Canada Federal Election October 21, 2019

Bill to expunge gay-sex criminal records takes effect.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lgbtq-criminal-record-law-passed-1.4716219

How stupid is Andrew Scheer?  Pretty darn stupid.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Tom_Parkin_/status/1010004026170265600

voice of the damned wrote:

I certainly don't like Kenney, and I also want to see the Alberta NDP returned to government. However...

I have 6th sense that if he wins, he's going to go on a rampage and try to force a harsh right wing agenda at a national level.

How can Kenney force any significant agenda at the national level? Even if he wins, he'll just be the premier of one province.

Okay, so maybe the feds and other provincial governments will like what they see in Alberta, and copy him? Not likely, if voters in the other provinces truly are opposed to what Alberta is doing. Their leaders will know not to implement anything remotely like the UCP program, lest they get tossed from office.

And if voters elsewhere don't really care enough to vote out their governments for adopting that agenda, or maybe even like the agenda, well, then you've got bigger problems than what's going on in Alberta.

 

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Here's why Kenney is a national threat. First of all, for all the problems of Doug Ford, he hasn't run on nor has he indicated he has any problems with the health care system from an ideological perspective. Kenney is part of a fairly extreme economical right perspective and has already campaigned on introducing serious privatization schemes should he be elected.

Why is he a national threat? People with extreme right wing economic views, like Kenney, tend to use every legal means possible to fight. They are tenacious. He can use his position in power to launch legal cases and use the power of one of the most powerful provinces in that fight. Dr. Day has already launched legal cases to challenge the health system as we know it, with cases leading high up the legal chain.

If the Supreme Court has to rule in favour or not in favour on a forced exteme agenda, watch out. It magically has national relevance. Imagine Dr. Day's lawsuit in BC, a discredited doctor who has double billed the government and charged his patients, in a lawsuit. Now imagine the power of one of Canada's most powerful governments fighting legal challenges. That's the power of an anti-government crusader by the name of Jason Kenney. He's the new generation of reformers.

I'm old enough to remember that reform conservatives have no resemblance to traditional conservatives. Harper ended up not being as extreme as many of us had imagined, he too at one point wanted to dismantle the health care system. He ended up wanting power a bit more than he wanted to shove his radical agenda, so he ended up doing virtually nothing on health care, thankfully.

Kenney is slightly younger, slightly more hot headed, and he's certainly more arrogant and condescending of a politician. Will he like power and tame his reform conservative heart and become a more Harper-like politician that doesn't force his real will and agenda, or does he go for the kill? That is yet to be seen.

But if Alberta's NDP can stop giving up the fight (just like pathetic Kathleen Wynne did) before an election is over? We shall see. IMO, seeing that the UCP didn't merge the right (it simply steamrolled over the centre-right PC's), Alberta NDP's best campaign method is to prove to those red Tories that still exist in Alberta that their party no longer exists, to leave that party, and be willing to continue a government that has worked hard for Alberta's interests, even against national NDP orthodoxy at times. It might be the magical serum to give the Alberta NDP a boost and win another election. But it takes a progressive campaign team with the ability to communicate and talk to Red Tory voters, be willing to step outside of conventional politics, and convince these voters that there's no room for Red Tories in the UCP. It is up to the NDP to make them feel a warm welcome and feel invited to vote NDP and stay with the NDP.

FWIW, Kenney has a hot mouth and loves to rant and rave. You could create some very juicy advertisements just with him ranting about the NDP 'accidental government' just to show how arrogant this guy is. Kenney has no respect for voters' decisions, he thinks he knows best. When he barks arrogantly about an 'accidental government' he is putting down voters who genuinely made a choice for change. He's barking against the voting public he's asking votes from. Most people dont pay attention to politics inbetween elections, and Kenney gives a lot of opportunity to bring his numbers down before Alberta's next election because of his hot, arrogant mouth.

