Support NeoGAF

[maharg]

it would help to know what CPP is... i never heard of it. I am serious lol

so... what is CPP?

...

He may be unaware because Quebec has a separate pension plan, the QPP, afaik. Though, like, I know that because I've seen the slot on my T4s where I put in to either CPP or QPP even though I'm in Alberta, so...

In Alberta unite the right news, The Reform Party of Alberta, led by a former social credit leader, is now a registered party in Alberta and intends to run a full slate in the next election.

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[gutter_trash]

ah that makes sense, why do we have to be complicated? LOL

 

[Kyuur]

Just what Alberta needed, our very own GOP. I'll be very disappointed if they get a single seat but its probably inevitable in some rural ridings.

 

[SRG01]

ah that makes sense, why do we have to be complicated? LOL

Quebec also has a different legal framework than the rest of the country

 

[matthewwhatever]

There's a lot of grassroots animosity between the two parties that I don't really feel like was quite present in Reform/PC by the time they managed to get together. The rural base of the WRP still feels very betrayed by things that happened in very recent memory (basically everything to do with Redford and the Danielle Smith aisle-crossing) and I think they have aspirations of grinding the PCs out without having to sacrifice anything.

So if either capitulates, it'll be the PCs, but... I mean their funding is already dried up (thanks to eliminating corporate donations and being abandoned by oil execs) and they're still protesting. They don't really have much to offer the WRP except their vaguely moderate position, which the WRP doesn't want.

I just saw how Wildrose treated the most recent fundraising numbers:

You have to love the combination of the PCs getting the Liberal Red treatment while Wildrose usurps PC Blue.

That's pretty much the position Brent Rathberger took in his assessment today of Kenney potentially entering Alberta politics. There's too much friction within the center-right that any kind of consolidation becomes impossible.

Counterpoint: Rathgeber, while an outstanding, principled MP, may be a little out of step with the conservative grassroots, seeing as he finished third in his re-election bid. He strikes me more like a Michael Chong type -- someone who non-conservatives can appreciate, because he doesn't just toe the standard party line, but who probably isn't nearly as popular amongst actual Conservatives.

Like I said, I don't think it's impossible, but I also don't deny that it'd be pretty challenging. Kenney would have to run for and win PC leadership while openly running to dissolve the party (which may not be a particularly popular position among the existing party members), and then he'd have to convince Jean and the WRP to do the same. I have a hard time imagining Kenney being so politically skilled that he could win over all those people, but at the same time, Stephen Harper never seemed like a great persuader to me, but he did the same thing on the federal level 13 years ago.

In any case, after reading this, I'd be shocked if Kenney doesn't make the jump. Those aren't the words of someone still measuring the waters.

 

[Gitaroo]

no about politics but I think online shoppers should be interested in this

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/online-shopping-cross-border-duties-taxes-1.3647965

maybe start spreading this and create more noise about it.

 

[matthewwhatever]

no about politics but I think online shoppers should be interested in this

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/online-shopping-cross-border-duties-taxes-1.3647965

maybe start spreading this and create more noise about it.

The problem is there's not much impetus to change things. Canadian retailers really don't want the competition from US retailers, and the government loses tax revenue if people buy goods from US sources. Obviously consumers would benefit, as would companies like eBay (who commissioned this study, it's worth noting) that do a lot of cross-border business, but you have to figure that the retail and revenue arguments outweigh those.

 

[gabbo]

So, any bets on how low our dollar will drop and how fast it gets there? We lost a cent and half already.

 

[maharg]

So, any bets on how low our dollar will drop and how fast it gets there? We lost a cent and half already.

Looks like it's already recovering. It's still pretty high compared to historical anyways.

I doubt there's much specific pressure on CAD from brexit, the entire market is a mess right now. It'll take a few days to settle.

 

[gutter_trash]

Dumbassery in the UK. now some are voicing "buyer's remorse" waking up to falling Pound.

Scotland is probably facepalming themselves after having a chance to become independant and join the EU themselves

Northern Ireland risks having a hard border go back up with Best Ireland. Some are even taliking about making an economic union with Best Ireland or even unification as one Ireland

David Cameron..... biggest dumbass in UK history.

,,,,,,,,,,,,

today on the 24th of June, I want to say Happy Saint-Jean Baptiste day to all French-Canadians allover Canada.

The Saint-Jean should never be refred to "La Fête nationale " in Quebec because that term excludes French-Canadians outside of Quebec.

