Canada General Discussion (2019-)

[136or142]

Andrew Scheer is texting people in the Atlantic provinces saying that gas prices are going up and to fill their tanks lolol

Why are the Tories sending texts out in the Maritimes? I was under the impression that it's mostly a Liberal region. Are the Tories that confident?

The Liberals are hemorrhaging support in the Maritimes lately

To add to what Joey said, there is something of a tradition in the Maritimes of swinging hard against a government after it wins its first majority. E.g. the federal elections of 1997 and 2015.

1997 was weird, as the Liberals collapsed in the Maritimes, but held on nationally. The Maritimes were enraged at Harper for his EI reforms. Did the Liberals enact EI reforms before the 1997 election?

Yes, look into the Liberal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy.

[136or142]

Recapping the Liberal government areas of success, in my opinion, as well as the agenda items for the next government.  This is pretty much off the top of my head, that the agenda items are much longer than the list of successes shows how mediocre at best this term in office was.

Successes (of course, these are all pretty much still works in progress)
1.Marijuana Legalization
2.Children's Benefit
3.Senate Reform
4.Syrian Refugees
5.NAFTA renegotiation
6.Carbon Tax/Pipeline
7.Assisted Death legislation (mandated)
8.Boiled Water Cleanup
9.Insite Drug Harm Reduction
10.Trans Pacific Partnership/European Free Trade Negotiations
11.Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

Agenda Items (of course, no government HAS to take these things up)
Finance
1.National Stock Market Regulator
2.Small Business Tax Reform take 2
3.CPI Basket Review/Cost or Living
4.Balancing Budget

Treasury Board/Public Services and Procurement
5.Phoenix Pay System Replacement

Industry
6.Rural Internet

International Trade
7.Free Trade with India (it takes two to tango of course)

Labour and Workforce Development
8.Corporate Board Systemic Discrimination

Revenue
9.Paradise Papers/CRA favoritism of wealthy tax cheats

Natural Resources/Environment
10.Amendments to Bill C-69

Agriculture
11.GMO Labeling

Fisheries, Oceans and Canada Coast Guard
12.Ocean Plastic Cleanup

Heritage
13.Increasing Cell Phone Carriers
14.Netflix Tax Take 2

Transport
15.Toronto-Montreal Corridor High Speed Rail

Infrastructure
16.Actually Doing Infrastructure Renewal

Social Development
17.Guaranteed Annual Income Take 2

Health
18.Pharmacare
19.Drug Decriminalization/Legalization
20.Abortion Pill Roll-out

Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs
21.Internal Free Trade
22.Northern Cost of Living
23.Equalization Review
24.Electoral Reform

Indigenous Affairs
25.UNDRIP Review as part of reconciliation

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
26.Central American Refugees (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala)
27.Never Ending Accredidation issue

Veterans Affairs
28.Veterans Benefits Review

Defense
29.Defense Procurement regarding fighter planes and ships

Foreign Affairs
30.Standing up to China (Getting China Thrown out of G20 and WTO, Favor Taiwan)

Public Safety
31.Bill C-59 review Take 2, alterations to Conservative Legislation (Bill C-35?)

Justice
32.Review of Prostitution Legislation/Legalization of Prostitution
33.Separation of Attorney General from Justice Ministry
34.Charter Defense against Quebec Secularism Law

[136or142]

As a person recently interested in Canadian politics I will be having few questions to Canadians in this thread. First ones like this:


3. What are the major flaws or fails of Trudeau govt?

Arguably easier question to answer than their accomplishments, but it is of course subjective.

1. Ethics. - The Trudeau/Liberal Party term has been dogged with ethics and conflict of interest situations. Trudeau's government has had four completed ethics commissioner investigations and a fifth is coming. Trudeau's free trip to the private island of the Aga Khan, Bill Morneau 'forgetting' that he owned a villa in France which he didn't disclose, several other incidents relating to Morneau, the appointment of a Liberal Party Member of the Ontario Legislature to a non-partisan position. The most notable is the SNC-Lavalin scandal, in which Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and President of the Treasury Board (a senior cabinet member) Jane Philpott resigned after Wilson-Raybould claimed that Trudeau had improperly pressured her to prevent the prosecution of infrastructure company SNC-Lavalin, who employs workers in Trudeau's home city of Montreal. This also led to the resignation of Trudeau's closest aide Gerald Butts and Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick (the top civil servant) as they had also allegedly put pressure on her. MPs voted against holding a public inquiry. The matter is ongoing but it arguably resonated the most with Canadians as it was at this point the Conservatives took a lead in the polls, although it has faded.

