If you are a Canadian citizen, you have the opportunity, and IMO the responsibility, to vote in the October 19 Canadian federal election. Certainly if you reside in Canada, and (with some restrictions I won’t go into here) even if you don’t.
This is Canadians’ opportunity to pass judgment on whether the government of Stephen Harper has stood up for Canada, for Canadian values, for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and for Canadian citizens. And to decide whether maybe some other party should be given the chance to govern our country, for the better (we all hope).
My personal advice is to vote for anyone other than the Conservative in your riding, either the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate, or if you can’t figure out who that might be, perhaps the party leading in the national polls as of today (the Liberals) and hence with the most credible chance of getting more seats than the Conservatives and hence forming our next government. Or, if you have an incumbent MP who isn’t a Conservative and whom you respect and like, vote for that incumbent.
If you can’t bring yourself to vote for anyone other than a Conservative, but are appalled at Stephen Harper’s idea of governance of Canada, take former Progressive Conservative Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Danny Williams’ advice, and just stay at home and don’t vote this time around. Ignore that absurd recommendation by the Globe and Mail, which said the Conservatives deserve another mandate but Harper doesn’t. In our parliamentary system you can’t make that distinction, it makes no sense. Harper is the Conservative leader, if the Conservatives really wanted to they could have deposed him but didn’t, and trying to say the Conservatives aren’t to blame for Harper’s style of governance is utterly ridiculous. They’re all joined at the hip.
But VOTE. If you’re eligible to vote in this election and don’t, IMO you’ve lost any right to complain about the outcome.
Ann#1, I hear you! All these ads and flyers trying to trash-talk and misrepresent the rival parties, always comes across as ill-informed, juvenile and close-minded to me, not someone I want in charge of government. There’s no one I’m excited about, least of all Harper. As you said, Trudeau is inexperienced, plus he would drive up the debt considerably and his $1000 payroll tax would slash more jobs; also his Liberals voted for C-51, which they will merely revise if re-elected (not vote out like the NDP).
Meanwhile, the NDP wants us to believe that one million $15-a-day child-care spaces will enable scads of mothers to enter the workforce and boost the economy. But where will we find the jobs for all these women? Where I live, there are not nearly enough jobs for applicants, even in fields like engineering. Day-care cost is not the primary limiting factor for most people around here; it’s the lack of jobs. The NDP and Greens would jeopardize the Energy East pipeline, which I believe our area needs economically. The Greens also want to have a Guaranteed Liveable Income, that is scaled back as you earn money, so it appears to give people incentives to not work and get a hand-out instead of working.
That said, I hope Elizabeth May and J.T. and Thomas Mulcair gets re-elected in their ridings and that MPs like Cullen and Rankin get re-elected for standing up for Canadians in the Finance Committee.
I forgot to say there ARE things I like about all the ABC leaders. The one that is the biggest is that everyone of them is planning to decline support of Harper if he winds up with the most votes in a minority government situation! (Hopefully, he won’t have the most).
@Dash1729, I think Ignatieff had a previous job experience, even if he was a Russian noble. Thanks for the info.
Meanwhile, the NDP are conspiring to put Stephen Harper back into power if the Liberals win a minority government: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/19/andrew-thomson_n_8332058.html
Actually the article I just cited said that NDP would consider working with a minority Tory government, but of course, I didn’t actually read the article but trusted my friend’s interpretation of it–a friend who happens to be a candidate for the Liberal Party in Edmonton. LOL
“We aren’t America! Don’t trash talk the other parties!”
Well, you have to admit one thing: They’re all correct. When a party says that the other parties are trash, they’re telling the truth (except maybe if they say it about the Greens ^_^)
I fact, here’s someone who agrees:
“I really don’t like any of the parties.”
I agree, they’re all trash.
“The Ignatieffs are a princely Russian family and Ignatieff fails to be a prince himself only because of that 1917 thing.”
Hmm. Canada’s Prince Charles isn’t supposed to get involved in politics, but occasionally he does … and is somewhat allied with the Greens. Britons don’t like him very much, so maybe they should ship him off to Canada and see if a prince can be elected after all.
We’ve all learned a lot about abuses in government and how it is supported by the power of a majority. The conservatives must have prayed that nobody showed up at the debates and brought up things like Fatca, the DISABLED veterans, the Aboriginal missing and abused women, All of the lost court challenges of the Harper government etc etc etc. Well, I brought up most of them and shamed our local candidate in front of 300 people. You all have no idea how much I wanted to show all of Canada the abuses and violations of the people under the Harper government. The assembly of First Nations sent out an email urging ALL Aboriginals to go out and vote ABC. I am proud of myself for getting out there and standing up for Canadians at the debates I attended and for supporting those brave people who came up to me and told me they were HIDING from the banks and our government. Thanks to everyone on here and reading on this site for your support and please, go out and vote anything but Conservative!
