[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Barrister]

I knew the façade would fail fairly soon.

What - like I would want to follow the lead of those redneck hillbillies from Saskatchewan?  And not follow the example of glorious British Colombia and keep daylight savings?

[Jacob]

The reasoning behind it is this: that under the Quebec Succession Reference, the SCC has stated that if a province votes in favour of a constitutional change there is an obligation on the ROC to negotiate that in good faith.  But obviously with the majority of provinces benefitting from equalization such a change will never happen.  So really it's just a method of driving anti-Ottawa sentiment - or at least that was the plan.

Makes sense and aligns with my initial reading. I'm not a big fan of "driving anti-Ottawa sentiment" as a political gambit, especially when it's aimed at structural features of the country by a movement that regularly is the federal government. But it is what it is.

But the issue has generated basically zero discussion, and with Kenney's deep unpopularity he runs the risk of losing this.

I think the referendum was silly, and I don't think equalization should be abolished.  But I'm probably just going to vote "yes" because a "no" vote would be so devastating to the UCP.

Yeah I get the conundrum for you. I hope it doesn't end up as one of those things where it passes and takes on a life of its own, leading to terrible consequences.

[Jacob]

What - like I would want to follow the lead of those redneck hillbillies from Saskatchewan?  And not follow the example of glorious British Colombia and keep daylight savings?

As I understand it, we're waiting for the US coastal states to follow through as it's important for us to stay aligned with them. Once they pull the trigger, our Legislature can make the change. No need for a referendum.

[Barrister]

What - like I would want to follow the lead of those redneck hillbillies from Saskatchewan?  And not follow the example of glorious British Colombia and keep daylight savings?

As I understand it, we're waiting for the US coastal states to follow through as it's important for us to stay aligned with them. Once they pull the trigger, our Legislature can make the change. No need for a referendum.

Yeah I think it's simple - we should follow the lead of our neighbours and trading partners.  Which is what we did when the US expanded Daylight Savings in 2007.  If the US brings in permanent daylight savings we should follow suit - but not before then.

[Barrister]

City and school board elections today.  Always conflicted on who to vote for at the city council / school board level, because I really don't follow what happens at that level, and the candidates themselves get so very little exposure.

So for school board there's just two candidates - the incumbent who seems ok, I guess, and then a challenger who has very little web presence but his twitter is full of anti-vax mandate stuff.  Incumbent it is.

Mayoral - okay they do get some exposure so I have some idea what they support / would do, and there has been polling so I can avoid wasting my vote on a 5th place finisher.

But city council - okay there's about 3 candidates that seem acceptable.  And some that aren't.  But I have no idea which one is more likely to win.  Do I just vote for the candidate of the 3 with the most lawn signs?

[Barrister]

Interesting.  Realized one of the three city counsel possible candidates was actually the city hall reporter for the #1 radio station in town (630 CHED) for almost 40 years.  He lost his job over the summer (cutbacks...) so now he's running for counsel.  He describes himself as a "centre-conservative" so that works for me.

[viper37]

So apparently there's a referendum on equalization payments in Alberta: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-equalization-referendum-1.6214401

What's the deal here?

Another example of right wing misinformation campaigns.

From the Globe

Political scientist Jared Wesley, the lead on a recent University of Alberta survey on referendum voting intentions, said the poll suggested the Yes side remains in the lead. But he said a disturbingly high percentage doesn't understand how equalization works (44 per cent), wrongly believes Quebec gets the most per capita (85 per cent), and fails to understand Ottawa does not need provincial buy-in to change the equalization formula (62 per cent).

"I don't blame Albertans for being confused," said Wesley. "They've been fed a lot of misinformation by governments in this province for a lot of decades, and that's showing up in our research."

Wesley said it's a muddy referendum question designed to deliver "strategic ambiguity" for the United Conservative government as it seeks broad leverage.

But leverage, he said, is not what you think you have. Rather, it's what others think you have.

He said the rest of Canada is seeing a province that has received generous federal COVID-19 funding, has called in the military to rescue its COVID-19-ravaged health system, and has seen Ottawa literally buy the Trans Mountain pipeline to help its oil industry.

Kenney himself said multiple times he had no desire to reopen the Constitution.  He's got to live with his choices.

[crazy canuck]

I agree Viper, as BB already said the whole thing was silly.

But that of course will not stop conservative supporters for voting in favour of a silly referendum question.  The province has been conditioned with misinformation for a long time - as the quote above suggests.


edit: and to be clear, it is not Kenney's choice.  The amendment would require the agreement of Parliament and meet the amending formula.   This was all just right wing theatre.

[viper37]

leading to terrible consequences.

Like Alberta declaring independance and realizing after the fact they needed Canada more than the opposite?  Yeah, I can see your point of view. 

I don't agree it's a terrible consequence, and I don't think it's enough of a catalyst to bring such consequences either.

Albertans need to first develop a fully indepedant national identity, distinct from Canada for that option to be really popular.  As long as Quebecers were calling themselves Canadiens, there was no seperatist movement gaining ground in the province.

I just don't see Albertans to be there yet.  It's beginning, for sure.  Complaints about a centralizing government and sending too much money to Ottawa to receive only scraps in return are the beginning of something.  About where Quebec was in the 50s when it established its own taxation system.

[viper37]

edit: and to be clear, it is not Kenney's choice.  The amendment would require the agreement of Parliament and meet the amending formula.   This was all just right wing theatre.

of course it's theater.  I just think it's silly for Kenney to hold a referendum to pressure Canada into changing its constitution when he was adamently opposed to any talks of it not so long ago.

[Jacob]

The committee managing Canada's Parliament requires that everyone who enters Parliament on Nov 22 must be fully vaccinated, unless they have a medically valid reason not to (and provide a recent negative Covid test). The Conservative Party is, disappointingly, kicking up a fuss

"Mr O'Toole asked the Prime Minister to stop using vaccines as a political wedge tool and to prioritize addressing the issue of vaccine hesitancy in Canada," said the statement.

Mr. O'Toole, you're the one who is fuelling vaccine hesitancy with your wishy-washy approach on vaccinations. You're the one who are equivocating on public health with a real cost in lives. Your opposition is particularly egregious given MPs who do not wish to be vaccinated can still attend Parliament virtually. Your call for the government to address vaccine hesitancy is riseable, given your current stance. Poor show.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/party-also-says-it-won-t-support-virtual-sittings-of-parliament-1.6218117

[Barrister]

I fully support vaccine use and think Trudeau is using it as a wedge issue.

[Grey Fox]

I fully support vaccine use and think Trudeau is using it as a wedge issue.

Why is that?

[Barrister]

I fully support vaccine use and think Trudeau is using it as a wedge issue.

Why is that?

Because that's what he does, and because he knows the Conservatives are vulnerable on this issue.  The Conservatives are the only ones who have not said all their MPs are vaccinated, but the majority of Canadians support vaccinations.

[HVC]

then get your MP's vaccinated. wedge gone.