OMG, We're having an election too! Canada Votes 2008

Nobody knows why but Harper, but we're going to the polls on Oct 14.

I hate that we're going to end up with another Conservative minority (at best) but at least a) it'll only take a month and b) it'll give the Libs an excuse to get rid of that useless windbag Dion.

We're definitely going to see another minority...could still go either way, but yeah most likely Tory Minority.

Question: Are we still legally required to have another election next year?

I don't think so.

i will admit to being one of those people who's terrified shitless at the idea of a Con majority.
officially ran out of shit this morning.

this thread needs jrock. i saw him posting in the Tor Star comments in lieu of ilx!

also: PUFFINS!!!

Con majority seems unlikely...but hardly impossible.

can't you guys get illegal ids and vote in the US or something? please

I'm totally gonna vote for a winning candidate for the first time ever. Also, for an incumbent for the first time ever. In terms of the bigger picture, however, I share Thermo's fears.

(I kind of like Dion and don't totally know why no one else seems to.)

I kind of like Dion too, and find myself getting behind him more and more. He gave a really, really good speech (or rather, the speech was well-written) on poverty last fall, and his dog's name is Kyoto ffs.

Seriously, if I was him, I would just run clips of Harper denying climate change juxtaposed with crumbling ice shelf and win the fucking election already.

ending with that line of his from a few years ago ( i can only paraphrase) "when i'm done with this country you won't be able to recognise it"

hey, I kind of like Dion too.

really though, what an odd election. Harper hasn't done enough over the last couple years to secure himself a majority, so this whole thing seems like a massive waste of time and money. shouldn't people be whining more about how Harper is wasting their tax dollars on a pointless election?

i have heard that whine a fair amount actually.
if i thought there was a decent shot at ridding us of Harper this election could not cost enough! sadly...

Oh man, election news I can get into and understand yet not freak out completely about the possible results! Awesome!

I'm going to be out of the country in October and I'm debating whether or not to bother going through the special ballot application process. It's a massive pain, and I live in David Emerson's riding which will not be recaptured by the tories. I'm pretty happy with either Libs or the NDP winning (I kinda like Dion too! More than those Liberal PMs, that's for sure). Still I've voted in every election I could since I've been legal and it feels weird to just ignore it.

i saw him posting in the Tor Star comments in lieu of ilx!

I don't dislike Dion as much as most people seem to.. I certainly dislike Harper more. I'm in Carolyn Bennett's riding, but I think my boyfriend is going to volunteer for Olivia again.. we're dirty NDPers!

I'm in one of the few (only?) ridings that swang Lib to NDP in the last election (Peggy Nash / Parkdale-High-Park), and it will probably stay that way (tons of orange signs already, and Nash is quite active). Curious about other potnetial swing ridings this time around, but sadly I don't think the Cons are going to lose a lot of seats...

I used to be in Parkdale-High Park.. SO exciting to be in the pub (I've been out of the area too long, I forgot the name! Base of Jane & Bloor) when Nash's votes started coming in in (2006?)!

Rob - isn't Kennedy running for the Libs in your riding??? if he is Peggy may have a hard time holding on to her seat!

I live in David Emerson's riding which will not be recaptured by the tories.

I was wondering about this. living in Ontario i have no idea who would face the wrath over his crossing. i guess either way the NDP did pretty good last time and this can only help them. the question is: after being stabbed in the back once by a Liberal will they elect another one there?

I thought of doing the special ballot thing too, but I think by the time I send away for it and get one back it'd be too late for it to return to Canada on time to be counted. I tried to vote in the recent Alberta election and found getting the special ballot a bit of a hassle.

And really, since both of the ridings I'm elegible to vote in are in Alberta, neither has any chance of going anything but Conservative. Probably not worth the effort... especially in Calgary West, where Rob fucking Anders somehow keeps winning despite being a complete buffoon.

tons of orange signs

Windsor West (Brian Masse's riding) is pretty incredible. I've only seen orange signs so far.

Hey so I have a question. Do people typically vote for their specific MP or for the potential PM? I'm sure it's a little of both, but.

My MP is Gilles Duceppe. I hope the Bloc does really well and kicks the Conservative d-bags out of QC. Then the Liberals can come in next time and steal some seats from the Bloc and form a minority government etc. etc. etc. etc.

For some reason I thought you were in Saskatchewan or Alberta. I'm not sure why.

Hey so I have a question. Do people typically vote for their specific MP or for the potential PM? I'm sure it's a little of both, but.

Yes it is. tis a simple equation: if i like the local MP greater than i dislike the person vying for PM then they git ma vote.

For some reason I thought you were in Saskatchewan or Alberta. I'm not sure why.