“The next thing that’ll happen to expats is that they will be required to vote in US elections, and if they don’t, well……”
As a matter of fact I did vote in US elections before renouncing. In the last election that I could vote in, I voted what should be a spoilt ballot because my party’s candidate was as offensive as the others, but previously I voted valid ballots.
Now this brings up memories.
Losses of mail between the US and Japan are rare. The largest quanttities of disappearances that I’m aware of are registered letters from me to the IRS, and since TIGTA reported that IRS employees steal incoming mail from IRS mail rooms, I think we can be pretty sure of who to blame. The second-largest quantities of disappearances are unregistered letters either direction between me and the IRS, for which the aforementioned reason is still likely, along with other reasons such as the IRS not affixing proper postage and/or mangling an address to the point of non-deliverability together with putting a third country’s ISO abbreviation at the end of their return address.
The third largest quantity of disappearances that I’m aware of, between the US and me in Japan, is election ballots.
For the 2000 election, I phoned the registrar who was supposed to mail me a ballot, they mailed a replacement, and I voted it. After the fiasco of the 2000 election, although Florida was the place where the second-largest winner of popular votes got the US Supreme Court to elect him over the first-largest winner of popular votes, there were reports of irregularities in absentee voting in other states too where it couldn’t be predicted ahead of time of those states might matter too.
For the 2008 election, instructions said that if a ballot card doesn’t arrive then write on the sample ballot, which doesn’t have the same format as an election card. I did write on the sample ballot, casting a vote that would have yielded a spoilt ballot if it had been on a ballot card.
For the 2012 election, I couldn’t and didn’t vote, but did receive a ballot card in the mail. So now I think there were shenanigans in 2008 too.
As the blogger of “Harper Watch” put so beautifully:
…”Despite the pain and anxiety he has caused to many Canadians, Stephen Harper has taught us a valuable lesson: never take for granted the idea that you can just vote every 4 years and then let the government run on autopilot for their term of office. While a coup, as its name suggests can be sudden and sweeping, at least it is immediately recognized. The insidious, sly, underhanded erosion of our democracy by Harper however, was not apparent to many Canadians until the accumulated effects could be felt at the very roots of our Canadian identity. The critical mass of individuals and groups who have suffered under the Harper regime has hopefully finally been reached and he and his cronies will be ousted at the polls.
We must never let this happen again. We must remain constantly vigilant and hold our governments to account at every opportunity. We must demand that the new Canadian Government repair the damage done by the Harper government, and that they remove the levers and loopholes that he has established or abused so that no other Prime Minister or PMO can exert the power that he did over our citizens and institutions.”
https://harperwatch.wordpress.com/
Put a big check-mark next to anti-FATCA IGA MP, Scott Brison.
Someone on CTV’s speculating Brison could be next finance minister.
Things are not looking good in Atlantic Canada for the Cons or the NDP. Liberals are close to sweeping Atlantic. The Con running in Mike Allen’s (“Congress has spoken”) is in a tight race with the Liberals (2 vote difference wight now).
NDP MPs Megan Leslie and Peter Stoffer may be in trouble which is very disappointing to me.
@BB: I think it is very likely Scott Brison would be Finance Minister if the Libs are elected.
@Petros
Yes I just checked Trudeau’s bio and I hadn’t realized how much of a professional student he was. He stayed in school until his mid-thirties or so 🙂 .
I’m following the election results, though, and so far Trudeau seems to be pitching a shutout (sadly I cannot say the same for Stroman).
Check out the popular vote in Atlantic Canada. It isn’t just the seats (which at the moment are entirely in the Liberal column, though a couple are still close). With about 500,000 votes counted, the Liberals have 61%, and the Cons and NDP are roughly tied at 17 or 18% each. We’ll see if that translates westward after 9:30, but if I were Harper I’d be quaking in my closet about now.
In case you haven’t heard, Andrew Coyne has resigned as editor of The National Post, after the editorial board (of which he was a member) voted to endorse the Conservatives and Coyne asked to write a dissenting column and was refused. Coyne tweeted earlier today that in his opinion, the Conservatives don’t deserve to be re-elected, the Liberals don’t deserve a majority government, and he’s voting NDP in his riding. I was in Paul Dewar’s campaign HQ when the news broke, and a man across the table from me pointed out the window and shouted “look, a flying pig” and we all cracked up. For Coyne to say he’s voting NDP (and not out of any great love for Mulcair, I suspect) is stunning. Though his distaste for Harper and his anti-democratic and unparliamentary behaviour has been apparent in recent months.
