Harper has run a pretty clean ship compared to past elected dictators. He isn't as disliked as the vocal minority wants everyone to think.
Harper's hands have been tied by the constraints of a minority government. His record running a majority government is unproven.
George W had to go the Supreme Court to be declared President, Harper won a majority, I really don't see the parallel between the two.
Why would you predict an attack in the next six months?
I was referring to the shift in power to a neo-con. Canada has never had one in a majority government until now. When the neo-cons gained power under Bush, a pearl Harbor like event happened in the first year of Bush's presidency. As a result, the Americans got the patriot act and an unprovoked war... Harper's buttons will be similarly pushed.
Interesting... according to
Canadian Election Results: 1867-2006 the last time there was a majority in popular vote was Lyin' Brian in 1984 (marked as 50.0% of popular vote... I'm interested to see if it was the actual 50%+1). Before that we have to go back to 1958 when the Conservatives achieved 53.7%. Prior to that were the 1953 Liberals (50.0%) and the 1949 Liberals (50.1%) since the emergence of a true 3rd party, the CCF (which became the NDP) in the 23 elections held. Now there were 8 minorities in that time but thats 4 out of the last 15 majority parliaments that actually were 50%+ popular votes...
Again it may support a case for revising how we elect representatives but we lack a true alternative.
Our electoral system is flawed. It does not represent the will of the people and tends to favor fewer bigger parties. IMO, this is a better system:
Preferential voting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vote splitting between the NDP/Libs and Greens would not have helped the Conservatives.
Some Pearl Harbor event? Just who is going to bomb us and why would they even bother? You do realize that though this election is important to Canadians, it is hard a blip on the radar of other countries. I think you have to take a very deep breath EAO - truly.
I was referring to Canada's future foreign policies as determined by a neo-con Harper majority. Just before Bush won power in 2000, a neo-con think tank wrote this paper which guided the Bush administration's foreign and defense policy:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
In that paper is a predictive statement foreshadowing 9/11
They were considering how to motivate to general public to support their intended policies and made this statement:
...A transformation strategy that solely pursued capabilities for projecting force from the United States, for example, and sacrificed forward basing and presence, would be at odds with larger American
policy goals and would trouble American allies.
Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is
likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a
new Pearl Harbor.
One year after the report was released and about 7 months into Bush's Presidency, 9/11 happened giving the neocons the ability to implement the patriot act, start a war in Iraq.... and many other policies/reforms specified in this document. Bush even won re-election.
Harper will have a similar problem implementing some of his reforms without paying the price in the next election. I predict Canadians will experience a similarly transformative event will occur sometime conveniently and early in Harper's term.
Harper still will want his party re-elected in four years. I didn't vote for the guy, but I also know that as a politician, he's not going to go against what 60% of the population want in governance and risk losing to Layton in four years time. Tone down the paranoia folks, it's still a popularity contest in the long run.
I suppose time will tell...
We've had an incredibly hard working minority gov for the past 5 years. Canadians have voted, and they say that the opposition was too unreasonable.
You weren't paying attention. The Conservative popular vote went up marginally. Liberals and Bloc overwhelmingly went to the NDP. A few on the Liberal right went conservative. The Conservative majority doesn't reflect the will of the people as much as the flaws in our electoral system.
If you pay taxes, and are bound by the laws enacted by a government, I believe you should be allowed to vote. And I do not believe for one second that there is any practical, cost effective way, to test the knowledge of each voter on the issues affecting each election. And regardless of any indepth knowledge, voters are electing an official in their area who they trust to have the knowledge for them and represent their interests.
IMO, all Canadian citizens should be allowed to vote. Taxpaying or not. Resident of Canada or elsewhere.
Just because his platform is what people are looking for says nothing for the truth within it. Many people are wanting many things, why should we abandon truth is pursuit of simple desire?
If everyone wanted to retire at 40 and the government promised that then should be assume it to be a good idea? No. Truth matters; simple desires come second. What people want needs to be measured against what is possible.
As far as the politicians being nasty, do we give them any other choice? If they don't lie and smear, they don't get elected. That's largely the voters vault. Milton Freidman said something to the effect that "a good system should provide a strong incentive for the wrong people (politicians) to do the right thing" Our system does not provide such incentive.
As long as people do not have the basic knowledge, they are too easily fooled by politicians, or as is more often the case, have fooled themselves and the politicians just play to that.
IMO civics (including learning about propaganda techniques) should be a required course in our schools.
The reason we are so surprised and some upset is the fact that democracy had its say.
People went to the polls and voted their choice. At the end of the day voters chose to go
with Harper and so be it. The NDP is now the official opposition because the concerns
of many tuned into what Jack Layton was saying. In southern Ontario the vote split and
the Liberals were the stumbling block not the NDP. Had the percentage of Liberals
voted for Jack and I mean 5% or a little more the outcome would have been different, so
Be it. By sticking with Ignatieff they lost the seat for the Liberals and elected their worst
nightmare. That is democracy.
I don't shudder at a Harper Majority, he has to govern but now he hast to listen and the
reason I say that is, Harper won all those seats with 39% and some split vote riding's in
Ontario. The NDP had 30% and a chance to win more in the future. Face it for some
time to come the Liberals are dead and I mean dead. What is on the horizon? The
right wing of the Liberal Party may in fact defect to the Conservatives, and the left and or
the center left will begin to look to the NDP as their new home.
The fact is Mr Harper, and Mr Layton, may not agree on much but together they might just
find a way to make some things work, and the first new avenue might be to promote a
little respect for the system and the political view of the country. We all assume that things
will not go at all well and its to soon to speculate on that. Jack Layton will make a very
different opposition leader than the wimpy Liberal machine, that didn't have any teeth to
bear.
Remember both leaders have to be careful as these go rounds will be a rehearsal for the
next election down the road. There are regional problems for both, there are local issues
and a national opinion of both parties to develop. Perhaps two perceptions will be
dispelled. One that the liberal fear mongering was bogus and the unfounded fears about
the NDP will be realized. We have some exciting times ahead
I disagree. Harper conservatives have to show up to vote. The NDP will deliver speeches, but the Conservatives will rule with little consideration of any of the other parties.
What percentage of voting people in Canada are against the HST?
You want people to refute your arguments, with facts and reasons, but you feel free to use hyperbole and random assertions not backed up by any facts to make your arguments.
Joe 90 (as we called him) wouldn't have you on my high school's debating team past the first week. You haven't presented anything more than random opinions.
Feel free to come up with facts, otherwise, you're looking at a straight D.
and
This is getting to be a very debatable subject. No one LIKES the H.S.T. I'm sure. But if we scrap it, what other tax is going to pop up? Actually income tax rates have dropped considerably over the past 20 years, although we all bitch about paying that too. Obviously there is no single "correct" tax as everyone's circumstances are different. At least with H.S.T. we have a choice as to whether we pay it or not, if you don't like paying it don't buy products upon which it is imposed. A lot of people choose to avoid paying income tax by not going to work. One thing for certain..............if you want government services you pay tax.
People claim they hate paying taxes. Yet they complain when their services get cut and our infrastructure is neglected. You can't have one without the other. I don't mind paying taxes as long as we are taxed fairly and our taxes dollars are spent wisely.