So I say "Bonne Saint-Jean à tous les Canadiens-Français"

 

[Minus_Me]

,,,,,,,,,,,,

today on the 24th of June, I want to say Happy Saint-Jean Baptiste day to all French-Canadians allover Canada.

The Saint-Jean should never be refred to "La Fête nationale " in Quebec because that term excludes French-Canadians outside of Quebec.

So I say "Bonne Saint-Jean à tous les Canadiens-Français"

Une Bonne Saint-Jean to you as well Gutter!

I also never say Fête Nationale for the same reason, my parents were always against its politicization during and after the Quite Revolution.

 

[Lexxism]

no about politics but I think online shoppers should be interested in this

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/online-shopping-cross-border-duties-taxes-1.3647965

maybe start spreading this and create more noise about it.

Lol good luck with that. The government of Canada only knows how to tax their people. That's basically it

 

[Sean C]

In this age of angry populism and nativism roiling much of the West, I'm happy things are so placid here.

 

[gabbo]

In this age of angry populism and nativism roiling much of the West, I'm happy things are so placid here.

Give us time.

 

[Ondore]

So my roommate saw the Brexit age breakdown chart (the one that showed 2-1 Remain for the 18-29 and 2-1 Leave for 65+ or something along those lines) and has been ranting about how there should be a maximum voting age.

I explained that people getting pensions (CPP) should have a say in how they're run and how it'd be political suicide to propose it, but I'm not sure I'm getting through to him. Is a maximum age something that should happen, or are there other arguments against it that are slipping my mind?

 

[Alavard]

So my roommate saw the Brexit age breakdown chart (the one that showed 2-1 Remain for the 18-29 and 2-1 Leave for 65+ or something along those lines) and has been ranting about how there should be a maximum voting age.

I explained that people getting pensions (CPP) should have a say in how they're run and how it'd be political suicide to propose it, but I'm not sure I'm getting through to him. Is a maximum age something that should happen, or are there other arguments against it that are slipping my mind?

Well, there'd be the issue of taxation without representation, and the fact that along with CPP, there are many other government services the elderly use (healthcare says hello!) that they should have a voice for when it comes time to vote. And then there's the fundamental problem of literally establishing a second class of citizens...

 

[Mr.Mike]

The general public having a say in how the CPP is run is a terrible idea. There are normative questions around perhaps how re-distributive the CPP ought to be and such, but the fund is managed by an "arms length away" investment board for good reason.

Anyway, disenfranchising people is maybe a bit much, but I think something along the lines of giving younger voters votes more weight in constitutional referendums makes sense. The implementation might be difficult on a technical level, but these are important matters.

 

[killer rin]

In this age of angry populism and nativism roiling much of the West, I'm happy things are so placid here.

It really is utterly fascinating watching how in our recent election we mainly voted to rid ourselves (even if temporary) of the racism and anti-immigration and anti-intellectual sentiments whereas the rest of the world is seemingly doubling down on it.

 

[Vibranium]

David Cameron..... biggest dumbass in UK history.

If Harper can be be happy about one thing it will be that at least his legacy isn't nearly as bad as Cameron's. Historians are going to crucify that dude.

I'm happy to live in Canada, low dollar and all.

 

[Prax]

I hope Canada keeps it together and keeps it real throughout all this world turmoil.

I keep hoping that the US will make sound choices as well so it will be a stronger NA alliance of sobriety and stable progressiveness, but we'll see...

 

[PumpkinSpice]

If Harper can be be happy about one thing it will be that at least his legacy isn't nearly as bad as Cameron's. Historians are going to crucify that dude.

I'm happy to live in Canada, low dollar and all.

Harper mostly just held back the tide progress for a decade.

Cameron will go down as a bumbling idiot that accidentally tore apart the UK.

 

[sikkinixx]

If Harper can be be happy about one thing it will be that at least his legacy isn't nearly as bad as Cameron's. Historians are going to crucify that dude.

I'm happy to live in Canada, low dollar and all.

I've always thought for public figures your legacy being in tatters would be a tough pill to swallow, especially if you were still alive to see it start.

 

[maharg]

I hope Canada keeps it together and keeps it real throughout all this world turmoil.

I keep hoping that the US will make sound choices as well so it will be a stronger NA alliance of sobriety and stable progressiveness, but we'll see...

If trump wins this fall, I'll be shocked if we don't end up with O'Leary or someone like him in the near future.

I don't want either if these things to happen, mind, but Canadian politics so often mirror American that you should probably be worried about that possible outcome.

