Federal Election Thread

[<abstract>]

You have a point but there needs to be some sort of balance. Minority gov'ts are not good in that you get Conservatives pushing for tax cuts while the NDP/Bloc/Liberals push for spending. At least during the 90s, the Liberals were able to keep everything in check because they controlled everything.

 

I doubt we'll get out of this current deficit unless the Liberals or Conservatives form a majority gov't this election. I'd actually trust the Liberals to do it quicker as they have already stated they'll raise corporate taxes. You can only cut so many programs before the people start getting mad (even those arts programs, lol).

 

Regardless, I'd be happy if Liberals or Conservatives win a majority gov't but the only minority situation I can except right now is Conservatives as they'll be able to keep the NDP/Bloc (who hold the balance of power) in check whereas the Liberals are more inclined to tax and spend so the balance would be tilted too far to the left.

 

With all due respect, the liberals were only able to keep a balanced budget by defunding healthcare, highering less doctors, and downloading federal responsibilities to the provinces (which in turn went to the municipalities) (This is has contributed to the looming disaster in health-care we have today.) Not to mention, the liberals also gutted the military to the point where if it wasn't so sad it would be almost comical. The conservatives did a good job maintaining spending on priorities such as healthcare, and refunded the military to at least give us a fighting chance.Although we are in a huge deficit right now, what are the other alternatives. Sure we could raise taxes on corporations, however we would lose our competitiveness in the global community. We could also raise income tax, but no-one seems to want to do that. So although we are in a deficit, you can't just blame the conservatives. The world went through a huge recession, and by all means Canada came out near the top.

 

Oh, I still can't believe the liberals had the balls to topple the government over ethics.. They are the ones to talk -> sponsorship scandle ring a bell anyone....

 

IN the end it doesn't really matter who you vote for cause most of the parties are the same -they are all full of crap-, The conservatives will never be able to turn canada into the US, the NDP will never be able to turn Canada into a nanny state. They just don't have the mandate for it. It is just another election, one of many more to come.

[NLengr]

With all due respect' date=' the liberals were only able to keep a balanced budget by defunding healthcare, highering less doctors, and downloading federal responsibilities to the provinces (which in turn went to the municipalities) (This is has contributed to the looming disaster in health-care we have today.) Not to mention, the liberals also gutted the military to the point where if it wasn't so sad it would be almost comical. The conservatives did a good job maintaining spending on priorities such as healthcare, and refunded the military to at least give us a fighting chance.Although we are in a huge deficit right now, what are the other alternatives. Sure we could raise taxes on corporations, however we would lose our competitiveness in the global community. We could also raise income tax, but no-one seems to want to do that. So although we are in a deficit, you can't just blame the conservatives. The world went through a huge recession, and by all means Canada came out near the top.

 

Oh, I still can't believe the liberals had the balls to topple the government over ethics.. They are the ones to talk -> sponsorship scandle ring a bell anyone....[/quote']

 

For God's sake, let the sponsorship scandal go. You sound like the last few years of the G.W. Bush govt. who still trotted out the "B..b...b...but Clinton" excuse for everything. The Conservatives tried to block parliamentary procedure/rule and ignored their own promises of transparent government they were elected on. They are by far the most closed door, secretive govt. we have seen in years. They deserved to fall based on ethics alone. To let them continue to be in contempt of parliament would set a terrible precedent.

 

As for the GST cut, sure the conservatives cut the GST, but they also canceled scheduled cuts to income tax at the same time that had been introduced by the previous Liberal govt. This looked politically great because everyone hates the GST, but the problem was the income tax cut would have been much more beneficial to low and middle income earners. A GST cut is more beneficial to high income earners (since they purchase bigger items and pay more GST). So all that happened was everyone still paid the money to the government, just in a different way. And that new way had less benefits for low and middle income Canadians.

 

Finally, Canada's ability to weather the economic recession was primarily based on the strength of the banking sector. Pretty much all economists will tell you this. The banking reforms were put into place in the 90's and early 2000's, far before the Conservatives formed their first government. In fact, many reforms were OPPOSED by the then conservative opposition.