Kenney is in every way a more powerful threat than Doug Ford ever was or could be. He's a far right anti-government conservative zealot. Doug Ford is just the buffoon that stumbled upon an election when Ontario PC got caught with its hands down someone's pants. From what I can tell, Doug Ford has no ideological bent against health care and has no privatization plans. Kenney is the bigger threat... All Canadians should pitch in to help the Alberta NDP through donations and messaging HQ's to tell them they need to start a campaign to communicate to red Tory voters now.

Alberta NDP needs to split the right. Just because they had a convention and merged the parties doesn't mean red Tories actually have a voice in this new 'UCP' conservative concoction. If red Tory voters and the few Liberals that exist in Alberta come around, that extra percent can deliver another Alberta NDP government. They already are polling at around 35%, which is extremely high. And polls in Alberta are extremely unreliable to begin with. Mere weeks after the NDP was elected with 40% of the vote, Wildrose went from the 24% actual vote to 40% in the polls.

Alberta NDP has potential to win another election, just because polls look bad does not mean they cannot do it. Since when does 35% support in a poll look bad in a Canadian election? LOL Anything is plausible.

josh wrote:

How stupid is Andrew Scheer?  Pretty darn stupid.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Tom_Parkin_/status/1010004026170265600

Yup.

http://warrenkinsella.com/2018/06/this-tweet-about-a-ridiculous-scheer-t...

Maple wrote:

Why is he a national threat? People with extreme right wing economic views, like Kenney, tend to use every legal means possible to fight. They are tenacious. He can use his position in power to launch legal cases and use the power of one of the most powerful provinces in that fight. Dr. Day has already launched legal cases to challenge the health system as we know it, with cases leading high up the legal chain.

If the Supreme Court has to rule in favour or not in favour on a forced exteme agenda, watch out. It magically has national relevance. Imagine Dr. Day's lawsuit in BC, a discredited doctor who has double billed the government and charged his patients, in a lawsuit. Now imagine the power of one of Canada's most powerful governments fighting legal challenges. That's the power of an anti-government crusader by the name of Jason Kenney. He's the new generation of reformers.

But if it's possible for a Premier Kenney to launch legal challenges to dismantle health-care, you don't think that right-wingers in other provinces will be able to come up with the same ideas, independently of what happens in Alberta?

Do you imagine that, back in the 90s, Mike Harris was planning to go with a Red Tory agenda, before he saw the example being set by Ralph Klein in Alberta?  

People seriously overestimate the influence Alberta has over the rest of Canada. Even the phrase "reformacon" understates the number of top ministers in Harper's cabinet who came from provinces where the Reform Party never even got a foothold.

Seriously, it's great that you want everyone to donate to the Alberta NDP, but don't let yourself believe it'll do anything to deter the barbarians in other provinces. If they'd be inclined to follow a right-wing agenda in the event of Kenney taking Alberta, they'll be inclined to follow it otherwise.

Abbas Rana, Neil Moss, "Conservatives and New Democrats claim there’s ‘not a riding in Ontario that’s beyond’ their reach federally in 2019," The Hill Times, June 25, 2018

voice of the damned wrote:

Maple wrote:

Why is he a national threat? People with extreme right wing economic views, like Kenney, tend to use every legal means possible to fight. They are tenacious. He can use his position in power to launch legal cases and use the power of one of the most powerful provinces in that fight. Dr. Day has already launched legal cases to challenge the health system as we know it, with cases leading high up the legal chain.

If the Supreme Court has to rule in favour or not in favour on a forced exteme agenda, watch out. It magically has national relevance. Imagine Dr. Day's lawsuit in BC, a discredited doctor who has double billed the government and charged his patients, in a lawsuit. Now imagine the power of one of Canada's most powerful governments fighting legal challenges. That's the power of an anti-government crusader by the name of Jason Kenney. He's the new generation of reformers.

But if it's possible for a Premier Kenney to launch legal challenges to dismantle health-care, you don't think that right-wingers in other provinces will be able to come up with the same ideas, independently of what happens in Alberta?