― Sundar, Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

My NEW MP is Gilles Duceppe. My OLD MP was a Conservative who got one of his aides to impersonate him on a call-in radio show. True Western Tales!

i have a lawn sign.

STEPHEN MOORE FOR WASCANA.

he has a phd in medieval literature.

No dis to fos but I'm kind of glad I don't have to choose between the Bloc and the Conservatives.

guys, i think i have found my candidate!

I also learned that I represent this capitalised entity known as ANDREW MONTAGUE CECIL on all of my government issued I.D., as well as my confirmation certificate, and I do not condone what was done to me at birth.

I don't even know which riding I'm in. And I think I'm going to be out of the country on E-Day. Hmmmm. Maybe I should look into things.

I'm going to be out of the country in October and I'm debating whether or not to bother going through the special ballot application process. It's a massive pain, and I live in David Emerson's riding which will not be recaptured by the tories. I'm pretty happy with either Libs or the NDP winning (I kinda like Dion too! More than those Liberal PMs, that's for sure). Still I've voted in every election I could since I've been legal and it feels weird to just ignore it.

i happen to be organising canvassers for the NDP in Kingsway. and, well, i want yr vote. send me an email and i'll make sure you know how to vote advance.

re. MP vs PM in voter choice, it's hard to say, and def. depends on the riding. y'know, Svend kept willing because he was Svend, but i guarantee that Nina Grewal, for instance, is a placeholder for Harper.

My OLD MP was a Conservative who got one of his aides to impersonate him on a call-in radio show.

Rahim Jaffer! what a guy. The NDP have a realistic chance of picking him off, y'know - they were only 3k votes back in Edmonnton-Strathcona last time. wouldn't that be something.

Ah, I'm in Vancouver Centre. Okay, I can probably stomach voting for Hedy Fry (lib).
Michael Byers (NDP) seems interesting, though.

Are the Grits really facing their worst showing since '84 as the "liberal" media reports? WTF Canada!

The Green candidate handing out fliers at Davie and Thurlow today seemed nice. Too bad I don't actually live in this area.

You're in Van!

Indeed. It'll be sometime in November before I'll actually be able to enjoy the place, though.

apparently you can go to the returning office any time and vote w/ a write in ballot. in Kingsway the office is at kingsway and knight or something. the nominations are still open so if yr party has no candidate, you can just write the party name and it will still count.

my candidate was certified today, very exciting. we got the official maps!

I swear, man: Those PCs love to call totally fucking useless autumn elections to coincide with the concurrent USA elections whenever they have an opportunity - especially if they anticipate a Republican president. Hope this doesn't hurt Obama.

Me? Voting Green as usual.

I try to focus on voting "local" for the MP. I guess I've been lucky that I haven't come across a situation where the "best" person for the job in my riding (in my opinion), is with a party I don't believe in...

isn't Kennedy running for the Libs in your riding???

Yes, but I've seen ONE Kennedy sign so far, whereas all the orange Nash signs are blinding. I realize lawn signs aren't exactly a reliable indicator, but in this case I'm assuming the Parkdale/High-Park NDP seat is fairly solid.

who's your candidate, derrick?

for some reason ndp supporters seem to love them some yard signs way more than any other party's supporters. i've noticed this in both of the last two federal elections.
anyways - i wouldn't count kennedy out - Nash barely won the riding last time around.

NDP voters = not embarrassed by their choice

my parents used to wear "Don't Blame Me, I Voted NDP" pins.

as if it magically let them off the hook for my shoddy upbringing

where can thermo get these pins?

1989

Looking like an NDP vote for me (the only candidate with a chance of unseating the Conservative). My first Canadian vote, too, since I got my Citizenship in early 2006.

:)

as well they should have! and i'm glad the voters in his riding have responded in the way they did in the election.

so dion is gone come may. looks like the Libs are going for another ride on the merry-go-round!

Ignatieff? Rae? Who else, realistically?

the usual suspects i guess. maybe Kennedy again.
if they knew what was good for them (ha!) either Rae or Iggy would back out so that they can go into the convention with a front runner and as little collateral damage as possible. (probably Rae would do best to sit this one out, y'know with a recession and all)

I forgot about Kennedy. What little I know of him, I like though.

So you guys aren't talking about how sad it is that Dion is publicly blaming "Tory propaganda" for his poor showing in the election? "We would have won if the Tories hadn't been so mean to us!" If this is what he really believes (and not just a way to deflect attention from his own campaign fuckups) then it's true, he has no business being leader because he doesn't have the stomach to succeed in federal politics.

well, the sad thing is, he pretty much *had* succeeded up until he became the liberal leader.

