election day

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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Y'know, I recollect when folk here were giving us Yanks shit about our voting machines, talking up how their paper-and-pencil voting was foolproof.

Guess y'all came up with a new, better grade of fool.
 
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spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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NDP leadership to begin in September, new leader chosen no later than March 29
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
David Baxter
Published Jul 10, 2025 • Last updated 13 hours ago • 1 minute read

OTTAWA — The NDP’s leadership race to replace Jagmeet Singh will formally begin in September, with a six-month race to follow according to a rules framework adopted by the party’s national council.

A new leader will be chosen no later than March 29, when the party holds its 2026 convention in Winnipeg.


An entry fee of $100,000 has been set for candidates to show their “organizational and fundraising capacity.”

Singh announced his resignation as NDP leader after he lost his seat in the April 28 election, where the NDP was reduced to just seven seats in the House of Commons.

B.C. NDP MP Don Davies is currently serving as interim leader.

Three people with knowledge of the process have verified the information with The Canadian Press.
 

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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NDP leadership to begin in September, new leader chosen no later than March 29
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
David Baxter
Published Jul 10, 2025 • Last updated 13 hours ago • 1 minute read

OTTAWA — The NDP’s leadership race to replace Jagmeet Singh will formally begin in September, with a six-month race to follow according to a rules framework adopted by the party’s national council.

A new leader will be chosen no later than March 29, when the party holds its 2026 convention in Winnipeg.


An entry fee of $100,000 has been set for candidates to show their “organizational and fundraising capacity.”

Singh announced his resignation as NDP leader after he lost his seat in the April 28 election, where the NDP was reduced to just seven seats in the House of Commons.

B.C. NDP MP Don Davies is currently serving as interim leader.

Three people with knowledge of the process have verified the information with The Canadian Press.
just like marit styles, it will be someone no one has ever heard of. ;)
 

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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Many voters cast ballot in last federal election without feeling fully informed: poll
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Cassandra Szklarski
Published Jul 31, 2025 • 2 minute read

TORONTO — A new survey suggests more than half of Canadians believe they didn’t have enough information or needed more to cast their ballot in the last federal election.


The Ipsos poll says 57 per cent of respondents either believed they didn’t have enough local news or could have used more to assess candidates back in April.


Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook even though the social media site banned news content in Canada.

The online survey of 1,000 Canadian residents was conducted July 11 to 21 and is part of a study by the Public Policy Forum on access to local news.

The think tank concludes that a steady erosion of local news outlets leaves many Canadians “wading through the toxic waters of social media.”

Report authors include former Toronto Star columnist Tim Harper and former Maclean’s editor-in-chief Alison Uncles, who suggest a permanent non-partisan election fund could help media outlets better cover political races.


“There was scant coverage at the local level, with candidates using their own social media channels rather than have their information filtered through local reporters,” says the report, also co-authored by Sara-Christine Gemson, executive director of the Public Policy Forum Academy and a past Radio-Canada journalist.

“It is no hyperbole to argue that given the collapse of local news and the Facebook ban on news on its site, the federal election of 2025 was most likely the most poorly covered election in modern Canadian history.”

Meta stopped Canadian access to news on Facebook and Instagram in 2023 after the federal government required the social media giant to pay Canadian news outlets for posting their journalism.


Sean Simpson, senior VP at Ipsos, says the poll suggests “people are craving more information” about their local candidates and local issues.

The poll found 70 per cent of respondents said greater availability of local news would have made them better informed voters.

There was some overlap when respondents were asked which sources of information had the biggest impact on their ballot, with national media most often cited at 46 per cent, followed by word-of-mouth at 35 per cent.

While 14 per cent pointed to Facebook, 15 per cent cited other social media, such as TikTok, Reddit and Instagram.

Simpson notes that national concerns dominated the campaign as concerns over the economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump shaped a two-party race between Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and winning Liberal leader Mark Carney.

“It was very much an election fought on national leaders,” says Simpson, reached in Kitchener, Ont.

“It was: who’s best to deal with Trump?”

“Uncovered: How to build back election coverage for a better democracy” is set for release Thursday.

The PPF report was written in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Michener Awards Foundation.
 
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pgs

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Many voters cast ballot in last federal election without feeling fully informed: poll
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Cassandra Szklarski
Published Jul 31, 2025 • 2 minute read

TORONTO — A new survey suggests more than half of Canadians believe they didn’t have enough information or needed more to cast their ballot in the last federal election.


