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[gutter_trash]

Rebecca Blaikie said that the NDP dropped 20 points over night in Quebec after the niqab. I figured that it lead to a domino effect across the rest of the country making the Liberals the only option to oust the CPC. The Liberals were stronger on the niqab than the NDP but didn't appear to suffer from that in Quebec. I'm not sure why this is though.

lots of NDPers out West are wrongfully blaming Quebec for their losses forgetting that the Liberals held an even more multicultural position than the NDP.

Liberals ended up winning a huge amount of seats in Quebec while having an even more multicultural position than the NDP.

Liberals have not won that huge amount of seats in Quebec since the days of Pierre Trudeau the father. Justin beat expectations

NDP excuses

 

[firehawk12]

I don't know anything about Saskatchewan. How is Brad Wall and the province under him? It seems that he's very popular so he must be doing something right.

I don't know either. But he's the man that turned an NDP stronghold into a three term Conservative majority, so he must be doing something right.

(The only real thing I know about Saskatchewan is that they have a public telecom carrier and as a result have some of the cheapest mobile plans in Canada... oh, and Corner Gas. lol)

 

[maharg]

This story by John Ivison is insane on so many levels. Brad Wall as the only person who can save the country from prolonged Liberal rule (with the bonus quote that "He just needs to learn enough phonetic French to get him through two debates")? Peter Mackay as "the telegenic scion of a political dynasty that many true-blue Conservatives consider an abomination"? Jason Kenney needing to be persuaded to run? Stephen Harper being the CPC's last, best hope at rebuilding the party and getting over the...uh, Harper years? It's just non-stop crazy from beginning to end.



Nonsense. Trudeau was, if anything, even more forceful in his denunciations of the CPC's race-baiting, but it didn't hurt the Liberal fortunes much in the province. And I don't see how their stance on that one issue in one province led to them getting wiped out in Atlantic Canada or Toronto. Saying "The NDP lost because it took a principled stand" may help NDPers feel better about their loss, but it doesn't hold up to critical thinking/reality.

The thing is, their inability to credibly handle the situation in Quebec, and a belief that their position would alienate them with Quebec voters can still hurt the NDP even if a more forceful approach by Trudeau actually helped the Liberals. In this case, it's not really a zero sum game. A blow to the NDP's credibility in Quebec was particularly problematic for them because of the perception that Quebec was their base. The Liberals had no such achilles heel, since they had to come up from the bottom everywhere and they had momentum to do so at the time.

That said I agree that it's a confluence of factors and can't be blamed exclusively on the Niqab. I do think it's fair to say that their respective stances hurt the CPC and the NDP more than the Liberals, even though the NDP and Liberal stances were quite similar in substance.

I saw that the PCs just won a by-election there thanks to a four-way split (less than 28% of the vote!), and that the Wildrose candidate tried going negative on the PC candidate with flyers painting him as a Liberal. I'm kind of surprised that the Alberta PCs still have so much life -- I'd have thought that the last two elections killed them off, with their base abandoning them in the Redford election, and then the Redford supporters leaving them last year. I know that they got more votes than Wildrose last election, and I know that Brian Jean has the charisma of a damp towel, but still: with so few seats, I would've guessed that most of those voters would've abandoned them by now.

Old habits...

Right now I think the Wildrose's biggest liability is Derek Fildebrandt, who is their finance critic. He basically represents the fiscal far right wing of the party and gets a lot of airtime, is a former director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and has a terrible sense for optics. If I had to bet, I'd say he's going to be their next leader after Jean (whenever that is), and it'll be an epic disaster.

 

[gutter_trash]

The thing is, their inability to credibly handle the situation in Quebec, and a belief that their position would alienate them with Quebec voters can still hurt the NDP even if a more forceful approach by Trudeau actually helped the Liberals. In this case, it's not really a zero sum game. A blow to the NDP's credibility in Quebec was particularly problematic for them because of the perception that Quebec was their base. The Liberals had no such achilles heel, since they had to come up from the bottom everywhere and they had momentum to do so at the time.

That said I agree that it's a confluence of factors and can't be blamed exclusively on the Niqab. I do think it's fair to say that their respective stances hurt the CPC and the NDP more than the Liberals, even though the NDP and Liberal stances were quite similar in substance.

