What's the Matter With Canada?

[SteveS]

Opinion article on MSN with that title, and the byline: "How the world's nicest country turned mean." I have to admit that living north of the 48th parallel I have the impression that things go fairly smoothly in Canada. Oh, sure, Quebec boils up once in a while, but in a way I admire that an entire region has enough consensus that they can consider seceding. Since in the US we live with the 2 party system and have no real expectations of a Third party cantidate succeeding, I guess that I am surprised that there are so many divisions in Canada.

 

Click for the article This was in the "Foriegners" section of MSN's Slate; I guess I had not thought of Canadians as Foriegners, either. Anyway, I talk with more Canadians here than anywhere else. Any thoughts to share?

[DwayneGorniak]

Well, I can't wait for Jim to chime in here. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grampy-jim.gif Isn't it funny how this little smiley has pretty much become the official representation for Jim. But I must say that the this country has been run, overtaxed, and screwed up by the damned liberals for too long. The East and the West have always been split. Politically that is. Most of the population lives in the East and Most of the country's resources are in the West along with alot of hard working labourers that have felt forgotten. The West has mostly always been Conservative and the East has mostly always been Liberal. But along with exposure to media came the fall of the Scandalling Liberal Government who did jacksh!t for us anyways other than spend tonnes of money on parties research ventures across seas to pallaces and temples and themselves.

 

However, our existing government came into power only with a minority government which makes it extremely hard to get anything done. They are constantly opposed by a leader of the Liberal party who can hardly even speak a word of english and a leader of another NDP party who is extremely high on himself while he flies around in his ozone depleting jet critisizing the Alberta oil sands and saying that Alberta should stop production untill they figure out a greener way of doing business. Screw you Jack(ASS)Layton. I came from Saskatchewan which was an NDP run Government forever. The province is one of the highest taxed provinces in this country and the only reason they mean anything is because they have oil. Hopefully their new government will help change that. But the NDP government ran that province into the ground by catering to welfare bumbs and non tax paying folks that live there.

 

Now, believe it or not. I am aware of global warming and I do beleive that we need to do something about our future. And I don't always agree with everything that the whole Conservative government beieves in, But I do think that our Priminister is the best damn leader we have had for this country in decades. And I hope and pray that out of this election he wins a Majority government so he can actually get some shit done and tell Jackass Layton and that snivling little whining prick Stephan Dion to just shut the hell up. So that's what I say is the matter with Canada and I am going to keep this one short because I ran out of beer. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crybaby2.gif

 

And let's not forget that Priminister Harper has one hell of a mess that the Libereal's left behind to clean up. Let's also not forget that he is the first leader we have had, who has stepped up to the plate and appologized for all the crap that the previous governments have screwed up. So can you guess who I am voting for? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/scratchhead.gif

[SteveS]

I will admit that I didn't realize there was so much controversy. I'm guessing that US politics get more press in Canada than the other way 'round. I find that I have to look for news of your politics, and most of the time I don't get around to it. Shame, too; it sounds much more exciting than ours.

 

It occurs to me that both of our parties are pretty good at squandering money, if you can really attribute it to one party (or ideology) you are doing good. At one time I thought of myself as "Liberal" because I tried to consider things from an opposing view. Maturity showed me that most of my views are what is generally considered "Conservative", and the common use of "Liberal" usually means having the government take care of people, and tax more resources out of my life.

 

In the common use of the term I would say that even "Conservitive" cantidates are more "Liberal" than I would prefer. I friend once gave me a questionaire that proved that I am a Libertarian, but when people like Howard Stern are able to railroad themselves into the party cantidacy I cannot take it seriously.

[SteveS]

On matters political I have a couple quotes from Sir Winston Churchill:

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

 

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.

 

And not related, necessarily, to politics:

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

 

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

[Jim Warman]

Warning.... this is long and, for some, potentially tedious... Dwayne poked a stick at the old hound and he's tugging at his chain.... I wasn't done but I had to stop somewhere... You might learn a bit about the Canadian system.... If nothing else, I hope it is entertaining.

 

Well.... Canada is fucked... and it's been fucked for a long, long time...

 

Don't get me wrong, I am proud to be Canadian... even though certain bureaus of the federal government make it hard for me to actually "be" Canadian... a long and somewhat amusing story...

 

While the Liberals have enjoyed the most time in a position to screw this country up, the Progressive Conservatives haven't done much better... on a federal level, anyway. Ralph Klein has cojones the size of wheat pool cars and, with his majority provincial governments has made some tough decisions that dragged Alberta out of debt.... something I'm afraid Stelmach is trying to undo... But, I digress....

 

On a federal level, The PCs have been just as big a joke as the Liberals...

 

Prior to 1962, the Canadian dollar was worth a dollar and seven cents ($1.07) US.... John Diefenbaker was a conservative and he was Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963... In 1959, after 6 years of developement, the Avro Arrow project was cancelled... three years later, John Diefenbakers PC government devalued the Canadian dollar. We can spend a lot of time debating the factors that lead up to that travesty... but the salient point is that the PCs were minding the hen house and they screwed the pooch.

 

It didn't take long for Canada to make their next choice... and that was the Liberal government of Lester Pearson.... In a bid to appease the Quebecois, he took away our flag and had us flying what looks like a cocktail napkin.... He stole away the flag that Canadian men and women died under.... And then he unified our armed forces... One might think that this would be a "good" thing.... It was a cost cutting measure that did nothing to improve the lives of our military personnel - indeed, today we have members of the armed forces having to resort to food banks in order to make ends meet.