The Ipsos poll says 57 per cent of respondents either believed they didn’t have enough local news or could have used more to assess candidates back in April.


Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook even though the social media site banned news content in Canada.

The online survey of 1,000 Canadian residents was conducted July 11 to 21 and is part of a study by the Public Policy Forum on access to local news.

The think tank concludes that a steady erosion of local news outlets leaves many Canadians “wading through the toxic waters of social media.”

Report authors include former Toronto Star columnist Tim Harper and former Maclean’s editor-in-chief Alison Uncles, who suggest a permanent non-partisan election fund could help media outlets better cover political races.


“There was scant coverage at the local level, with candidates using their own social media channels rather than have their information filtered through local reporters,” says the report, also co-authored by Sara-Christine Gemson, executive director of the Public Policy Forum Academy and a past Radio-Canada journalist.

“It is no hyperbole to argue that given the collapse of local news and the Facebook ban on news on its site, the federal election of 2025 was most likely the most poorly covered election in modern Canadian history.”

Meta stopped Canadian access to news on Facebook and Instagram in 2023 after the federal government required the social media giant to pay Canadian news outlets for posting their journalism.


Sean Simpson, senior VP at Ipsos, says the poll suggests “people are craving more information” about their local candidates and local issues.

The poll found 70 per cent of respondents said greater availability of local news would have made them better informed voters.

There was some overlap when respondents were asked which sources of information had the biggest impact on their ballot, with national media most often cited at 46 per cent, followed by word-of-mouth at 35 per cent.

While 14 per cent pointed to Facebook, 15 per cent cited other social media, such as TikTok, Reddit and Instagram.

Simpson notes that national concerns dominated the campaign as concerns over the economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump shaped a two-party race between Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and winning Liberal leader Mark Carney.

“It was very much an election fought on national leaders,” says Simpson, reached in Kitchener, Ont.

“It was: who’s best to deal with Trump?”

“Uncovered: How to build back election coverage for a better democracy” is set for release Thursday.

The PPF report was written in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Michener Awards Foundation.
It was who is best to deal with Trump . We sure got that right . /s
 
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Taxslave2

Senate Member
Aug 13, 2022
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Many voters cast ballot in last federal election without feeling fully informed: poll
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Cassandra Szklarski
Published Jul 31, 2025 • 2 minute read

TORONTO — A new survey suggests more than half of Canadians believe they didn’t have enough information or needed more to cast their ballot in the last federal election.


The Ipsos poll says 57 per cent of respondents either believed they didn’t have enough local news or could have used more to assess candidates back in April.


Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook even though the social media site banned news content in Canada.

The online survey of 1,000 Canadian residents was conducted July 11 to 21 and is part of a study by the Public Policy Forum on access to local news.

The think tank concludes that a steady erosion of local news outlets leaves many Canadians “wading through the toxic waters of social media.”

Report authors include former Toronto Star columnist Tim Harper and former Maclean’s editor-in-chief Alison Uncles, who suggest a permanent non-partisan election fund could help media outlets better cover political races.


“There was scant coverage at the local level, with candidates using their own social media channels rather than have their information filtered through local reporters,” says the report, also co-authored by Sara-Christine Gemson, executive director of the Public Policy Forum Academy and a past Radio-Canada journalist.

“It is no hyperbole to argue that given the collapse of local news and the Facebook ban on news on its site, the federal election of 2025 was most likely the most poorly covered election in modern Canadian history.”

Meta stopped Canadian access to news on Facebook and Instagram in 2023 after the federal government required the social media giant to pay Canadian news outlets for posting their journalism.


Sean Simpson, senior VP at Ipsos, says the poll suggests “people are craving more information” about their local candidates and local issues.

The poll found 70 per cent of respondents said greater availability of local news would have made them better informed voters.

There was some overlap when respondents were asked which sources of information had the biggest impact on their ballot, with national media most often cited at 46 per cent, followed by word-of-mouth at 35 per cent.

While 14 per cent pointed to Facebook, 15 per cent cited other social media, such as TikTok, Reddit and Instagram.

Simpson notes that national concerns dominated the campaign as concerns over the economic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump shaped a two-party race between Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and winning Liberal leader Mark Carney.

