The election is years away, legalizing pot is not a big deal. The basic reaction is, well its about time. Not like it's going to swing the populace of Canada. The liberals decided to spend a bunch of money and people are nervous. They have years for people to realize the fruits of the labour. It's laughable and just looks stupid to have an opinion on election that is years away. This whole topic is a joke.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Kevin O'Leary launches unofficial PM bid against Justin Trudeau
- Thread starter NotTheGuyYouKill
- Start date
- Status
The election is years away, legalizing pot is not a big deal. The basic reaction is, well its about time. Not like it's going to swing the populace of Canada. The liberals decided to spend a bunch of money and people are nervous. They have years for people to realize the fruits of the labour. It's laughable and just looks stupid to have an opinion on election that is years away. This whole topic is a joke.
Considering the way things have been going in other parts of the world, I think it's extremely foolhardy to think that Canadians are somehow immune to this. As others have mentioned, I was completely horrified by the Rob Ford fiasco in Toronto, and I sure didn't vote for him, but I knew quite a few who did, and their refrain was very familiar in today's climate. People thought he was a tough talker, and that meant he would bring change and any change was good.
There was a lot of voter's regret not too long afterwards, but I will always remember that people can often be swayed by a "Politician with attitude," especially if they just want to see things get shaken up. They often don't consider that a shake up won't work in their favor.
There was a lot of voter's regret not too long afterwards, but I will always remember that people can often be swayed by a "Politician with attitude," especially if they just want to see things get shaken up. They often don't consider that a shake up won't work in their favor.
Silver Arrows
Banned
Yeah, but here's the thing, you can't exactly put Rob Ford being elected in Toronto up against somebody who wants to to be CPC leader. There's so much more wrangling you are going to have to do, you simply can't brute force your way through the process like Trump did.
And even if O'Leary did win the CPC nom, he would have to focus extra hard on everywhere, considering that Francophone Quebec sure ain't going to cape for him.
42 percent will net him another majority government in fptp. It's also 3% more than he garnered last election.
Only way to take down a political juggernaut in Trudeau is if the economy is in a recession in 2019.
I would really like to believe that, but in light of recent events with how "well" checks and balances are working out in the USA, I have little faith that the Canadian government and laws are somehow in a better position. I'd love to be wrong about this, but I have almost zero faith in humanity right now to do anything sensible or logical.
We've still got a few more years, but looking at Brexit and the US election, I'm no longer comfortable about being dismissive or confident about people knowing a bad deal when they see it. That's how both the UK and USA got into the positions they're in right now.
ghostofsparta
Member
Wow lol. I'll admit, I don't know shit about Canadian politics, but after Brexit and Trump, you cant convince me that Conservative party won't win.
Atom Heart Mother
Banned
Kevin is a level headed guy i think he can do a decent job. He's the most liberal on the show.
Well strategic voting was a big thing this past election but that mainly worked due to wanting Harper out. I hope after Brexit and the US election, and the general sentiment I hear from folks, that there's a campaign that's just as strong or even stronger this time around to make sure people that don't want such a thing to happen to go out and vote rather than just sit at home and think "no way will this party or candidate win".
Goldenroad
Member
I honestly like O'Leary, both in terms of personality and many of his pro-business stances (as a small businessman, less gov't involvement in the private sector is beneficial), and I do believe he would err on the side of legalizing marijuana, as a pro-free market move. Having said that, I don't vote Conservative and never will. If he decides to switch sides though, he will have my support.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I don't think it's a problem since the NDP is dead. Quebec is probably the biggest x-factor, but I can't imagine Trudeau alienating the province so much that they'd go crazy and vote in no-name NDP MPs like last time.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
This seems obviously untrue regardless of which show you're referring to.
ROUGE_BLOCK
Member
I've watched this guy for years on dragon's den, and the show where he and that women shout at each other. Please anyone, ANYONE other than this guy. He's comes off as an ass hat and to be honest we don't need his kind of "unconventional" candidacy running for Parliament.
My guess though is he wins it then we see with a liberal or conservative minority come 2019. To be fair im not that fond of Trudeau but he is making great strides in making post secondary education more affordable and I'm all for that.
My guess though is he wins it then we see with a liberal or conservative minority come 2019. To be fair im not that fond of Trudeau but he is making great strides in making post secondary education more affordable and I'm all for that.
How sway?
This is what scares me. I'll vote and bring as many people with me when the time comes. No excuses. Hopefully the rest of the world can be a cautionary tale for us.
The system is set up quite differently here than Trump went through. That said, I do hope we're smart enough not to fall for this
Really willing to take that chance a few years from now? (Especially in a post Brexit/Trump world)
Canada is a very left leaning country, but with the way we have so many left parties,
it always leaves the door open to the cons.
This is the chance to cement it with electoral reform.
