Canada 2015 Election

[deja vu]

This post is to introduce you to the players in this election run.


Conservative Leader and PM(Prime Minister of Canada) Stephen Harper -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper

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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Trudeau

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NDP (New Democratic Party) Leader Thomas Mulcair -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mulcair

~~~

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_May

[CielOnTap]

Bloc Quebecois leader, Gilles Duceppe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Duceppe
http://www.blocquebecois.org/gilles-duceppe/biographie/
You may need to use an online translator to get an approximate English translation.

Then there are the leaders of other, smaller parties:

Libertarian Party of Canada leader, Tim Moen
https://www.libertarian.ca/tim-moen/

Elections Canada has a list of eligible political parties for the 2015 Election: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e
You can also see which parties cannot run in this election and others that could be eligible.

It would be worthwhile to check if your local riding's advance voting days are shown. For my riding, that advance vote period occurs during the long Thanksgiving weekend, one week before the actual election day.

[signs]

Ciel you posted about Gilles Duceppe and Libertarian Party of Canada leader, Tim Moen. I know ZERO about Tim Moen, have never heard of him before. As for Duceppe, hard to really get to know the person since only Quebecers can vote for him and only shows up for the French Debate and might make one appearance at the last English Debate. Seems likeable enough, but since most of the country can not vote for him, we tend to ignore anything he says.

My take on the four leaders in the running for the big chair -

PM Harper - Conservative

First off, one can only pray that Stephen Harper does not get re-elected. We can not survive another year with that man as PM. The destruction he has caused to Vets and the Military, Seniors, Poor, the Environment, our Oceans and so on will not be undone overnight as the list is very long. I wonder how much paperwork he will shred after losing his seat? Happened when the Conservatives lost their hold on Alberta a few months ago, so what is stopping him from doing it as well. I would be shocked if he didn't, so his dirty secrets and bad deals will not see the light of day.

He doesn't blink an eye when he robs the Vets of 1.1 billion from their yearly budget and gives back 222 million over 50 years. That is mostly for offices and staff, little for those that desperately need help now. Doesn't blink when he takes the Vets to court in B.C. to rob them of their pensions in a case going back to when he took over the PM's office. Doesn't blink when in that case he files papers stating that he should NOT be held responsible for any promises made in any of his speeches or political announcement. Doesn't blink while swearing we are not in a recession, then when pushed, finally admits it.

Loves a dictatorship where even peaceful protesting is forbidden. Bill C-51 has secret arms of CSIS and the RCMP mingling among them taking information and looking for any reason to arrest them even if they started the problem and made it escalate.

C-51 is the most dangerous bill he has ever passed, but he doesn't care that we have secret police milling among us, doesn't care about the removal of democratic rights. Right from the start, voters thought he had a secret agenda and they were right, 9 years of it thanks to Alberta, Ontario and parts of Quebec voting him in, the rest of us just practice marking the X by a name for the fun of it. Has no impact on who sits in the big chair, it's already been decided before polls even close.

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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, son of former PM Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Seems like a decent young man, easy to talk to, pretty much an open book, UNTIL he voted in favour of C-51. Before that vote the upcoming election was pretty much his to win or lose, after the vote, not so much. Even with promises of checks and balances to make it a democratic bill, no one is listening. The majority of the country hates that bill, they have made that crystal clear, yet he voted for it anyways.

In his favor he has promised to reopen Coast Gaurd offices closed on the West Coast, to strengthen the environmental protections removed by Harper, to balance the books, but will take time when you throw in the fact he would have so much to undo from Harpers damage to the country, but I believe he would keep that promise. To help rebuild the middle class that is disappearing fast under Harper, help the poor in a way that will truly help them, not keep them there. I haven't heard much about his plans for the military, except to undo what Harper has done. Trudeau is promising the moon, but falling flat on any details, except for committees and an 18 month timeline.

He seems genuine, is very approachable and actually welcomes all to town hall meetings, the opposite of the Harper camp to only allow Conservative voters and staffers in, no one else.

~~~

Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair (NDP - New Democratic Party)

Decent enough man, certainly makes his mark going after Harper and the Conservatives. He is not afraid to speak his mind, doesn't wait to see if he should speak or not. That is the biggest difference between him and Trudeau. Trudeau seems to favor more committees and up to 18 months to make a decision when in the big chair. The voters don't want to waste any more time or money, they want to be heard and while Harper has, Mulcair seems to have the nations pulse. He is making it clear he will immediately being the job of undoing what Harper has destroyed, no 18 months to discuss before doing a thing.

