Canada General Discussion (2019-)

[Benjamin Frank]

I have the Canadian Parliamentary Guide for 1968 edited by Pierre Normandin. This is a private publication "Edited with the Patronage of the Parliament of Canada and of the Legislatures of the various Provinces" that was priced at $8.

In looking over the 1965 election results, these were the things that stuck out:
1.The NDP did reasonably well in Quebec, coming in a distant second in a number of ridings mostly in Montreal. I presume a reason for this is that they had a couple star candidates: Robert Cliche who lost by 3,016 votes to a Liberal in Beauce and the eminent Canadian philosopher and public intellectual Charles Taylor who came a distant second losing about 2-1 to Pierre Trudeau in Mount Royal. The best riding for the NDP in Quebec though was Notre Dame de Grace (which is actually a largely English speaking part of Montreal, or at least it was at that time,) where some New Democrat named Giffords lost by 3,725 votes in an open seat to Liberal Warren Allmand (this riding had more voters than Beauce.)

2.The NDP ran 255 candidates in the 265 ridings. They didn't run candidates in 4 ridings in New Foundland, 4 ridings in Quebec (Kamouraska, Lac St.Jean, Lotbiniere and Shefford), Yukon and Lambton-Kent. The NDP had popularity in the Lambton-Kent area at the time, so I'm not sure if their candidate dropped out or what.

3.The NDP won 21 ridings but were, by my estimate competitive in about another 25. They won ridings in just three provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario (Diefenbaker swept Saskatchewan several times) but were also competitive in a few ridings in Saskatchewan, Quebec as shown and Cape Breton South in Nova Scotia (C. Gillis held the riding for the CCF from 1940-1957 and M.V MacInnis held the riding for the NDP from 1962-1963.)

4.Most ridings had between 20,000 and 30,000 voters, but then there was this:
Carleton (Ontario)
Bell, P.C 32,456
Francis, Lib 31,523
Stirling, NDP 9,953

and several other single member ridings with over 70,000 votes. There were a few dual member ridings at the time as well including Halifax.

5.There was both a Kent, New Brunswick Riding and a Kent, Ontario riding. Interestingly, the NDP did better in Kent, New Brunswick. Similarly, there was both a Victoria, B.C riding and a Victoria, Ontario riding.

6.Horace Olson in Medicine Hat Alberta, first elected as a Social Credit in 1957, defeated in 1958 but reelected in 1962, 1963 and 1965 for Social Credit crossed the floor to the Liberals. According to Wiki, he did so in 1967 to support the leadership campaiagn of Pierre Trudeau and was reelected in 1968 as a Liberal but was badly defeated in 1972.

7.This is strange: "Owing to the operation of the Redistribution Act, the constituencies of Lisgar and Selkirk changed named after 1891. That is, the constituency called Lisgar up to and including 1891 has since been called Selkirk and vice versa."

8.While there were a number of three way races, there was this:
Shefford
Neveau, (L)) 9,494
Trepanier (P.C) 9,467
Rondeau (R. des c) 9,447
Pearson (Ind L) 518

[Continential]

So, Doug Ford isn't ruling out the possibility of amalgamating the Peel region together.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

So, Doug Ford isn't ruling out the possibility of amalgamating the Peel region together.

What would the arguments for and against this?

[Benjamin Frank]

So, Doug Ford isn't ruling out the possibility of amalgamating the Peel region together.

Didn't Doug Ford do away with the Peel regional government in order to stop Patrick Brown from getting elected as its head?

I was hoping that Halton was going to be added to Peel region so that I could say "Maybe Doug Ford should put a Halton doing that."

[Hatman 🍁]

Peel still has a regional council; Ford just stopped Peel from directly electing its chair.

[Benjamin Frank]

Big news day
1.Liberals were justified in using the Emergency Measures Act according to the commissioner (who made something like 56 recommendations.) There is still another inquiry into this ongoing, but this is likely the end of this.

2.Globe and Mail received leaked documents that CSIS if not the Liberal government (sort of government since the campaign was on, I don't actually understand the technicalities) was aware of Chinese interference in the 2021 election during the election campaign.

This story interests me for a couple reasons, I haven't read the Globe and Mail article and aren't aware of all the details (though I've read about previous disclosures on this and have heard some things on this.)

The specific claim on what the Chinese government wanted was to make sure that:
1.A number of specific Conservative M.Ps were defeated.
2.The reelection of a Liberal Minority government (not a majority government.)

If the Chinese government engaged in intimidation (I'm not sure how that works with a secret ballot) of Canadian voters, that it clearly a major problem. If all the Chinese government did was engage in propaganda against Conservative M.Ps, I hardly see how Conservatives can complain.