2. Relations with China and ASEAN: This has varied between laughable events like the 'little potato' incident to more serious matters. At the moment two Canadians are being detained by China, and relations have also soured over the Trudeau-backed arrest of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of the US, and the subsequent blocking of canola imports from Canada by China. Trudeau has been accused of failing to stand up for Canada effectively by the Conservatives. Relations with ASEAN nations have soured after Canada has sent its plastic waste to ASEAN nations, including Cambodia and the Philippines on multiple occasions.

3. Electoral Reform: In 2015, a majority of Canadians voted for parties which backed electoral reform, including the Liberals. A Committee made up of MPs from different parties recommended Mixed Member Proportional Voting to be used. Trudeau however decided to abandon the pledge when he reshuffled his cabinet in 2017, saying it wasn't the right time. This

4. Indigenous Relations: Nothing unique, but Trudeau's hope that indigenous relations would finally improve significantly have not. This will continue to be an ongoing issue.

5. Carbon Tax and Pipelines: The Carbon Tax is supported by many Canadians. From the Conservative viewpoint, it doesn't fight climate change but punishes ordinary Canadians for going to work. This has soured relations with provinces which have fought (and lost) court battles, saying it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (a key constitutional document.) Trudeau has also had to walk a fine line on pipelines, with Alberta blaming him for not getting a government-owned pipeline called TransMountain built. One of Trudeau's own MPs, Wayne Long, has also fought for a pipeline to his province of New Brunswick.

6. Attitude to Defence and Veterans: Trudeau has taken several veterans to court on the basis they were asking for too much. The Conservatives have shown the most outrage over this, linking it to Trudeau's payout of convicted terrorist Omar Khadr. Add in the Trudeau government's alleged mishandling of the trial of Admiral Mark Norman and the false claim by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan that he was the architect of a major military operation, and you can anger a lot of veterans. General Andrew Leslie, who served in a junior Foreign Affairs role in Trudeau's government was willing to testify against his own government too.

7. Relations with Provinces and Territories: During Trudeau's term, several Liberal provincial governments have lost power to less sympathetic parties. The Liberals have lost in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to the Conservatives (or to the right-wing CAQ in Quebec, their parties are slightly different outside the Liberals), while governments at odds with Trudeau on several occasions have been elected in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Add the consensus government in the Northwest Territories, and you have a whole lot of angry provinces. These disputes have included fights over the carbon tax, whether oil tankers should be allowed on the North Coast of BC, and interprovincial trade. Most of them involve Alberta, which is the second worst province for the Liberals in terms of raw number of seats (Saskatchewan is the worst, but that's partly due to being a lot smaller) - they only have 4 seats, 2 apiece in Calgary and Edmonton. Alberta seems to be the province Trudeau angers the most. Trudeau has also failed to heal conflicts between provinces - Alberta vs. BC and Quebec vs. everyone.

Depending on your background or his perspective, these could be his biggest failures. You could also talk about the Canada Summer Jobs Programme, failure to balance the budget, replacing the Phoenix Pay System for public servants...

Full disclosure that I am not a supporter of Trudeau's.

I am now curious about Trudeau successes, but this has to be done by a Trudeau supporter, I think

BTW What party you support? Conservatives? NPD?

I wrote the list of Trudeau successes above:


Successes (of course, these are all pretty much still works in progress)
1.Marijuana Legalization
2.Children's Benefit
3.Senate Reform
4.Syrian Refugees
5.NAFTA renegotiation
6.Carbon Tax/Pipeline
7.Assisted Death legislation (mandated)
8.Boiled Water Cleanup
9.Insite Drug Harm Reduction
10.Trans Pacific Partnership/European Free Trade Negotiations
11.Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

[136or142]

OK, then what are liberal propositions for 2019?

I don't believe the 2019 Liberal Party platform has been released yet.  However, if you scroll up, you'll see I wrote a long list of agenda items the next government has to deal with and may choose to deal with.

[136or142]

As a person recently interested in Canadian politics I will be having few questions to Canadians in this thread. First ones like this:


3. What are the major flaws or fails of Trudeau govt?

2. Relations with China and ASEAN: This has varied between laughable events like the 'little potato' incident to more serious matters. At the moment two Canadians are being detained by China, and relations have also soured over the Trudeau-backed arrest of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of the US, and the subsequent blocking of canola imports from Canada by China. Trudeau has been accused of failing to stand up for Canada effectively by the Conservatives. Relations with ASEAN nations have soured after Canada has sent its plastic waste to ASEAN nations, including Cambodia and the Philippines on multiple occasions.

I don't want to give the Liberals too much credit in defense here, but to broaden this out: all the nations Canada under the Liberals have had difficult relations with around the world are a rogues gallery of illiberal, murderous and nationalist/xenophobic regimes:  China, India, The United States, Saudi Arabia, The Philippines.  

