[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Malthus]

Heh the only two things that are getting reported from the BC Throne speech are (a) the magic LNG fund; and (b) the plan to create a school of "traditional Chinese Medicine". 

[Neil]

Traditional Chinese medicine?  How do they jive that with the green streak in the NDP?

[Jacob]

To top it all off the NDP has come out today essentially restating all the arguments the right has and should be making.  ie, there is no magic money tree, we need to be prudent etc etc etc.

I despair

I was at a friend's house the other day when an Adrian Dix commercial came on TV. I asked his opinion and he said that his worry about the NDP and Adrian Dix is that they sound sensible enough now, but that once they win their grassroots and left wing activists will act up and force through some of those magic thinking fiscal policies that you worry about so much.

So if I understand you correctly, CC, you're saying that right now the NDP is actually saying the right things when it comes to the economy (and the BC Libs are not, making it worse). If they get elected and they actually do what they say right now, I get to feel good about sensible socialists and you'll have to reassess your view of the NDP as being irresponsible on economics. However, you, like my friend fear - or rather expect - that if/when the NDP win they'll jettison the sensible things they're saying right now and do stupid destructive things to the economy down the road.

Is that a fair description of the situation?

[Jacob]

Traditional Chinese medicine?  How do they jive that with the green streak in the NDP?

Most of the stuff in Chinese medicine is perfectly fine from a green perspective: acupuncture, qi gong, reflexology, and herbal remedies are all fine.

In fact, hippy dippy types tend to love traditional Chinese medicine (mostly out of anti-pharma sentiment) even when they're not crazy about anything lese Chinese.

[Neil]

Traditional Chinese medicine?  How do they jive that with the green streak in the NDP?

Most of the stuff in Chinese medicine is perfectly fine from a green perspective: acupuncture, qi gong, reflexology, and herbal remedies are all fine.

In fact, hippy dippy types tend to love traditional Chinese medicine (mostly out of anti-pharma sentiment) even when they're not crazy about anything lese Chinese.

Sure, you say that now.  Just wait until every animal in BC has been slaughtered to get the penises that Chinese love so much.

[crazy canuck]

To top it all off the NDP has come out today essentially restating all the arguments the right has and should be making.  ie, there is no magic money tree, we need to be prudent etc etc etc.

I despair

I was at a friend's house the other day when an Adrian Dix commercial came on TV. I asked his opinion and he said that his worry about the NDP and Adrian Dix is that they sound sensible enough now, but that once they win their grassroots and left wing activists will act up and force through some of those magic thinking fiscal policies that you worry about so much.

So if I understand you correctly, CC, you're saying that right now the NDP is actually saying the right things when it comes to the economy (and the BC Libs are not, making it worse). If they get elected and they actually do what they say right now, I get to feel good about sensible socialists and you'll have to reassess your view of the NDP as being irresponsible on economics. However, you, like my friend fear - or rather expect - that if/when the NDP win they'll jettison the sensible things they're saying right now and do stupid destructive things to the economy down the road.

Is that a fair description of the situation?

With one twist, what I think will happen is that Dix will take a page out of Harper's play book and move us in incremental changes.  He would be an idiot to try to make the quick fundamental changes the NDP tried to make the last go round.  It cost them any chance at forming government again for over a decade.

I dont think I will have to reassess my view.  It is pretty clear the direction he wants the Province to go in.

[Barrister]

Kelly McParland: Drunk on Trudeau, Liberals prepare to forget reform and hand him the keys

Kelly McParland | Feb 19, 2013 8:30 AM ET | Last Updated: Feb 19, 2013 10:10 AM ET

Sorry to be the one who has to deliver the news folks, but the Liberal party has fallen off the wagon.

This is a party that woke up the morning after elections in 2006, 2008 and 2011 with ugly headaches and a deep sense of regret,  spent the day on the couch gobbling hangover remedies and swore that never ... ever...  would it make the same mistake. Oh Lord.  Did we seriously do that  ... with Stephane Dion? ... oh my God. And Michael Ignatieff too? How will we ever live it down? Take me now, please take me now.