XOMTOR
Member
Sorry but I just don't understand this mentality. You're supposed to vote for your local MP based upon what they're going to do for your riding. It's not religion or sports but so many in this thread are staunchly left or right. Why?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I was a hardcore NDP supporter (voting for them in the last 4 elections), and even I was worried that they would lose Quebec after the miraculous Layton campaign. The support collapsed as I predicted, because they didn't go from protest party to legitimate opposition party, and the Liberals were handed a victory.
The way our elections are set up is actually worse than America because, particularly in the last 2 decades, it always comes down to Ontario and Quebec. Ontario is fairly predictable, because it's a matter of trying to win over all the non-Toronto/Hamilton ridings. Quebec a little less so, because it depends on whether or not the sovereigntist feel slighted by whatever government decision has been made (Papa Trudeau, Paul Martin), but the last election showed that at the very least they'll vote Liberal if they aren't given any viable alternative and don't want to give the Conservatives yet another mandate. Hell, it's the only province where a shock jock can run as an independent and win, because the electorate isn't easily defined by party lines.
The Maritime can swing too, but the numbers aren't there for it to completely change the outcome of an election. The prairies will always vote blue, and BC will always split between blue, red, and orange (with May getting her one seat by default).
This is just to say that now that the NDP are a joke party again, there's really nothing to worry about in terms of dividing the left voting base. The Quebec NDP gains were clearly a fluke anomaly, and with manufacturing in Ontario becoming less and less relevant, the NDP voting base continues to shrink in central Canada.
Because we treat our elections like American ones. lol
There is no rules on how you are supposed to vote. The beauty of a free democratic society is you vote anyway you like. You can vote for who is best for your riding or you can vote in support of the party leader, you can protest vote, all of these are perfectly acceptable ways to vote. Voting with only your own riding in mind seems like a pretty selfish way to vote.
O'Leary is an actor.
He started a dotcom and sold it for billions, but he personally made very little money on the sale because he sold almost all of his stock to inflate the company.
When he was running out of money and desperate for a job, he agreed to appear on the news in a suit and tie and pretend to be a billionaire. Nobody even knows what he really thinks. He's saying the shit that he thinks people expect him to say. His performance was attention-grabbing so he became famous.
He rarely invests money on Dragon's Den/Shark Tank (and frequently pulls out of deals after the camera shuts off) because he has no money to invest.
His bread-and-butter is pretending to be rich and saying things that get people all worked up. He's a "heel" from professional wrestling.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
It's less likely now, but it definitely matters if a party doesn't have a defined position on an issue that is important to you. Voting for the "brand" doesn't help in these cases.
For example, this was an issue in the early 2000s in Toronto-Danforth before the Liberals as a party supported gay marriage. This is where Dennis Mills was opposed to gay marriage on religious ground as a Catholic, and he was allowed to believe that as a Liberal because the party didn't force everyone to support gay marriage as a matter of party policy. Voting "Liberal" in that riding meant voting against your interests if you are gay (well, unless you're one of those weird log cabin/alt-right conservatives like Milo I suppose).
matthewwhatever
Member
1) Forum Polling is trash.
2) 42% is still a majority.
3) The next election is three years away, and looking at polls now is stupid. Reminder: Just over a month before last year's election, the NDP was in a position to win and the Liberals were barely cracking 20%. Thinking that polls today have any bearing on 2019 is ludicrous.
We have a different system than the U.S. This is like saying "It rained in India yesterday, so my crops here in Saskatchewan should grow." There's no causation or correlation between your statements.
Teletraan1
Banned
I am the same way. I can listen to entire french conversations and understand every word of it but I can't speak it fluently. I would probably be fluent if the french classes I took in grade school weren't thunderdome. By the time I got to Highschool I was fucked and didn't take it past grade 9.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
We basically have a two party system and when people get tired of one, they vote for the other. Eventually the Tories will win again, since institutional malaise and corruption seem inevitable under any party.
I think the best way to vote is try and consider the big picture and be informed. In the last election the I knew the guy in my riding and he did really good work in the gym my son goes too. I wanted to support him. I don't think I could have voted for him had he been conservative. I was just so fed up with them and their campaign. It worked out because he was liberal but it kinda sucked because he had to step down at the gym when he won. So losing him locally had an impact.
XOMTOR
Member
Seriously? That's the basis of our parliamentary system; you vote for your local member of parliament to represent your interests at the federal level. Like you said, you're free to vote however you choose but I'm not going to be shamed into thinking that voting with my riding in mind is "selfish".
If you riding is like is going to really benefit from something that is shitty, voting for a person that will make that happen seems pretty selfish. Even if I lived in the oil patch I would not vote for some climate change denier even if it was the best for the riding. If I did I would be ashamed of myself.
P.S. Like I said the beauty of the system is everyone can vote how they choose and there is no wrong way.
Royal_Phalanx
Member
I think Proportional Representation would be good for the Canadian Left. All left wing votes would matter because there would just be a Liberal-NDP-Green etc. coalition. Also the right wingers will have to make way for moderate centrist conservatives. Consensus politics could do countries a lot fo good.
