[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Josephus]

And he's planning on following through with electoral reform

http://startouch.thestar.com/screens/28bceddc-105c-4fb7-918a-825d68d3e5d2%7CY0YlUTcAliL8.html

[Barrister]

And he's planning on following through with electoral reform

http://startouch.thestar.com/screens/28bceddc-105c-4fb7-918a-825d68d3e5d2%7CY0YlUTcAliL8.html

Hardly a ringing endorsement:

"It was one of our commitments that this would be the last election based on this process," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.

"We have much work to do, to consult, to be engaged with Canadians, to study the issue so that upcoming elections are indeed done in a different way," he said in French.

The rest of the article just repeats things said during the campaign.

[viper37]

The Liberals spin doctors are hard at work, repeating campaign promises has "achievements" so early in his reign, even before he is sworn in duty.  You got to admire a well oiled machine.  And you get to understand why Harper was so distrustfull of medias and government bureaucreats still loyal to the Libs.

[crazy canuck]

I think it's pretty reasonable to go with "we want to do something, but we're not sure about the specifics yet", especially since that's the position they campaigned on.

more like "We'll pretend we want to do something, we'll say we want to do something, but in the end, we won't do anything."

You are making a presumption without any evidence.  Lets wait to see if he his actually full of hot air, as you suspect, or whether they will do something.  I am not sure what political benefit he could possibly get from doing nothing.  There is only 1 seat in Alberta so, politically speaking, what does he have to lose?  Certainly a very different political situation from the conservatives who promised they would regulate on a sector by sector basis but never quite got around to doing anything at all.

[crazy canuck]

And he's planning on following through with electoral reform

http://startouch.thestar.com/screens/28bceddc-105c-4fb7-918a-825d68d3e5d2%7CY0YlUTcAliL8.html

Hardly a ringing endorsement:

"It was one of our commitments that this would be the last election based on this process," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.

"We have much work to do, to consult, to be engaged with Canadians, to study the issue so that upcoming elections are indeed done in a different way," he said in French.

The rest of the article just repeats things said during the campaign.

Its not meant to be a "ringing endorsement".  Its merely confirmation that he intends to do what he said he would do.  Just as Josephus said in his post.  You and Viper are protesting just a bit too much 

[Jacob]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Wait... are you in favour of more concerted action on climate change?

[Barrister]

Its not meant to be a "ringing endorsement".  Its merely confirmation that he intends to do what he said he would do.  Just as Josephus said in his post.  You and Viper are protesting just a bit too much 

...in that three days later is not enough time for even the crookedest politician to resile from his election promises.

Huh - spellcheck doesn't know the word resile - wonder why.  It's a perfectly cromulent word.


But anyways - like Jacob had mentioned, I've seen a flurry of articles hit the net all going over what the Liberals had promised, none of which have any new information.  This article seems to be in that trend.

[Barrister]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment.

Wait... are you in favour of more concerted action on climate change?

For sure.

But so did Harper, and I thought he took a responsible approach.  It wasn't that "climate change isn't an issue".  It was instead "unilateral action by Canada is meaningless".  I'm definitely in favour of a comprehensive global fight on carbon emissions.

[Jacob]

For sure.

But so did Harper, and I thought he took a responsible approach.  It wasn't that "climate change isn't an issue".  It was instead "unilateral action by Canada is meaningless".  I'm definitely in favour of a comprehensive global fight on carbon emissions.

It seemed to me that Harper's approach was "we won't bother doing anything at all until the entire rest of the world decide to agree to our specific standards, and in the meantime we'll stay away from engaging the rest of the world in a meaningful way."

Maybe that perception is wrong, but I'd be surprised if the Liberals' actions were less productive than that on the topic.

[crazy canuck]

Its not meant to be a "ringing endorsement".  Its merely confirmation that he intends to do what he said he would do.  Just as Josephus said in his post.  You and Viper are protesting just a bit too much 

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

On the electoral reform issue, I think the politics of the issue also favour him actually wanting to make a change.  I think the Liberals will recognize that much of the reason for their electoral success was that the majority this time around wanted to back the party most likely to defeat the Conservatives.  If the NDP had held their strength in Quebec would would likely be seeing an NDP majority today.  As a result they will likely recognize their chances of repeating this sort of success next time around is unlikely.  From the Liberal perspective it is much better to change the rules now because proportional representation will mean that they will likely always have some role in government and it is equally unlikely the Conservatives could ever form a government again.

[Barrister]

For sure.

But so did Harper, and I thought he took a responsible approach.  It wasn't that "climate change isn't an issue".  It was instead "unilateral action by Canada is meaningless".  I'm definitely in favour of a comprehensive global fight on carbon emissions.

It seemed to me that Harper's approach was "we won't bother doing anything at all until the entire rest of the world decide to agree to our specific standards, and in the meantime we'll stay away from engaging the rest of the world in a meaningful way."

Maybe that perception is wrong, but I'd be surprised if the Liberals' actions were less productive than that on the topic.

I think that's heavily coloured by your perception and emotions of the man.

He said several times that he wasn't going to hobble Canada's economy while our biggest trading partner did nothing, but he would gladly match anything the US would do.

[crazy canuck]

For sure.

But so did Harper, and I thought he took a responsible approach.  It wasn't that "climate change isn't an issue".  It was instead "unilateral action by Canada is meaningless".  I'm definitely in favour of a comprehensive global fight on carbon emissions.

It seemed to me that Harper's approach was "we won't bother doing anything at all until the entire rest of the world decide to agree to our specific standards, and in the meantime we'll stay away from engaging the rest of the world in a meaningful way."

Maybe that perception is wrong, but I'd be surprised if the Liberals' actions were less productive than that on the topic.

I think that's heavily coloured by your perception and emotions of the man.

He said several times that he wasn't going to hobble Canada's economy while our biggest trading partner did nothing, but he would gladly match anything the US would do.

Context is important.  He said that when the Republicans were in power.  Little risk back then.   When Obama announced his very ambitious goals for reduction Harper did nothing. 

[Barrister]

For sure.

But so did Harper, and I thought he took a responsible approach.  It wasn't that "climate change isn't an issue".  It was instead "unilateral action by Canada is meaningless".  I'm definitely in favour of a comprehensive global fight on carbon emissions.

It seemed to me that Harper's approach was "we won't bother doing anything at all until the entire rest of the world decide to agree to our specific standards, and in the meantime we'll stay away from engaging the rest of the world in a meaningful way."

Maybe that perception is wrong, but I'd be surprised if the Liberals' actions were less productive than that on the topic.

I think that's heavily coloured by your perception and emotions of the man.

He said several times that he wasn't going to hobble Canada's economy while our biggest trading partner did nothing, but he would gladly match anything the US would do.

Context is important.  He said that when the Republicans were in power.  Little risk back then.   When Obama announced his very ambitious goals for reduction Harper did nothing.

What exactly is he supposed to do?  Obama is faced with a Republican congress.  He's gotten nothing passed into legislation.

[crazy canuck]

What exactly is he supposed to do?  Obama is faced with a Republican congress.  He's gotten nothing passed into legislation.

What Trudeau is now doing 

[Jacob]

Context is important.  He said that when the Republicans were in power.  Little risk back then.   When Obama announced his very ambitious goals for reduction Harper did nothing.

So basically when X wasn't going to happen he said "we'll do something when X happens"; once X looked like it might happen he kept quiet and did nothing?