Justin Trudeau keeps dodging jabs of Liberal opponents

Here's the curious thing about the political trajectory of one Justin Trudeau, the airhead, rich boy, socialite and bon vivant – not a member of the middle class, you know – who has all but locked up the Liberal leadership, and whom polls consistently show is the best-liked politician in Canada: He keeps doing this. How can that be, since he's so dumb?

In recent days Trudeau's nearest rival has ostensibly dropped the gloves, tackling Trudeau head on. MP Marc Garneau, no slouch in the substance department (let's face it, only one Canadian has more substance than Garneau, and he's in orbit now crafting songs for the Barenaked Ladies) called out the frontrunner in blunt terms for being all sizzle, no steak. "He has told Canadians that we need a 'bold' plan and a 'clear vision' without defining either," said Garneau last week. "On Justin's two clear priorities, the middle class and youth engagement, he has said nothing."

They took the cure. Elected new party officials and swore up and down the country to stay away from the quick fixes and devote themselves to a slow, solid rebuilding of Liberalism, on a firm basis of beliefs rather than flash and a pretty face.  They would dig deep and establish what Liberalism was all about, establish real principles and policies that weren't simply about winning votes.

Then came Justin, an once again the party is dancing around with a lampshade on its head. On Saturday in Mississauga, the third of three desultory leadership "debates", you could almost hear the champagne corks popping and the scotch swilling in the tumblers. The formal coronation won't take place for two more months, but if you were in any doubt that Liberals have thrown themselves at a new saviour, just watch the two key moments in the event, when Marc Garneau inquires what qualifications a rich kid from Montreal has to run the country, and, later, when Martha Hall Findlay drives home the same point with more gusto.

Garneau, who has the experience and track record Trudeau so notably lacks, was so overwhelmingly polite in posing his query that he resembled an Entertainment TV reporter deferentially lobbing a softball to the superstar of the moment. Trudeau had been given days to prepare his answer, as everyone knew what Garneau was going to say, but didn't have to respond in any detail because the ridiculous format of the "debate" cut off the microphone after less than three minutes of discussion.

More telling was the audience response when Hall Findlay dared to called out Trudeau for confessing he isn't middle class, and has an inheritance worth $1.2 million and a healthy income from public speaking. "I find it a little challenging to understand how you would understand the challenges facing [middle class] Canadians," she said.

Fair enough, and hardly the stuff of Tory attack ads. But you'd have thought she was Oscar Pistorius from the anger that swept over the crowd, which booed her loudly and let it be known that challenging their Justin was simply not on. The blowback was so fierce Hall Findlay felt the need to apologize the next day "to Justin, his family and to those who were offended," insisting she'd meant nothing personal. Meanwhile, Trudeau seized the to defend himself with vigor, solemnly declaring — to loud applause –  his undying intention to devote himself to the good of all Canadians, middle class or otherwise. If you missed it, don't worry: you'll no doubt have plenty of chance to see it in Liberal ads during the next election campaign.

Michael Ignatieff must be gnashing his teeth
So, barring some self-induced catastrophe, he's going to be the leader. Liberals don't care if they don't know any of the specifics of his thinking. Garneau was right: Trudeau has delivered little more than a few vague homilies on his thinking, including devotion to "equality of opportunity, a positive approach to freedom, a grounding in science and evidence, and a commitment to embrace Canada's diversity as a driver of strength and unity." But no real meat.

Responding to Garneau's challenge, earlier in the week, to take a position on something substantial, Trudeau's team unveiled an education plan just hours before the debate.  It consists of a pledge to make education a priority, to try and raise the participation rate for post-secondary education, and to look for ways to mitigate the heavy debts some students face when the graduate. He stole that last idea directly from Garneau, but without the greater detail Garneau has offered. Instead, he suggests "the remainder of this campaign, and the two years that follow, should be about examining the effectiveness and affordability of these ideas, and many others."

