Sorry, phone lost power midway through the post, so I don’t know why it posted what was mostly written.
Carney showed himself to be politically astute by stealing PPs most popular policies - getting rid of the consumer carbon tax and encouraging building homes through measures like reducing the GST.
Carney has also mostly sounded sensible and serious during the debates, though these rarely change votes (even Biden did not much change the vote).
Though Carney was pretty influential with Liberal economic policy he has largely been able to avoid the association. He has also not been criticized by the media for some of the traditionally liberal views expressed in his book Values whichnow differ.
PP has also been slow to pivot and mentions JT far too often even if some association makes sense. It does not help that PP seems to have failed to build support with Ford and Teneycke when he had a big lead, and did not congratulate Ford soon after winning.
Don’t overlook the negative memories libs have regarding Harper.
PP as Harper’s protege gets all that “fuck you” hate dumped on him and correctly so.
Regurgitating the tired old memes of law and order etc just reminds voters of the Harpers prison building spree in favoured ridings
One of the biggest negatives for me on Harper era was his “transforming Canada” attempt, turning Canada from a respected peace keeping nation to a war making nation…killing a bunch of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to ZERO avail.
War making sits wrong with the middle left.
The military is viewed as a positive force in Canada. All volunteer, dedicated to projecting emergency help anywhere in the world, and Canadian peace keepers respected in war zones.
That changed under Harper and Canadian peacekeepers put at risk.
People also remember the right wing disrespect for science and effective protections. Quite a number died in Walkerton
In May 2000, bacterial contamination of municipal water in Walkerton, Ontario, resulted in the worst public health disaster involving municipal water in Canadian history. At least seven people died and 2300 became ill.
While that was provincial the same mindset exists with the current Cons especially with AGW.
Harper literally threw 30 years of invaluable and irreplaceable data from the fresh water fisheries programs in the trash…literally threw the research in the dumpsters…some was recovered.
Liberal voters don’t trust the Cons are not under the influence of the religious right.
PP and cohort are not the Progressive Conservatives pre Harper, voters know this and are very wary of it.
A beset Trudeau leaving was a positive step and Carney has done well in a short period to change the narrative even tho needing many of the liberal cabinet…someone has to stand up to the dumpf and Carney has a much better CV for it than the paper boy.
A multinational military coalition, including Canada and led by the United States, invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban government and attack Al-Qaeda.
31 Aug 2022 — For nearly 20 years, NATO Allies and partner countries had military forces deployed to Afghanistan under a United Nations (UN) Security Council mandate.
Canada is part of NATO.
That does not excuse Harpers actions trying to “transform Canada”.
You are correct it was not that long ago and Canadians remember clearly
Canada’s real barbarism? Stephen Harper’s dismembering of the country
That is irrelevant …Canada had Nato commitments. Chretien met them …Harper took that effort to try and change the very nature of Canada as tthe article outlined.
That’s what Canadians remember and want nothing to do with.
Are you suggesting Canada should not honour NATO commitments?
If Canada is required to meet a NATO committment, why are you blaming Harper for getting soldiers killed? It wouldn’t have been any bloody different under a Liberal government and probably worse.
I remember how well the Liberals supported the military when I was in. Running through the woods shouting, “Bullets, bullets, bullets!”, because we had no training rounds. PM at the time, the first Trudeau.
The Conservative government of Stephen Harper turned away from Canada’s peacekeeping legacy. Where Canada was at one time the largest contributor to UN peace support operations, the Conservatives opted to promote the idea of Canada as a “courageous warrior.” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020702015619857
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Canada Steps Out of Peacekeeper Role and into the …
24 May 2015 — Harper’s Canada has taken on military missions that have increased the country’s exposure to the very risks that the additional security ..
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Peacekeeping: Canada’s past, but not its present and future?
And let’s not forget his contempt for the public service. The CPC is still pushing some of the policies Harper tried (and failed) to implement.
And now we’re getting a front row seat to watch what happens when a major modern government decides to just start firing public servants willy-nilly. Canadians may not love the entirety of the PS, but we also don’t want to fire the food inspectors.
Strategic voting isn’t undemocratic, but fptp is LESS democratic then pr. Our system has SERIOUS flaws, one of them is how fptp disconnects peoples voting power with the governing election results. Sitting where we are (right now) we would never decide to institute this fptp voting system, the parties THEMSELVES do not use fptp when choosing leaders for these very same reasons and flaws ( instant-runoff voting with CPC and Liberals). Everyone knows it.
