keeping the GST the same and opening the coffers to reduce some taxes but far more importantly, put real money back into education, healthcare and other social services etc. I do support what he's doing with our military and him keeping us in Afganistan.

Spent over 5 billion $$$ to be at war in Afghanistan ...

Remember, only vote consverative if you want them to win a majority. I think Harper is the best of the choices but I won't be voting for him as I don't want a conservative majority.

And what's the problem with that? We invaded it and kicked out the Taliban along with everyone else... Although I would have been strung up at the time for voicing my opinion, I could see that that decision was primarily being made in outrage over 9/11 by the entire world... I could completely understand and "accept" the decision that we made... I firmly believe in taking repsonsiblity for your actions.. "We" were part of the world that broke it and so now we better fucking stay to help fix it... Otherwise we're no better than the Americans...

are you high or what .... ???


Who kicked what ????

What is it of our business to tell the Afghans how they should live ?


Funny how when the Soviets were there, they were criminals ...

Clueless :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

This is why I am not voting Bloc Québécois this time, but Liberal ... to try to keep the right wing Crusaders as a minority gov.

Do you have anything intelligent to say? Are you confusing Afganistan with Iraq?

Nope, I am not Bush .... And we are not in Iraq, dummy ... so we couldn't have spent any $$$$. And Soviets were never in Iraq...
Learn to read , dummy!

Tell me what the fuck are WE doing in Afghanistan .... Why are Canadians dying ?

Simple questions.

well, jtf-2 is in iraq at times.. and the aspect of the taliban blowing up the monuments alone is worth us being there

WE approved of, supported and contributed to the invasion of Afganistan to destroy Al-Qaeda and "get" Bin Laden. In the process, the Taliban were removed from power creating a vaccum... WE therefore must accept some of the responsibilty in "fixing" what WE helped to break... Keep in mind that it was the liberals that authorized and approved of all of this at the time.

The Conservative party will take it again no question, Dion is a fucking idiot. Nobody wants to see him as Prime Minister. harper might just take his majority government this time. It was probably a good move on the Conservative's end. Everyboy laughs at the NDP and says they will never win, but fact is that they do have themselves a few little strongholds. I think you'll continue to see them grower stronger.

Being the responsible voter I am, I'm just going to get baked and vote for whatever Green party candidate there is running for the fuck of it as always...

Canadians on exchange can end up in Iraq, as they did in this case, when the U.S. unit they have been assigned to is sent by U.S. authorities to Iraq. Under the terms of the Canada-U.S. officer exchange program, the participating officers essentially become part of the other country's military.



You are kidding, right .... Do you have any idea how many cultural sites have been destroyed by the USA in Iraq ...( Babylon's garden, as of one ). So we would go to war against the USA for that destruction ????

And I will pass on Israel ... because it is a no-no subject here.

Countries should mind their own business, and wage war on attackers... not presumed ones ....

Costs less, but if you have three elections in four years, it adds up. Canadians, I tell you :upsidedow

ha ha ha.. yeah I did that last time... turns out that my area was very close, came down to less than 1,000 votes I think.. So I won't be throwing my vote away again.

:thumbsup

You mean you voted Bloc Quebecois last time? Talk about fucking Crusaders. :1orglaugh

If too many people think like you do the Libtards just might get a minority government and then they will promptly shove their retarded carbon tax up all of our asses. Be careful what you wish for.

Unless the NDP were to get a lot of seats the Liberals wouldn't be able to pass much of anything with a minority.

Say what you want about us Ker-Nadians, eh?... at least we never 'lected ol' George Dubya!

The Bloc would vote with them too for a carbon tax - especially since there is sure to be a kickback scheme for Quebec built in. :Oh crap

No but but we elected Cretin for 12+ years. That's nothing to be proud of.

It was the Liberal gov't that initially sent Canadian troops in to Afghanistan.

Harper inherited the mess and has since done the right thing by increasing military spending.

If the Liberals were still handling it, our lads would still be outfitted in green camo (great for desert warfare, huh), outdated weaponry and having to piggyback rides on military transports from other countries.

Someone Canadian tell me who to vote for... I can't stand any of them.

Harper extended by many years, against the general population wish, that ' mission' ... as well as transformed it in a combat operation.

and this extension after the already previous one:

But for those who like war for the sake of war , knock yourself out ( or move to a war driven country; should be easy to find ) :thumbsup

Our ' lads ' would be back home with their family...