He wants to reopen the Coast Guard stations, bring back Canada Posts home delivery, strengthen the military, by starting with what Harper stole from their budget, their pensions, and their health. Bring back the respect Government should have for them and their sacrifices. To make child care spaces more affordable for families, help the middle class and poor and stop the benefits to the rich, like the universal child benefit checks that went out. Mulcair has spoken out against it, but wont receive any since his kids are grown. He feels the middle class and poor need that help, the rich do not. No more tax breaks for the rich and corporations and penalizing the rest. Trudeau has three young children and has given his check and will give future checks to a charity working with women and children in need. Done a good job of getting his message out and highlighting all that is wrong with the current government and how he would do things differently.

~~~

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

That is one tough lady and not afraid to show it. Conservatives hate her, the rest of the country loves her for speaking her mind, holding Harpers feet to the fire, and ont afraid to call him out or any other party leader.

She knows her stuff, does her homework, which explains why the men especially Harper are terrified to have her at all of the TV debates. She had to take them to court to get in during the last election and while she made it into the first one this time round, she will need the courts to allow her into the rest. Harper is pulling every string he can to keep her out, even the "Has only one seat" in the house and that is not enough to get in.

Hypocritacal when you consider the man Harper worships, one Preston Manning got into all of the debates in his time and he was the "One seat" in the house just like Ms. May.

While she is hugely popular with voters, she wont make it to the PM chair, just can't see that happening,. Not enough voters will vote green because this time round the objective is to get rid of Harper, send him packing back to Alberta. That is if they will have him after dumping the Conservatives after 40 years of rule.

She is great at fact checking, catching the lies and getting the information out to the public, very likeable, and wont back down from the old boys club. She is good for Canada and will probably in office for a long time to come.

[CielOnTap]

There's some online chatter about a cat registering for a Montreal riding. Cats have it over other species in terms of getting nominated to municipal or other electoral posts.

[yukon]

Canada scores poorly among developed countries in providing public pensions to seniors, according to an internal analysis of retirement income by the federal government.

And voluntary tax-free savings accounts or TFSAs, introduced by the Harper Conservatives in 2009, are so far unproven as a retirement solution and are largely geared to the wealthy. Those are some highlights of a broad review of Canada's retirement income system ordered by the Privy Council Office and completed in March this year by the Finance Department, with input from several other departments.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/documen ... -1.3198157

Think the cat would do a better job than Harper. An ostrich with his head in the sand, so he can't hear the majority yell at him while his rich buddies are smiling all
the way to the bank.

[southernfry]

Speaking of heads in the sands, the Harper government wishes it could do that now.

This one family has the Harper government on damage control and trying to blame ISIS for the problems overseas with the mass exodus of people looking for a safe haven. Members of the family live in Canada and are angry as are all Canadians over the road blocks Harper has put up for all refugees. Too bad he didn't do the same with TFW's (temporary foreign workers). Their red tape is almost non existant despite Canadians wanting a tightening of the rules. Instead the minister went on a CBC show "Power and Politics" and attacked the show and all media in general for ignoring the subject and that he has never been on the show to discuss it. No one is feeling sorry for him when the host of the show called him out. Ms. Barton handed him his head on a platter by telling him she will send copies of the 32 shows on the subject and that he appeared 5 times to discuss it. He is now in damage control and most are waiting for Harper to throw him under the bus.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... anada.html

When Alex Jaf saw the images of Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi and his older brother, Ghalib, washed ashore in Turkey, he knew it could have been him.

“One of those boys was my age when we were going through something like that,” Jaf, 30, told the Star on Friday. “So, for me, it hits home quite hard.”

Jaf’s family left Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, during the Iran-Iraq war. They then came to Canada as refugees in the 1990s after brief stays in Iran and Jordan.

[deja vu]

Fed up with hearing about ISIS and Syria in the same sentence. Syrians wanted freedom and ASSAD came out with guns blazing and now Putin is in the mix. The elephant in the room is ASSAD, yet no one in power wants to deal with him. Remove him and the war is over, keeping him in and bombing ISIS outside of Syria does absolutely nothing to end the civil war. The only way to end the mass exodus of Syrians is to deal with ASSAD, instead it seems the world is terrified to do the right thing.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada- ... -1.3216883

[up-down]

Harper and the other parties are not opening their mouth when it comes to Assad, and that is a shame. That elephant and Putin are a dangerous combo, one would think Putin would have his hands full with his own wars, yet he finds time to protect his dictator buddy.

Harper has so many problems and this one may go to the top of the list. Where does he get his candidates from, they all seem to have some really bad baggage or are just a pig in one guys case. I think this is just beyond disgusting, yet he is trying to justify his behavior as a one time thing. One time he got caught, but makes me wonder how many times he got away with this. Yet Harper will probably keep him in the running instead of throwing him under the bus. He really can pick the losers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jerry-b ... -1.3217797

"I deeply regret my actions on that day. I take great pride in my work and the footage from that day does not reflect who I am as a professional or a person," Bance said when contacted by CBC News for comment.

He peed in a homeowners cup and then dumped it down the sink while the homeowner was in the other room, that is beyond disgusting and I doubt he takes great pride in his work, or he wouldn't have done that in the first place. Just ask if you have to go to the bathroom, don't pee in cups at the job site.

[CielOnTap]

Bance was quoted in the Toronto Star as to why he did what he did in the hidden camera clip:

“A 30-second decision made three years ago can really change one’s life. I had a health situation and needed to make an emergency decision, ironically to save myself from embarrassment back then,” he said. “It was a lapse in judgment, which I deeply regret today.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/09/07/jerry-bance-no-longer-conservative-candidate-in-scarborough-rouge-park-after-urination-incident.html

Politicians better make the most of the remaining summer events and good weather-it's going to get colder soon and after ridings have their all-candidates' meetings, there will be much earnest vote-getting at the stores and doors.

[CielOnTap]

When I saw this article about childcare options outside of a regular business day's hours, I knew that the issue remains a big one in Canada. In the 1990s, the Liberals promised universal childcare (did not happen).

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/14/few-child-care-options-for-parents-who-dont-work-9-to-5-weekday-hours.html

I missed the Munk debate yesterday-who did watch it last night? http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-federal-leaders-debate-calgary-1.3231504

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/09/18/elizabeth-may-leaders-debate-women_n_8158218.html