 

One last point: If I hear the word coalition one more time, I'm gonna pistol whip someone. Although I did enjoy seeing Harper squirm when reporters starting questioning him about his own attempt to form a Con/NDP/BQ coalition in 2004 to bring down the Liberals.

[NLengr]

As for corporate tax cuts, we have some of the lowest corporate taxes in the world right now. We don't need further cuts like the Cons planned in the budget. We can hold them steady and still remain competitive on the world stage.

[blind_synergy]

Fun question: If the cons get their majority, will they continue to steer clear of most social issues or will we see HARPER'S SECRET AGENDA [cue DUN DUN DUN] ?

[Alex2]

Harper looks great on economics, but it is because of the bank system that was made before them and because of the high price of oil. All they did was to cut taxes because of the high oil price and when the recession came, they had no money left. They also increase transfer to poor provinces because of high oil price. Liberals would be able to have the same good economic aspects and less Conservative thinking. Is it really necessary to buy 100 billions of $ of planes when people die on waitlists for an operation?

[Triathlete90]

Lol. Wow. I'm officially resigning from this thread.

[thatonekid]

Fun question: If the cons get their majority, will they continue to steer clear of most social issues or will we see HARPER'S SECRET AGENDA [cue DUN DUN DUN] ?

Maybe if there's a majority we'll see more pictures of Harper with kittens...wearing a sweater vest...playing the piano.

 

lol

[blind_synergy]

Maybe if there's a majority we'll see more pictures of Harper with kittens...wearing a sweater vest...playing the piano.

 

lol

 

Nonsense. The only time you would ever see Harper with kittens is when he's hand-picking his next meal.

[thatonekid]

Nonsense. The only time you would ever see Harper with kittens is when he's hand-picking his next meal.

But he spends his free time reading to kittens. That's what the press photos showed me. Are you telling me that it's all staged so he gets more votes from animal lovers?!? *shocked*

 

 

 

/sarcasm

[NLengr]

Nonsense. The only time you would ever see Harper with kittens is when he's hand-picking his next meal.

 

The reading relaxes the kittens. Which makes them more tender when they slaughter them for supper.

[seeking1]

K-Doc, you are hilarious. Hilarious, I say! You must go on tour.

 

ITT: people who think they are voting in a federal party, when they are really voting in members of parliament.

[apache]

pray to god not, the reason i'm voting ndp is because the candidate here is the favourite and would help prevent harper from getting a majority... the last thing we need is mandatory minimums and the like

 

Fun question: If the cons get their majority, will they continue to steer clear of most social issues or will we see HARPER'S SECRET AGENDA [cue DUN DUN DUN] ?

[Der Kaiser]

Fun question: If the cons get their majority, will they continue to steer clear of most social issues or will we see HARPER'S SECRET AGENDA [cue DUN DUN DUN] ?

 

You mean the one where he starts rounding people up and putting them in camps and banning abortions and oh yeah forcing people to convert to christianity?

 

Jokes aside, if he did start trotting out a social conservative agenda he would not get my vote ever again. I like a fiscally responsible government, which right now might make the liberals an equally valid option, especially with this tough on crime thing. Talk about ridiculous. Actually, come to think of it I am undecided. Is there a reign of terror party?

[The Law]

In the G8 countries, Canada's doing far better than any other country and has even surpassed the pre-recession mark. Gota give Harper credit for that. I'm voting conservatives.

 

I kinda agree with ssd regarding the other parties.

 

I don't credit Harper for this. I credit our sound economy to the economic management in the years before Harper... the fact our banking regulations did not allow our banks to accumulate toxic assets like in the US and other countries.

[The Law]

I'm pretty disgusted by Stephen Harper's blatant lies with regards to a coalition government forming. Not only is it fear-mongering that is not based on any fact, but it's extremely hypocrtical because he himself tried to do the same thing to Paul Martin's minority government in 2004. This type of campaigning is pretty much what the Republicans do in the United States and pisses me off. Why doesn't he stick to arguing about the issues that actually matter to our country and stop with the bull****? Give me a break.

