[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[HVC]

If people won't call 911, why would they call a "Barbaric Cultural Practises" hot line?

The name is ill chosen.

People may call a safe number, or someone may call on their behalf.

Or perhaps purposefully chosen to entice a certain crowd

[crazy canuck]

Who are "these people"?

One case recently involved an individual who wanted to commit crimes in the name of ISIS, and another of South American origin who emigrated here despite his condemnation for having caused an accident after driving under the influence and who repeated his behavior here, with deadly results.

The barbaric practices hotline was for non Muslims to report on Muslims.
The people who would use that hotline would have no problem talking to the police.
In short it was designed to appeal to Karens and Islamophobes.

Genital multilation and forced marriage aren't reserved to Muslims.

Forced marriage, especially, are a current practice of many recent Hindu immigrants.

These young people don't go to the police and they have no idea where to go.  They turn up in online forums to ask for help.

There seems to be a breakdown in communications here.  You were asked why a hotline was required when someone could just call the police.  You responded by saying "these people" don't call the police.  little did I know you were talking about the people who the police would be investigating rather than the people who wanted the police to investigate.

[crazy canuck]

If people won't call 911, why would they call a "Barbaric Cultural Practises" hot line?

Anyway, lots of media currently about right wing influencers taking Kremlin money. The rot among so-called "populists" is deep.

PP of course has always refused to get a security clearance.

I would be very surprised if it turned out PP was directly or indirectly taking Kremlin money.  If for no other reason that much of the Conservative base in this country is very much pro-Ukraine.  It would be political suicide.

[Barrister]

If people won't call 911, why would they call a "Barbaric Cultural Practises" hot line?

Anyway, lots of media currently about right wing influencers taking Kremlin money. The rot among so-called "populists" is deep.

PP of course has always refused to get a security clearance.

I would be very surprised if it turned out PP was directly or indirectly taking Kremlin money.  If for no other reason that much of the Conservative base in this country is very much pro-Ukraine.  It would be political suicide.

I feel acknowledged...

[HVC]

If people won't call 911, why would they call a "Barbaric Cultural Practises" hot line?

Anyway, lots of media currently about right wing influencers taking Kremlin money. The rot among so-called "populists" is deep.

PP of course has always refused to get a security clearance.

I would be very surprised if it turned out PP was directly or indirectly taking Kremlin money.  If for no other reason that much of the Conservative base in this country is very much pro-Ukraine.  It would be political suicide.

I feel acknowledged...

Hey, it wasn't so long ago that American conservatives hated and demonized Russia. It's a miracle what a little political payola can do

[Grey Fox]

I'm pretty sure Russia's money in Canada is in the hands of the PPC.

[Jacob]

I'd expect Russian money to be involved in supporting things like the Convoy folks, anti-vax folks, and those who think we need a Canadian MAGA movement.

That may or may not have infiltrated the Conservative right flank, but I expect the general pro-Ukraininan sentiment of the Canadian Prairies is going to act as a bit of a defense in that regard.

[crazy canuck]

I feel acknowledged...

 

[viper37]

Who are "these people"?

One case recently involved an individual who wanted to commit crimes in the name of ISIS, and another of South American origin who emigrated here despite his condemnation for having caused an accident after driving under the influence and who repeated his behavior here, with deadly results.

The barbaric practices hotline was for non Muslims to report on Muslims.
The people who would use that hotline would have no problem talking to the police.
In short it was designed to appeal to Karens and Islamophobes.

Genital multilation and forced marriage aren't reserved to Muslims.

Forced marriage, especially, are a current practice of many recent Hindu immigrants.

These young people don't go to the police and they have no idea where to go.  They turn up in online forums to ask for help.

There seems to be a breakdown in communications here.  You were asked why a hotline was required when someone could just call the police.  You responded by saying "these people" don't call the police.  little did I know you were talking about the people who the police would be investigating rather than the people who wanted the police to investigate.

Anyone can call a hotline.

A potential victim can call the hotline.  A friend from inside or outside the community can call the hotline.  A concerned neighbour can call the hotline.

If it helps with honour crimes, forced marriage, genital mutilation and such things, so be it.  It's much better than the LPC approach of pandering to religious radicals.  Not that the new Conservatives appear to be better now.

[viper37]

Mark Carney gave his first press conference today.

Might please Blue Liberals.  Would never have happened while the NDP was still in a coalition.

