Federal election 2021

"Kahanists have a firm hold on Canadian politics..."

https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1400913907548631045

Yes. But no Canadian politician will say so.  This along with many other matters of critical importance will not be spoken of  by them during the present unwanted and unnecessary election campaign.

Instead of merely cheering on your chosen 'team' like fans at a sporting event, let's critique the game for what else is being left out.

Liberal candidate's point of view: "entitled guinea pigs"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jessica-dale-walker-1.6147238

This issue could haunt Trudeau throughout campaign although some media will do their best to bury it.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2021/08/20/trudea...

Lawrence Martin

@LMartinWashDC

O’Toole wins first week handily. Liberals hit by early election call, inflation jump, Afghanistan unreadiness and rising Covid count.

Alberta's has somewhat changed and Notley would become Premier again if an Alberta election were held today.

It may not be a slam dunk, but I am wary of pundits trying to make this election exciting. O'Toole will not do well, the NDP will do well, Trudeau will remain PM either heading another minority or a majority. The voters that matter won't tune in until a week or two before voting daying although mail in voting might change that. 

Nanos is a pollster who has been at it for some time, with a good track record. Read what he says about O'Toole.

Housing affordability shaping up to be a top issue in the 2021 federal election: Nanos

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/housing-affordabil...

Saanich–Gulf Islands Conservative candidate Dave Busch apologizes for "insensitive remarks"

It came after videos were released featuring his thoughts on the public reaction to the George Floyd killing and other race-related issues

by Charlie Smith on August 20th, 2021 at 2:06 PM

• Saanich–Gulf Islands Conservative candidate Dave Busch has claimed that videos he made in 2020 and 2021 do not reflect who he is as a person.

https://www.straight.com/news/saanich-gulf-islands-conservative-candidat...

Ages

Trudeau  49

O'Toole  48

Singh  42

‘I’m not Justin Trudeau. I’ve lived a different life’: Jagmeet Singh slams the Liberal leader’s record on Indigenous reconciliation

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/08/20/im-not-justin-trudea...

"Government doesn't get a free pass just because there is a pandemic"

https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/08/20/strategists-and-experts-react-to-di...

Here we go again.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-judy-sgro-conflicting-stories-i...

Maybe Singh shouldn't run either, as he may split the vote in Burnaby South!

If the NDP and Greens were truly serious about climate action, they would make a deal on Vancouver's West Side

https://www.straight.com/news/if-ndp-and-greens-were-truly-serious-about...

This is absolutely nuts to jeopardize our society like this!

Canada's nuclear reactors may not be fit for service

https://rabble.ca/news/2021/08/canadas-nuclear-reactors-may-not-be-fit-s...

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@acoyne

Aug 21

I was told the snap election call was a one-day story. But vaccine mandates, on the other hand … Liberal campaign covers big miles, but questions linger over reason for snap election call | CBC News

Liberal campaign covers big miles, but questions linger over reason for snap election call | CBC...

What was missing in week one was a compelling reason for why Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau had to seek a third mandate in the middle of a fourth wave, writes the CBC's David Cochrane.

cbc.ca

Andrew Coyne

@acoyne

Replying to

@acoyne

“The lack of the Big New Thing is clearly something that worries the campaign. A senior Liberal source told Radio-Canada that Trudeau is consulting candidates looking for ‘big ideas’ with a ‘wow factor.’” Seven days into “the most consequential election since 1945.”

It's truly a shame that the NDP does not have a strong presence in Fredericton right now. 

Where is Yvon Godin when you need him, eh!

What political scientists are saying about the NDP and Greens' chances in Atlantic Canada

https://rabble.ca/news/2021/08/what-political-scientists-are-saying-abou...

7 posts in a row, all of them a single line (or two) with a link. Again, please consider starting a blog or an RSS feed, so that the handful of people remaining can use this board for discussion.

CEASEFIRE. CA - 2021 Federal Election Week One: Climate Crisis & Peril in Afghanistan

https://www.ceasefire.ca/2021-federal-election-week-one-climate-crisis-a...