[mdDave]

I'm pretty disgusted by Stephen Harper's blatant lies with regards to a coalition government forming. Not only is it fear-mongering that is not based on any fact, but it's extremely hypocrtical because he himself tried to do the same thing to Paul Martin's minority government in 2004. This type of campaigning is pretty much what the Republicans do in the United States and pisses me off. Why doesn't he stick to arguing about the issues that actually matter to our country and stop with the bull****? Give me a break.

 

Hmm, can you elaborate? not sure what you mean

[The Law]

Hmm, can you elaborate? not sure what you mean

 

Sure. I mean it's basically a smear campaign where you pick a message, any message... something that may not even have a basis in fact, and keep repeating it, regardless of how true it is and how relevent it is to current issues. This is done with the hope of distracting from actual issues affecting voters and in an effort to tarnish the reputation of the opponent. For example, in the 2004 US election they started calling John Kerry a "Flip-Flopper" and just kept repeating this message until they were blue in the face. Regardless of what issues came up during the campaign they would somehow link it to the fact "he's a flip-flopper!!"

 

Bringing it back to the current campaign, Stephen Harper mentioned the words "reckless coalition" about 21 times in one of his recent speeches. It's funny because this "reckless coalition" with "separtists" and "socialists" (note the buzz words that will be repeated many times) is the exact same "coalition" that he said he'd be willing to be a part of in 2004 should the Paul Martin government fail in a vote of confidence (which, if my memory didn't fail me, did not happen - the confidence motion failed by 1 vote! One of the rare times a speaker of the house got to vote to break a tie!).

[mdDave]

well if we're talking simply about campaign smears then I agree with you it is a problem but it's hardly a republican or conservative one. I remember articles demonstrating pretty harsh negative campaigning on both sides during the American 2010 election. Whatever you might think of Christine O'Donnell or even Sarah Palin, no doubt they have been hit extremely hard by smears either during elections or during their entire political careers.

[NLengr]

It wasn't smears with Palin. It's just she was such a moron and terrible candidate the simple truth sounded atrocious.

[Leon]

The Liberals unveiled a $1 billion campaign plank Tuesday that would help fund university and college educations for Canadian students.

 

Called the Canadian Learning Passport, the program would give $1,000 a year for four years tax-free to every high school student who chooses to go to university or college. The money would not have to be repaid. The annual stipend would rise to $1,500 a year, or $6,000 over four years, for students from low-income families, the party said.

 

Source

[<abstract>]

It wasn't smears with Palin. It's just she was such a moron and terrible candidate the simple truth sounded atrocious.

 

The democrats didn't even need a smear campaign for her! lol, she was a godsend from the democrat point of view.

 

To this campaign, the leaders have to start talking more on policy and less on the 'coalition' and 'ethics' because it is becoming a real turn off, to me anyways.

[misskris]

Hey everyone!

This is an interactive tool that lets you answer how you stand on a variety of issues and then matches you to the party that most represents your views. It's interesting cause you can break it down and see that you might agree with one party in terms of defense or economic things, and a completely different party on other issues. I enjoyed it so I thought I'd share. It's at: http://federal.votecompass.ca/

[thatonekid]

Hey everyone!

This is an interactive tool that lets you answer how you stand on a variety of issues and then matches you to the party that most represents your views. It's interesting cause you can break it down and see that you might agree with one party in terms of defense or economic things, and a completely different party on other issues. I enjoyed it so I thought I'd share. It's at: http://federal.votecompass.ca/

I took that survey and I got a result completely opposite than how I will actually vote in the election. lol. I like the graph at the end though. It's a nice (general) visual representation of the parties.

[hking03]

Ack... It said i am closest to liberal... but I'm conservative! Who am I kidding... I don't know what I am.

 

I'll be voting conservative until the liberals come up with a better leader... and even then... probably still conservative.

[kylamonkey]

Whenever I do one of those it says I should vote Bloc...