“It was very much an election fought on national leaders,” says Simpson, reached in Kitchener, Ont.

“It was: who’s best to deal with Trump?”

“Uncovered: How to build back election coverage for a better democracy” is set for release Thursday.

The PPF report was written in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Michener Awards Foundation.
I tend to believe that. The majority of news was not on local candidates, but the parties and leaders. It is almost like everyone except the media knows we vote for our local candidate, not the party or the leader. Could be because the majority of our media is on the liberal payroll.
 

spaminator

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Canada’s federal voting system constitutional, Ontario Court of Appeal rules
Groups argued in court that the first-past-the-post system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of effective representation

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Jim Bronskill
Published Aug 11, 2025 • 2 minute read

OTTAWA — A panel of three Ontario Court of Appeal judges unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system in a ruling released on Monday.


The system, laid out in the Canada Elections Act, sees the candidate who receives the most votes in a given riding or electoral district become the member of Parliament.


Fair Voting BC and the Springtide Collective for Democratic Society argued in court that the first-past-the-post system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantee of effective representation.

The groups also said the system leads to the under-representation of women and other groups in Parliament, breaching the Charter’s equality rights provision.

In a proportional representation system, the number of representatives a party elects reflects the percentage of the total vote the party receives.

In November 2023, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the challenge from Fair Voting BC and Springtide. It said that while a proportional representation system would be a fair alternative to the current system, it’s not required by the Constitution.


In its decision, the province’s Court of Appeal also rejected the groups’ key arguments.

“The electoral system is not in conflict with either the right to vote or the right to equality. It does not violate the Charter,” Justice Grant Huscroft said in written reasons delivered on behalf of another judge on the panel.

“The appellants’ arguments that the electoral system violates the Charter are, in essence, a repackaging of failed political arguments as constitutional rights violations.”

The expert evidence “put forward in support” of those arguments, Huscroft wrote, is “replete with highly contestable policy arguments about which reasonable disagreement abounds, not only in the academic community but amongst the public at large.”


“This evidence demonstrates the shortcomings of constitutional litigation in addressing public policy disagreements,” he added.

The short answer to the argument that the electoral system violates the Charter is that Canadian citizens are free to vote for anyone they choose, and for any reason they choose, Huscroft added.

“There is no constitutional requirement that their individual choices aggregate in a way that achieves some ideal of representational diversity,” he wrote. “Neither the political party affiliation nor the personal characteristics of the candidates who win election are relevant to the constitutionality of the electoral system.”

During the 2015 election campaign, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised it would be the last federal election held under the first-past-the-post system.

Once in office, however, Trudeau’s government abandoned his pledge to replace the system.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Canada’s federal voting system constitutional, Ontario Court of Appeal rules
Groups argued in court that the first-past-the-post system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' guarantee of effective representation

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Jim Bronskill
Published Aug 11, 2025 • 2 minute read

OTTAWA — A panel of three Ontario Court of Appeal judges unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system in a ruling released on Monday.


The system, laid out in the Canada Elections Act, sees the candidate who receives the most votes in a given riding or electoral district become the member of Parliament.


Fair Voting BC and the Springtide Collective for Democratic Society argued in court that the first-past-the-post system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantee of effective representation.

The groups also said the system leads to the under-representation of women and other groups in Parliament, breaching the Charter’s equality rights provision.

In a proportional representation system, the number of representatives a party elects reflects the percentage of the total vote the party receives.

In November 2023, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the challenge from Fair Voting BC and Springtide. It said that while a proportional representation system would be a fair alternative to the current system, it’s not required by the Constitution.


In its decision, the province’s Court of Appeal also rejected the groups’ key arguments.

“The electoral system is not in conflict with either the right to vote or the right to equality. It does not violate the Charter,” Justice Grant Huscroft said in written reasons delivered on behalf of another judge on the panel.

“The appellants’ arguments that the electoral system violates the Charter are, in essence, a repackaging of failed political arguments as constitutional rights violations.”

The expert evidence “put forward in support” of those arguments, Huscroft wrote, is “replete with highly contestable policy arguments about which reasonable disagreement abounds, not only in the academic community but amongst the public at large.”


“This evidence demonstrates the shortcomings of constitutional litigation in addressing public policy disagreements,” he added.

The short answer to the argument that the electoral system violates the Charter is that Canadian citizens are free to vote for anyone they choose, and for any reason they choose, Huscroft added.

