Canada Voted!

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Canada., Liberal, NDP, scheer, Trudeau

Canadians voted on 21 October and the choice was between a progressive social agenda and a corporatist nativist agenda. Parliament has 338 seats, Liberals have 157 seats, the Conservatives (CPC) 121, New Democratic Party (NDP) 24 and the Bloc Quebecois 32. The Green Party does not have official party status in the House of Commons but have secured 3 seats which is a gain of 1 seat for them. There is also 1 sole independent Jody Wilson-Raybould a former Liberal who decided to leave the party over the SNC-Lavallin affair and is now sitting on her own and likely to disappear behind the curtains of the chamber.

You can see by the topics that the progressive social agenda is that of the Liberal and New Democratic Parties of Canada. The Corporatist and nativist agenda is that of the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer. A very stark difference amongst this two group of voters.

Some 27.7 million people had the opportunity to vote yesterday. Canada’s total population is 38 million.

The campaign was extremely divisive, full of hate and at times bordering on the violent. The Conservative not learning from past mistakes under Stephen Harper doubled down with the negative agenda full of fear of what a progressive social agenda would do. Also the Conservatives under Scheer made the mistake to concentrate their campaign on the issue of pipelines and oil which is the sole topic of one province Alberta with a population of 4 million people. Forgetting that World markets at keeping the price of oil low and private companies are not interested in building pipelines. Scheer during the debate made the mistake of telling the French Speaking Province of Quebec what to do and said he would build the pipeline across the territory of Quebec. How could anyone be so clueless.

The Liberal and NDP represent multicultural and pluralistic Canada, the Conservative represent mostly White, Christian, Anglos, gun lobbyist, evangelical christians, if you do not belong to that group, they don’t want to hear from you. But this is the minority in Canada now. Canadians with this election showed that we do not care for American Trump style political campaign. Andrew Scheer who hid the fact that he is an American, until he was outed and had to admit employing Trump campaign strategists and receiving campaign contributions from Republican groups in the USA created a lot of unease amongst Canadian voters.

Trudeau in his first mandate had controversies and broken promises. He is arrogant and his style can grate on people. However he is more of a people person, whereas Scheer is phony as a $3 dollar bill, something the average person can sense.

The News Media especially PostMedia, the Sun, and CTV and the Globe and Mail had concerted campaign with the Conservative Party to attack and create fake news, even now after the Liberal victory, they are still questioning the legitimacy of the Trudeau victory. This is not good for a democracy because it set people up against each other.

The second term of Justin Trudeau in a minority government looks like what happened in 1972 when his father Pierre E. Trudeau got a second mandate with a minority victory.

We will now have continuity and stability. I do not expect the right wing media to stop attacking the government or Quebec or anyone who does not agree with CPC agenda. However the #Scheer nightmare is over, he will be most likely be replaced pretty quickly by a new contender for the Conservative leadership.

I voted today

Tags

Canada., Election, Federal, hate, nonsense, scheer

Well today I did my duty as a Citizen and voted in our National Federal Election. It is the first day of voting by anticipation, this Thanksgiving weekend people can vote from 9am to 9 pm at polling stations. It’s easy and very well organized, it took all of 2 minutes. I had my voting card and one piece of ID, got my ballot, marked it and in the box it goes. No fancy machines, just a pencil and a piece of paper. Like most Canadians I have heard enough and my mind was made up.

I did not want to wait until 21 October which is the actual voting day, I’ve had enough of having to listen to lies and more lies from Conservative politicians and their leader Andrew Scheer. Whose father was a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, making Andrew an American Citizen, registered for the US Army reservist and travelling on a US passport. Something he hid from Canadians until just a few days ago. He also lied on his resume, he does not have a university diploma from Regina, and he was a gofer in an insurance company not a broker. He also hired Trump strategists to work on his campaign and receives funds from the GOP. So Andrew Scheer who wants to be Prime Minister of Canada is the Manchurian Candidate.

This election has 6 party leaders, though in reality only 2 really matter since only a liberal or a Conservative can actually get enough seats to form a government. The other parties will not get many seats. The Greens need 12 seats to be an official party, the NDP will likely be devastated in this election and may loose official party status, the Bloc only has candidates in Quebec and only represent that Province and the extreme right wing party of Maxime Bernier, the so called People’s Party will probably not have more than 1 seat in our House of Commons at 338 members.

We have had 4 so called debates, the ones in English a shouting match looking more like a food fight at a high school cafeteria with 5 moderators who did nothing but let the slug fest go on. The debate in French was far better and the moderator effective in controlling the leaders, the Media preferred the French version and its format and questions.

The big issues during the campaign were not discussed and the more offensive Conservative Premiers like Doug Ford of Ontario disappeared. While Jason Kenney of Alberta is on the one hand campaigning for the Conservative but at the same time challenging their leader Andrew Scheer.

The owners of Conservative papers, Postmedia, Sun, Globe and Mail and television Global and CTV were openly hostile to the Prime Minister promoting the Alt-right agenda, anti-immigration sentiment, bigotry, racism and violence against anyone who is not a conservative.

In other words our election process and the campaign have become like those South of the border. It is unfortunate but it also shows that Civic Illiteracy is well and alive and people do not know nor understand important issues. Are quick to blame to Government for what does not work in their personal lives. These negative feelings are difficult to explain given that the Economy is growing rapidly, unemployment is the lowest in 40 yrs, child poverty is the lowest it has ever been, etc..

The Alt-right and other hate groups have congregated around Andrew Scheer and his party, lawn signs for Conservative candidate stand next to signs advocating killing opponents. This was bound to happen here when you look at the Trumpian politics south of us. Conservatives in Canada admire Trump and wish we had the same white Evangelical politics. Andrew Scheer is their answer in this election. No it is not the genteel Canada we once knew.

What we do know for certain, it will be a minority government and this can give us some hope to avoid extreme politics.