"...Alas, by 17 August, political calculations overtook diplomatic restraint among all of Canada's federal leaders, who outdid each other in denouncing the Taliban and declaring they would not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government.

Prime Minister Trudeau stated: 'Canada has no plans to recognize the Talbian as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. When they were in government twenty years ago, Canada did not recognize them as the Government.'

The Conservative Party issued a statement that: 'A Conservative government will not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.'

Jagmeet Singh followed suit with the added accusation, one taken as fact by much of the media, that the Taliban is: 'clearly a terrorist organization.'

This is a position Russia holds, but not the UN nor NATO member states. Individual Taliban members and certain Pakistani-based Taliban groups are listed by the UN and the USA as terrorist entities. But the negotiations in Doha could not have proceeded with the Afghanistan Taliban if the group as a whole was currently an internationally designated terrorist organization.

In The View of Ceasefire.ca

"Diplomatic recognition is NOT approval. It is a response to the facts on the ground and a precondition to exercising  meaningful influence on the direction of the de facto government in Afghanistan.

We call on the Government of Canada and federal political parties to support UN-led efforts to constructively engage with the defacto Afghanistan government.

We also call on the Government of Canada to immediately increase its humanitarian assistance for UN relief agencies working in Afghanistan. The need is acute.

The climate crisis and the pandemic have underscored the inextricable link between international affairs and Canadian well-being...We call on all federal parties to support either a specific foreign policy debate or a significant allocation of time for this subject in one of the two scheduled leaders debates..."

All of the federal party leaders seem dangerous idiots without a clue. Especially on international affairs they knoweth not what they do. Canadians should be very careful about abandoning the country to politicians clearly and embarrassingly incapable of basic independent analysis, who can only relentlessly parrot and adopt the dangerous and belligerent positions of  a WARshington in decline.

And in the NDP case - a continuing influential presence in the leader's office of  Hill & Knowlton, a powerful American international PR firm. Do dippers really not understand how outrageous that is or its implications for any possibility of a Canadian progressive politics from this party?

Just more of Canada's mainsteam media right-wing political BS.

The Liberals couldn't even find someone to represent them in Vancouver-Kingsway, so in desperation they they took a right-wing political hack from Christy Clark's office, who doesn't even live in the riding, to run for the Liberals. Incredibly popular Don Davies was elected with about 50% of the vote in 2019, and my hunch is he could do even better this time around.

Vancouver Kingsway campaign turns “nasty” as NDP incumbent, Filipino Canadian underdog trade barbs

https://www.straight.com/news/vancouver-kingsway-campaign-turns-nasty-as...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Bremner

kropotkin1951 wrote:

cco wrote:

7 posts in a row, all of them a single line (or two) with a link. Again, please consider starting a blog or an RSS feed, so that the handful of people remaining can use this board for discussion.

I second that motion.

Not that it'll matter to the babbler in question or the board admins, but you count me in favour of that proposal as well.

HURRY UP AND WAIT — On the long list of questions about Canada’s response to events in Afghanistan, here’s one from NDP Leader JAGMEET SINGH: “Did Justin Trudeau spend more time focusing on an election, rather than focusing on this humanitarian crisis? I think it’s a legitimate question,” he told reporters on Sunday morning in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/ottawa-playbook/2021/08/23/andrew-s...

I'd say it's a stupid question. Government do more than one thing at a time. It's not like Trudeau is personally organizing actions in Afghanistan or figuring out a master plan. 

He needs to use his limited airtime better. 

Afghanistan crisis: NDP's Singh slams Trudeau government for not doing more to help

https://globalnews.ca/news/8132239/ndp-jagmeet-singh-election-trudeau-af...

"The timing of the current federal election may have impeded a prompt and adequate Canadian response to the crisis in Afghanistan, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Sunday...

Singh accused Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of prioritizing an election he has previously decried as unnecessary over the needs of Afghans plunged into chaos after the Taliban seized control of the country last week.