I certainly don't want to excuse some of the actions of Trudeau during his trip to India, but I certainly also think that Modi's new Kashmir policy fully exposes what a horrible person he is.  I know some Canadians who don't like China have suggested pivoting away to free trade with India, but I think it's clear Modi is engaging in Hindu nationalism/xenophobia and wants to decrease trade.  Like Mao Tse Tung after the failure of his five year plan (though Modi isn't as blood thirsty), Modi is clearly trying to get (Hindu) Indians more interested in so-called spiritual growth and less interested in economic growth.

In regards to the Philippines, this was not the Canadian government that shipped plastic waste, but private companies who lied about the contents of their shipments.  I get tired of this sort of confusion because bad business people try to blame governments for their failures all the time.

[136or142]

Agenda Items (of course, no government HAS to take these things up)

Treasury Board/Public Services and Procurement
5.Phoenix Pay System Replacement

Industry
6.Rural Internet

Heritage
14.Netflix Tax Take 2

Public Safety
31.Bill C-59 review Take 2, alterations to Conservative Legislation (Bill C-35?)

What's going on with these things? Someone explain me, plz

1.The government more or less does have to continue to work on the Phoenix Pay System.  In that case I meant, other than the government does legally have to pass a budget every year, and there are a few other Constitutional obligations (like pay its employees, hence the Phoenix Pay System) it can literally do nothing else.

The Phoenix Pay system was a new computerized system that automated check payments to the myriad federal government employees. It was incredibly buggy.  It was introduced by the Conservatives, without keeping the backup, but it was implemented by the Liberals, so everybody has dirty hands here.  Civil servants have been 'overpaid, underpaid or simply not paid' as well as receiving irregular dated payments for several years now.

The Liberals have decided on what course of action to take to deal with this, but this new course still has to be implemented.

2.Rural internet.  This is the primary purpose of the new Rural Economic Development Ministry.  In many rural areas in Canada, internet service is still woefully lacking which leaves rural Canadians less able to access foreign markets for their goods among other problems.

3.The Netflix tax bungling was ultimately what got Melanie Joly demoted as Heritage Minister.  If I recall this correctly, Netflix users don't have to pay sales taxes, while the equivalent Quebec online providers do. Instead Netflix agreed to a 'voluntary' payment to the Canadian artistic development fund (I don't believe that's the correct name of the fund) that is less than what a sales tax would amount to.  No government has to take this up, and I'm sure they don't want to, but I don't see why Netflix subscribers shouldn't pay sales taxes.

4.This is the CSIS legislation of the previous Harper Conservative government that concerned many Canadians.  The Liberals just recently finally brought in alterations to this legislation, but according to many civil liberties groups, the changes don't address many of the problems.  NDP M.P Murray Rankin, who was a well respected lawyer and law professor, prior to getting elected to Parliament, is heading up the new CSIS oversite committee, and that may help satisfy some of the civil liberties groups.

[136or142]

Justice
32.Review of Prostitution Legislation/Legalization of Prostitution

Why do you want to change the status of prostitution in Canada? I think current status is good, but I do not know the numbers of it and how it serves people, I am for "selling sex legal, buying sex illegal" stance purely on ideological basis.

I'm for completely legalizing it.  I don't think it's the government's job to make moral private decisions for people/consenting adults.  The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the previous legislation on the basis of the harm that the law allowed prostitutes to suffer by being in this sort of legal limbo and the Conservatives basically put a new bow on the old package.  


One of the, I think, very valid criticisms of Jody Wilson-Raybould is that she is essentially a conservative who was a Liberal because she didn't like the Conservative Party handling of the Indigenous file, and her social conservative position on this backs up that criticism.

I would not be surprised if, during the next Parliament, the new Conservative law comes up before the Supreme Court and that it similarly is struck down.

[136or142]

Kim Campell is a nasty loser!

Better than Trump.

[136or142]

Kim Campell is a nasty loser!

Better than Trump.

What a lazy post.

No more or less lazy than a Trump supporter whining about what Kim Campbell said.

[136or142]

Kim Campell is a nasty loser!

Better than Trump.

Because the left had a easier time beati her?

Because she isn't an ignorant and increasingly paranoid psychopath.

[136or142]

Kim Campell is a nasty loser!

Better than Trump.

Because the left had a easier time beati her?

Because she isn't an ignorant and increasingly paranoid psychopath.

That's increasingly debatable

Only for those with the real Trump Derangement Syndrome: the false belief that a total ignoramus and psychopath who is increasingly paranoid actually cares about them or the United States.

Kim Campbell has a number of faults, but she is knowledgeable of the issues and is not a psychopath.