Ndp never had deep roots in Quebec. 2011 was all about Jack Layton the man not the Party.

Liberals have a long history in QC since Confederation, their base got rattled in the mid 2000s and went to sleep mode

Justin re-energized the base and attracted swing voters

 

[Sean C]

I'm sure Wall could become credible enough in French if he put the work in; Harper managed it.

Whether he wants the job is another matter. As premier of Saskatchewan he enjoys effectively absolute power on his home turf; few premiers have felt the incentive to give that up in favour of life on the opposition benches, particularly since it has never worked out for those that tried it (John Bracken, George Drew, Robert Stanfield).

That said I agree that it's a confluence of factors and can't be blamed exclusively on the Niqab. I do think it's fair to say that their respective stances hurt the CPC and the NDP more than the Liberals, even though the NDP and Liberal stances were quite similar in substance.

Yes, that's definitely true. The thing was that while the sentiment against the niqab appeared to have fairly wide traction, the subset of voters for whom it was an actual election issue was very small, and heavily concentrated among soft nationalist/Francophone voters in Quebec who had been parking their votes with the NDP since 2011, and who as a consequence of the NDP's position abandoned them for the Bloc and the Tories. As a result of that, the NDP's national numbers dipped, with in turn signaled that people looking to vote strategically against the Tories should vote Liberal.

 

[matthewwhatever]

I don't know anything about Saskatchewan. How is Brad Wall and the province under him? It seems that he's very popular so he must be doing something right.

He presided over an economic boom thanks to shale, so that didn't hurt. He's also taken up the mantle of western alienation, and that's a pretty big vote-winner on the prairies.

I'm sure Wall could become credible enough in French if he put the work in; Harper managed it.

Being in the PMO probably helped him improve. But he was at least starting with a base (however painful it may have been to listen to). Does Wall speak French at all?

I agree. In contrast to Trudeau's language, Mulcair's approach to the niquab issue was weak and watered down. He seemed flat footed when the issue arose in the campaign and it's frankly embarrassing that the NDP waffled and were more vague about their stance than Trudeau. The way the NDP handled the issue felt incredibly off brand.

"Off brand" would be a good way to describe Peggy Nash's complaints of the NDP campaign too. She doesn't sound like a Mulcair fan at all.

My prediction is that he's gone. Either he'll get sub 80% and quit, or he'll get 70+% and stay on, but most of that vote was a unity facade and he gets pushed out before the next election anyway.

My favourite part of that Nash takedown is the end, where, after going through all the ways she's disappointed in her party, she says she's undecided whether she'll vote for Mulcair. If that's how she writes when she's undecided, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of what she writes after she's made up her mind.

In related NDP news, their youth wing just put out a letter calling for NDPers to support a change in leadership.

 

[Pedrito]

Rebecca Blaikie said that the NDP dropped 20 points over night in Quebec after the niqab. I figured that it lead to a domino effect across the rest of the country making the Liberals the only option to oust the CPC. The Liberals were stronger on the niqab than the NDP but didn't appear to suffer from that in Quebec. I'm not sure why this is though.

1. NDP vote intention outside of Montreal crumbles because of the niqab. Liberal vote, concentrated in Montreal, stays the same.
2. Rest of Canada sees NDP falling in Québec, turns to Liberals as the alternative to Harper.
3. Québecers see that Liberals have momentum in the rest of Canada, switch their votes to Liberals to oust Harper.

In the end, as expected, no one actually bases their vote on the niqab issue, but the niqab plays a major role in switching the momentum to the Liberals. The NDP being all over the place in the last few weeks before the election doesn't help either.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

I really don't buy the niqab story for why the NDP lost. They lost because they ran a center-right campaign, and the Liberals numbers were improving even before that bullshit happened.

But I'm looking forward to the NDP concluding that that was the only reason they lost, and going back to dead last in the house for another generation.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The Liberals were stronger on the niqab than the NDP but didn't appear to suffer from that in Quebec. I'm not sure why this is though.

"This fact directly contradicts my "Québec is inherently racist" rhetoric, but I'll continue believing in that anyway."

