Can people please stop keeping the Harper regime in power? That would be great, thanks.
I keep trying, but...
What really sets the Liberals and NDP apart at this point, as far as policies go? I'm getting the impression that Trudeau is running to the left of the NDP (which appears to have moved a little bit more towards centre-left).
A lot of the local long-time NDP supporters here in Toronto don't like Mulcair and are supporting Justin and the Libs instead. I strongly suspect his support of Israel has a lot to do with it. My sister is a registered member of the NDP and won 't support them with Mulcair at the helm.
As I see it, there are a few glaring differences between them. Take the Senate, for instance (please!
). It's more than obvious that many of the senators are utterly corrupt, and Mulcair has been saying he wants to abolish it. Waaay back when Harper was openly part of the Reform Party, they were pushing the "Triple-E Senate"... Elected, Equal, and Effective. Alberta has had several "senate elections" piggybacked onto our municipal elections, in which people can vote for a candidate whose name is put on a list for the PM to
consider appointing. The PM is under no obligation whatsoever to appoint these people, and winning this "election" doesn't really mean anything. I always officially declined my senate ballot because I think it's a dumb way to do things, and it was only Conservatives and right-wing independents who ever ran here, anyway.
I don't know what Trudeau has said, but Senate reform is one of those constitutional headaches that needs to be dealt with but nobody wants to do. In the meantime, we're still waiting the outcome of Duffy's trial and getting almost daily reports of some new bit of corruption and fraud from the others.
The other major thing is C-51. Justin voted for the damn thing, to avoid a scenario of the Conservatives labeling him 'soft on terrorism' during the coming campaign. He insists that "when" he's elected and becomes PM, he'll repeal it first thing. Well, those of us old enough to remember the 1993 election can recall Chretien's promise to repeal the GST, and Sheila Copps promised to resign her seat if he didn't follow through. Well, he didn't, and she was highly indignant when her constituents and others insisted she follow through on her promise. So she resigned, the riding had to go through a byelection, she ran again, and won. So that was a month's wasted time and money and absolutely nothing was achieved other than a fledgling attempt at holding an MP accountable for a campaign promise.
I took time out during writing this post to watch tonight's episode of 'Big Brother'... and there was a campaign-style attack ad. The writ isn't supposed to be dropped until September.