[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Sheilbh]

Yes - it also has the advantage of being free (if costly in political capital) and it aligns with Labour's coalition of voters.

I'll post the piece in the Brexit thread as I don't want to clog up Canada with any more Labour chat

[Grey Fox]

Mentionoed before that smart centre-right figures here are very taken by Poilievre in a "here's what you could have had" way. But just read a piece in the Times by a columnist who is very well-connected with Starmer's team that apparently Labour HQ are watching him very closely too.

Obviously no institutional links between the parties (and Justin Trudeau's campaign was in London and chatting with Labour figures this week), but still interesting.

No institutional links, but centre-right (and centre-left) parties in the anglosphere definitely talk to each other.

I do feel like some of the criticism from the Liberals of Poilievre is getting a little bit unhinged, so I think they must be doing something right.

Spewing easy slogans to complicated problems is not doing something.

Le gros bon senssss. 

[viper37]

Mentionoed before that smart centre-right figures here are very taken by Poilievre in a "here's what you could have had" way. But just read a piece in the Times by a columnist who is very well-connected with Starmer's team that apparently Labour HQ are watching him very closely too.

Obviously no institutional links between the parties (and Justin Trudeau's campaign was in London and chatting with Labour figures this week), but still interesting.

No institutional links, but centre-right (and centre-left) parties in the anglosphere definitely talk to each other.

I do feel like some of the criticism from the Liberals of Poilievre is getting a little bit unhinged, so I think they must be doing something right.

Spewing easy slogans to complicated problems is not doing something.

Le gros bon senssss. 

There was a lot more underneath the ADQ's message than this simple slogan to rally the people.

It's the party's fault if nobody reads the platform.

If you look back the party's platform, they correctly identified all of today's problems.  Maybe their solution might not have all worked.  But at least, they had solutions and were willing to try something.  But, hey got to vote for the people promising not to change anything.

[viper37]

Wrong thread CC.

[crazy canuck]

Oopsie, lets pretend I was talking about the Liberals being poor things.

[Barrister]

The inability to have a home in which to raise a family might be having some impact.

So I thought of this comment (which related to low fertility) when I saw this news story:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-condo-sales-increase-raising-hopes-for-market-comeback-1.7103604

Which makes the point that after hitting a high in 2015, Edmonton condo prices have slumped for years.  The article notes that you can buy a condo in Edmonton for under $200k, compared to $330k in Calgary, $75ok in Vancouver and $680k in Toronto.

If you go back to the fertility article:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/statistics-canada-total-fertility-rate-2022-1.7100404

You will note that while there is some regional variability (Alberta is at 1.45, compared to BC at 1.11) it's still pretty low everywhere.  Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, both of which have quite cheap housing, have extremely low fertility rates as well.

Housing cost is at beast only a portion of the cause.

[crazy canuck]

Housing cost is at beast only a portion of the cause.

Yeah, I agree with that. The inability to afford a home is one of a constellation of factors.  But I think a lot of it can be linked with the fact that real wages have not increased for decades.  Having children is expensive and most people just don't have the disposable income to afford kids.  The inability to purchase a home is really the last nail in the coffin (kick in the teeth).

[Barrister]

Housing cost is at beast only a portion of the cause.

Yeah, I agree with that. The inability to afford a home is one of a constellation of factors.  But I think a lot of it can be linked with the fact that real wages have not increased for decades.  Having children is expensive and most people just don't have the disposable income to afford kids.  The inability to purchase a home is really the last nail in the coffin (kick in the teeth).

See, I disagree.  I think it's much more cultural.  Having children is seen as being a personal choice, or a freedom of expression.

I mean I work with lawyers.  I know TONS of lawyers who don't have kids, despite having plenty of disposable income and a loving partner.  If they have kids often times its only one, or generally at most two.  I'm definitely the oddball in having three (though one guy in my office has five).

So I can fully understand why cost may cause some families to stop at one or two, instead of having a larger family, but something else, or somethings else, is causing people not to have kids at all.

[crazy canuck]

Housing cost is at beast only a portion of the cause.

Yeah, I agree with that. The inability to afford a home is one of a constellation of factors.  But I think a lot of it can be linked with the fact that real wages have not increased for decades.  Having children is expensive and most people just don't have the disposable income to afford kids.  The inability to purchase a home is really the last nail in the coffin (kick in the teeth).

See, I disagree.  I think it's much more cultural.  Having children is seen as being a personal choice, or a freedom of expression.

I mean I work with lawyers.  I know TONS of lawyers who don't have kids, despite having plenty of disposable income and a loving partner.  If they have kids often times its only one, or generally at most two.  I'm definitely the oddball in having three (though one guy in my office has five).

So I can fully understand why cost may cause some families to stop at one or two, instead of having a larger family, but something else, or somethings else, is causing people not to have kids at all.

Lawyers are a bad example.  We work long hours and this is one of the few bastions of male privilege left where women suffer significant professional impacts if they take meaningful maternity leave.

[Barrister]

Lawyers are a bad example.  We work long hours and this is one of the few bastions of male privilege left where women suffer significant professional impacts if they take meaningful maternity leave.

So you know who I work for.  If anything we're female-dominated, and while our mat leave policy could definitely be more generous I don't think there are any significant impacts for taking leave.  I know I suffered no impact when taking paternity leave the one time.

[crazy canuck]

I was referring to our profession generally.  If you were were referring to the few people you know personally, then there may be a sample size problem. 

[viper37]

Lawyers are a bad example.  We work long hours and this is one of the few bastions of male privilege left where women suffer significant professional impacts if they take meaningful maternity leave.

So you know who I work for.  If anything we're female-dominated, and while our mat leave policy could definitely be more generous I don't think there are any significant impacts for taking leave.  I know I suffered no impact when taking paternity leave the one time.

The lawyer firms I employed so far had many female lawyers working for them.  I do not know if they made it to senior partner levels though.  One is very small, only 5 lawyers, I think they are all partners.  I know for a fact my lawyer works late, I imagine the other partners do to, except maybe the founder of the firm who is semi-retired now.

The other one was a big firm.  Looking a the team profiles, I see the female lawyers are all young and quite pretty while the males are more... diversified.  Maybe there is some kind of strategy there.  But that would be cynical of me to say so, so I will refrain from it.

[Barrister]

The other one was a big firm.  Looking a the team profiles, I see the female lawyers are all young and quite pretty while the males are more... diversified.  Maybe there is some kind of strategy there.  But that would be cynical of me to say so, so I will refrain from it.

Something else might be going on, but I will note the majority of university graduates (by a fair degree) are women these days.

[Jacob]

I only have anecdotes and subjective observations, but my impression is that the career impact of taking maternity leave is very real even in businesses where they're supposed not to be. I think unionized fields may be the exception.

[Jacob]

The other one was a big firm.  Looking a the team profiles, I see the female lawyers are all young and quite pretty while the males are more... diversified.  Maybe there is some kind of strategy there.  But that would be cynical of me to say so, so I will refrain from it.

Something else might be going on, but I will note the majority of university graduates (by a fair degree) are women these days.

I have heard it claimed that there are distinct career advantages for women for being pretty. I wouldn't be completely surprised that in a competitive like law you'd see a bias towards better looking for women.

Inversely, I also understand that you generally need to be fairly driven to succeed in the first stages of a law career, which may correlate with folks who also put effort into staying fit and presenting well.

Dunno though... just idle speculation.