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Despite what Fox News says, Canada is not the Soviet Union. it is a functional liberal democracy full of checks and balances with a government subject to regul

Despite what Fox News says, Canada is not the Soviet Union. it is a functional liberal democracy full of checks and balances with a government subject to regular elections.

whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
[flagged]
- morkalork 3y ago
  >unsafe and ineffective for profit therapy You're talking about the covid vaccine?
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    Yup. The anti-vaccination movement in Canada was in many ways worse than in the US. The fact that health care is a national service in Canada caused disparate groups with their own national issues (gun control, taxation) to coalesce around the anti-vaccine movement. Canada then faced nationally-organized anti-vax protests that, in the US, were largely targeted at local or state entities.
    - whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
      Interesting take but not accurate. Many people, like Kamala Harris, didn’t trust the therapy - at least before they were calling the shots. You may find it useful to group up all the boogymen from your “side” together but it doesn’t make it reality. I, for instance, voted for Obama twice and Hillary and yet still refused to take the shot. Are you still getting boosters or do you just like to make everything political?
      - morkalork 3y ago
        So. The people waving Trump flags at the convoy. Not political?
        whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
        [flagged]
- squigz 3y ago
  Source, please
  - neom 3y ago
    Canada Ends Its Freeze on Hundreds of Accounts Tied to Protests -https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-pro... More context: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/four-highlights-emergencies-act-1.6752653 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/four-highlights-emergencies...
canadiantim 3y ago
Actually Canada doesn't have that many checks and balances. Yes we have regular elections (not fixed dates tho). Currently we have a minority government acting like a majority government and in the Canadian system a majority government is as close to a dictatorship as a democracy allows for, in that the government is relied on to investigate itself, which of course yields nothing. There are no checks and balances except an election a few times a decade.
- neom 3y ago
  ...What about the Senate?? It regularly rejects bills and sends them back.
  - canadiantim 3y ago
    My impression is the Senate doesn't actually regularly reject bills. They have, but its few and far between. The Senate also isn't really independent as they're appointed by party in power and vote in groups whipped by their leaders. Even recent development under Trudeau who "released" all liberal senators from being Liberal Senators such that now they sit as "independent" senators, but they all still vote in a one big block that votes exactly the same way as the liberal senator group, they just changed names. There are, however, a couple more splinter groups with specialized interests in the senate because of the shuffle, which is good to see, but by and large the Senate is very ineffective at being a check and balance. Mostly it's a rubber stamp process unless it's particularly egregious then it's a wrist slap asking for minor changes. Hence decades of debate on reforming or even abolishing the senate, which has been a mainstream debate for a long time and still ongoing.
    - neom 3y ago
      https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/legislation/senateBillsNotPassed https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/legislation... Here's the data. Seems like they're doing a fine job to me.
      - 3y ago
VancouverMan 3y ago
> functional liberal democracy full of checks and balances with a government subject to regular elections It's more nuanced than that. The current system can easily result in surprisingly disproportionate representation in the House of Commons. Look at the results of the most recent federal election, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election A party that received 32.62% of the popular vote got 160 seats in the House of Commons, while another party that received 33.74% of the vote got only 119 seats. A party that received only 7.64% of the votes got 32 seats, while another party that received 17.82% of the vote got only 25 seats. A party that received 2.33% of the votes got 2 seats, while another party that received 4.94% of the vote got no seats. With a votes-to-seats situation like that, there are a lot of Canadians who don't have proper representation in the House of Commons, or in some cases, effectively none at all. It's no surprise that the voter turnout wasn't even 63%; many Canadians are completely disillusioned with how the current system works, and don't feel that any of the parties can offer them meaningful representation. Canada's political system does exhibit some democratic traits, but there are still some pretty serious and fundamental flaws with the current approach that can't be ignored, either.
splitstud 3y ago
[dead]

Despite what Fox News says, Canada is not the Soviet Union. it is a functional liberal democracy full of checks and balances with a government subject to regular elections.

whatwhaaaaat 3y ago

[flagged]

morkalork 3y ago
>unsafe and ineffective for profit therapy You're talking about the covid vaccine?
- sandworm101 3y ago
  Yup. The anti-vaccination movement in Canada was in many ways worse than in the US. The fact that health care is a national service in Canada caused disparate groups with their own national issues (gun control, taxation) to coalesce around the anti-vaccine movement. Canada then faced nationally-organized anti-vax protests that, in the US, were largely targeted at local or state entities.
  - whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
    Interesting take but not accurate. Many people, like Kamala Harris, didn’t trust the therapy - at least before they were calling the shots. You may find it useful to group up all the boogymen from your “side” together but it doesn’t make it reality. I, for instance, voted for Obama twice and Hillary and yet still refused to take the shot. Are you still getting boosters or do you just like to make everything political?
    - morkalork 3y ago
      So. The people waving Trump flags at the convoy. Not political?
      - whatwhaaaaat 3y ago
        [flagged]
squigz 3y ago
Source, please
- neom 3y ago
  Canada Ends Its Freeze on Hundreds of Accounts Tied to Protests -https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-pro... More context: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/four-highlights-emergencies-act-1.6752653 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/four-highlights-emergencies...

canadiantim 3y ago

Actually Canada doesn't have that many checks and balances. Yes we have regular elections (not fixed dates tho). Currently we have a minority government acting like a majority government and in the Canadian system a majority government is as close to a dictatorship as a democracy allows for, in that the government is relied on to investigate itself, which of course yields nothing. There are no checks and balances except an election a few times a decade.

neom 3y ago
...What about the Senate?? It regularly rejects bills and sends them back.
- canadiantim 3y ago
  My impression is the Senate doesn't actually regularly reject bills. They have, but its few and far between. The Senate also isn't really independent as they're appointed by party in power and vote in groups whipped by their leaders. Even recent development under Trudeau who "released" all liberal senators from being Liberal Senators such that now they sit as "independent" senators, but they all still vote in a one big block that votes exactly the same way as the liberal senator group, they just changed names. There are, however, a couple more splinter groups with specialized interests in the senate because of the shuffle, which is good to see, but by and large the Senate is very ineffective at being a check and balance. Mostly it's a rubber stamp process unless it's particularly egregious then it's a wrist slap asking for minor changes. Hence decades of debate on reforming or even abolishing the senate, which has been a mainstream debate for a long time and still ongoing.
  - neom 3y ago
    https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/legislation/senateBillsNotPassed https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/legislation... Here's the data. Seems like they're doing a fine job to me.
    - 3y ago

VancouverMan 3y ago

> functional liberal democracy full of checks and balances with a government subject to regular elections It's more nuanced than that. The current system can easily result in surprisingly disproportionate representation in the House of Commons. Look at the results of the most recent federal election, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Canadian_federal_election A party that received 32.62% of the popular vote got 160 seats in the House of Commons, while another party that received 33.74% of the vote got only 119 seats. A party that received only 7.64% of the votes got 32 seats, while another party that received 17.82% of the vote got only 25 seats. A party that received 2.33% of the votes got 2 seats, while another party that received 4.94% of the vote got no seats. With a votes-to-seats situation like that, there are a lot of Canadians who don't have proper representation in the House of Commons, or in some cases, effectively none at all. It's no surprise that the voter turnout wasn't even 63%; many Canadians are completely disillusioned with how the current system works, and don't feel that any of the parties can offer them meaningful representation. Canada's political system does exhibit some democratic traits, but there are still some pretty serious and fundamental flaws with the current approach that can't be ignored, either.

splitstud 3y ago

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