2011-05-03, 04:09 | Link #13461 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Suburban DC
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Why were some Quebec federalists pissed at Liberals? I take it that you are not a fan of the Tories huh? An interesting editorial in La Presse said that people should be wary of jumping on the "I kept Canada stable during the recession" bandwagon because apparently it was due to more STRINGENT financial regulations Canada didn't get in the same mess as we did. Policies in place BEFORE Harper. Do you think seperatism is fizzled out in Quebec? Why do you think Harper and his guys did so well, because he was good or the opposition just sucked that much harder? Do you think the Libs will need to reinvent themselvs ala UK's New Labour or is the country still too Left to require that. Sorry if the term "too left" is odd, I just use it as a relative term because down here there is such seething animosity towards central federal liberal ANYTHING that alot of your policies in Canada seem like something from Mars to most to Americans either in that they disaprove of it or are amazed that it could ever be legislated (cause it wouldn't in this country ) Also just to add, I one thing I am envious of is the electoral district system you all have, especially in it being administered and renewed by an independent body. THE RIDINGS ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE THE MAKE SENSE COMPARED TO OUR STUPID GERRYMANDERED DISTRICTS! |
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2011-05-03, 12:49 | Link #13462 |
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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It's like in Britain, Labour or the Conservatives commonly get a majority government with less then 40% of the vote.
First past the post sucks. Everyone should switch to Irish PR. Tends to match actual percentages fairly well. I think a party list, or mixed list/PR is better. All our politicians care too much about local affairs. Gives us a healthy contingent of independents though. |
2011-05-03, 12:59 | Link #13463 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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In the United State there are many parties, but only two at a time (sometimes three) have any real backing from the people. Most other parties are considered too extreme or limited to get major backing outside small regions. Also within the two major parties there are actually subdivision that rarely get mentioned. The actual Republican and Democratic Parties are considered moderate with individuals that lean more left or right on one issue or another. The Republican Party is more to the conservative side of thing than the Democratic Party is Liberal at times, since there are Democrats that lean to the right more than to the left. That is partly because the more left leaning Republicans split the part in the early part of the 20th century and it has become difficult to get left leaning Republicans in since then due to the stigma left from Teddy Roosevelt's Progressives.
I'd actually like to see a return of the Progressives if they had a sustained Space policy.
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2011-05-03, 13:10 | Link #13464 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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The Liberal have 2 problems; they still carry the weight of the commandite's scandal and they lack a good leader. Ignatief could have made a better Prime Minister than Harper but the electors have a bad image of him.
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2011-05-03, 14:18 | Link #13465 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Suburban DC
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2011-05-03, 14:27 | Link #13466 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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If I could vote directly for the next Prime Minister of Singapore, I'd choose Tharman Shanmugaratnam right away. (The intro text is wrong, by the way. This speech was delivered today, May 3, at around noon in Raffles Place, the heart of Singapore's financial district.) |
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2011-05-04, 04:03 | Link #13467 | ||||
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 37
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Around 2004, the Auditor General released a report on the program, finding that much of the money had gone to Liberal ad firms, with some contracts being for little or no actual work. While most of those involved (a small number of people in Public Works and the Prime Minister's office) had been replaced in a 2003 leadership shuffle, it still had a huge impact on the party's reputation. Prior to the scandal, the Liberals were polling 48%, this dropped to 37% in the 2004 election, dropping to 30% in the 2006 election due to continuing fallout from the inquiry into the scandal. Quote:
For reference, BTW, one of my Political Science profs in university theorized that Paul Martin (Liberal PM from 03-06 with a background in running large companies, also former finance minister) may have wanted less banking regulation, but decided not to pursue it due to the need to maintain support from leftists, both in his party (leftist Liberals had their own ideas on who should run the party and never liked him much) and among voters (to prevent the NDP from grabbing fence sitters). It's hard to say if its true or not though. One of my Political Science profs theorized that Paul Martin, the Liberal Prime Minister from 03-06, actually wanted to deregulate Some people believe that Paul Martin (Liberal Prime Minister from 03-06) actually wanted less regulation on banking but Yes. There's been a shift towards pursuing greater autonomy for Quebec within Canada in recent years. The government also asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether Quebec could unilaterally separate after the 1995 referendum - the Supreme Court said yes, but only if a significant majority supported it. Generally this is thought of as being around two thirds - significantly higher than 1995 levels, let alone the ones you see these days. Quote:
Second, while the Conservative's seats rose by over 16%, the actual rise in votes for them was less that 2% - but much of the came in swing ridings. In some of these ridings, I think the Liberal-NDP vote split on the left was a factor... there's a number of ridings were incumbent Liberal candidates lose by only a few percent. was able to convince a lot of people that he was the most "stable" choice Quote:
You could probably say that the Conservatives are the most American of the parties, the NDP basically a European socialist party, and the Liberals a mix of the two. Although technically the NDP is actually a homegrown movement, originating with Prairie farmers who wanted more social security during the Depression. Despite the modest seat counts, the NDP has been very influential just because the Liberals have often nicked their most popular ideas in order to prevent the NDP from siphoning off left-leaning votes. This is actually how we got a health care system in the 60s... it was an NDP policy that was adopted by the Liberal Party.
