[RD] Canadian federal election 2019: Voting day is October 21.

[hobbsyoyo]

We met hundreds of people over a couple hours and the only ones who seemed to care about Trudeau's blackface were white people.

Bill Maher's recent show had a New Rules segment sort of along those lines-

 

[emzie]

His show is the one thing I miss about HBO (at least until Westworld is back).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The whole blackface issue is just detracting from the real problems. That's what annoys me.

 

[emzie]

Before the 2015 election, I worked at the house Trudeau was renting with his family. This was his doormat.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

When you do get it, Aimee, double-check everything. It doesn't matter how many years you've been on the voters' list at that address - it's possible to screw it up either accidentally, or accidentally on purpose, as in the Reformacons got caught, fined, and a couple of lackeys did jail time for the robocalls, but they tried the same thing last time with the VICs - it's amazing all the creative ways that people's cards suddenly had their names spelled inaccurately or their addresses wrong, or their advance polling station located at a fictitious address or even hundreds of kilometres away. One couple reported receiving a VIC that listed their advance polling station's location as on one of the privately-owned islands off the coast of BC and there was no public ferry service to that island.

My voter card came in the mail. I double-checked it.

Along with the Conservatives/Liberals/NDP/Greens/PPC, I looked up the other candidates running in my area on the local paper and there's a "National Citizens Alliance of Canada" (which...seems pretty bad) and a "Veterans Coalition of Canada" (which I can't find much about).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

To date I have not seen ONE Liberal party election commercial. Not a single one. While the Conservatives have been raking the Liberals and Trudeau over the coals on TV for months.

How exactly do the Liberals think they are going to win an election if they don't advertise their platform/message? There is enough drama this time that we may very well wind up with a Conservative majority, and God help us if we do. Kiss your rights and freedoms goodbye, everyone. And count on the next election being rigged. I'm sure they have at least learned that from Harper.

It might depend on which channels you watch, and which region of the country you're in. Most of my TV viewing is on whatever channels simulcast the CBS reality shows and my afternoon soap, plus the renamed Space Channel. It's not surprising that in Alberta, we're absolutely bombarded with anti-Trudeau TV ads. I've seen a couple of Liberal ads, but they're very low-key. The Liberals aren't spending money in a region they don't expect they'll win anyway.

I hate politics. There is nothing worse than being an LGBT woman under the Conservatives. I'm a second or third class citizen at best. Moving home to Ireland is starting to look very attractive right about now...

Y'know, I do have a lot of sympathy for that position, but... please. Try being physically disabled or dealing with some forms of mental illness under the Conservatives. If we can't work an 8-hour day consistently, we're considered unproductive leeches who don't deserve a life beyond the minimum. People like me aren't supposed to want to actually go anywhere, for instance. Other than my surgeries earlier this year (in Innisfail, because there's no room for eye surgeries at the Red Deer hospital), I haven't been out of this city in 15 YEARS. My doctor said she'd been doing some advocating for a bus service for people like me so we could actually travel between cities without having to spend a fortune on charters and for reasons other than medical, but it's obviously not on any politician's radar. Greyhound is gone, Red Arrow doesn't even have a depot, and apparently I'm just supposed to have family or friends to take me everywhere (pardon me for them dying, how rude of them). I keep reading about the fantastic bus service between Calgary and Banff/Canmore and surrounding tourist areas, and it's something I could actually afford to do, to spend a day in the mountains once or twice a summer. It would do wonders for my mental health to have something like that. But the trick is to get to Calgary - affordably - and that's not possible.

Elections Alberta cut funding for helping disabled voters. During the last provincial election, I had to go to the Returning Office on one of my "good days" - which happened to be outside the advance polling days - and refuse to leave until they let me vote (they weren't going to at first, but I pointed to the voting station in the corner and asked them why it was there, if they weren't letting anyone vote yet). It was a contentious time, they asked impertinent questions, talked about me like I wasn't even there, and made me feel like they didn't think people like me should be allowed to vote. I'm not anticipating any improvement with my coming interactions with the federal returning officers.

And now Jason Kenney is saying the coming budget "won't be as bad as the Ralph Klein budgets"... people like me are honestly afraid that even the modest AISH increase we had earlier this year will be revoked. Some are saying that of course it won't be as bad - it'll be worse.

So yeah, Alberta under Harper's lapdog might not be a comfortable place for LGBT people, since we all know where Kenney stands on that, and life is going to be varying kinds of miserable for the LGBT kids in schools because the UCP canceled the NDP's requirement that all schools receiving public funding allow GSAs. But at least there are some who actually can vote with their feet and leave, if they want to.

So while I don't face discrimination over my sexual orientation, I'll bet you don't face discrimination over whether your body functions correctly - because there are an awful lot of government paper-pushers, businesses, and some of their employees who think it's just too much bother to find a way to work around the problem so the disabled person can access the services to which they're entitled.

Given the state of affairs, I don't see a Conservative majority. Or any majority. I predict a minority government. The political climate seems to be blowing in that direction strongly. I just don't know who will have such a minority. Keep in mind that, even though they're not likely to steal seat (or more than a few) from the Conservatives, the People's Party still seems to be stealing votes. Not a meteoric amount, but in FPTP, quite possibly enough to matter.

Opinion seems to be divided in my building (I spoke to three tenants and the Canada Post guy) over which party to vote for, but not one person even mentioned the blackface issue.