Maybe it doesn't matter that Trudeau has little practical experience and offers few specifics. Before he became party leader, Stephen Harper hadn't spent a lot of time in the real world either.

Michael Ignatieff must be gnashing his teeth. He spent much of his leadership relentlessly touring the country in search of input and ideas, and here's Trudeau — who has a few years teaching high school versus Ignatieff's career at Oxford and Harvard — blowing it all off with some puffy promise to do something about education, details to follow later?

At this point it doesn't really matter what the rest of us think of this, because the Liberal party is too drunk on Justin to care.  Maybe it doesn't matter that he has little practical experience and offers few specifics. Before he became party leader, Stephen Harper hadn't spent a lot of time in the real world either. He did offer a more specific program, but has ignored or reversed himself on so much of it since coming to power that it's hardly anything to brag about.

But Harper had to fight his way to the leadership over an extended period, as, to a lesser extent, did Thomas Mulcair. Trudeau is being handed the reins on his first try but a party that can't wait to make him the boss. If Liberals think he's so fragile he can't handle a mild reproof from  Martha Hall Findlay, what's going to happen when he comes up against Harper and Mulcair in a real debate?

We're about to find out.  If the Liberals have made the wrong choice again, they may wish they'd put more effort into their rehab.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/02/19/kelly-mcparland-drunk-on-trudeau-liberals-prepare-to-forget-reform-and-hand-him-the-keys/

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what the political landscape will look like when the Liberals are shut out of Parlament in the next election.

[viper37]

Some more totally unuseful expenses
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/scholar-andrew-bennett-to-lead-canada-s-office-of-religious-freedom-1.1162231

We have money to waste, it seems.

[Malthus]

I suspect that to be a successful politician in this country it is better to be an astute polical manager than to be fired up on principles or to be charismatic. The problem is that Harper has that "uncharismatic, few fixed principles, competent political manager" description all sewn up. His "story" is, above all else, one of *discarding* Reform political principles that made reform/conservative governments unelectable. His lack of charisma is legendary - as far as the public's concerned, he's the asshole boss that no-one likes but everyone grudgingly respects, even when he's doing them the dirty.   

Trudeau has charisma but it isn't yet obvious he has anything else. Ignatieff lacked charisma but allegedly had principles, only to discard them in an attempt to gain power; lacking charisma or political chops, that left him with basically nothing to fall back on, so he got trounced.

The (federal) NDP have fixed principles, but lack a leader with charisma and are famously bad at political management. 

[crazy canuck]

I am not sure it is accurate to say Trudeau has charisma.  He is a political celebrity because of his family name.  That is about it.  I dont think the stage is set for Trudeaumania II - although that is probably what the Liberals are hoping for.

[Malthus]

I am not sure it is accurate to say Trudeau has charisma.  He is a political celebrity because of his family name.  That is about it.  I dont think the stage is set for Trudeaumania II - although that is probably what the Liberals are hoping for.

He has the name thing going, and he looks the part of a celebrity - compared to leaders in the other parties, he *looks* young and dynamic. Whether that will translate into votes nationwide is, of course, another story.

Problem is that, other than not being the Tories, what else have the Liberals got?   

[crazy canuck]

he *looks* young and dynamic.

And then he begins to talk.  That is when all his problems start.  Both in terms of style and substance.

I agree that if the Liberals could ever get their house in order they could give the Conservatives a run.  But it seems that will be at least one more election cycle and another leadership convention away.

[crazy canuck]

And now for the BC budget, raising corporate taxes....

So now they have proposed a magical money tree and they are doing what everyone fears the NDP will do.

But it could be worse.  I could live in Alberta.

[Grey Fox]

It's just taxes.

*looks at Quebec's corporate taxes rates* *cries*