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All my Canadian friends are frustrated with Harper. I wonder how did he get elected in the first place? :) From aside, it feels like Canada is being infested wi

by znowi 14y ago

All my Canadian friends are frustrated with Harper. I wonder how did he get elected in the first place? :) From aside, it feels like Canada is being infested with neoliberal policies in disguise under the very leadership of the Prime Minster. Don't let them spoil "the best part of North America" :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtVrDPhHBg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtVrDPhHBg

mindstab 14y ago
The same way bush got elected twice (despite all the tech people I hear from in the US hating him): a quiet(ish) massive population of conservatives coexisting uneasily with us. In Canada especially in our rather significant rural areas like the prairie provinces.
- kafkaesque 14y ago
  Wait...I don't mean to spread false information, so please, anyone, correct me if I am totally off base, and I will even delete my comment, but... I thought it was pretty much agreed upon that George Bush Jr. won through voting machines that had been tampered with and because voting ended as soon as Bush had the majority vote in Florida, when in reality it was later found out Al Gore had more votes. Or did I just pull that out of my ass? Again, if it is false, I'll gladly remove this comment since I was watching it all (i.e., the American gov't) crumble from Canada. Edit: Or was all that just conspiracy theory?
  - graeme 14y ago
    The quantity of votes isn't the determining issue in American election. Instead, it matters whether you win a majority of electoral college votes. Florida had enough votes to swing the electoral college. There was a big controversy about this, and a Supreme Court case, and frankly I have no idea what actually happened.
  - joelrunyon 14y ago
    Bush had more electoral votes. Gore won the popular vote. There were issues in Florida which determined the electoral votes and pushed the state to Bush. Electoral votes are what mater: Bush won.
    - pyre 14y ago
      I think that most people are contesting whether or not Bush should have won the Florida electoral votes, which would have changed the election, no?
  - fusiongyro 14y ago
    The voting machine tampering affected the popular vote count but he won by the electoral college so it was kind of a moot point. The liberals here like to blame every conservative win on voting machine fraud and gerrymandering and the conservatives like to blame every liberal win on minorities and illegal immigrants. In reality, the country is split pretty evenly (not geographically uniformly) and we got a second term with Obama despite DieBold's management publicly endorsing Romney. So both sides have a tendency to inflate their claims.
- graeme 14y ago
  In our case it's more the split of the left. Harper only got ~35% of votes, but that's enough here when the liberals and NDP split the vote. There's also the fact that electoral ridings are biased towards rural areas. They tend to require fewer people to get an MP.
- dhughes 14y ago
  I figured it was Baby Boomers nearing retirement and getting more conservative as they get older. There was a huge amount of student and young voters last election and I was quite surprised at the results.
mahyarm 14y ago
The Conservative's got power because the Liberal party has basically been withering away since Jean Cretchen, 2004 being the transition point. The Liberal party had withered away enough by the latest election to allow the conservatives get a majority government this time. Furthermore, the left's vote is split between the NDP & Liberal parties, while the Conservative party united into one party to better capture the right wing vote. If the NDP & Liberals were one party, the election would of gone to that party. Maybe in a decade or two, the NDP & Liberals will merge and Canada will have our own version of Democrat vs Republican. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Canada#Realignment:_Conservatives_in_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Canada#Realignment...
- chm 14y ago
  Jean Chrétien, please.
notatoad 14y ago
We've got the Conservative Party of Canada on the right, and the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens, and the Bloc on the left. The left is too busy competing with itself to win against the right.
- corresation 14y ago
  We've got the Conservative Party of Canada on the right, and the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens, and the Bloc on the left. This is another myth of Canadian politics. Most Liberal voters, if given a ranked ballot, would choose the Conservatives second, and vice versa. The Liberals have, in practice, been as right as the Conservatives ever have been.

by znowi 14y ago

mindstab 14y ago

The same way bush got elected twice (despite all the tech people I hear from in the US hating him): a quiet(ish) massive population of conservatives coexisting uneasily with us. In Canada especially in our rather significant rural areas like the prairie provinces.

kafkaesque 14y ago
Wait...I don't mean to spread false information, so please, anyone, correct me if I am totally off base, and I will even delete my comment, but... I thought it was pretty much agreed upon that George Bush Jr. won through voting machines that had been tampered with and because voting ended as soon as Bush had the majority vote in Florida, when in reality it was later found out Al Gore had more votes. Or did I just pull that out of my ass? Again, if it is false, I'll gladly remove this comment since I was watching it all (i.e., the American gov't) crumble from Canada. Edit: Or was all that just conspiracy theory?
- graeme 14y ago
  The quantity of votes isn't the determining issue in American election. Instead, it matters whether you win a majority of electoral college votes. Florida had enough votes to swing the electoral college. There was a big controversy about this, and a Supreme Court case, and frankly I have no idea what actually happened.
- joelrunyon 14y ago
  Bush had more electoral votes. Gore won the popular vote. There were issues in Florida which determined the electoral votes and pushed the state to Bush. Electoral votes are what mater: Bush won.
  - pyre 14y ago
    I think that most people are contesting whether or not Bush should have won the Florida electoral votes, which would have changed the election, no?
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  The voting machine tampering affected the popular vote count but he won by the electoral college so it was kind of a moot point. The liberals here like to blame every conservative win on voting machine fraud and gerrymandering and the conservatives like to blame every liberal win on minorities and illegal immigrants. In reality, the country is split pretty evenly (not geographically uniformly) and we got a second term with Obama despite DieBold's management publicly endorsing Romney. So both sides have a tendency to inflate their claims.
graeme 14y ago
In our case it's more the split of the left. Harper only got ~35% of votes, but that's enough here when the liberals and NDP split the vote. There's also the fact that electoral ridings are biased towards rural areas. They tend to require fewer people to get an MP.
dhughes 14y ago
I figured it was Baby Boomers nearing retirement and getting more conservative as they get older. There was a huge amount of student and young voters last election and I was quite surprised at the results.

mahyarm 14y ago

The Conservative's got power because the Liberal party has basically been withering away since Jean Cretchen, 2004 being the transition point. The Liberal party had withered away enough by the latest election to allow the conservatives get a majority government this time. Furthermore, the left's vote is split between the NDP & Liberal parties, while the Conservative party united into one party to better capture the right wing vote. If the NDP & Liberals were one party, the election would of gone to that party. Maybe in a decade or two, the NDP & Liberals will merge and Canada will have our own version of Democrat vs Republican. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Canada#Realignment:_Conservatives_in_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Canada#Realignment...

chm 14y ago
Jean Chrétien, please.

notatoad 14y ago

We've got the Conservative Party of Canada on the right, and the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens, and the Bloc on the left. The left is too busy competing with itself to win against the right.

corresation 14y ago
We've got the Conservative Party of Canada on the right, and the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens, and the Bloc on the left. This is another myth of Canadian politics. Most Liberal voters, if given a ranked ballot, would choose the Conservatives second, and vice versa. The Liberals have, in practice, been as right as the Conservatives ever have been.