Yeah, he just couldn't succeed at the level he's at now. It's a textbook case of the Peter Principle in action!

ha ha, v. true!

re: Sask

Most of the urban ridings are still really rural, so the hep city folk vote gets cancelled out.
Palliser, for eg, which has the southwest corner of Regina, traditionally the most progressive folks, went to a former mayor of Moose Jaw for the Conservatives, who beat an NDP former mayor of Moose Jaw, and the Liberal former Police Chief of Regina.
Saskatchewan has lately come around to thinking it's Alberta, even though it's actually more like Manitoba.

right. i keep hearing about how saskatchewan has MORE OIL THAN ALBERTA but no one wants to come and get it because saskatchewan is a backwards socialist province, unlike alberta, where everyone drives 2009 f350s and lives in minimansions outside calgary. vote conservative.

i think hep city folk in palliser are pretty likely to vote conservative, too, nowadays.

like, ironically?

yeah. like how they're into roller derby and shit.

This has probably been mentioned on the newscasts, but I read just now that Dion and Edward Blake (party leader from 1880-1887) are the only Liberal leaders to never become PM.

So that's yet another unfortunate record held by poor Dion :(

yeah, but Blake was KERAZY
http://www.dorkclub.com/watchmen_comedian.jpg

i like his smiley pin.

It's also precisely the kind of ruthless attitude we need to rid ourselves of these Conservative d-bags.

Travis Bickle for Liberal Leader!

So... Nunavut voted today? Are they copying the American election or the Canadian?

neither by the looks of things - everyone's an independent!?

So, it looks like we may have a Prime Minister Dion after all?

Or Prime Minister Goodale. Or Prime Minister McCallum. Or Prime Minister Ignatieff.

it's madness. my mind is blown that it came to this so fast!

seriously. what the fuck was Harper thinking?

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told The Chronicle Herald that the opposition will blink. "When they play chicken, they wind up looking up like chickens," he said.

I have to hand it to the crazy mofo, it takes balls to be slinging that kind of mud when they're in the situation they're in.

I'd usually be the last person to give props to Randall Denley but he makes some good points (even from a right-wing perspective):

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=12dd0bfd-ce83-49cb-b55c-3c7aa30e02c4

Can the opposition parties work together though?

Also, WTF?

Serious question: when was the last time the GG had to make a real decision?

And what's this about an "unidentified Tory" being invited to the secret Jack Layton EVOL planning session? If he was invited, then taping conversations is perfectly legal, isn't it? It's 2008, Watergate happened 36 years ago, and nobody would be stupid enough to blatantly record the oppositions' conversations, right?

Check out this CBC interview transcript with Harper from Sept 2004 (when the Libs had been elected as a minority govt and Harper was the new leader of the opposition). There are some choice bits here, such as:

Solomon: Would you describe this government's position because of its lack of consultation as precarious?

Harper: I'd describe it more as arrogant. And I think the real problem that we're facing already is that the government doesn't accept that it got a minority.

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/harper.html

Is the coalition government going to happen? This is exciting.

I love the Canadians who say that creating a government with majority support in parliament amounts to a coup d'etat.

yeah, the reader responses on this story are full of that sort of thing and people carelessly throwing around various C-words

If you look up "coup" in the dictionary; it says: "a sudden violent over`throw of a government by a small group"...

Is this what Canadian Democracy has come to from the NDP and Liberal parties of all things?

Canada, we have to speak up! Talk about Communism!

I for one would love to see the NDP and Libs OF ALL THINGS take up arms and storm parliament

Canadians are so used to majority govts that they've forgotten how minority govts (i.e. most govts in the world) are supposed to work!

With this guy manning the barricades in the HoC, I think even a rabble led by Stephane Dion might be able to succeed with a violent takeover:

http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/harper1.jpg

^i'm pretty sure they'd have all the guns, unfortunately.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081201/national/parliament_crisis

http://macleans.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/081127_wells1.jpg

I don't know who the photo editor of the Maclean's blog is, but he/she deserves a medal.

http://macleans.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/081201_dion.jpg

wow. 18 hacks appointed to Senate while the house is prorogued. including... Mike Duffy?!?!?

oh. and then he goes on to appoint Cromwell to the supreme court even tho he promised a public hearing on the issue. now that's job creation!

so...time for a new thread?

new gov't.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/media/ALeqM5gTmr1cjPH2P4dQ6GQYs2Xu8AUKDQ?size=l

can Ignatieff pull it off?

i so don't even give a shit about this election.

Not again...

http://img324.imageshack.us/img324/6520/giantdouchevsturdsandwich7om.jpg

douche vs turd sandwich... also vs guy with mustache vs french dude, but who cares.

as if reading my mind (or my GIS), the star has this to say!

Wait a second, the bloke from the Late Show is trying to be prime minister of Canada? I really am out of the loop.