My VIC didn't come yesterday (the mailman had a stack of them to deliver, and said some of them wouldn't be out until tomorrow, which by now is today). If I don't see mine today, I plan to get on the phone and straighten stuff out. If I'm in a very bad mood after that, it'll be due to being on hold for an insane amount of time and/or getting static over special ballots.

 

[Synobun]

In today's edition of Canadian scandals, it's been revealed that Scheer is a dual citizen between the US and Canada! The shock! The horror! The...

I mean, I get that the Conservatives have targeted dual citizens in the past, but making it an issue when it's a Conservative is pointlessly petty. Just highlight the hypocrisy and move on.

But no, instead, we have people droning on and on about how this is the proof that Scheer doesn't care about Canada, about how he's keeping a backup plan, about how he isn't loyal to Canada... just pure nonsense. And, unfortunately enough, simply normalizing the Conservative record of targeting dual citizenship. They took the bait and now we get to deal with citizenship purity bull from all parties and not just the social yesteryears.

 

[Arwon]

Lol at least you guys don't have a dumb law embedded in your constitution because of racism which makes anyone even entitled to dual citizenship ineligible for parliament

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Andrew Scheer was on the news the other night and the anchor asked him whether or not he was really an insurance broker (licensed) or not. Scheer did everything he could to duck the question and kept trying to change the subject. In the end, the anchor gave up and moved on. I mean, WTH? You either are in a profession or you are not. Don't run around saying you are something that you really aren't. If you aren't a licensed insurance broker, you aren't. Just say no, instead of trying to spin it.

The man is a liar, and he's no better than he says Trudeau is.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Our local Liberal candidate now has a radio ad that goes pretty much "party politics suck" and only mentions that she's running for Liberal at the very end. I think she used to run for the NDPs, too. Not sure what to make of it.

 

[Synobun]

My voting card finally arrived. They moved my voting location to just a block away, but advanced voting is for some reason still at the old location, and that's probably my only chance at voting since I'm definitely not keen on standing in a line for hours. Here's hoping I feel well enough next week to make the trek.

So, how about that Indigenous Peoples case? I mentioned before that if people wanted to pin a true scandal on Trudeau, they'd go with what he's doing with natives. Lo and behold...

And I think people have a pretty good foundation for this. The Conservatives would be no better. They'd be worse, really. But the Liberals have been garbage, and are now rightfully being exposed on just how garbage they've been towards Indigenous citizens. It's embarrassing how the government has treated these people, especially when the solution is so simple.

I'm also surprised with the NDP. Jagmeet has maneuvered this situation well. I checked my riding stats and noted that I should vote NDP as the Liberals are neck and neck with the Conservatives (with the NDP having a clear advantage over both), but I think my vote's changed to NDP in general anyways. I'm still uncertain with how vigorously the NDP would adhere to their impromptu platform, but the behaviour has been different enough to make the NDP a true wildcard instead of an arbitrary gamble.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I checked my riding stats and noted that I should vote NDP as the Liberals are neck and neck with the Conservatives (with the NDP having a clear advantage over both), but I think my vote's changed to NDP in general anyways.

Where do you check those stats?

 

[Synobun]

Where do you check those stats?

Wikipedia, since the Elections site is horrible. I find out my riding and then I search on Google "[riding name] riding party results."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Kingsway

During the last federal election, my riding was 45% NDP, 27% Liberal, 21% Conservative. That'll probably be similar this year, so I'm going with NDP to ensure their comfortable victory.

ETA: The Liberals are really pushing to get this riding, though. Trudeau came here first during the campaign. The only thing that makes me confident in the NDP's chances is that Davies has been a solid pick since 2008.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Here's mine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland—Colchester

I checked the Wikipedia article for the National Citizens Alliance, and

In May 2017, Garvey was the spokesperson for a protest in Red Deer which alleged that Syrian students at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School were given more lenient punishments for participating in a fight than other students.[27] The allegations were false, as school officials and local RCMP confirmed all eight students involved were suspended for one week.[28]

In August 2019, Garvey was charged with offenses under the Criminal Code of Canada and Canada Elections Act for providing false information to the Chief Electoral Officer and circumventing election contribution limits.[30]

Welp

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In the 2015 election, I also remember seeing signs for the Christian Heritage Party. Oh dear.

 

[Synobun]

Interesting that your riding's parliamentary contributions have been exclusively Conservative yet the Liberals got 64%(!) of the vote last election and finally took it over. Was the previous Conservative candidate there just a real hot pile of garbage? It looks like he's been running for a while, and won comfortably in the election before last. The Liberal gain was rather explosive.

I see that Bill Casey used to be a Conservative and then got kicked out for not agreeing with their haggard budget.

Edit: Wait, hold on. It says that Armstrong is the Conservative candidate this year again, but he left the party and went back to teaching. He was the principal of a school this year. Did he suddenly come back?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Bill Casey is really popular here, especially after getting kicked out of the Conservatives. I think that's what accounted for it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Edit: Wait, hold on. It says that Armstrong is the Conservative candidate this year again, but he left the party and went back to teaching. He was the principal of a school this year. Did he suddenly come back?

I have no idea, honestly. I did get some compost in the mail saying he was running.

 

[Synobun]

Compost in the mail.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It went straight into the composter!