With Pierre Poilievre waiting in the wings the prospect of another Liberal win or Liberal and NDP co operation looks highly attractive to me. I can't see anything good happening with Poilievre as PM.
The bleak reality is one that is being mimicked in many western democracies: what's the alternative? Increasingly, hostile, anti-democratic, divisive right wing forces are gaining ground while parties inclined towards social equity, living wages, equal justice, good public education, climate policy can't seem to rise beyond their consultant driven memes. Add a citizenry that vacillates between apathy and outright stupidity and tired centrist do-nothing pols become a holding option. I'm not sure it matters whether Trudeau runs again or not. The options behind him and those who fund them are pretty much the same. The real question for me is whether those hostile conspiracy fuelled hordes grow in numbers. If my personal experience is any indication, it will. Just the other day, lunching with otherwise reasonably educated colleagues, I heard the phrase that always sends me into shivers.....'I did some research and....' Here were people who had laughed at MAGA morons & ridiculed Brexiters, using the word 'tyrant' in describing Trudeau and railing against the BoC. The discussion devolved from that point on and I decided to just leave early. People are pissed off and they should be for dozens of reasons, none of which are because of the Emergency Act, or wokeism, or gatekeepers, or the Bank of Canada. But in the absence of intelligent articulate options, the vacuum will be filled with ignorance and that is where I fear we are headed regardless if Trudeau runs or not.
Just give me the public-sector policies, and I'll vote for whomever. I'm quite happy with the current mess, the NDP leaning on the Liberals to actually do stuff that they usually just talk about. It's not much progress, but it's also no regress, which other nations are struggling with. I read American and UK news, and am so happy to be, well, not there.
It can get worse. A lot worse. I'd rather hang on to what I have.
Those wishing for proportional representation should study more broadly the countries that take months of deal brokering to form a government that rarely lasts. These deals to govern are made in the back rooms unlike what we see when the Greens in BC supported the then minority NDP gov't or the NDP's supply agreement with the Liberals where Jagmeet Singh rightly never lets Canadians forget what they have that document. Our issues in Canada are significant - not all of them caused by the federal or provincial governments but that's what demonizing politicians like the Conservative leader will have you believe.
We live in perilous times and one of the perils to our democracy and way of life would be the election of Pierre Poilievre who's been in Parliament since 2004 and is building a party of rage, revenge and return to the 'good old days.'
Our best hope for a guaranteed income scheme to help younger and struggling Canadians is a Liberal government and strong numbers of NDP MPs. The Liberal Party and their MPs have in recent years had this as their goal and while PM Trudeau won't say those words as they can't get there from the present situation, it's not because they don't believe in it.
Conservatives still cling to the out moded idea that hard work alone is all that it takes. That's gone but what's heartening to this observer is that unions are fighting back as they get the challenge of living incomes.
While I'd not personally benefit from a basic income scheme there are organizations like UBI Works who I believe are on the right path. These are business people and others who recognize the need.
The Liberals better win the next election over the Poilievre Conservatives. Canada cannot afford to experiment with his form of Christian, Fundamentalist Nazism.
hi David! what does “To the extent that there is a “there” in the party’s core, the drive to power precedes it” mean? big fan of your writing but wasn’t sure what you were getting at here.
I hadn't thought that "Hey, we'll shade the meaning of reports, we'll put off acting on them indefinitely, but we won't come out foursquare against scientific consensus about public health" was an "ideology" exactly, more a common-ground to all parties.
But, it seems to have become an ideology, one that a good half of the CPC does not share, indeed, the victorious half in Alberta.
I would add that while the Merchants of Doubt made "climate change" into an "ideology" for decades, it's now entered the same territory: one party is ignoring now-obvious scientific evidence, one is not. And the Liberals were following scientific consensus 7 years back with cannabis, too, after joining with other parties in looking away from it for decades. Hmmmm....ditto with acceptance of gays as not being sick or perverted, medical science recommended that one.
The right-wing used to deride the left for being anti-science, with exaggerated fears of "chemicals", and nuclear reactors. (Remember when corporate-medicine-averse lefties in Seattle were the measles-causing anti-vaxxers??)
Not saying the Liberal party is deeply committed to a science-based ideology - it's more a role that's been thrust upon them. "We respect Science" was not why they passed gay marriage or cannabis legalization, it's more that their centre-left base never left that formerly-neutral position, and the Liberals serve them. Meanwhile, so much of the Right migrated away from respect-for-science , making the neutral position into a partisan one.
With Pierre Poilievre waiting in the wings the prospect of another Liberal win or Liberal and NDP co operation looks highly attractive to me. I can't see anything good happening with Poilievre as PM.