 

[gutter_trash]

If trump wins this fall, I'll be shocked if we don't end up with O'Leary or someone like him in the near future.

I don't want either if these things to happen, mind, but Canadian politics so often mirror American that you should probably be worried about that possible outcome.

don't worry, I made an NeoGaf account bet on the matter and I am confident about it.

I betted that Hillary Clinton is guaranteed to be the next President of the US.

if she loses, I am officially permabanned from GAF forever.

So, with all the confidence I will say: I was right about Trudeau winning last year and I will be right about Hillary winning come November

 

[maharg]

Oh god, I'm almost rooting for trump now.

 

[gutter_trash]

Oh god, I'm almost rooting for trump now.

 

[TheRealTalker]

seeing how the world is going crazy I am glad we finished our elections before things went into high gear

hopefully things subside and people eventually learn from their foolishness before the next 4 years

 

[Cynar]

Harper mostly just held back the tide progress for a decade.

Cameron will go down as a bumbling idiot that accidentally tore apart the UK.

pretty good description of both

 

[gabbo]

Harper mostly just held back the tide progress for a decade.

Cameron will go down as a bumbling idiot that accidentally tore apart the UK.

Harper was courting this kind of nonsense in the end, so had we not come to our senses as a nation, we might be seeing a lot worse

 

[Prax]

I think we were just lucky Trudeau was charismatic and got the young people vote and happened to be on the "common sense" side. Would he had courted with more weird isolationist + socialist politics, we probably would have met with the same hijinx as the US (parties getting more and more diametrically opposed into cartoon territory).

I often think about how a Sanders-like candidate wouldn't have made it very far in Canadian politics. They'd be regulated to distant 3rd party position in no time (much like the NDP or maybe even moreso.. the Greens..).

 

[lupinko]

Speaking of Trudeaupia, turns out my project will happen after all, I'm getting help with publishing from back home. Can't say anymore since I need reapproval locally which is a forgone conclusion.

 

[Slime]

Seems some sort of marijuana announcement is coming at 10:30 this morning. They're even streaming it on Periscope, so maybe it's good news?

My guess is decriminalization, but who knows.

http://periscope.tv/healthcanada
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1092149

Edit: Nope, they're formally announcing the legalization task force. Was hoping they'd backtrack on their decriminalization stance.

 

[explodet]

Mandatory daily doses for all residents.

 

[Bisnic]

don't worry, I made an NeoGaf account bet on the matter and I am confident about it.

I betted that Hillary Clinton is guaranteed to be the next President of the US.

if she loses, I am officially permabanned from GAF forever.

So, with all the confidence I will say: I was right about Trudeau winning last year and I will be right about Hillary winning come November

So... he got banned. Are we in the future? Is Trump already president?

 

[gabbo]

Mostly announcement of announcements - other than the discussion paper being online
Also not sure consultations will lead to anything but "do it" and "think of the children"

 

[maharg]

So... he got banned. Are we in the future? Is Trump already president?

I have a suspicion his bet on Trudeau made him cocky and he's made a bunch of dumb ban bets.

That said the trump bet is kind of easy. He's not betting against broad consensus (yet) like he was with Trudeau.

 

[Slime]

Website's up:

http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/task-force-marijuana-groupe-etude/index-eng.php

 

[Buba Big Guns]

It really is utterly fascinating watching how in our recent election we mainly voted to rid ourselves (even if temporary) of the racism and anti-immigration and anti-intellectual sentiments whereas the rest of the world is seemingly doubling down on it.

Yup, couldn't be living in a better place at the moment.

 

[Apathy]

Yup, couldn't be living in a better place at the moment.

Just seems so weird living in our cozy Canadian bubble watching other western countries go nuts with racism and anti immigrant mentality.

I am quite relieved my parents chose Canada over Australia to seek asylum in and even more relieved that Canada accepted us.

 

[maharg]

So Canada Post is probably locking employees out tomorrow. Be interesting to see how Trudeau deals with it if the dispute becomes protracted again. I imagine a lot of hardcore NDP people will be watching how it unfolds.

 

[killer rin]

So Canada Post is probably locking employees out tomorrow. Be interesting to see how Trudeau deals with it if the dispute becomes protracted again. I imagine a lot of hardcore NDP people will be watching how it unfolds.

Isn't the Lockout/Strike expected to be longer than normal considering they couldn't exactly negotiate to their best while Harper forced them back to work during the last one?