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2011-05-04, 04:25 | Link #13468 | ||
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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EDIT : Most U.S. voters say "no" to Palin or Trump in 2012 Quote:
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Last edited by SaintessHeart; 2011-05-04 at 10:24. |
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2011-05-04, 14:23 | Link #13469 | |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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For the Francophone outside the province of Quebec, I can't really tell; at the exeption of the New-Brunswick they only form a small part of the population.
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2011-05-04, 14:25 | Link #13470 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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i will burnt some porn as offering if it would help.
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2011-05-04, 19:06 | Link #13473 | |
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 38
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2011-05-04, 21:33 | Link #13474 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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GST shouldn't be reduced, not at least for the long term because most of our infrastructure upgrading and maintenance projects are funded by domestic investment, and the capital for that comes from the GST. Sure it may be small, but add up purchases of daily commodities and it snowballs into a few million. The problem of rising prices are due to external factors (Dr Breen in the West and the idiots in MidEast), not because of the damn GST. I don't know if the opposition are factose intolerant, or are simply using it to an advantage to discredit their rivals. Secondly, I am against reducing NS to a timespan of below 22 months. Our training syllabus is already goddamn jammed packed without even enough time to practice our tactical drills - not even enough time for training that our weekends have to be burned constantly just for the training. And then, a sudden announcement of a test? With the disincentive of extras? That is ridiculous! Housing is a big issue because we have 5m people and way too little flats. The government needs to take steps to reduce the number of property developers building condominiums, and substitute them for more HDB flats. Whichever guy pointed out about cutting manufacturing jobs is clearly stupid beyond words. Manufacturing creates tons of jobs because of something called the "assembly line" - we just need to create higher value products like computer chips and wafers. And come to think of it : there are tons of open positions in our maritime and shipbuilding sector, but why isn't anyone taking that up? Another thing NSP has been harping about is the "monopoly of power". I don't see what is wrong with a power monopoly if the government does its best to serve its people, a dictatorship can be benevolent if the government fights for a win-win situation every time. Besides, the "monopoly of power" took us from the third world to the first while the country that kicked us out 46 years ago is suffering from a sovereign debt crisis, how bad can that be? Someone seriously needs to plant a roadside bomb to take out their bloody noise-polluting vans spouting nonsense and formenting unrest. The PAP is really getting an Alzheimer's disease. Have they forgotten how to govern their country already? Listen to the people and work to satisfy them, no matter how hard it is going to be. They gave out scholarships and high-level government positions to fools who can't do anything else other than in school and sucking up. The floods along Orchard Road is a good example of the old guard lying on their laurels - if you want to pave a stretch of land with concrete, make sure there are big holes underneath. Otherwise, leave the plants alone to absorb the water. Also, they could have worked underground to screw the property speculators who do squatting (buying houses and not living in them). Suddenly announcing funding plans while they are tanking their property at high prices will make property prices plunge as they rapidly try to clear their assets should be a good measure to ease up living place. Redirect their attention to funding malls and shophouses below the flats through ROI schemes should increase business ventures as well as restructuring of marketplaces for the better of the residents in that area. This election is clearly a group of factose intolerant, self-serving, two-faced bastards plying for power. Makes me rethink that if my right to vote is actually a repackaged liability like the Euro-debt bond. And it is my first time voting too. What a joke.
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2011-05-04, 22:36 | Link #13475 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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So far, SOE is giving everyone one free month plus a day per day of down-age.
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Last edited by Vexx; 2011-05-04 at 23:06. |
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2011-05-05, 01:56 | Link #13476 | |
Agent 67
Join Date: Sep 2010
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Not to be outdone by America.
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2011-05-05, 02:35 | Link #13477 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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If you want to be a terrorist, be a terrorist in Europe or US. The politicians waste more time wrangling about what to do with you after they catch you than spend time doing so, while the Russians simply kill you first, then discuss about the ramifications.
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2011-05-05, 02:53 | Link #13478 | |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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2011-05-05, 02:57 | Link #13479 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
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i guess this guy didn't want a house call from the SEALs...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenv...di-arabia-says |
2011-05-05, 03:41 | Link #13480 | |
Pretentious moe scholar
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Age: 37
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Quote:
I didn't mean to imply that Quebec's values are more European than North American, just that European influence is stronger in Quebec than the rest of Canada. Or so I've heard - you might know better than me. This article suggests that most of Harper's gains actually came from Toronto area Liberal incumbents losing just enough support to the NDP to let Conservatives squeak through... kind of matches what I saw looking at some of the riding results from that area.
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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