Pierre Polievre whined without presenting evidence that the Liberals had no problem with this because they benefited from it, I think it's clearly Polievre and the right wing Canadian media outlets worked up over this who are hypocritical.

I don't know how the Chinese government did this, I know propaganda was put up on Canadian Chinese message boards against these specific M.Ps, but we don't know by who. If it was put up by the Chinese government, that's a problem, if it was put up by a Chinese speaking Canadian citizen, according to the Conservatives on everything else, misinformation and disninformation is protected free speech, for instance, see global warming denialism and Covid denialism.

Canadian citizens are perfectly free to speak out in favor of the Chinese government, just as Tucker Carlson is perfectly free to speak out in favor of Putin. If a Canadian citizen or Tucker Carlson acts in illegal ways favorable to China or Putin, that's a totally different matter, but holding an opinion in favor of China and expressing that is completely legal.

So, if that's the case.
Conservatives:
Canadians (or Americans) posting on Canadian websites misinformation from the Koch brothers financed 'Heartland Institute' spreading lies denying global warming and that CO2 is the cause, during an election FREE SPEECH.

Canadian citizen posting on a Chinese website misinformation first posted by the Chinese government about Conservative MPs, ILLEGAL ACTS that need to be investigated and that the Liberals tried to cover up!!!!!!

No, if 'free speech' includes misinformation and the internet shouldn't be regulated to address misinformation and disinformation as the Liberals have proposed, then what happened to the Conservatives is simply the price of freedom. Tough. And, as Trump's supporters have claimed regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election 'there is no evidence a single vote was changed as a result of Russian interference.'

Other: speaking of global warming denialism, B.C Liberal MLA turned independent, John Rustad, joined the B.C Conservatives. John Rustad has been an MLA since 2005 and was a capable cabinet minister (he did a very good job as forests minister for the brief period of time of the Christy Clark post 2017 election government during the wildfires.) So, it's a bit odd after 17 years that he suddenly fell for conspiratorial global warming denialism nonsense.

The Federal Conservatives have supported the B.C Liberals, but who knows with Polievre as Conservative leader? The B.C Conservatives now just need one more seat to be recognized as an official party. Whoever that person might be, if they are just a B.C Liberal backbencher, would receive a pay boost as a B.C Conservative caucus officer. I could possibly see longtime Liberal MLA Mike deJong who is not planning to run in the next provincial election, but is hoping to replace Federal Conservative M.P Ed Fast, who is expected to retire, as the next Conservative M.P, joining with Rustad to give the B.C Conservatives official party status. Not, in DeJong's case any pay raise  but because it might bolster his chances of winning the Conservative nomination. Of course, I'm sure he would only do so with the approval of Polievre.

When (Federal) Conservatives crossed the floor to the Liberals, many Conservative supporters demanded the M.P step down and seek reelection in a by-election. I don't believe I've heard anybody call for Rustad to do this.

Finally, Alberta M.P Ron Liepert has annouced his retirement. Unlike the three other Conservatives who have retired since the last election, Liepert plans to serve until the end of the term. Liepert was a supporter of Erin O'Toole and didn't seem to think much of Polievre prior to the start of the leadership race anyway (he also endorsed Charest I believe) so, this isn't a surprise. He's also in his early 70s.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1635429972339826688

Um...

[Хahar 🤔]

Somehow the same country where an ostensibly major political party keeps putting forth Turban Man year after year for DEI reasons also contains a distinct society where the jury is still out on the Jews. In conclusion, Canada is a land of contrasts.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's with the Greens? I was under the impression they weren't the ""Anti-Zionist and we totally aren't anti-Semites because we only say we're against "Zionists" while posting what are basically anti-Semitic screeds with simply with the word "Jews" replaced with "Zionists"" types like so many American leftists are.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What's with the Greens? I was under the impression they weren't the ""Anti-Zionist and we totally aren't anti-Semites because we only say we're against "Zionists" while posting what are basically anti-Semitic screeds with simply with the word "Jews" replaced with "Zionists"" types like so many American leftists are.

Well this is voters and not members, and there's often a critical difference there.

[Hatman 🍁]

Are you telling me Quebecers don't like religion? Shocking!

I think it's acceptable to not have a favourable view of a particular religion, but still have a favourable view of its followers. There's lots to hate about all of the world's major religions...

[CumbrianLefty]

Wasn't the previous Canadian Greens leadership actually very pro-Jewish?

[Hatman 🍁]

Wasn't the previous Canadian Greens leadership actually very pro-Jewish?