 

[maharg]

Please note that it's a lockout, not a strike. Not sure where this mingling of the two terms comes from, but I've seen it a lot lately. AFAIK the union hasn't voted to strike and is at least nominally still trying to negotiate. A lockout is when management decides negotiation isn't working and sends employees home, a strike is when a union does it.

I dunno if there's a solid expectation of how long it'll take. Mostly the question is whether or not the government will ever have to force a conclusion with back to work legislation (which, iirc, the Liberals voted against and the NDP slowed down the vote on in the hopes a last minute agreement could be reached, though that was probably in vain).

I would hope he won't, and that CP can't bank on BTW legislation to keep them from needing to negotiate in good faith again.

 

[firehawk12]

Still mostly out of following Canadian politics, but I just wanted to leave this here because of the Australian example:
https://twitter.com/ni_knowles/status/744587085328318464

I still find it amazing that before, if you wanted to vote below the line you had to actually number every single candidate in the preference that you wanted. Now it's just top 12.

I imagine this probably won't happen in Canada, if only because most ridings maybe only have 10 or so parties running in them (gotta represent the Marxists AND the Leninists after all), but I can only imagine the lawyering that will have to happen in close elections where ballots are spoiled because a voter forgot to vote for their 7th place preference or something equally inconsequential.

 

[killer rin]

Still mostly out of following Canadian politics, but I just wanted to leave this here because of the Australian example:
https://twitter.com/ni_knowles/status/744587085328318464


I still find it amazing that before, if you wanted to vote below the line you had to actually number every single candidate in the preference that you wanted. Now it's just top 12.

I imagine this probably won't happen in Canada, if only because most ridings maybe only have 10 or so parties running in them (gotta represent the Marxists AND the Leninists after all), but I can only imagine the lawyering that will have to happen in close elections where ballots are spoiled because a voter forgot to vote for their 7th place preference or something equally inconsequential.

This is one of the reasons I'm hoping we just get a simple MMP Ballot.

Just mark your local candidate, then select the party you would prefer to represent you, or select one of the candidates in the opened list to bubble to the top should that party win.

 

[maharg]

Still mostly out of following Canadian politics, but I just wanted to leave this here because of the Australian example:
https://twitter.com/ni_knowles/status/744587085328318464


I still find it amazing that before, if you wanted to vote below the line you had to actually number every single candidate in the preference that you wanted. Now it's just top 12.

I imagine this probably won't happen in Canada, if only because most ridings maybe only have 10 or so parties running in them (gotta represent the Marxists AND the Leninists after all), but I can only imagine the lawyering that will have to happen in close elections where ballots are spoiled because a voter forgot to vote for their 7th place preference or something equally inconsequential.

This ballot is for their senate, which is elected by STV by (large) region. I don't think we'd ever adopt quite that system, it's not even really on the table. The equivalent would be us doing it with province-sized multimember ridings, or maybe even by the regions (lumping the maritimes together and the prairie provinces together), but that would probably be unconstitutional for the house at least.

Apparently before this particular version of the ballot above the line was where you'd vote for *one* party, and their pre-arranged preference order would apply to you, or you'd vote on a sequence of parties below the line to define your own, with the members who win being the ones on those party's lists by elimination voting.

The new ballot is probably an improvement, really, but honestly the districts are too large and that's probably the real problem.

As for MMP and having a simpler ballot, some of this complexity would probably have to be present to avoid the problem where party aparati have too much control over who is 'safe' in an election. I still favour a system where the party 'list' is just made up of near-winners, so that they're almost always starting out as backbenchers.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, the problem with MMP is that you're almost leaving it up to the party membership to decide who gets to represent you. Which I guess works out to be the same as voting for a party as opposed to directly electing the "Prime" minister.

I dunno, I just expect a lot of people freaking out about any kind of new ballot. But I guess the government has to actually implement electoral reform first before worrying about how people would actually vote.

 

[diaspora]

Government of Canada has a marijuana survey for legalization if anyone wants to take a stab at it.

 

[maharg]

Canada Post has issued a 72 hour warning of lockout, so mail service is probably stopping on Friday.

 

[mdubs]

So I'm reading in the star that the Feds wants to sell off the airports, that doesn't seem like a good idea

 

[Apathy]

Canada Post has issued a 72 hour warning of lockout, so mail service is probably stopping on Friday.

I want my ontario trillium money next week

So I'm reading in the star that the Feds wants to sell off the airports, that doesn't seem like a good idea

Selling off infrastructure is never a smart idea. just look at the 407 debacle. fucking conservatives and fuck 99 year contracts.