The bleak reality is one that is being mimicked in many western democracies: what's the alternative? Increasingly, hostile, anti-democratic, divisive right wing forces are gaining ground while parties inclined towards social equity, living wages, equal justice, good public education, climate policy can't seem to rise beyond their consultant driven memes. Add a citizenry that vacillates between apathy and outright stupidity and tired centrist do-nothing pols become a holding option. I'm not sure it matters whether Trudeau runs again or not. The options behind him and those who fund them are pretty much the same. The real question for me is whether those hostile conspiracy fuelled hordes grow in numbers. If my personal experience is any indication, it will. Just the other day, lunching with otherwise reasonably educated colleagues, I heard the phrase that always sends me into shivers.....'I did some research and....' Here were people who had laughed at MAGA morons & ridiculed Brexiters, using the word 'tyrant' in describing Trudeau and railing against the BoC. The discussion devolved from that point on and I decided to just leave early. People are pissed off and they should be for dozens of reasons, none of which are because of the Emergency Act, or wokeism, or gatekeepers, or the Bank of Canada. But in the absence of intelligent articulate options, the vacuum will be filled with ignorance and that is where I fear we are headed regardless if Trudeau runs or not.
Just give me the public-sector policies, and I'll vote for whomever. I'm quite happy with the current mess, the NDP leaning on the Liberals to actually do stuff that they usually just talk about. It's not much progress, but it's also no regress, which other nations are struggling with. I read American and UK news, and am so happy to be, well, not there.
It can get worse. A lot worse. I'd rather hang on to what I have.
Better to go with the devil we know
Those wishing for proportional representation should study more broadly the countries that take months of deal brokering to form a government that rarely lasts. These deals to govern are made in the back rooms unlike what we see when the Greens in BC supported the then minority NDP gov't or the NDP's supply agreement with the Liberals where Jagmeet Singh rightly never lets Canadians forget what they have that document. Our issues in Canada are significant - not all of them caused by the federal or provincial governments but that's what demonizing politicians like the Conservative leader will have you believe.
We live in perilous times and one of the perils to our democracy and way of life would be the election of Pierre Poilievre who's been in Parliament since 2004 and is building a party of rage, revenge and return to the 'good old days.'
Our best hope for a guaranteed income scheme to help younger and struggling Canadians is a Liberal government and strong numbers of NDP MPs. The Liberal Party and their MPs have in recent years had this as their goal and while PM Trudeau won't say those words as they can't get there from the present situation, it's not because they don't believe in it.
Conservatives still cling to the out moded idea that hard work alone is all that it takes. That's gone but what's heartening to this observer is that unions are fighting back as they get the challenge of living incomes.
While I'd not personally benefit from a basic income scheme there are organizations like UBI Works who I believe are on the right path. These are business people and others who recognize the need.
First past the post was meant to be a temporary measure until Canada formed their own structure . Very few countries use FPTP
The Liberals better win the next election over the Poilievre Conservatives. Canada cannot afford to experiment with his form of Christian, Fundamentalist Nazism.
🤣🤣.. he left his wife and kids to run again and hook up with Joly.. he will lose if Ontario voters wake up...
🤣🤣
Sophie's going to bring him down. You go grrrl!
hi David! what does “To the extent that there is a “there” in the party’s core, the drive to power precedes it” mean? big fan of your writing but wasn’t sure what you were getting at here.
Just that there is no distinctive and uniting ideological core that supersedes strategic interest.
Well, noooo....but....
I hadn't thought that "Hey, we'll shade the meaning of reports, we'll put off acting on them indefinitely, but we won't come out foursquare against scientific consensus about public health" was an "ideology" exactly, more a common-ground to all parties.
But, it seems to have become an ideology, one that a good half of the CPC does not share, indeed, the victorious half in Alberta.
I would add that while the Merchants of Doubt made "climate change" into an "ideology" for decades, it's now entered the same territory: one party is ignoring now-obvious scientific evidence, one is not. And the Liberals were following scientific consensus 7 years back with cannabis, too, after joining with other parties in looking away from it for decades. Hmmmm....ditto with acceptance of gays as not being sick or perverted, medical science recommended that one.
The right-wing used to deride the left for being anti-science, with exaggerated fears of "chemicals", and nuclear reactors. (Remember when corporate-medicine-averse lefties in Seattle were the measles-causing anti-vaxxers??)
Not saying the Liberal party is deeply committed to a science-based ideology - it's more a role that's been thrust upon them. "We respect Science" was not why they passed gay marriage or cannabis legalization, it's more that their centre-left base never left that formerly-neutral position, and the Liberals serve them. Meanwhile, so much of the Right migrated away from respect-for-science , making the neutral position into a partisan one.
Debating whether I should get a recliner or chaise lounge as a fainting chair ..
Are we all ready to not have a local /regional MP? That is lost with PR…
It is part of MMP.