“There is no constitutional requirement that their individual choices aggregate in a way that achieves some ideal of representational diversity,” he wrote. “Neither the political party affiliation nor the personal characteristics of the candidates who win election are relevant to the constitutionality of the electoral system.”

During the 2015 election campaign, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau promised it would be the last federal election held under the first-past-the-post system.

Once in office, however, Trudeau’s government abandoned his pledge to replace the system.
Hooey
 

spaminator

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Elections Canada to launch review following issues with special ballots
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Anja Karadeglija
Published Sep 15, 2025 • 1 minute read

OTTAWA — Elections Canada says it will launch a probe of problems with special ballots in the last federal election.


A report released by the chief electoral officer today says Elections Canada will examine its training, control mechanisms and processes.


The report cites a number of cases of special ballots not being handled properly and being left out of the official count.

They include one incident which saw more than 800 special ballots mistakenly kept at the office of a returning officer in B.C.

Packages of 235 and 232 local special ballots were also found in Nova Scotia and Ontario, respectively, when the local Elections Canada offices were closed following the validation of results.

In the riding of Terrebonne in Quebec, where the election results are being contested in court, some of the special ballots had incorrect postal codes.
 
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spaminator

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Elections Canada to launch review following issues with special ballots
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Anja Karadeglija
Published Sep 15, 2025 • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — Elections Canada is launching a probe into problems with special ballots in the last federal election.


“We really have to look at the controls in place to make sure that they are sufficient” and make improvements where possible, chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault told reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill on Monday.


Plans for the review were outlined Monday in the agency’s report on the 45th general election held on April 28. The report promises a “comprehensive review” that will examine training, control mechanisms and processes.

It cites three cases where hundreds of special ballots were handled improperly and left out of the official count. It also points to one riding where the outcome was decided by a single vote and where some special ballots had incorrect postal codes.

“We saw things that we hadn’t seen before, errors that we hadn’t seen before with special ballots,” Perrault said.


In one case cited by Elections Canada, more than 800 special ballots were mistakenly kept at the office of a returning officer in B.C. The ballots were from 74 electoral districts across the country; Elections Canada has said the outcome wouldn’t have been affected in any of those ridings.

Packages of 235 and 232 local special ballots were also found in Nova Scotia and Ontario, respectively, when the local Elections Canada offices were closed following the validation of results. The report noted the candidates in those ridings won by thousands of votes.

But in the riding of Terrebonne in Quebec — where Liberal Tatiana Auguste won by a single vote after a recount — the Bloc Quebecois is challenging the result before the Superior Court of Quebec.


The Elections Canada report noted the Bloc’s Terrebonne candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagne is arguing “an irregularity had prevented an elector from voting by special ballot, which had affected the results of the election.”

The report said some of the special ballots cast in Terrebonne had the wrong postal codes. Of the 115 special ballots cast, it said, 85 were returned on time and counted, five were received late, sixteen were not returned, and nine voters who requested a special ballot ending up voting in person.

Perrault told reporters it’s not possible to link individual errors to what he said was a higher level of pressure on returning officers.

“But I have no doubt that the overall pressure to deliver a wider range of services in an effectively … shorter period of time increases the risk of errors,” he said.


Perrault said elections are changing, with more voters choosing to vote early. He added it’s also becoming more difficult to find polling locations and to finalize those leases.

“All this puts more pressure on returning officers who already have to deliver an increasing number of services,” he said.

Perrault said special ballots make voting more accessible for voters who might otherwise struggle to cast a ballot — people in remote northern work camps, for example, or people displaced by natural disasters. He said special ballots are “here to stay.”

“But this process is manual and more complex to administer for returning officers,” he added.

Perrault said he expects the review to be finished in the fall and “to implement or begin implementing changes as quickly as possible with a view to preparing for the next election.”


The report also said Elections Canada would review what happened in Nunavik, when two communities found themselves unable to vote and seven “were limited by severally and unexpectedly reduced service hours at polling places.”

It said those problems were “unacceptable” and promised to review the incident and make its conclusions public.

Perrault travelled to Nunavik last week, where he apologized in person for the problems which occurred there.