I voted for Dewar (NDP) in the advance poll, and I totally agree with Coyne’s other two statements, so I feel a lot of empathy (and respect) for him. I just hope Dewar and some other NDP MPs who are worthy of re-election (notably Cullen and Rankin) survive this night. It’s a shame to lose Stoffer and Leslie, they both were good MPs for any party.
My riding of Ottawa Centre had the highest voter turnout in the advance polls of any riding in Canada, beating out second-place Orleans riding next door by ten votes, and third-place Victoria riding by about 1000 votes. We’ll see how that translates tonight, but I seriously doubt it was a stampede to the Cons.
Coyne was just on CBC commenting that the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada in terms of popular vote are actually underperforming the Kim Campbell 1993 PC’s(not including the couple of percentage points that went Reform in Atl Canada in 1993). Additionally one of the two Kim Campbell seats they actually won in 1993 was in Atlantic Canada and by losing all seats in Atlantic Canada they are also underperforming K Campbell in seat county. Coyne also said the Conservatives are 3rd place in 11 ridings.
Perhaps even more significant than Liberals sweeping Atlantic Canada is the fact that the Cons have received less that 20% of the popular vote there.
And the Jays are ahead 7-2.
The night is early.
CBC is forecasting a Liberal government but they are not yet able to say if it will be a Majority or Minority.
Did I hear correctly? Mulcair is behind the Lib candidate in his own riding? (with only a small number of votes counted).
We need to see if “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” when the Canadian was born in the US. Based on Trudeau’s position on FATCA to date, I am not optimistic.
CBC HAS JUST DECLARED IT WILL BE A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT, based on early returns but they are saying they are confident Justin Trudeau will be the next PM. They can’t say yet whether minority or majority; I’m praying it’s a strong minority, strong enough to lay to rest any chance of Harper trying to cling to power, but minority so the NDP can keep them in check. (I’m never a fan of majority governments by anyone, in Canada with stiff party discipline, majority government=limited-term dictatorship, not something I want and something we’ve had now for four years from Harper.)
CBC just declared a Liberal Majority.
Some very prominent NDP who supported us were defeated by Liberals.
Let’s all unite and rejoice that Stephen Harper is likely biting the dust! I spoke with both my local Liberal and NDP candidates but voted strategically for the Liberal as she had the best chance of winning in this election.
Moi aussi, PatCanadian
How did the Con artists win more than 2 seats?
I think those of you wanting to oust the Conservatives over this will be sorely disappointed in Trudeau. Nothing will change regarding FATCA.
In the end, I was unable to vote on THIS issue alone. Now instead of being screwed without a kiss by the Ontario government on everything, it will happen on a national level as well.
Trudeau doesn’t give a crap about this issue. If he did, he would have used it as leverage in the election campaign against Harper.
I am sad to say that it looks like Dewar, also a supporter in our cause, is going down to defeat. CBC hasn’t called his riding yet, but he’s been behind the Liberal all night and the gap keeps widening, last I looked with 1/4 of polls reporting he was down 800 votes not good
Trudeau, as the At Issue folks note on CBC, did this on his own and not on his father’s coat-tails. He did something even Pierre never had to do — took the party from third-place near-death to a majority in four years. Lets hope he grows in office and doesn’t turn into another limited-term dictator like Harper.
Great though to contemplate Harper’s smarmy smirk being wiped off his face in his concession speech, and his presumed resignation. If he doesn’t resign he’ll likely be slaughtered in a leadership-review bloodbath. Great to have restored confidence in Canadian voters’ unwillingness to buy into bigotry, racism, wedge politics, Lizard-of-Oz advisors, and dumping the SOBs even though they outspent all the other parties combined and used our tax dollars to run thinly veiled campaign ads before the election call. Not to mention that outrageous BS about the Harper Government (it’s the Government of Canada, and it bloodily well better not become the Trudeau Government). So a bittersweet night. But good news, Nathan Cullen looks like a strong winner in his riding, and remains my #1 choice for new NDP party leader. Still no news about Murray Rankin, his riding is slow in reporting but it now looks like he has a safe lead over the Greens who are #2 in his riding of Victoria.
I guess snuggling up to the Ford Brothers wasn’t such a great idea, eh Stevie? Everyone I gave a ride to the polls today commented on that and were disgusted, suitably. Harperman, it really was time to go — a long time ago, actually.