HEY CANADA! It's Federal Election Time,,, woo hoo! Whaddya think?

by talesin 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  talesin

  An announcement is expected from the Martin government any day now.

  If Alexa is running, I'll be signing up to work on her campaign. News pundits were predicting a late-June election. That's only 5 weeks away!

  Whaddya think?

  What issues are important to you? Mine are Health Care, transfer payments to provinces and municipalities, environment, decriminilization of pot, aboriginal issues and star wars, to name a few.

  What do you think of the 'New Conservative Party' and Joe Clarke's defection? I found it shocking that he went over to the 'other side'. But I admire his taking a stand.

  How about Sheila Copps? Forced out by the new guard. tsk, tsk Although I'm not of her political persuasion, I felt she got the shaft, big-time! And John Manley as well. We haven't heard the last from him, imho. BTW, I used to work with him in the fishing industry, back in the 80s, he is a brilliant man.

  I like the new NDP leader, Jack Layton, he doesn't seem as plastic as most. His wife (a TO city counsellor) is expected to be running in the election, as well. I noted that BareNakedLadies is doing a promo concert for him in Toronto this week (I think), called "Jack It Up!". That's a first. Martin was pretty quick to jump on the bandwagon, getting the support of Bono. Hell, he's not even Canadian. Whassup with that?

  And 'dead silence' from Chretien. That's a ringing endorsement for Paul Martin (yeah, I'm being just a tad facetious here).

  I'm interested in comments from any and all, not just Canucks, by the way!

  talesin
• 

  acsot

  Issues:

  1. Health care

  2. Environment

  3. Aborignal rights (btw, I'm not aboriginal)

  I think Martin's a shoe-in, although I wouldn't mind an NDP government. This will be my first time voting!

  I should just vote for the Bloc Québécois just to annoy everybody .
• 

  SAHS

  I was in favour of Paul Martin?up until Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara came up with their plan to add a new health tax on July 1, 2004. What a load of sh^t! For me, that will work out to $25 per month, or $300 per year, deducted from my paycheque because I make over $25,000 per year. I'm sure that will end up forcing some poor people onto the streets, especially in places like Toronto!

  Also, the cost for renewing a driver?s licence will increase from $50 to $75. And, of course, anyone who drinks or smokes will be raped like an Iraqi prisoner, on top of the f^@#'n GST!

  The thing that pisses me off is that Dalton McGuinty told everyone that ?he will not be raising taxes.? Well, I like the cartoon of him on The Toronto Sun the other day showing him with a really long nose. I mean, aside from whether or not they need to take the above extreme measures, instead of lying his pants off, he could have at least given us a little bit of fair warning! This sucks!

  So, if that?s the kind of ?liberal surprises? we could expect throughout this entire country, then I?d prefer a different team. We?d probably be better off with the German shepherd in ?The Littlest Hobo? for a liberal leader?his nose is already long!

  Well, that?s my 2 cents (Canadian).

  ?SAHS
• 

  talesin

  acsot

  Happy to hear you're voting for the first time. Congrats!

  That's one of the reasons I started the thread, for folks to read some views, start thinking about it. I know it took years for me to dare to cast a ballot.

  Those are important issues. With the internet at our fingertips, it's easier nowadays to research them and see what previous actions the parties have taken, and make a more informed decision instead of trusting the press to 'inform' us.

  Good on ya!

  SAHS

  Yeah, the 'user fees' (read hidden taxes) are going up, up, up! in Nova Scotia as well. It's time for us to start letting Ottawa know we are most definitely NOT impressed.