Indeed, their leader was Jewish.

[Hatman 🍁]

It's really weird to me that Al of all people is cherry-picking poll results to create some sort of narrative that doesn't exist (and that some here are lapping it up), but here are the cross-tabs:



As you can see, Quebecers have a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism.

[EastAnglianLefty]

It's really weird to me that Al of all people is cherry-picking poll results to create some sort of narrative that doesn't exist (and that some here are lapping it up), but here are the cross-tabs:



As you can see, Quebecers have a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism.

I don't think that chart shows what you think it does. Every region has a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism, but the gap is notably narrower in Quebec than anywhere else.

[Make Canada Boring Again]

https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1635429972339826688
Um...

As a Jewish Canadian living in English speaking Canada, these poll results make sense to me (for Canada excluding Quebec). From my personal experience, LPC and CPC voters are the most Jewish friendly, while NDP, GPC and PPC voters tend to be less friendly/more hostile. The Jewish community in Canada also tends to swing between the Liberal and Conservative parties in federal elections.

[Хahar 🤔]

It's really weird to me that Al of all people is cherry-picking poll results to create some sort of narrative that doesn't exist (and that some here are lapping it up), but here are the cross-tabs:



As you can see, Quebecers have a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism.

not really beating the "racist society" allegations with this one

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

It's really weird to me that Al of all people is cherry-picking poll results to create some sort of narrative that doesn't exist (and that some here are lapping it up), but here are the cross-tabs:



As you can see, Quebecers have a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism.

Quebec seems to be the most anti-religion in general. It seems rather disingenous to conflate that with anti-Semitism.
Do you have favorable view numbers?

[Hatman 🍁]

It's really weird to me that Al of all people is cherry-picking poll results to create some sort of narrative that doesn't exist (and that some here are lapping it up), but here are the cross-tabs:



As you can see, Quebecers have a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism.

I don't think that chart shows what you think it does. Every region has a more negative view of Christianity than Judaism, but the gap is notably narrower in Quebec than anywhere else.

What it shows is that Quebecers hate all religions. Is there a bit of racism involved? Of course, it's Quebec. But, it's not necessarily the main motivator for having an unfavourable opinion of a religion like some people here think it is.

If you're a secular person, you're more likely going to have an unfavourable opinion of all religions. It doesn't necessarily make you a racist.

[Logical]

Big, if true
https://twitter.com/globalnews/status/1638656312170147842

[lfromnj]

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2023/03/22/han-dong-steps-down-from-liberal-caucus-amid-foreign-interference-allegations.html

Dong has already been forced to leave the caucus.

[Make Canada Boring Again]

These election interference allegations keep getting worse and worse. How the Trudeau government could allow such allegations to linger in his caucus and do nothing about it for years is beyond me. The fact that he's obviously trying to hide something by opposing a public inquiry and being reluctant to have Katie Telford testify makes even worse. Trudeau has always seemed like a dishonest phony but I never could have imagined his government would turn out to be this perfidious.

[RFK 2024]

I hate our entire system.  The NDP will break soon and we'll get a no confidence vote, another election, and another liberal minority now with the added uncertainty of Chinese interference.  There's really nothing preventing Trudeau from running indefinitely.  No term limits or way to impeach.  67% of Canadians who voted did not back our PM in 2021. It's frustrating.

[Meclazine for Israel]

The Pink Tax (Canadian TV Story)

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2185995843729

Women are paying 50% more for products including shavers, aerosol cans like deodorants which are exactly the same as their male counterpart.


Starting January 1 2023, companies in California can no longer charge different prices for products aimed at women.GETTY

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2022/12/19/will-californias-new-pink-tax-law-save-women-47-billion-annually/?sh=66f8c2baff70

Small tubs of white cream from France with Loreal or Chanel written on them are building the obscene fortune of the richest person in the World.

If you tell women that Chanel No 5 was stolen from a Jewish family by Coco Chanel when the Nazi's invaded France, would they stop buying it at ridiculous prices?

If fly spray came in a pink can with TV advertising purely for women, would they buy it and pay more?

Is this really a 'pink tax' or is it simply because women are blinded by an intense focus on their self-image?

Is it the marketers fault for selling a product that women prefer because the marketing team have to spend more money on marketing to females?

See the study into pricing on Marketplace on CBC on Fri Mar 24.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

If I was a left-leaning voter who wasn't a Chinese simp I'd never vote Liberal again under this government.

Trudeau has been among my least favorite of major center/center-left world leaders for a minute but these allegations if proven are indeed more than concerning.

Glad to hear the NDP is pushing for an inquiry.