But yes, Harper has done real good for them ...

Just in time for the end of the ' mission ' ....:thumbsup

You're in a pissy mood boy. Thundershits bothering you again? Mine are mostly under control of late, with the odd flair-up. Haven't clogged my toilet in a while either.

By the way, of the two of us, YOU are the littler pesky fucker. Trust me. :D

He imposed the National Child Benefit ($1200.00 a year for every child under 6) I think it was great reducing the GST (so what if he couldnt go golfing as much). As for the Mulroney deboccle, it was real great for him to push to sell our resources just so we can buy them back. It's a pain in my ass to watch gas prices rise and yet we make the shit ourselves.

I'm voting Harper for a few reasons.

McGuinty in Ontario and Dion are already talking gun bans again. There has been a handgun registry for 60 years. What does it take for these idiots to realize the majority of handgun crime is committed by illegal guns brought in from the US? And Dion has a hardon for certain military rifles, also highly restricted already. If they want more gun control then require some sort of mental evaluation before giving someone a restricted license.

Secondly, Dion wants to increase the price of fuel with his green tax, on everything from the gas in our cars to what we heat our homes with. Thankfully, this is what will cost him the election.

Third, I've seen how much my taxes have increased from McGuinty in Ontario with our stupid health tax, so the liberals can go pound salt.

Simple answers: Canada went into Afghanistan along with US coalition forces whose purpose was to oust the Taliban. That was for the most part accomplished back then, at which time Canadian forces stayed on in their usual role as a peacekeeping force. That was our original mandate.

Of course since then Iraq has been invaded, the focus of the US military is mostly there, and the Taliban have rallied and are fighting back. Which means a lot of deaths and injuries to our soldiers over there.

I think the peacekeeping mandate is just and correct, we aren't there to "tell anyone how to live" or anything, we're there to keep the peace while that country has a chance to rebuild itself, just as we've done in several other countries around the world.

i want to make my pilgrimage to the Great Northern Land of Canadia (purpose) one day, sounds like a nice place.

It's more than that that will cost him the election. I heard on the news recently that he (Dion) while in Calgary I believe, was asked what his thoughts were on car pooling.

He didn't seem to know what car pooling was.

:disgust

Thanks for answering my questions. So are you saying that even though there are two political powers which tend to win the overall election the other parties are more represented and have a greater voice in Canadian government than the smaller parties do here in the US? (libertarian, green party, constitution party and so on)

And if so, how are they represented and how and where are their voices being heard? Parliament?

I see now you answered my question I just asked above. So how many MPs are there and how many NON Conservative or Liberal MPs are there?

vote with a bullet

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fJF547Mv62A

Oh that is a different party than the Conservatives? "Progressive Conservatives"?

Canadian forces must really suck to have lost 97 soldiers having played what has been a very small role in most of the war.

For someone with a small brain, it can seem as a small role ....

Now, put your brain to rest before it overloads.

The "lesser" parties here, especially the NDP, when they win seats in parlaiment (and they do) they can serve to bring a kind of balance to government. They can actually side with one of the other parties in order to create a majority when certain issues are being decided, for example.

We basically have a three party system here along with a good handful of other lesser parties, while the US basically has a two-party system for all intents and purposes, the lesser parties being relatively immaterial.


Btw I would have loved to see Jesse Ventura in this election as an independant/libertarian candidate, maybe with Ron Paul as his VP running mate. Paul seems to have a small but loyal group of voters in his camp but he just doesn't have what it takes to win enough votes on his own. I'm not saying Ventura does either but he certainly cuts a wider swath than many, and he's a hell of a speaker.

Actually those in-the-know know that of the forces we do have those soldiers are among the best trained in the world.

Of course those who aren't in the know will sit and snicker over that, preferring to wallow in the crapulence of their own ignorance. To each their own I say. :D

Personally I think the New Democrat's should have the shot at the power and get the chance to fuck things up just like the other 2 have alwasy done.
but I know that won't happen.

Canada has spent much of the time in afghanistan as a presence rather than a fighting force, you are denying that?

You have taken heavy losses considering the role that has been played, you could compare to other nations and wonder why your losses are as high as they are.

As opposed to say... 4000 Americans in Iraq?

Anyway, it's quaint how you Americans say "thanks for the help". Makes other countries want to go out there and fight right along side you some more. Next time someone bombs your country, and you ask for our help, but sure to mock us again. Reminds us of who we're dealing with :thumbsup