'Canada's response seems to have been quite delayed...and we still have many allies that have been left behind,' Singh told supporters in downtown Toronto. 'Did Justin Trudeau spend more time focusing on an election, rather than focusing on this humanitarian crisis? I think it's a legitimate question..."

OMG it gets funnier!

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/kinsella-in-true-trump-style-t...

There’d always been the similarities between Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump. You know: Sons of multimillionaires. Celebrated surnames. Chasing aspiring models and actresses. Private schools, privileged lives. Charmed existence.

Charter members of the Lucky Sperm Club, basically.

And now Trump and Trudeau share another distinction: They’ve both been caught spreading mistruths and misinformation on social media. And, when caught, they refused to admit it. They refused to apologize.

Asked about postings made by his deputy prime minister — postings which Twitter labelled as “manipulated media” — Trudeau smirked. He defended what is indisputably, inarguably fake media.

And, in so doing, has created a big problem for himself.

None of the Liberal 'strategic voters' that I've talked to are happy about this election. Zero of them think this is about a 'democratic mandate' and they all think this is a cynical play to get a majority. The consensus is also that there is a good chance this was a miscalculation.

The Liberals had two more years where they could have passed progressive legislation with the help of the NDP but the real powerbrokers in the party couldn't stomach not being able to buy pipelines and lay down some austerity. They'd prefer an O'Toole government to two more years of having to work with the NDP. Did Justin get bullied into an early retirement? Is this his last election?

Remember that last election the Conservatives won the popular vote but Liberals remained the Government. Is a Conservative minority government possible? Maybe, if the Bloc had enough seats for them together to reach 170 seats, but not likely.  

Is a Conservative minority government even possible?

It would hang on how the opposition parties vote, of course. And it's hard to imagine the NDP paving the way for Erin O'Toole to become prime minister.

The title of my post today has a particular meaning, and I will be indulging some minority-parliament game theory in a minute. But it’s also entirely possible the Conservatives just lose this election outright. Ten days ago it would have been odd to suggest they wouldn’t: the big pollsters have shown the Liberals ahead at every moment since the COVID crisis began in early 2020. Trudeau’s side nears the end of that saga with some good stories to tell: second-lowest death rate in the G7 after Japan, highest vaccination rate in the G7. They’re coming off a 739-page budget that didn’t deliver much bad news to anyone. Trudeau will be the most experienced leader at the debates.

And Erin O’Toole might, for all you or I know, already have lost this election beyond his ability to redeem it with four more weeks of competent campaigning. Sure, his second-day platform drop was smart. The robust document filled in a lot of blanks on the map of 2021-ear Conservatism that O’Toole’s opponents would otherwise have been tempted to fill with HERE BE DRAGONS. But his positions on key issues may become flashpoints. He wants to block the Liberals’ umpteenth attempt to build new child-care spaces. His position on vaccines—basically, “pretty please?”—isn’t night-and-day different, from Trudeau’s, but it may not match the current mood. His climate policy is more ambitious than Andrew Scheer’s, but it’s still a bit of a bunt, and it’s been a very hot summer. The Liberals spent Monday making it clear they still think there’s juice in their misquote of O’Toole’s comments on health care. Any of these could end up being the moment pundits identify as the turning point in our thoughtful post-election analyses in a Renewed Liberal-Land.

https://www.macleans.ca/politics/is-a-conservative-minority-government-e...

The following is a well written article, with excellent statistics, that cuts through the bullshit about the unfolding tragic lack of affordable Housing in Canada.    

Election 2021: Federal failure on housing must come to an end

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/cathy-crowes-blog/2021/08/election-2021...

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Let the attacks begin. If Jagmeet doesn't get sidetracked and just sticks to his messaging about lack of affordable Housing and seriously addressing Global Warming he will do fine.                                                                                                                                

Jagmeet Singh is on a roll. This is bad news for Justin Trudeau

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-jagmeet-singh-is-on-a-ro...