Goldenroad
Member
Ralph Goodale has been our MP for as long as I've been old enough to vote (over 15 years), and has done great things for our community.
Regina - Wascana is that one little tiny speck of red in the sea of blue you see in the Prairies and has been for a long long time.
killer rin
Member
Lets be honest here, while a Proportional System would help out the Canadian Left in major ways due to Vote Splitting being a thing of the past; It would also help out the most arguably disenfranchised group which is the Progressive Conservative vote.
There are a ton of Blue Liberals who would want to vote for the Conservatives, but they just can't stand the extremism coming from the Conservatives. Same with Conservative Voters who only vote Conservative because they perceive themselves to have no other options. A Proportional System would fix that by allowing the Conservative Party of Canada to split back into its root elements of PC and Reform thus bringing back a whole bunch of choice for those individuals while not sacrificing their vote due to splitting.
I just hope that Trudeau follows through on his promise that 2015 is the last election we have under FPTP
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
There's not really a "supposed to" with respect to how you vote. If you want to vote for someone because you perceive them to be competent with respect to responding to local issues, that's good. If you want to vote for someone because you expect their party will win and you want goodies locally, that's good (although it'd probably be better if top-down reforms helped correct this). If you want to vote for someone because she represents your views, that's good. If you want to vote for someone because she might disagree with you but you expect she will show good judgment no matter how she votes, that's good. If you want to vote for someone because of their party label, that's good. If you want to vote for someone because you want their party leader to end up PM, that's good. If you want to vote for someone because you know they're going to lose but you want to send a message about the riding preferences, that's good. If you are voting before Harper scrapped the party subsidies and you want to vote for someone to donate a few bucks to their party indirectly, that's good. And clearly all of these things do factor in to how people actually vote. I think it's reasonable enough that different people express different values in how they vote based on what they need from government (including those who feel they need government to leave them alone). It's also highly unlikely that anyone would be able to win without building a team that manages to capture all of these goals.
That's not to say you can't appeal to other voters to consider something they're not considering, but the magic of voting is that there is no one rule about what a vote should or does mean.
That's not to say you can't appeal to other voters to consider something they're not considering, but the magic of voting is that there is no one rule about what a vote should or does mean.
Depending on how much seats the other two parties at their current level of support get if the liberals stayed at around 42% until the 2019 election they will probably end up getting over 200 seats maybe even over 220 seats.
I wouldn't call the NDP a joke when they are at least in power in one province right now. The federal NDP is in a horrible position now but their national brand is still strong enough to get power on the provincial level at times.
equippedwithtowel
Member
Federal/Provincial brands don't cross over that directly. The federal NDP would never have gotten their platform elected in Alberta even with a unprecedented split on the right .
Yep.But the NDP parties in almost all of the provinces are connected to the federal party unlike the other two big political parties even though some NDP parties like the Alberta one have big differences so even if the federal NDP is toxic right now NDP parties can still win elections and form government on the provincial level. This happen in the 90's if I recall, but this has yet to happen since trudeau won the federal election.
gutter_trash
Banned
again, we must separate Provincial from Federal.
Provincial is all about management on a more local level. Whether they are affiliated or not.
Heck, the Alberta NPD government isn't on the same page with the BC NDPers. Notley isn't going to lend a helping hand to them because they oppose some of her positions in the neighboring province.
While the Federal NDP are directionless and completely not on page with their most successful Provincial counterpart
killer rin
Member
Honestly, I would say that the NDP's strong ties to its provincial parties is starting to turn into a detriment. Especially in the case of Alberta since Notley pretty much just has to sit there and watch as the Federal wing goes against everything she says.
gutter_trash
Banned
in the end, it puts Notley closer ideologically with the Federal Liberals, LOL
Yeah. Notley is definitely closer with the federal liberals ideologically.
killer rin
Member
Which is funny since Alberta supposedly hates the Liberals
O'Leary dismissing his lack of French speaking ability and showing no desire to learn is his biggest wall.
Look even Harper has realized that if you want to take up anything federally in this country, you must be bilingual.
He went from opposing bilingualism in the early 2000s to becoming fully bilingual and putting a lot of support into it.
Anyway it's just the reality. And I don't get why some people are opposed to bilingualism or multilingualism, it just screams uneducated to me.
Look even Harper has realized that if you want to take up anything federally in this country, you must be bilingual.
He went from opposing bilingualism in the early 2000s to becoming fully bilingual and putting a lot of support into it.
Anyway it's just the reality. And I don't get why some people are opposed to bilingualism or multilingualism, it just screams uneducated to me.
CaviarMeths
Member
I'm represented by NDP right now (Saskatoon-West), which is nice because I lived in Prince Albert for most of my voting-age life and all the 90 year olds there with a socialist boogeyman story made sure that I was always represented by a do-nothing Conservative MP whose day job seemed to consist entirely of stuffing 2-3 campaign fliers into my mailbox every day, even when it wasn't an election year.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked