Too Late to Start Thinking About 2015? (Canadian Election)

[Jolor]

At least they haven't made the same mistake in trying to muzzle, for example, the scientific community. I mean, really. Could you even imagine?

[GreenGoo]

At least they haven't made the same mistake in trying to muzzle, for example, the scientific community. I mean, really. Could you even imagine?

Sarcasm, I assume.

[Max Peck]

At least they haven't made the same mistake in trying to muzzle, for example, the scientific community. I mean, really. Could you even imagine?

Sarcasm, I assume.

Googling the terms "Harper Government Science" indicates that the probability of sarcasm approaches unity.

[Max Peck]

Federal election campaign's phoney debate over deficits

This federal election is supposed to be about the economy, an opportunity for voters to determine which party is offering the best plan to create jobs, open new markets for Canadian goods and services and to help this country withstand what is shaping up to be, at worst, another recession or, at best, another period of stagnant growth. But so far this week those important questions are secondary to a dispute over budget deficits — or more accurately, a debate over why one party is prepared to run a deficit in order to finance their campaign promises. For now, it's a phoney debate. None of the parties have put out a fully costed plan, tallying up how much their promises will cost. Those platforms will come sometime in September when, if current forecasts hold, the Canadian economy will be technically in another recession.

One interesting thing about this election campaign is how quickly the BQ has become irrelevant. We've largely gone from the depiction of 5 "major" parties to 4, although whether the Greens should be considered a major party is debatable. I guess they get a pass, for now, given that the current polling shows them winning 1 seat again whereas the BQ looks to be wiped off the slate.

[Vorret]

Federal election campaign's phoney debate over deficits

This federal election is supposed to be about the economy, an opportunity for voters to determine which party is offering the best plan to create jobs, open new markets for Canadian goods and services and to help this country withstand what is shaping up to be, at worst, another recession or, at best, another period of stagnant growth. But so far this week those important questions are secondary to a dispute over budget deficits — or more accurately, a debate over why one party is prepared to run a deficit in order to finance their campaign promises. For now, it's a phoney debate. None of the parties have put out a fully costed plan, tallying up how much their promises will cost. Those platforms will come sometime in September when, if current forecasts hold, the Canadian economy will be technically in another recession.

One interesting thing about this election campaign is how quickly the BQ has become irrelevant. We've largely gone from the depiction of 5 "major" parties to 4, although whether the Greens should be considered a major party is debatable. I guess they get a pass, for now, given that the current polling shows them winning 1 seat again whereas the BQ looks to be wiped off the slate.

Pretty sure demography is the sole reason for that. Most younger Quebecois don't really care for independence so the BQ is completely irrelevant to them

[Max Peck]

Federal election campaign's phoney debate over deficits

This federal election is supposed to be about the economy, an opportunity for voters to determine which party is offering the best plan to create jobs, open new markets for Canadian goods and services and to help this country withstand what is shaping up to be, at worst, another recession or, at best, another period of stagnant growth. But so far this week those important questions are secondary to a dispute over budget deficits — or more accurately, a debate over why one party is prepared to run a deficit in order to finance their campaign promises. For now, it's a phoney debate. None of the parties have put out a fully costed plan, tallying up how much their promises will cost. Those platforms will come sometime in September when, if current forecasts hold, the Canadian economy will be technically in another recession.

One interesting thing about this election campaign is how quickly the BQ has become irrelevant. We've largely gone from the depiction of 5 "major" parties to 4, although whether the Greens should be considered a major party is debatable. I guess they get a pass, for now, given that the current polling shows them winning 1 seat again whereas the BQ looks to be wiped off the slate.

Pretty sure demography is the sole reason for that. Most younger Quebecois don't really care for independence so the BQ is completely irrelevant to them

No doubt, but I was referring to the change in media narrative since the beginning of the campaign. At the start, the stories (even internationally) included the BQ but after just a few weeks they've mostly vanished from the coverage.

[Vorret]

Federal election campaign's phoney debate over deficits

This federal election is supposed to be about the economy, an opportunity for voters to determine which party is offering the best plan to create jobs, open new markets for Canadian goods and services and to help this country withstand what is shaping up to be, at worst, another recession or, at best, another period of stagnant growth. But so far this week those important questions are secondary to a dispute over budget deficits — or more accurately, a debate over why one party is prepared to run a deficit in order to finance their campaign promises. For now, it's a phoney debate. None of the parties have put out a fully costed plan, tallying up how much their promises will cost. Those platforms will come sometime in September when, if current forecasts hold, the Canadian economy will be technically in another recession.

One interesting thing about this election campaign is how quickly the BQ has become irrelevant. We've largely gone from the depiction of 5 "major" parties to 4, although whether the Greens should be considered a major party is debatable. I guess they get a pass, for now, given that the current polling shows them winning 1 seat again whereas the BQ looks to be wiped off the slate.

Pretty sure demography is the sole reason for that. Most younger Quebecois don't really care for independence so the BQ is completely irrelevant to them

No doubt, but I was referring to the change in media narrative since the beginning of the campaign. At the start, the stories (even internationally) included the BQ but after just a few weeks they've mostly vanished from the coverage.

They got a spike in popularity when Duceppe came back, even the PQ got a huge boost at that moment but it died off very quickly, probably why they got media coverage but the polls showed it wasn't worth the air time.

[Max Peck]

That makes sense. Browsing the CBC today, it appears that for concrete issues they are mostly covering just the big 3 parties (Conservative/NDP/Liberal), and at the moment it's easier to find coverage of Forces et Démocratie (Strength in Democracy) than anything about the Greens or BQ.

I didn't even know that FeD was a thing until they were mentioned by the BBC as one of the six "major" national parties back when the election was called.

[Max Peck]

Canadian economy enters recession

The Canadian economy has entered recession, official figures have shown. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an annualised rate of 0.5% between April and June. That follows a contraction of 0.8% in the first quarter, meaning the economy has seen two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the usual definition of recession.

The data will be a blow for prime minister Stephen Harper, who faces elections on 19 October. The economy is expected to dominate the election debate.

I'm sure Mr. Harper will explain that he's the only one capable of leading us out of the recession (that he led us into).

[GreenGoo]

Well I haven't looked at the data, but the drop in oil prices didn't help.

That said, I know who I'm not voting for.

[Isgrimnur]

Toronto Star

Canada's economy recoiled for the second-straight quarter of 2015 — knocking the country backwards into a technical definition of recession, fresh Statistics Canada data revealed Tuesday.

The federal agency said real gross domestic product contracted at an annual pace of 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of the year, which followed a revised decline of 0.8 per cent during the first three months of 2015.

Statistics Canada says the first-quarter performance was weaker than originally estimated, forcing the agency to lower its GDP reading for the first three months of the year from an original estimate of 0.6 per cent.

On the positive side, there was evidence to suggest Canada's economy began to bounce back in June as GDP grew by 0.5 per cent for the month after shrinking over five straight months.

That June increase was led by a 3.1-per-cent boost in natural resources extraction — the category's first increase following seven consecutive months of decline.
...
Harper has reiterated a stay-the-course mantra, insisting the country must ride out external economic and market turbulence whipped up in places like China. He has argued the only domestic weakness has been in the energy sector, which has suffered from the steep slide in global oil prices.

The Tory leader has frequently cited forecasts that predict the economy will rebound in the second half of the year, including a projection by the Bank of Canada. The central bank, however, has downgraded its projections for 2015 and cut its trendsetting interest rate twice this year to cushion the blow of low crude prices.

[Max Peck]

Harperman case: Can public servants be political activists?

An investigation into an Ottawa federal scientist who wrote and performed an anti-Harper protest song and posted it to YouTube has sparked a debate about just how political Canada's public servants are allowed to be. Tony Turner, a scientist in habitat planning at Environment Canada, was sent home on leave with pay pending a government investigation into the making of Harperman, a highly critical song about Conservative Leader Stephen Harper that has amassed more than 280,000 hits since June.

At issue is whether Turner violated the code of ethics that all public servants must adhere to — one that mandates they be impartial and non-partisan. At the same time, the courts have upheld public servants' right to engage in political activity. So how should public servants strike the balance between what's forbidden under the code and permitted by the courts?

"These are very old debates and very old discussions," said Robert Shepherd, a professor at the Carleton University School of Public Policy and Administration. "This is a major question, and it's still being tested."

[Max Peck]

Anti-Tory comments disappear from Harper's sponsored Instagram posts

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has become the first federal party leader to advertise on Instagram, but many of the comments on his three sponsored posts have disappeared. Facebook, which owns the photo-sharing social media platform, said the Tories started advertising through Harper's Instagram account last Thursday. While the Tories, the NDP and the Liberals all have active Instagram feeds, Meg Sinclair, a spokeswoman for Facebook Canada, said Harper's account is the only one that has launched ads to date. The Tories are running three sponsored photos, all of which focus on child care. There are two photos of Harper interacting with small children and another of him playing Xbox with his son, Ben. All three include the caption, "Laureen and I know that childcare decisions are best left with the real experts, Mom and Dad."

Many of the early comments on the sponsored posts were critical of Harper and his government's policies. Those comments have since disappeared.

Ah, politicians getting their photo-ops with babies -- it never goes out of style...

[Max Peck]

Canadian leaders gone wild in three-way debate battle

If there were any doubts that this has become a tight, hard-fought Canadian general election campaign, that went out the window very early during Thursday night's leaders' debate in Calgary. It was a spirited, sometimes snippy affair that often seemed to spin out of control, as the back-and-forth between the three candidates - Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and left-of-centre challengers Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party and Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party - descended into cacophony.

The debate's moderator, Toronto Globe and Mail editor-in-chief David Walmsley, pointed out in his introduction that this was only the second time a leaders debate had been held west of Toronto. Its location - in the heart of Canada's oil and gas country - gave a particular sense of urgency to what was tabbed as the focus of the discussion, the economy. The entire province of Alberta has been hit hard by job losses resulting from the sharp decline in oil prices, and its struggles have become a drag on the entire Canadian economy, which entered into recession earlier this year.

[GreenGoo]

We are headed into an(nother) era of mediocrity, no matter who's elected. I've seen the conservative mediocrity, so I'm ready to try someone else's at this point. Pretty much anyone else's. I might even vote for Trump, if that became a possibility.

[Max Peck]

This might be a better fit in the IS thread, but I'm more personally interested in the election angle. A leader who wants me to be afraid is not someone I'm inclined to follow. Or vote for (well, we vote for the local MP, not the PM, but you know what I mean).

Pentagon's take on ISIS fight nothing like Canada's campaign rhetoric

The leaders of the Liberal and New Democratic parties, Stephen Harper tells his election rallies, are such a couple of timorous wet smacks that they can't possibly be trusted to shield Canadians from the evil that constantly bears down upon us all. "Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair are so wrapped up in some form of twisted form of political correctness that they won't even call jihadist terrorism what it is," Harper told cheering supporters in Sault Ste. Marie this month. "If you cannot even bring yourself to call jihadist terrorism what it is, then you cannot be trusted to confront it, and you cannot be trusted to keep Canadians safe from it."

So, to summarize, and I'm using the words of the prime minister here, ISIS is a barbaric, fanatic, radically violent bunch of jihadist terrorist murderers. And they threaten Canadians every single day. And fighting them begins with calling them all those things, and if you can't call them those things, you aren't a fighter.

Now, here are the words of Christine Wormuth, the under-secretary of defence at the Pentagon, in testimony to Congress last week: "While not 10 feet tall," she told the Senate armed services committee last week, ISIS "remains a thinking enemy that adapts to evolving conditions on the battlefield."

Wormuth, of course, is not running for office

[GreenGoo]

The very idea that Canada has anything to be afraid of is insane. I despise him for this approach. Despise.

We had 2, separate, crazy people who used online rhetoric as justification for shooting some people.

How on earth does Harper intend to keep us safe from that? Who is he keeping safe? What is the probability of this happening again?

Fuck bill C-51, and fuck him.

[Vorret]

I'm getting a bit scared that we're going to be stuck with that crazy fuck for another 4 years...

http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2015/09/2 ... -ekos-poll

[Isgrimnur]

Prime Minister Harper has pledged to ban face coverings from citizenship ceremonies within 100 days of the election should the party win re-election next month.

I'm sure that will make everyone safer instead of being just a blatantly discriminatory move to cater to Canadian rednecks.
...
Is there a special term for Canadian rednecks?

[Vorret]

Prime Minister Harper has pledged to ban face coverings from citizenship ceremonies within 100 days of the election should the party win re-election next month.

I'm sure that will make everyone safer instead of being just a blatantly discriminatory move to cater to Canadian rednecks.
...
Is there a special term for Canadian rednecks?

I think it's Quebecers.

But really, I agree that we should see your face when you take official pictures and such and I also sorta think that a Niqab shouldn't be allowed in Canada but I'm an Atheist so my views on the subject are a somewhat blurred by my own ideology. In any case, I can live with more religious freedom if we can get rid of Harper

[Isgrimnur]

For photo ID, sure. But for the ceremony itself? Is it really that big of an issue that it needs a policy decision?

[Max Peck]

Are we supposed to read his lips? I think we're supposed to read his lips.

Stephen Harper promises 'tax lock' law to ban all increases

The Conservatives are promising a four-year "tax lock" law if re-elected on Oct. 19.

Speaking in Rivière-du-Loup, Que., Conservative Leader Stephen Harper revealed the plan to prohibit increases to federal income tax, sales tax and what he calls "discretionary payroll taxes," such as employment insurance premiums. The value of such legislation would be symbolic, since it would carry no consequences if taxes were raised, though the Conservatives say the law would have to be repealed by a government that wants to raise taxes. Harper said it's a way to enshrine the Conservative commitment not to raise taxes. "Obviously, the other parties are promising something very different. They won't want to pass it, they won't pass it themselves; if they get the chance they would break it," he said.

The pandering is strong with this one...

[Max Peck]

For photo ID, sure. But for the ceremony itself? Is it really that big of an issue that it needs a policy decision?

I would say no, but Stephen Harper claims that I am out of step with his Canada.

Poll ordered by Harper found strong support for niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies

A public-opinion poll ordered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this year found overwhelming support among Canadians for the requirement that women remove their niqabs or burkas at citizenship ceremonies. The March telephone survey by Léger Marketing found 82 per cent of Canadians favoured the policy somewhat or strongly, with just 15 per cent opposed. Support was widespread, but especially strong in Quebec, where 93 per cent were in favour of the requirement.

The government has tried to impose a ban on face coverings at citizenship ceremonies, but the Federal Court ruled earlier this month that such a ban is unlawful. The Conservatives have said they will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Léger survey results, delivered March 31 to the Privy Council Office, were posted Thursday, the day of the first French-language leaders' debate, on a government website under a policy that requires publication of taxpayer-paid polls within six months.

I guess if it polls well, it goes into the campaign.

[Isgrimnur]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

[Max Peck]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

Neither did I, and I are one.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

Broadly speaking, Homo sapiens are tribalistic by nature; there's little reason to assume Canuckians are particularly anomalous in that regard.

[Max Peck]

The state of the Canadian Armed Forces -- an issue that none of the parties really want to talk about.

Canada's patched-up military: Too few dollars, too many missions

National defence is a dead zone in our elections, rarely debated in depth in a country where the military and its multiple problems are mostly out of sight, out of mind. Sure, the bizarre complexities of the F-35 stealth fighter inevitably surface, as they did when Justin Trudeau vowed to scrap it entirely from the competition to replace the aging CF-18s. But controversy briefly focused on one weapon system is hardly an adequate debate into the chronic ills of a long-underfunded military.

This national conversation is missing because politicians know defence is rarely a big vote getter, and voters seem content to let Ottawa spend as little on defence as it can get away with. And it gets away with a lot. Somehow we scrape by with a dilapidated navy, now forced to rent foreign supply ships on a day-rate just to keep our much shrunken fleet occasionally ocean worthy. Then there is an air force still bewildered over when it will get to replace the CF-18s we bought back in the 1980s; and an army impatient to see delivery of the new trucks that have been promised for a decade.

Those steadily rising military budgets and bold new weapons promised by the Harper government back in 2008 under the Canada First Defence Strategy have been derailed by budget cuts, spending freezes and procurement foul-ups. While the Conservative government claims its defence spending over the years has risen massively, independent studies show the Tories actually underspent their own approved military budgets by close to $10 billion. They also chopped nearly $5 billion from defence since 2012, in large part to help Stephen Harper reach his much proclaimed budget surplus. "The spending now on the military, when you adjust for the inflation is back where it was … at roughly 2007 levels," says David Perry, senior defence analyst with the Conference of Defence Associations.

[GreenGoo]

We should buy a few more F-35's than planned. That should help.

[Max Peck]

We already had the "North" part down pat, so maybe Harper is just making us more continental.

Is Stephen Harper 'Americanising' Canada?