 

[Walpurgis]

"This fact directly contradicts my "Québec is inherently racist" rhetoric, but I'll continue believing in that anyway."

Not this again.

 

[gutter_trash]

you guys don't know what you are talking about.

the niqab debate only affected a small portion of voters, smal, small portion who voted for the Bloc or Conservatives.

Lefty Francophones still voted for the NDP like in Longueil, St-Hubert, Rosemont, Hochelaga, Chambly,Laurier-Ste-Marie.

The NDP lost Federalist voters to the Liberals,
the NDP lost ethnic minority voters to the Liberals,
the NDP lost Anglos to the Liberals.
the NDP lost the business class to the Liberals.
the NDP lost the anti-Harper voters to the Liberals.
the NDP lost FRANCOPHONES to the Liberals

the niqab debate only affected a small miniscule portion of voters who either picked the Bloc or Conservatives.

Quebec City has Conservative learnings, they voted for Jack in 2011, then went back to CPC in 2015.

+Lots of 4 way fights, 3 way fights where some victors won with 25% or 30% of the vote in said riding.

but wait.

the Liberals won big in ridings where they were 90% Francophones like in the Gaspesie region, les iles and places like that which had Bloc bases

Liberals have never performed that well in Quebec since the days of Pierre Trudeau

 

[Sean C]

the niqab debate only affected a small portion of voters, smal, small portion who voted for the Bloc or Conservatives.

Yes, but like I said, those voters' defection was the first domino to fall in a chain reaction.

Reducing the whole campaign to the niqab issue would be a mistake, but it was a significant development.

 

[Tiktaalik]

The high level article I read about the NDP postmortem report pointed out one of the issues the report authors thought they had was that there simply wasn't really a very good Quebec oriented pitch from the NDP, and they somewhat took the area for granted. During the election I was hearing the same from Quebec voters on internet forums. That probably has a lot more to do with them losing seats in Quebec than the niqab.

 

[Sibylus]

Was intending to vote NDP, but a few things contributed to my switching to Liberal:

1. Competitive in my riding (polls suggested the Liberals were the best shot in Kelowna, and in the end they upset the C's)
2. Balanced-budget nonsense pandering
3. Limp defense of freedom of expression around the whole niqab thing

I was really disappointed by the campaign the NDP ran, and I'm thinking widespread disappointment contributed mightily to the collapse.

 

[maharg]

[snip gutter_trash assuming everyone is always talking about just Quebec as usual]

The reason we raise the niqab as significant is because of second order effects that also caused a slump in the rest of Canada. No one is saying that people specifically turned off by the NDP position on the niqab in Quebec turned the election all on their own.

Anyways, this is pretty pointless digression at this point. Only 3.5 years 'til the next election now!

 

[Tiktaalik]

Anyways, this is pretty pointless digression at this point. Only 3.5 years 'til the next election now!

After this upcoming NDP convention and likely ensuing Mulcair drama there's not a lot to talk about at the federal level. The country is in such a post-Harper bliss that I think everyone just wants to stop thinking about politics for a long while. I expect the Trudeau honeymoon period to last a very long time as a result.

The BC Election is coming up in 2017 and that will be an interesting one to see if the NDP can get its act together enough finally to beat the Liberals. I've kind of been on the fence as to whether the Ontario Liberals or the BC Liberals were the most terrible government in Confederation, but after this week I think I have to hand the award to the BC Liberals, because at the same time that the Ontario Liberals are backing away from absurd corporate donations and feeling bad about it, the BC Liberals are totally brushing off the criticism.

B.C. Liberals reject changes that would diminish party donations


While Ontario is moving to ban corporate and union political donations this spring, the governing B.C. Liberals are rejecting any changes that would diminish a source of cash that brought $5.3-million into the party’s bank account last year.

On Tuesday, Elections BC released the annual financial disclosures for the province’s political parties, showing the B.C. Liberals pulled in almost $10-million in political contributions in 2015. Corporate donations made up more than half of the party’s income. It is expected that fundraising in the current year will eclipse that amount, as the party prepares for an election in May, 2017.

Government House Leader Mike de Jong said on Tuesday the province is working to change the disclosure rules to ensure donations are made public more frequently, but he said the Liberal government will not comply with calls from the opposition to ban corporate and union donations in British Columbia.

