[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Oexmelin]

I don't know if the allegations are true. The rest of the Conservatives' behaviour in the political game does not make such allegations surprising. It probably isn't to the extent that the Liberals are claming it is (i.e., a kind of master plan for stealing the elections), but I can easily see this as being "in character" for certain people amongst the Conservative leadership.

[crazy canuck]

Edit:  It looks like Oex has already decided the allegations are true.  I will wait to see if they are indeed true before looking for reasons why they did it.

I think Oex is basing his analysis on more than this one incident.

The "Is this really surprising" comment rather gives it away...

[HVC]

all politicians are corrupt. the difference lies in who gets caught and who doesn't/ which is what's really disappointing about the conservatives. for all this talk about the looming shadow and secret agendas they seem to drop the ball a lot.

[Neil]

The Tories seem to maintain their bunker mentality, even with a majority.

[crazy canuck]

So Neil, when are the tanks going to start rolling toward TO?

[Neil]

So Neil, when are the tanks going to start rolling toward TO?

One wonders.  Harper is always projecting this aura of cool confidence, but I think a lot of the ministers are frazzled from having to fight the civil service.

[crazy canuck]

I was thinking more in terms of the recent comments of the Premier of Ontario.

You guys are rich enough to have your own army by now arent you?

[crazy canuck]

More ammunition for people leaning toward the view of a pox on all their houses.

The Liberals have admitted that a staff member in their research bureau was responsible for publishing personal details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews's divorce on Twitter.

Interim Leader Bob Rae rose in the House of Commons Monday to say that someone in the employ of the Liberal Party was behind the "Vikileaks" messages

[Neil]

I was thinking more in terms of the recent comments of the Premier of Ontario.

You guys are rich enough to have your own army by now arent you?

Nah.  Sure, there's oil money, but nobody here pays much in the way of taxes.  If Alberta ever adopts a progressive income tax and starts charging a sales tax, then you guys had better watch out.  We'll be coming to make the world Edmonton, which means that your snow will never be removed, your cities will sprawl beyond reason and your governments will spend all their time debating about how many art galleries, arenas or barren, concrete Nazi squares are needed to make your cities 'world-class'.

[HVC]

More ammunition for people leaning toward the view of a pox on all their houses.

The Liberals have admitted that a staff member in their research bureau was responsible for publishing personal details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’s divorce on Twitter.

Interim Leader Bob Rae rose in the House of Commons Monday to say that someone in the employ of the Liberal Party was behind the “Vikileaks” messages

For some reason i'm not really bothered by that. hoisted on his own petard and what not. It was public info. if they had released sealed or secret fiels that'd be different.

[crazy canuck]

For some reason i'm not really bothered by that. hoisted on his own petard and what not. It was public info. if they had released sealed or secret fiels that'd be different.

The thing I care about is the flinging of mud.  To that extent I am not particularly pleased with either the Libs or the Cons atm.  Teows comment of being with him or with the pornographers was just as silly.

The NDP must be pulling their hair out over missed opportunities while they wait to get a new leader.  But in some ways it helps them by preventing them from getting to far into the mud themselves.  At least until a new leader is selected.

[Jacob]

Nah.  Sure, there's oil money, but nobody here pays much in the way of taxes.  If Alberta ever adopts a progressive income tax and starts charging a sales tax, then you guys had better watch out.  We'll be coming to make the world Edmonton, which means that your snow will never be removed, your cities will sprawl beyond reason and your governments will spend all their time debating about how many art galleries, arenas or barren, concrete Nazi squares are needed to make your cities 'world-class'.

crap, you guys got the "are we world class" insecurity shit going in Edmonton too? It's something you hear in Vancouver a little too often still.

The short answer is: you're not world-class unless your local government stops fretting about being world class.

[viper37]

The minority governments and this majority government has showed that one of the things they were not principled about, however, was the nature of Canadian democracy. The parliamentary system has been consistently undermined by base tactics which display that for them, opposition is not something that enhances democracy, it is something that hinders it; that whatever relied in our system on tacit rules can be safely trampled on; that Parliament is there only to rubber-stamp bills; that transparency in the mechanics of government is something that comes from their political enemies and therefore must be fought; that administrative procedures must be trumped by arbitrariness of ministers; that their political culture is so immersed in American republicanism (apart from the bizarre cult of the monarchy) that they bring in wholesale references, and practices without bothering to understand their repercussions. 

to summarize it: they did exactly as the Liberals did before them, and the old Canadian Conservative Party before the Liberals, and the Trudeau Liberals before that and the...

Anyway they lost me with their Colonial thing.  I am now a political orphan on both political scenes, for the first time since I'm 14.  Fuck 'em.

[Neil]

Nah.  Sure, there's oil money, but nobody here pays much in the way of taxes.  If Alberta ever adopts a progressive income tax and starts charging a sales tax, then you guys had better watch out.  We'll be coming to make the world Edmonton, which means that your snow will never be removed, your cities will sprawl beyond reason and your governments will spend all their time debating about how many art galleries, arenas or barren, concrete Nazi squares are needed to make your cities 'world-class'.

crap, you guys got the "are we world class" insecurity shit going in Edmonton too? It's something you hear in Vancouver a little too often still.

The short answer is: you're not world-class unless your local government stops fretting about being world class.

It's worse in Edmonton, because Calgary has become better in almost every way over the last 30+ years.  Imagine how Vancouver would feel if 30 years from now Victoria had become San Francisco North.

[Jacob]

It's worse in Edmonton, because Calgary has become better in almost every way over the last 30+ years.  Imagine how Vancouver would feel if 30 years from now Victoria had become San Francisco North.

It's hard to imagine that could happen, but yeah, that'd do a number on Vancouver civic leaders for sure.