 

The FLQ... Front de Liberation de Quebec (be sure to pronounce it Kebec... we wouldn't want to piss off any fr..... fro.... French Canadians)... This handy little group brought all manner of patriotism to Canada.... bombings, hostage takings, killings - all in the name of a free Quebec... a Quebec that would leech all of Canadas benefits for her own.... demand that she would be a sovereign nation... and expect that we would still let her enjoy those lop-sided transfer payments she collects from Ottawa (western Canadas money feeding separatist values). The FLQs lunacy peaked during what has been called the October Crisis... Pierre Elliott Trudeau invoked the war measures act... basically, this gave him supreme power.... not even our assholes in the senate could veto any of his decisions during this time...

 

As it stands.... had you or I committed the crimes wrought by the FLQ, we would have been charged with treason on top of any and all criminal charges... As I recall, few FLQ leaders were ever brought to trial and fewer still ever experienced any meaningful punishment...

 

But Canada isn't a stranger to curious goings on.... When I went to school, history taught me that Louis Real was a treasonous bastard that "needed killin'"... My son learned, in history class, that Louis Real was a national hero fighting for the rights of aboriginals... Not bad when you can rewrite history to suit yourself....

 

The maximum time between federal elections is 5 years.... The Prime Minister is the leader of the winning political party. His only "real" requirement is that he wins a seat in the House of Commons... If we are stupid enough to keep voting for his party, he can be PM for many, many, many elections (there is no limit to how long he can serve if we are willing to let him). Looking back through recent history, let's see how close we get to that magic 5 years....

 

Some standouts.... Kim Campbell. Canadas first female PM... Four months in office in 1993. Jean Chretien once quipped that "she 'ad a summer job, once...". John Turner.... three months in 1984. Joe Clark.... 10 months 1979/1980...

 

We've been screwed up for a long time... folks are just starting to notice now....

 

We have a multi party system... The three biggest players are the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP (socialist bastuhds that they are). Bad enough... on a federal scale, the NDP never really accomplishes anything other than keeping us from ever having a majority government of any stripe... But, just for good measure, we usually have the communist party, the "green" party, the "rhinoceros" party - who can forget the Bloc Quebecois... they want to separate from Canada... (well, except for the free shit, remember?) and expect to gain house of commons seats in western canada? I can't think of anyone that is willing (or stupid enough) to do the Canadian equivalent of wear white sheets and burn a cross in a black neighburhood...

 

And the aforementioned "short" parliaments were all victims of minority governments faced with choices that needed a majority government to make... WTF... the Canadian taxpayer loves whatever a federal election costs...

 

I don't care what country you live in... the only way to tell if a politician is lying is to check and see if his lips are moving. Let's not forget that a good politician can tell you that your mother is ugly and, if you get upset about that, he'll tell you that you took his words "out of context"....

 

The sad, sad truth.... we Canucks are still soft and cuddly.... we rarely take ourselves too seriously, eh? And we usually take bad shit in stride... Cheer up - things are never so bad that they can't get worse....

[Keith Browning]

Cool. That was the most I have ever learned about Canada. And I thought it was all about the lager!

[SteveS]

Ditto what Keith said. It seems like we get a few headlines when there are scandels in the works but otherwise we aren't exposed to how your political system operates. Thank you for the real-life education.

 

It seems crazy, doesn't it, that there is not a term for the elections. Although even with definate elected terms of our politicians (certain offices are 2 years, others like governor and president are 4, others are 6) things still do not get done. And maybe that is OK; I find myself supporting the cantidate that will do the least damage because when they try to "do good" things get screwed up (squandered money, unanticipated results, government growing out of control).

 

But to just call an election whenever would be unsettling to me. And, as you point out, expensive. I get annoyed that some of our little local elections won't wait until there is enough issues to make it worthwhile doing all the logistics. Big waste of money trying to decide something that could easily wait until a major election.

[Fredsvt]

Jim,

 

As a person (USC) who has visited your country for the past 13 years. (I go up to Winnipeg to visit extended family) I've found in recent years especially, that it seems Canada is doing much better economically than we are down here. (NJ, US)

 

I've found that, correct me if I'm wrong, your country is very self sufficient on most of their energy. i.e. Hydro, natural gas, and most recently oil. I know your fuel prices are higher, via taxation, but I'd rather at least have an idea of where the money is going than just to big oil's wallets.

 

And your government at least to me doesn't seem to be as ass backwards and PC when it comes to looking for new sources.

 

I see your Hydro rates way, way lower than ours. For other US citizens reading, Hydro is electric. The first time I heard that term I was saying to myself "what the f$@# are they talking about?"

 

I see your real estate market as doing way better, most people I've met up there seem to do very well financially and seem genuinely content. Or am I that clueless? Or are they clueless to what's going on?

 

I find your news reports to be much more informative than the bullshit we get down here that's so biased and stuck on one subject.

 

Thanks for clarifying a lot of questions I had regarding your political system, I could never make sense of all the parties, etc.

[DwayneGorniak]

And there we have it. I'm sure we all new the Wise Elder /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grampy-jim.gif (Don't be offended by that Jim) would give us some education. I can only remember the Trudeau and Mulroney years and up. And Jim is right, every party in power has done something to screw this country up every time they have been in power. I just hope our Leader now Makes somemore slight improvements, which I think he has already done.

 

And in my opinion, he didn't really call an election just for the hell of it. It is risky for him to call an election. But I believe he called it with good intentions. Because if he wins a majority government, he just may actually be able to get something done by being able to call the shots himself without having such a powerfull oposition. I just hope he does good things and doesn't screw it up.