“I don’t want to pretend that is in the cards right now,” Mr. de Jong told reporters.

The B.C. New Democrats will introduce a private members’ bill on Wednesday that proposes to limit “big money” donations. If it ever became law, it would curtail the NDP’s current fundraising practises as well: The disclosures show the New Democrats raised about $5-million in 2015. The largest source was individual donations, but the NDP does rely on large contributions from unions, and some individuals gave the party as much as $50,000.

....

(spoiler alert: The Liberals voted down the NDP bill)

 

[SRG01]

Postmedia is, um, posting massive losses in the second quarter:

http://business.financialpost.com/f...s-net-loss-of-225-1-million-in-second-quarter

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...o-review-struggling-business/article29552772/

 

[gabbo]

Postmedia is, um, posting massive losses in the second quarter:

http://business.financialpost.com/f...s-net-loss-of-225-1-million-in-second-quarter

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...o-review-struggling-business/article29552772/

It`s going to suck for people losing their jobs, because that`ll be numero uno on the reviews list. I can saw I won`t miss the rags they put out.

 

[Walpurgis]

Postmedia is, um, posting massive losses in the second quarter:

http://business.financialpost.com/f...s-net-loss-of-225-1-million-in-second-quarter

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...o-review-struggling-business/article29552772/

 

[gutter_trash]

a little off topic rant but also related to Canada

why are Canadian MPs and Canadian newscasters unable to propelry pronounce Bernie Sanders' last name?

All Canadians on TV (all of them say) ''Saunders'' with a U Inside of it

where do you get this U from?

it's Sand, like sand at the beach, Sanders not Saunders.

Rant over. LOL

 

[SRG01]

I'm actually a little scared as to what the demise of Postmedia would mean for Canadian news. Would we see even more consolidation with right-wing sources?

 

[Azih]

The demise of print media isn't a good thing guys. I don't think we've come up with a model to replace it. Vox, maybe?

 

[jstripes]

The demise of print media isn't a good thing guys. I don't think we've come up with a model to replace it. Vox, maybe?

The demise of print media is one thing.

The demise of The Sun is another.

 

[Silexx]

The demise of print media is one thing.

The demise of The Sun is another.

Postmedia IS Canadian print media, as sad as that may be.

 

[Stumpokapow]

The demise of print media isn't a good thing guys. I don't think we've come up with a model to replace it. Vox, maybe?

kill me now

 

[jstripes]

Postmedia IS Canadian print media, as sad as that may be.

Nah, there's plenty of print media. My hometown newspaper, which spawned that awful conservative Nease cartoonist, is ultimately owned by Torstar.

 

[Sibylus]

The demise of print media isn't a good thing guys. I don't think we've come up with a model to replace it. Vox, maybe?

Front-to-back comic strips. The oldsters will be eating from our hands!

 

[Walpurgis]

The NDP has proposed a bunch of resolutions for the party for this weekend's party convention. Here are the highlights.

1. Endorse the Leap Manifesto (climate change, move Canada away from consumer capitalism)
2. Guarantee an annual income
3. Postal banking (public bank inside Canada Post offices aimed at low income and rural people where current banks are limited)
4. Universal dental coverage
5. 'Robust' taxation (big businesses, banks, the super-rich)
6. Tear up all trade deals (NAFTA, CETA and TPP, to protect our rights)
7. Reform the party itself (party is too white)

Other stuff include a suggestion to drop "New" from the party name (yuck), restore the term "socialism" in the party constitution (yay), rebuild Atlantic Canada and the separation of the provincial and federal NDP (it's time).

1, 2, 4 and 5 are music to my ears. 3 sounds like a good thing to have but I'm not entirely sure what it is. 6 concerns me because I don't know what those trade deals are and what would happen if they were all cancelled. TPP is clearly dangerous and we're doing fine without it but I don't know about the others. And dropping the "new" from NDP is the dumbest thing ever.

Looking forward to the results on Mulcair's future this Sunday. I'm now leaning towards the new leader camp.

 

[maharg]

The demise of print media isn't a good thing guys. I don't think we've come up with a model to replace it. Vox, maybe?