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political opponents have a difficult time figuring out exactly which disliked US leader he most reminds them of. Is it President Richard Nixon, with his mercurial temper, paranoid scheming, penchant for scandal and divisive politics? Perhaps it's the foreign policy hawkishness - fuelled by an evangelical certitude and oil patch brashness - of President George W Bush? Or maybe it's not an American at all. One Canadian writer recently drew parallels to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his "contempt for the media", anti-democratic tendencies and - yes - love of hockey.

It's the similarities between the Canadian prime minister and the conservative politics of his neighbour to the south that seem to come up the most, however. "Normal, peaceful, thoughtful Americans wouldn't enjoy it here anymore," Heather Mallick, writing in Harper's Magazine, tells those in the US who once looked to Canada as a progressive counterweight to their own nation's right-wing political drama. "We're becoming precisely what you're trying to escape."

Meanwhile, many American conservatives are touting Mr Harper's legacy, built over nearly 10 years in office, as he seeks to become the first Canadian prime minister in more than 100 years to win a fourth term in office next month. "Conservatives, wherever they live, can be pleased with Stephen Harper," writes the National Review's Jay Nordlinger. "He is a leader of the West, an advocate of freedom, democracy, capitalism, human rights - Western civilisation, we could say."

[Rip]

Hogwash, we have more left political drama than anything. The US has gone steadily in a more liberal direction. It just seems that way to him because while the US has moved left Canada has pretty much remained in place.

[Max Peck]

Perennial candidates make running and losing a full-time job

Joe Clark was Canada's prime minister and mortgage rates were above 15 per cent when Kimball Cariou made his first run at Parliament. Thirty six years later, he's still trying to get elected.

"I've been in every federal election since 1979," said Cariou as he handed out campaign fliers near Vancouver's busy Joyce SkyTrain station. For anyone counting, that would make him 0 for 12. Then again, when you're a candidate for Canada's Communist Party, you learn to keep your expectations for success in check.

"I'm not the sort of person who is going to throw his beliefs in the gutter and run for another party where I might have a better chance," Cariou told CBC News. "I found my political home and I've never lost that fire for trying to make this a place where poor people have rights and dignity."

As of Monday, candidates had to have registered for Canada's 42nd general election on Oct. 19, and more than 1,700 have put their names forward. Only 338 will win.

[Max Peck]

Conservatives crank up values clash by taking aim at 'barbaric cultural practices'

If it wasn't clear already, the culture war is definitely on now — and the pollsters say it's working. With the polls moving the Conservatives' way and sensing that a majority could yet be in sight, the Tory campaign is pressing hard on the hot button of identity politics, promising a new RCMP "tip line" to enable Canadians to report "barbaric cultural practices" such as sexual slavery or so-called honour killings.

On CBC News Network's Power & Politics, Liberal pundit Amanda Alvaro fumed that this was a "barbaric political practice" by the Conservatives. A good line, but, hey, could two more weeks of cultural combat put the Conservatives over the top? Somebody seems to think so. Even as two of his colleagues were promising the new tip line, Calgary Conservative Jason Kenney launched a fresh attack on the wearing of a niqab, or face veil, which he called "medieval" and "tribal." While he was at it, Kenney blasted the Liberals and the NDP — again — for opposing the revocation of citizenship for convicted terrorists.

Of course, Canadians can already call police to report any crime, at any time. It's hard to see how calling a different number will make much difference. Besides that, the urgent need for a special tip line does not seem to have gripped the Conservatives during their 10 years in office — only now, in the final days of an election campaign. One thing the tip line does, though, is enable them to keep talking about an issue that seems to be firing up the troops.

[GreenGoo]

I am one sad camper. Conservatives have all but destroyed IT for the entire federal government. Nothing is getting done. Service is terrible. People are hiring their own IT people on the sly (completely verboten) just so they can actually function. Morale is at an all time low since I started over a decade ago.

I don't understand why they are doing so well in the polls. It's not like they've cut costs significantly. As far as I can tell, IT costs more now and is functioning at less than 50% capacity as compared to before shared services was implemented.

And even if you didn't care about government services, their record in other areas that Canadians used to be proud of, such as environment, peace keeping, multiculturalism, hell, even just science are all being gutted.

I just don't get it.

Ah well. Might be time to start contracting and come back at 2.5 times the salary and still not have to actually accomplish anything.