Trump, and his threats, were the catalysis. Carney was able to present himself as rallying figure FAR more then PP did. PP would’ve won in a pre-Trump fight with Trudeau (maybe Carney? who knows), but not today.
Trump scared everyone, however, its not all Trump. PP could’ve eaten Carney’s lunch. Canadians wanted to rally behind someone, PP was in the national news for years before Carney, and PP started with a massive polling lead. The problem was that he acts way too divisive and disconnected for the majority of Canadians to accept.
So the Canadian left won’t accept PP; fine, not his concern… as long as the left is divided. Well, guess what? Trump united the Left. Now what is PP going to do? The answer, nothing. Be just as Trumpy, divisive, and scary as normal. Oy.
PP lost this election due to behaviourial or ideological constraints. It was within his hands, he dropped the ball. Carney just capitalized on that. He was even able to grab 8-10 points of Red Tories away from PP.
The English language debates were great. Just as vigorous, lively, and fluid as the French debates. The NDP even was allowed a concession when Steve Paikin gave him a question about Public Health Care (which was NOT one of the official topics; Singh was even restrained by Patrice Roy for pivoting to it during the French debates).
Overall everyone performed to their standard. PP was too robotic and slogan-y, but tried to be personal at the end. Carney was attacked often and kept his cool. Singh was on the attack as he was fighting for relevancy. Blanchet was a bit of a chaos joker at times. but that is his role during the English debates. I’m not certain who would switch their votes based on this? Only if you were totally uninformed beforehand, I guess.
The real star was the Moderators and their team. The villains were the Rebel media/True North/etc clowns who are registered political activists, but were able to con the idiotic Debate commission into getting more representation at the debates then all of the other journalists combined.
They took up half the questions after the French language debate asking irrelevant culture war shit (“How many Genders are there?”) that had nothing to do with the debate.
They harassed the CBC coverage by filming themselves as they bullied their way into CBC’s live set.
They paid trucks to drive around the debates with political advertisements attacking Carney.
They got into arguments with journalists inside of the reporters area
The commission eventually cancelled question time due to the chaos. “It was unsafe”
While I don’t agree with some of your apocalyptic predictions, I’m 100% with you on this.
I don’t know if Mark Carney can work miracles before Trump’s inevitable demise, impeachment, or whatever form it takes, but I do know that Poilievre is a fucking moron.
There is a industry of right-wing rage baiters who take on the persona of journalists with the goal of isolating ill-informed sympathetic populace into a political bubble, to push their views to the furthest right as possible, and to gain access to political events for the purpose of entertainment.
Rebel Media is just the oldest one of them. But if you look at the “local media” that the CPC have allowed access into their campaign you will find a lot of other smaller, but just as extreme, folks (right-wing social media “influencers”, extremist press Juno/True north, or simple political toadies).
This is one of the many reasons why the CBC (and other legacy media) is so important. Standards in news and information is just as important as health food standards. If we remove them, good luck in EVER getting an accurate picture of politics and events.
Being able to be informed is a basic right IMNSHO. Never even TRY to take that away from me.
My wife and I voted in the advance poll today and the wait time, I believe, bodes well for voter turnout in Canada this time. We actually had a 45 minute wait. Apparently, because this is Good Friday, they weren’t expecting such a turnout, so they only had one ballot box. They’re waiting for Elections Canada to send more staff and boxes.
We were also told that there was already a line up before it opened. At any rate, with all the crap going on in the US, this time felt very momentous and important. And, compared to the shit we read about in American elections (intimidating assholes wandering the site with weapons etc), the 45 minutes were fairly pleasant and the volunteers were very friendly and cheerful. I just hope that Carney wins with a landslide.
My wife and I just came back as well. There was a two hour wait at the polling station so we stopped by the Elections Canada office instead. Still a 30 minute wait and I overheard several people talking about 1 and a half to 3 hour waits at their polling stations. Might be just because everyone has Good Friday off and thought they’d get a jump but I’m hoping it means a strong turnout.
Yes, the Good Friday off aspect could be the thing but I, too, hope it means a strong turnout. I think our 45 minute wait is the longest I’ve ever had to wait. In the last Ontario provincial election I don’t think that I waited any longer than five minutes at the most.