As long as the talent that makes journalism tick and the dying print media cling to each other on the sinking ship we will never find a better model.

These companies have only one aim: to make hitting bottom as gentle as possible, and it's just prolonging the inevitable and helping people lose trust in journalism more and more every day.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

The NDP has proposed a bunch of resolutions for the party for this weekend's party convention. Here are the highlights.

1. Endorse the Leap Manifesto (climate change, move Canada away from consumer capitalism)
2. Guarantee an annual income
3. Postal banking (public bank inside Canada Post offices aimed at low income and rural people where current banks are limited)
4. Universal dental coverage
5. 'Robust' taxation (big businesses, banks, the super-rich)
6. Tear up all trade deals (NAFTA, CETA and TPP, to protect our rights)
7. Reform the party itself (party is too white)

Other stuff include a suggestion to drop "New" from the party name (yuck), restore the term "socialism" in the party constitution (yay), rebuild Atlantic Canada and the separation of the provincial and federal NDP (it's time).

1, 2, 4 and 5 are music to my ears. 3 sounds like a good thing to have but I'm not entirely sure what it is. 6 concerns me because I don't know what those trade deals are and what would happen if they were all cancelled. TPP is clearly dangerous and we're doing fine without it but I don't know about the others. And dropping the "new" from NDP is the dumbest thing ever.

Looking forward to the results on Mulcair's future this Sunday. I'm now leaning towards the new leader camp.

Rebuilding Atlantic Canada is never going to happen.

6 would never happen even if they got elected. It's also an exceptionally stupid idea since the vast majority of pain caused by trade deals happen in the short time after they are enacted. At this point tearing up NAFTA would just cause unnecessary pain.

 

[lupinko]

Apparently some Brazilian mag has some scathing critique of Justin.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...g-critique-of-justin-trudeau/article29564300/

And in much happier news, I met with the Embassy, and they were ecstatic about my project. And I'm looking forward to this challenge and hopefully it can snowball to Trubama!

 

[gutter_trash]

Apparently some Brazilian mag has some scathing critique of Justin.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...g-critique-of-justin-trudeau/article29564300/

And in much happier news, I met with the Embassy, and they were ecstatic about my project. And I'm looking forward to this challenge and hopefully it can snowball to Trubama!

Brazil should conecntrate on their own culture of corruption before ranting on other world leaders

Brazil's rivalry with Canada is entirely based on Embraer vs Bombardier

 

[Apathy]

Apparently some Brazilian mag has some scathing critique of Justin.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...g-critique-of-justin-trudeau/article29564300/

And in much happier news, I met with the Embassy, and they were ecstatic about my project. And I'm looking forward to this challenge and hopefully it can snowball to Trubama!

Lol that is some stupid article from that Brazilian mag.

 

[gabbo]

Apparently some Brazilian mag has some scathing critique of Justin.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...g-critique-of-justin-trudeau/article29564300/

They could have attacked us over spying and meddling with their environmental/resource laws, or suppressing labour. Instead they go after his mother, and his stance on immigration? Poor form Brazil, poor form.

 

[Sean C]

The NDP has proposed a bunch of resolutions for the party for this weekend's party convention. Here are the highlights.

1. Endorse the Leap Manifesto (climate change, move Canada away from consumer capitalism)
2. Guarantee an annual income
3. Postal banking (public bank inside Canada Post offices aimed at low income and rural people where current banks are limited)
4. Universal dental coverage
5. 'Robust' taxation (big businesses, banks, the super-rich)
6. Tear up all trade deals (NAFTA, CETA and TPP, to protect our rights)
7. Reform the party itself (party is too white)

Other stuff include a suggestion to drop "New" from the party name (yuck), restore the term "socialism" in the party constitution (yay), rebuild Atlantic Canada and the separation of the provincial and federal NDP (it's time).

What does "rebuilding Atlantic Canada" mean?

Party leaders have a long history of ignoring stuff passed at party conventions, so perhaps this isn't all that significant, but anybody who votes in favour of a lot of that stuff really should vote to replace Mulcair to, because the Leap Manifesto, for instance, is totally inconsistent with the general tack he has been taking as party leader, and he's absolutely the wrong man to sell such a policy direction.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

What does "rebuilding Atlantic Canada" mean?