It's a funny thing.  Singh thinking he made himself more relevant with an act of disrespect (not warning the PM contrary to his written agreement) and defiance, all the while still supporting the government because he can't go into election yet, but in the end, he's made himself even more irrelevant.  

Less than a week later and no one talks about him and his party.

I'm gonna give credit to the Libs on this one.  They managed to turn around pretty quickly.

It might not influence the public vote, but it made the NDP totally irrelevant.

[crazy canuck]

No, it's not about taking on debt to spend.  It's about taking a 5,000,000,000+ dollar surplus and in the space of a couple of years turning that into a huge deficit.

Ok.

The NDP under Horgan, and particularly James as finance minister, were highly competent managers of the purse.  The same cannot be said of the current government, as the opinion piece points out.

The opinion piece does indeed point that out.

My question to you is...

1) if your charge of incompetence is primarily based on management of the purse, or whether there are other significant elements of incompetence; and

2) whether you think the management of the purse situation is a significant driver in the current success of the BC Conservatives .

An answer to your first question the management of the purse is proxy for good management. It is, of course not in and of itself proof one way or the other.  For example, it makes no sense to run a balanced budget when there is a need to spend.

The remarkable thing about the NDP under the previous leadership and management is that through the toughest of times in this province and they were still able to not only balance the budget but produce surplus.

Much of that management team was gutted when the new premier took over.  He brought in different advisors, which of course is his right, but he also of course needs to take responsibility for the decisions he made.

In the course of two years, he was a $5 billion surplus into a $5 billion deficit.

Also, in the last two years economic circumstances in the province improved.  That is Objectively demonstrated by the fact that the government took in $2 billion more in revenue than they had budgeted for so really they spent 7 billion more than budget.

Eby is going to have to come up with a good explanation for why that happened.

in answer to your second question, I don't think this has much to do with the current popularity of the conservatives.  I don't think these numbers are well-known within the public discourse yet.  Mason is not exactly a right wing opinion writer.  He is more signalling to the NDP that they've got a real problem here that they're going to have to deal with if they want to get reelected.

It's actually worse than thought.  The government did their fiscal update yesterday. The deficit is actually 9 not 5 billion.

[Sheilbh]

I'd expect Russian money to be involved in supporting things like the Convoy folks, anti-vax folks, and those who think we need a Canadian MAGA movement.

That may or may not have infiltrated the Conservative right flank, but I expect the general pro-Ukraininan sentiment of the Canadian Prairies is going to act as a bit of a defense in that regard.

I never know on Russia - in part because you contrast the perception of what Russia has wrought in Western democracies, with the actual examples which are laughably transparent and Russia's competence in other areas (like fighting a war) and I feel there's a big gap.

My instinct is always that those "problems" to the extent we see them in Western democracies are more the call is coming from inside the house than Russia. But I think addressing them would probably also reduce any vulnerability to Russia.

But at the back of my head I also sort of wonder about say late Tsarist Russia which has lots of incompetence (again, in fighting a war, for example) and doesn't really manage to "do" anything with their various secret services. But at the same time from what I've read they are kind of everywhere as agents provocateurs or false flags in every radical, ultra conservative, anarchist, communist, discontented group of any kind across Europe at the end of the 19th century. I don't think they ever achieved much for the regime they were serving but, on the other hand, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is still an influence in the world.

It's maybe that that side of things and the incompetence are both ultimately that it's not a state great at coherent decision making and is pretty chaotic. But not for the first time I think Conrad's The Secret Agent is a hundred year old book that's weirdly of our time.

[Valmy]

The Tsarist secret police was truly a bizarre animal. There was a big problem, foe example, of government officials being assassinated but what was weird was all those terrorist groups doing the assassinating were heavily infiltrated and compromised by government agents. It was bizarre. Like maybe use all your secret agents to destroy these networks and stop the assassinations?

[Josephus]

Well, it's true they're letting too many people in and that they can't do background checks anymore.

It doesn't have anything to do with the origins of said person.

People who have already been condemned in their country of origins for a crime which they repeat here, like drunk driving causing an accident. Or terrorism.  Or other criminal activities.

That's why I keep my pets indoors

[crazy canuck]

Well, it's true they're letting too many people in and that they can't do background checks anymore.

It doesn't have anything to do with the origins of said person.

People who have already been condemned in their country of origins for a crime which they repeat here, like drunk driving causing an accident. Or terrorism.  Or other criminal activities.

That's why I keep my pets indoors