Stephen Harper vs Stephane Dion, Ultra mega political showdown! (Canada Fed Election)

[Kolar]

WTF???
http://www.thestar.com/article/512033


You're right about Dion, Eric but I think we need to start investing in infrastructure, for a long time now the cities have been left to fend for themselves. Now we have something like 120 billion short fall for roads, bridges, rail lines ect... The Conservatives just throw our surpluses down on debt or on some new budget item. The Liberals also have an action plan for public transit and we haven't seen a Conservative platform with 9 days until election day. So I think the Liberals have the better ideas and the people to implement them, just their leadership might be lacking with Dion. I don't trust the Conservatives to spend responsibly and their social agenda is controlled by the Reform party elements.

I think if they do get another minority Government the Tories aren't going to be very popular wasting 300 million on this election for the same results. But at that point hopefully it would send a signal to the party leaders that Canadians have no problems with minority Governments and if they can't work towards the center together then maybe we need to push for reforming it, and possibly relying more on the provincial/local level. A weak majority is more likely at this point.

[Eric is God]

Conservatives - I trust them to do the least damage to our economy and keep more money in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it... ME. At the same time I still have a social conscious and some of the things Harper would do with a majority make me very uneasy.

Liberals - Dion isn't a leader and his party is too "middle of the road" on every issue to provide any strong incentives to me personally. I trust them to improve a few things a bit and screw up everything else a bit more.

NDP - I've never been a fan of big government and although I am in favor of some of their policies (social and financial), this is not the time to a) expand the cost of social programs and b) increase tax on corporations. I might actually have voted NDP for the first time ever in any election, but this kind of economic climate is not the time to provide a stronger voice to the left.

Green Party - some decent ideas, but they are not prepared to run or even help guide this country. I'd like to see them grab a couple seats (10% support deserves a voice) and it's obvious they are going to siphon a ton of votes away from the Liberal party.

Overall I will probably abstain from casting a vote for the 2nd straight federal election. I don't trust any party to run a fiscally and socially responsible government so I'm left hoping for a Conservative minority where the economy is not thrown into chaos and none of Harper's crazy social agendas get past the other parties.

[HateTheFake]

Why would I stay out of a thread about politics in a country I don't live in, and try to push my view that you don't want in your country of government reform on you and your citizens. This is trenchwars forums isn't it LOL

lol ironic indeed.

[Jeenyuss]

Did anyone watch the debates? I missed them because I was working at night all week... I thought it was a pretty stupid move to put the debates opposite the American VP debates... did they really want people NOT to watch it?

i caught some. g'damn that green woman was fantastic. everyone took time to rip into harper, eehh.

[Cops]

^ nothing to write home about

[Adman]

I am related to a few Dion's.

Celine, Marcel, or Stephan?

[megaman89]

I am related to a few Dion's.

[Pummel]

Better Stephen Harper than that french ponce bastard.

[Epinephrine]

Did anyone watch the debates? I missed them because I was working at night all week... I thought it was a pretty stupid move to put the debates opposite the American VP debates... did they really want people NOT to watch it?

[project dragon]

The government already cut funding in the arts a few months ago. I don't believe it had to do with CBC, but there was funding for a project that helped Canadian artists with funds to tour abroad. I believe Harper said that they were giving money to people that were not good representatives of Canada.

I believe it was mainly because Holy Fuck got such money, and the Canadian government used them as a scapegoat to cut the funding.

Sucks.


Also, I am not sure what to think about CBC Radio 2 at the moment.

[Cops]

The worst is how he tried to downplay that by painting it as the rich, artistic elite complaining about the cuts at their gala soirees, when the fact is those people aren't the ones applying for funding, rather, it's the struggling small-time artists and start-up projects that do.

I really don't know where the fuck he thinks he's from but artists aren't part of some elite rich crowd in this country.

[Jeenyuss]

ugh

[Troll King]

The worst is how he tried to downplay that by painting it as the rich, artistic elite complaining about the cuts at their gala soirees, when the fact is those people aren't the ones applying for funding, rather, it's the struggling small-time artists and start-up projects that do.

[Cops]

Harper cuts funding to art programs

I'm concerned about our Canadian identity when I feel as though Prime Minister Harper will cut funding to programs that help establish ourselves from everyone else. CBC is subsidized for a reason, it helps provide a Canadian perspective to a widely Americanized market. There's fears that PM Harper will privatize the CBC, in which case our sovereign rights as Canadians are under direct attack.

From a career standpoint this also fucks me over pretty bad.

[Cops]

He's a smart guy, he's looking out for his province. Canada isn't doing too bad right now but we need to stick our surplus of money into the provinces, cities, and towns and work towards fixing our infrastructure. Especially considering that money probably won't be there in 2-3 years time. I was at an all candidates debate on Friday and Terrence Young running as a Conservative in Oakville said "frankly our economy is fine" as well as "taking off 1% of the GST has benefited all Canadians". Terrence even got one of his cronies who could barely speak English to ask a question, rather state that Canadians are over taxed as it is and taking away that 1% GST has helped the poor and middle class. Everyone turned their heads every time Terrence answered a question and gave each other a look like "he did not just say that".

I feel he was more than a little disheartening in trying to convince local residents that Canada faces no economic issues, even if economically we're still holding our heads above the water.

Harper won't get a majority, he needs to pick up a lot of seats in Toronto and the surrounding communities. Considering most of the voters from the General Toronto Area vote NDP, Green, or Liberal I don't think they stand to win a lot of seats unless the left vote is heavily split. I hope Canadians realize Harper called an illegal election, is wasting hundreds of millions of dollars to call this election, and is not working on the issues the average Canadian wants him to work on. Personally I'd like to see the Green Party pick up a few seats.