I assumed this meant economically which is like... yeah right cool story bro.

But I suppose it could mean rebuild support since they got 0 seats there in the last election.

 

[Sean C]

It's not like the government doesn't already have economic development programs in Atlantic Canada. But we're a poor region, and have been since the 1870s. That's not likely to change any time soon.

 

[Walpurgis]

I recall reading that Atlantic Canada is dying so some immigration would be good. Immigrants usually go to places like Toronto so some bonuses can be provided for those that go to Atlantic Canada. As for jobs... I'm not sure what the problem is there. I think a lot of people living in Atlantic Canada actually leave to find work. Hmmm.....

 

[matthewwhatever]

The BC Election is coming up in 2017 and that will be an interesting one to see if the NDP can get its act together enough finally to beat the Liberals. I've kind of been on the fence as to whether the Ontario Liberals or the BC Liberals were the most terrible government in Confederation, but after this week I think I have to hand the award to the BC Liberals, because at the same time that the Ontario Liberals are backing away from absurd corporate donations and feeling bad about it, the BC Liberals are totally brushing off the criticism.

Are the Ontario Liberals really backing away from corporate donations? I thought that Wynne just committed to getting around to fixing it eventually, hopefully, at some point in the fall. She's not exactly turning it into a pressing issue. That may have changed in the last few days, though.

I get why sitting governments are so hesitant to introduce campaign financing reform -- it cuts off a big source of funding for them, after all -- but it still boggles my mind that they don't bite the bullet and do it anyway. Running on a platform of keeping that corporate money flowing just makes you sound corrupt. And I say that as someone who'll most likely vote Liberal provincially...though I have to say, hearing Patrick Brown come out in favour of carbon pricing has me at least willing to hear what else he has to say.


Totally unrelated! As the NDP Convention kicks off, Abacus posted word clouds for each of the three main parties, based on what they were hearing as they did their polling:

Liberals:

Conservatives:

NDP:

Interesting that, whereas Trudeau and Harper stand out for their parties, Mulcair seems to have made less of an impression.

 

[maharg]

Interesting that, whereas Trudeau and Harper stand out for their parties, Mulcair seems to have made less of an impression.

I'm not sure I'd consider the size of Trudeau and Harper in their respective word clouds a good thing, personally.

Does really show how quickly things can change, though. That Liberal word cloud would have looked a lot different only just a couple of years ago.

 

[Simon Belmont]

I'm not sure I'd consider the size of Trudeau and Harper in their respective word clouds a good thing, personally.

Does really show how quickly things can change, though. That Liberal word cloud would have looked a lot different only just a couple of years ago.

I think it's fine for the Liberals, the Trudeau name would have been there whether or not Justin became prime minister. I think it could become a problem for them.

I think it's a bigger problem for the Conservatives.

 

[Apathy]

Are the Ontario Liberals really backing away from corporate donations? I thought that Wynne just committed to getting around to fixing it eventually, hopefully, at some point in the fall. She's not exactly turning it into a pressing issue. That may have changed in the last few days, though.

I get why sitting governments are so hesitant to introduce campaign financing reform -- it cuts off a big source of funding for them, after all -- but it still boggles my mind that they don't bite the bullet and do it anyway. Running on a platform of keeping that corporate money flowing just makes you sound corrupt. And I say that as someone who'll most likely vote Liberal provincially...though I have to say, hearing Patrick Brown come out in favour of carbon pricing has me at least willing to hear what else he has to say.


Totally unrelated! As the NDP Convention kicks off, Abacus posted word clouds for each of the three main parties, based on what they were hearing as they did their polling:

Liberals:


Conservatives:


NDP:


Interesting that, whereas Trudeau and Harper stand out for their parties, Mulcair seems to have made less of an impression.

And people wonder why the NDP keeps trotting out Jack's memory every time they can. Also the fact that old shows up there too, they just can't catch a break.

Personally I think tom has to go, he is not right for the party or the party image. They need fresh blood in there

 

[maharg]

Well yeah, it's not a problem now, but it's a potential problem in the same way that Harper's name being so big *is* a problem now. A party defined entirely by a person is open to a lot of risks, which the Liberals should be all too aware of.