Do you imagine that, back in the 90s, Mike Harris was planning to go with a Red Tory agenda, before he saw the example being set by Ralph Klein in Alberta?  

People seriously overestimate the influence Alberta has over the rest of Canada. Even the phrase "reformacon" understates the number of top ministers in Harper's cabinet who came from provinces where the Reform Party never even got a foothold.

Seriously, it's great that you want everyone to donate to the Alberta NDP, but don't let yourself believe it'll do anything to deter the barbarians in other provinces. If they'd be inclined to follow a right-wing agenda in the event of Kenney taking Alberta, they'll be inclined to follow it otherwise.

 

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I never said conservative parties in other provinces don't have the potential to go full-blown right-wing crazy. I never said that, and that is not the point I presented. Potential for this is always present. But demonstrably, the UCP is the most right wing major political party this country has seen in a long time. This isn't the old PC.

I do think Alberta, as the 4th largest province, has a significant influence on the national scene. Albertans like to play up that they are forgotten (they aren't, and despite their hate of the NEP, Trudeau Sr. created the NEP to boost up Canadian industry, PetroCan was HQ'ed in Calgary afterall, and it was to price oil in Canadian dollars to be sold at a higher price on the world market, thus boosting Albertan fortunes. Alberta has never been left out.). The bottom line is Kenney himself, he is on record in the past stating he would like to dismantle a lot of Canadian social services that are the bedrock of Canadian society. He doesn't use that language directly all the time, but the question none of us know is will he be more dangerous than Harper, or will he tame those inner voices because he seeks power?

Alberta itself, even though its the most conservative province in the country, does have a progressive streak within its largely conservative makeup. I would like to believe even Alberta voters tend to care for their public services more than they care for hard right reform politics. They did, afterall, elect an NDP government consciously and willingly. Kenney has to understand this and realize this behind his 'illegitimate government' nonsense. If he does, I can only assume that even though he personally wants to dismantle the health system, he will be like Harper and 'go along with it' because he feels voters would completely destroy his party in a subsequent election. A party he just recently had to rebuild to get it back into power. Isn't it bitterly ironic that addiction to power is the only thing that keeps these extreme right wingers in check?

Maybe my fears are misguided, and I would hope they are. But seeing the Kenney record and his teeth-gnashing rhetoric, I am not so sure he's willing to negotiate and bargain. He sounds like a burn it to the ground type.

Revenge of the Harperites, some are probably still seething at Trudeau but they will get theirs in 2019

https://www.hilltimes.com/2018/07/04/revenge-of-the-harperites/149940

US Border patrol is daring 'sunny ways', what rou going to do? Cry? 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/lobster-fishermen-stopped-us...

Cons chose the right name for their party. Progressive Con doesnt quite work.

When it comes to treatment of staff, I do not think that politics is the dividing line. The reason I suspect that the NDP reality is better is becuase they are unionized.

Workers should not be there at the goodwill of any employer but should be organized to have rights respected. This is just another example.

This does not mean bad stuff cannot happen in the NDP but the employer knows it will be an issue and the employee knows they have a place to go.

Getting out before the deluge in Quebec apparently.

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

When it comes to treatment of staff, I do not think that politics is the dividing line. The reason I suspect that the NDP reality is better is becuase they are unionized.

The NDP MP's volunterily recognized their staff and bargained with them collectively when the staff had no right to unionize. I may slam the NDP for many things but in fact in this case they went the extra mile for the rights of their support staff.

Seems about right.  If Singh wants to try to jump start things, he might want to consider running to replace Stewart.

Duncan was doomed anyway, after her recent comments. The NDP will not win that seat again.

Also Irene Mathyssen won't seek re-election either. (cross-posted in the other new Jagmeet Singh thread)

https://ipolitics.ca/2018/08/27/longtime-ndp-mp-irene-mathyssen-retiring/

Nobody is willing to give up a cent while they pays lip service to climate change.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/clean-fuel-standard-imperial-oil-capp-1....