  I think that the title of the "Liberal Party" is truly a misleading one. It certainly doesn't fit the definition of the term liberal, more like 'conservative'. What happened to our country in the last 3 decades? The corporations are taking over.

  tal
• 

  stichione

  I think that the Liberals are going to take a nasty pasting at the elections, loosing big time in sections of the country they have always taken for granted, such as Ontario. In Quebec the BQ will probably do the best ever, even though they were sinking faster than rock in recent times.
• 

  talesin

  stichione

  I'm thinking the exactly the same on the points you mentioned. We had a major turnover of ridings here in the last federal election. NDP won more than they have had in a lot of years. Folks here are just sick to death of the other two parties raping the public purse. But there are still a lot of Maritimers who still vote for the old party, regardless of issues. It's gonna be an interesting race, Quebec and the Bloc will be a 'spoiler', methinks, with a close race between the major two for the rest of the country, NDP coming in with their usual minority of seats. *sigh*

  talesin
• 

  orangefatcat

  I know that politicians are ridiculous and liars and it gives them four years of power to give to them selves while the rest of Canadians suffer at the constant lies and taxes. They always make breaks that benefit the wealthy however the poor person suffers the most.

  Will it ever change. Not in a million years.

  Orangefatcat.
• 

  Mary

  I wouldn't be caught dead voting for ANY of these assholes again...........Dalton McGuinty is a filthy, rotten liar..........everyone and their brother knew damn well that Mike Harris' pathetic time in office left Ontario with a huge debt........apparently Mr. McGuinty has had his head up his own ass over the last 5 years, because he's the only one who's feigning surprise that there was a $5.6 billion dollar debt.

  It doesn't matter if they're PC, NDP or Liberal: they're ALL a bunch of scum-lapping pieces of shit as far as I'm concerned. It makes absolutely no difference at all which party gets in, because each and every one of them have screwed us royally in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

  We pay 15% tax on virtually everything in this province. I wouldn't mind if we still had alot to show for it, but unfortunately the government keeps increasing taxes, both visible and invisible on everything and giving us less all the time. For example: the universities here in Ontario are competing with places like MIT on one-tenth of funding from the government. You might say we have free health care in Canada, but did you know that the government spending only 6% of it's revenue on our health care system? That's about the same as what the US government spend on Medicare and Americans don't pay 15% tax on everything like we do. I certainly want to keep our health care system, but they just keep jipping away at it bit by bit, until one day, there's not gonna be anything left.

  I guess I'm really negative about anything these buffoons promise us, because I no longer believe a word they say. Public schools in Toronto and other areas are literally falling apart and no one in the government seems in any kind of hurry to do anything about it, but there's always lots of money for MP's expense accounts, lavish travel (at our expense) and of course there's always tens of millions of dollars to give away in government contracts to companies who don't do squat to earn it and millions and millions given to illegal immigrants who come over here by the droves and get free housing, free health care, free dental, free education, plus money to start their own "culture" get-togethers.

  Sorry if this sounds like cyncism on my part, but I'm absolutely disgusted and furious after McGuinty's Budget announcement the other day and I'm not the only one.
• 

  CeriseRose

  I have to say, that it was the one thing about being a JW I liked...the supposed apoliticalness of it.
  
  I know it's my duty to vote and to have a voice in our government but to be honest, I have trouble believing anything any of the politicians say they're going to do. Sometimes I wish that the same thing that applies in US politics applied here...that leaders only got 8 years in office max. After two terms, they're out. I think we tend to stagnate because of the same leadership. But that's just my 2 cents.
  
  So I don't know what I'm going to do about this election. I always liked Martin, but maybe that's because I disliked Chretien so much. At the very least, Martin has been trying to mend fences here in the West...Chretien didn't seem to care what was going on out here...
  
  Of course, we have our provincial messes too...I'm still extremely unimpressed that Campbell was arrested on a DUI in Hawaii and never stepped down (he was more than vocal with other politicians when he was leader of the opposition...if someone put one toe over the line he called for their resignation). He's nothing more than a hypocrite who's run our healthcare, social services etc. to the ground.
  
  Boy I thought I had really -no- opinion on politics. Wow. I surprised myself.
  
  The one thing I did do this year is on my income tax I checked the box to add me to the voters list. At least I'll be able to vote when the time comes.
• 

  orangefatcat

  We Canadians have a new name for the Liberals its called,

  FIBERALS

  Orangefatcat