Honestly surprised Layton isn't bigger in the NDP's. But then "SOCIALIST" is really crowding out the rest of the field in a way that no keywords are for the Liberals or CPC, so it's hard to judge scale well.

I wonder if the socialist attachment is a good thing or a bad thing. A lot of it is almost certainly conservatives using it as a negative, but it also implies that the "NDP are right-wing now!" attack only had so much effect on people's perception of them in the long run.

 

[SRG01]

Related to Saskatchewan politics, an article appeared in FP discussing why North Dakota has less orphaned wells than Saskatchewan and Alberta: http://business.financialpost.com/n...a-lesson-on-cleaning-up-an-oil-boom-gone-bust

 

[killer rin]

I recall reading that Atlantic Canada is dying so some immigration would be good. Immigrants usually go to places like Toronto so some bonuses can be provided for those that go to Atlantic Canada. As for jobs... I'm not sure what the problem is there. I think a lot of people living in Atlantic Canada actually leave to find work. Hmmm.....

Immigration definitely helps places like Atlantic Canada. One of the largest problems we face as a country is the fact that we have such a tiny population spread out over the second largest country by landmass. Even if you ignore the northern half of the country. All it means is that each province/territory sits at a couple million people each with some provinces taking more than everybody else combined because there are more opportunities because there are more people

 

[Simon Belmont]

Totally unrelated! As the NDP Convention kicks off, Abacus posted word clouds for each of the three main parties, based on what they were hearing as they did their polling:

Semi-related, but I was telling you my wife did BPAPM at Carleton - one of her friends while she was there is one of the guys who founded Abacus. I'm telling you, Carleton students have invaded every level of politics.

 

[Sean C]

As for jobs... I'm not sure what the problem is there.

The problem is that Atlantic Canada doesn't have much in the way of natural resources and, even prior to industry declining everywhere, was not considered an advantageous place to situate manufacturing.

 

[gutter_trash]

What does "rebuilding Atlantic Canada" mean?

Party leaders have a long history of ignoring stuff passed at party conventions, so perhaps this isn't all that significant, but anybody who votes in favour of a lot of that stuff really should vote to replace Mulcair to, because the Leap Manifesto, for instance, is totally inconsistent with the general tack he has been taking as party leader, and he's absolutely the wrong man to sell such a policy direction.

Legal grow ops.

Atlantic Canada will be turned into the largest agricultral Marijuna farms LOL

 

[ryan-ts]

Legal grow ops.

Atlantic Canada will be turned into the largest agricultral Marijuna farms LOL

Not the worst idea. "PEI, home of pot and potatoes"

 

[Walpurgis]

I wanted to learn more about the problems with Atlantic Canada and found this CBC segment from two months ago.

Here is what I learned.

• 10 years from now universal healthcare will be gone because health care spending as a % of GDP will double. It's already 40% of the provincial budget and growing.
  
• Unemployment is close to 20% in Newfoundland.
  
• Newfoundland and New Brunswick are 20% senior citizen population with an average age of 45 (Alberta is 35).
  
• Atlantic Canada depends heavily on equalization transfers but those only take a province's revenues into account, not a province's needs. Needs are growing in Atlantic Canada so they will need to renegotiate with the federal government to take that into account.
  
• Infrastructure is actually good in Atlantic Canada. What they need is social infrastructure to draw in immigrants. As it is now, 98% of new arrivals in Halifax stay for a bit but end up leaving.
  
• Some people have talked about merging all of the Atlantic provinces but it's not clear if that would help or just combine weaknesses. People are concerned about loss of identity but it's something that people are talking about.

The unemployment levels sound insane and the healthcare problem is even crazier. I would imagine that something will be done to prevent the loss of healthcare because that's just too much crazy. However, the fact that we can see this on the horizon and nothing is being done is just nuts.

With high unemployment and high healthcare costs, Atlantic Canada will become very expensive for the country. You would think that this would be a top priority for the country and there would be senate committees and all sorts of stuff to solve this issue. Instead, the federal government waits for provincial healthcare spending to get to 80% or everyone in Atlantic Canada to die of old age, whichever comes first.

Unbelievable.