I'm sad this election in a way that I haven't been in a long while, including the last couple of times the conservatives were voted in. Hell, I was glad to kick the liberals out, they were as corrupt as fuck, but I think I'd rather have graft than this monstrosity.

[Moliere]

We Asked Comedians Why It's So Hard to Make Fun of Stephen Harper

[GreenGoo]

We Asked Comedians Why It's So Hard to Make Fun of Stephen Harper

say all this because I'm experiencing this personal dilemma at a time when the longer this Canadian election goes on, the more essential satire seems to be. We have an incumbent prime minister who is descending into pure racism and bigotry, as well as his traditional anti-democratic impulses and deceptive economic posturing, while his opponents are too concerned with being the blandest possible option to truly take the winds out of this monster. Canada needs some good Harper jokes.

Totally how I see this election as well. I'm actually stressing about the election a little. Harper has done some nefarious things that affect my ability to do my job and my job satisfaction directly. He hasn't touched my pay (and can't) so all he's done is sabotage parts of the government so they are performing as well as they do in most anti-government jokes. He's made those jokes first, then made it so they are literally true after. I do not like the man for a variety of reasons, including this one.

Which is no easy feat. Harper has worked very diligently to be as bland and boring as an Alberta prairie; a joke about him can drift by in the wind like a tumbleweed. I'm not alone on this though, so to get some assistance on my quest for a funny Harper joke I decided to talk to some of my favorite comedic peers about this dilemma: Can we make Harper funny and, really, is it even worth it?

This is true too, so you can imagine just how uninspiring this election cycle is. 2 vanilla wannabes going up against the nefarious blandman. Sucks. But at least he's gathering the racists and closet racists with his fear mongering. Sigh.

[GreenGoo]

It's also tricky because he's such a huge nerd that when you make fun of the obvious things like his Lego hair and his pet chinchilla and his Beatles cover band full of dads, it feels bad. It feels like "punching down" and in comedy you're supposed to "punch up." And then you're like "Oh wait, duh, but he's the prime minister!" but by that time he's taken away your reproductive rights. What a goof!

Tee hee!

[Max Peck]

We Asked Comedians Why It's So Hard to Make Fun of Stephen Harper

say all this because I'm experiencing this personal dilemma at a time when the longer this Canadian election goes on, the more essential satire seems to be. We have an incumbent prime minister who is descending into pure racism and bigotry, as well as his traditional anti-democratic impulses and deceptive economic posturing, while his opponents are too concerned with being the blandest possible option to truly take the winds out of this monster. Canada needs some good Harper jokes.

Well, racism and bigotry have been fantastically effective tools in the hands of right-wing politicians of years gone by. Who knows, with a few more election cycles under his belt perhaps Die Harfenistin will even have the trains running on time.

Sorry, I've got no good jokes.

[pr0ner]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

Late to the party, but some Canadian friends of mine were having a discussion about this stuff on Facebook, and Canadians are more racist than Americans, believe it or not.

[Max Peck]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

Late to the party, but some Canadian friends of mine were having a discussion about this stuff on Facebook, and Canadians are more racist than Americans, believe it or not.

Yeah, the headline is a bit click-baity -- he's writing for a Canadian audience and the best way to get their attention is to tell them that they are worse than Americans -- but the meat of the article seems pretty much spot on.

[GreenGoo]

I didn't realize Canadians were that xenophobic.

We're not, typically. As with the states, anti-muslim sentiment is way up. A larger population of Canada is foreign born than the US, for example (of not being xenophobic). Our asian population is in full growth mode, and the west coast is seeing the majority of that. No one is about to get elected by suggesting we stop Chinese and Japanese from becoming citizens.

Harper is fanning the flames of bigotry in a uniquely Canadian way. It's sad. He's the opposite of everything I grew up believing Canada was about. He may get re-elected. I is unhappy in a way that I've managed to avoid before.

The conservatives didn't even show up for a local debate in Ottawa this past weekend. While I admit it was just a session to see who could jerk off the city of Ottawa the best organized by the Mayor, it was still disrespectful of the conservatives to simply snub the city.

I hope the entire city turns against him, but I'm not holding my breath.

edit: If you want to see real racism, not the watered down versions in both the US and Canada, look at the UK. They are shouting hate in the streets. I'm slightly appalled.