Removing barriers to voting for First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities was one of four priorities identified by Elections Canada for this spring’s election.
 

spaminator

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MPs question Longest Ballot Committee organizer during spring election probe
Tomas Szuchewycz listed as official agent for nearly all of 200 people who signed up to run

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Sarah Ritchie
Published Oct 07, 2025 • 3 minute read

There are 209 candidates who have registered to run in the Aug. 18 Battle River-Crowfoot byelection
There are 209 candidates who have registered to run in the Aug. 18 Battle River-Crowfoot byelection.
It's all part of an election reform protest by the Longest Ballot Committee.
OTTAWA — An organizer behind a protest group that signed up hundreds of candidates in recent elections told members of Parliament on Tuesday that his invitation to appear before a House committee is proof of the group’s success.


Tomas Szuchewycz was a witness for the Longest Ballot Committee at a meeting of the procedure and government affairs committee, which is studying the way the longest ballot protest affected recent byelections and the April federal election.


Szuchewycz was listed as the official agent for nearly all of the 200 people who signed up to run against Pierre Poilievre in the summer byelection that returned the Conservative leader to the House of Commons.

Elections Canada had to create a modified write-in ballot for that vote in Battle River_Crowfoot.

The longest ballot group says it’s pushing for electoral reform and has signed up dozens of candidates in byelections dating back to 2022.

It targeted Poilievre’s riding of Carleton in the April election — which resulted in a ballot more than a metre long _ before taking aim at the Alberta byelection in August. The Conservatives have since vowed to make changes to the Elections Act to put an end to such protests.


“Canadians would be well served by a permanent, independent, nonpartisan body to oversee the full framework of election law,” Szuchewycz said in his opening statement.

He told MPs the group has been “successful beyond anything I honestly could have ever imagined,” citing media attention.

Bloc Quebecois MP Christine Normandin questioned whether that attention proves the group’s message is actually resonating.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper accused Szuchewycz of failing to follow Elections Canada’s rules. Cooper claimed that the group was collecting signatures to nominate candidates before the candidates were actually chosen.

Cooper’s accusation — which Szuchewycz denied — forms the basis of the Conservatives’ call for a legal change that would limit the number of candidates any one elector can nominate in a race.


Candidates need signatures from 100 people in a riding to get on the ballot. Szuchewycz confirmed that his group had people sign nomination papers for multiple candidates during the Alberta byelection.

Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault wrote to then-democratic institutions minister Dominic LeBlanc in September 2024 to call for changes after the Longest Ballot Committee took part in a byelection in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun.

Poilievre, who called the longest ballot group’s actions a “scam” over the summer, has also called for reforms that would limit an official agent to representing only one candidate in a race.

The committee also heard Tuesday from Peter Loewen, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Cornell University and a professor in the department of government. He called the group’s methods a “signature-harvesting exercise.”


Loewen, whose past work included the Canadian election misinformation project, also said he thinks most Canadians would “find it curious” that the group was able to use one agent to sign up all of the candidates.

“I think you can certainly strike a legislative sweet spot which makes it possible for local people who want to run for the sake of running, even if they’re not a part of a major party, to get on that ballot by earnestly seeking a large number of signatures, while tailoring the rules to not allow for the monkeying of ballots,” he said.

Loewen cited the Rhinoceros Party — which has run candidates in many Canadian elections over the years on satirical platforms _ as a kind of harmless intervention in elections.

The Longest Ballot Committee, he said, “believes that we should have a different electoral system, despite constant demonstrations that Canadians don’t want that and constitutional affirmations that our electoral system is democratic.”

Loewen said it’s a good idea to make it harder for unserious candidates to get on the ballot.

“Canada’s reputation of well-run elections is hard-earned and well-deserved. It’s not funny to monkey with this,” he said.

But he also cautioned that MPs place themselves in a conflict of interest by making rules about elections, and said any changes should be carefully weighed.
 

Ron in Regina

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Ah…yes, the longest ballot in protest of Trudeau and the Liberals broken electoral promises…so they focussed on Poilievre and the conservatives for their punishing annoyance….Twice. Something smells awfully wrong about that whole situation, something aromatic like horse shit.
 
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pgs

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 29, 2008
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Ah…yes, the longest ballot in protest of Trudeau and the Liberals broken electoral promises…so they focussed on Poilievre and the conservatives for their punishing annoyance….Twice. Something smells awfully wrong about that whole situation, something aromatic like horse shit.
Amazing what one learns in a 5 year decree in political sciences .