UMD Libertarians

Announced this morning. How will everyone be voting?!

Bloc Québécois
Leader: Gilles Duceppe

Conservative Party of Canada
Leader: Stephen Harper

Liberal Party of Canada
Leader: Stephane Dion

New Democratic Party of Canada
Leader: Jack Layton

Green Party of Canada
Leader: Elizabeth May

Other parties:

Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party

Canadian Action Party

Christian Heritage Party

Communist Party

First Peoples National Party

Libertarian Party

Marxist-Leninist Party

Marijuana Party

Neo-Rhino Party

Progressive Canadian Party

Western Block Party
Marxist-Leninist for sure.

No really, I have no idea. I usually vote Green. I will likely stick to it. I live in the west where my vote doesn’t mean jack.

Yeah I will be voting Green this election again… better than abstaining
here is Canada on a map. For those that don’t know where it is.

Announced today? how do you prepare for such a short election period

our prime minister is just a douchebag. He promised fixed election dates and then he pulls this stunt. He is just trying to get a majority.

Oh, and you are crazy if you think anyone other than the Tories will win. The liberals have a slim chance to win with a minority, but I don’t see it happening. Such a joke this election is. Fuck

The election has been in the workings for probably a year, gaining momentum in the last 6 months, so everyone knew it would be coming…

I will be out of the country, so now I have 30 days to mail in my application for voting abroad, receive my ballot, and snail mail it back from Indonesia. Fairly pointless…

Yeah, no kidding. He knows that the only challenging party is weak at the moment (the Liberals). He is taking advantage of this to try and capitalize a majority.

since I posted that, it seems the Block has been going down in the polls and the Tory’s going up, so I’m leaning more and more to the Libs because a Harper majority is a nightmare for me

Yep, a vote for any other party than the Libs is a vote for the Tories.

But hey, it cannot go on like this forever… some people have to start taking the risks in hopes of change.
voting for bloc party since i loved block parties as a kid
surely the roughriders in for a shout!!!

:america’s hat:

Too bad their leader is about to get extradited to the US…

I think you’re thinking of Marc Emery, who leads the BC Marijuana Party, not the federal one.

looks like he’ll plea bargain so he can serve the time in Canada though
Cliffs as to why Harper is stepping down for us US-ians?

I didn’t know Canada’s territory went all the way north like that in those islands. Anything of worth up there besides ice?

he’s worried if he waits for his own mandated fixed election date, the economy will have tanked and the US will have a liberal in the White House who might not work with him as much to get stuff done, both of which would make him look worse
if Russia helped Quebec break away from Canada should we help the Canadians keep Quebec ?

diamonds, gold, oil? There should be lots of goodies up there.

There are ice roads going far north and semi trailers drive them.

maybe if the Canadian army carpet bombed Quebec City

Why would two countries fight over Quebec when there have been (and probably will be again) legal referendums?

Russia would just help Quebec finally break away from the rest of Canada and then they could establish a presence right in our backyard thats why.

Except that both referendums were voted NO by the majority of Quebecois. They don’t need help to secede.

Wasn’t the last vote like 50.4% against?

It was decided by like a 1% margin. If they ever decide they want to break away again, i’m sure they’ll just have another referendum.

pretty tight margin, I wonder how many of those south ossetians wanted to break away, maybe the vote would have been that close…

Because they’re pompous assholes and think they’re better than the rest of Canadians.

It was actually a majority vote — i think around 90% voted yes.

they are also the french speaking part of Canada, im pretty sure they see themselves as a separate culture in Canada.

sssshhhh or else Bush might invade us next

you’re both right

at least with respect to the separatists.

i think they should break off from canada. then canada can flex its military muscle and take it over

Yea but should the US help Canada or just sit back ?

would you really need help to take back quebec?

and hell, we help every other country in the world so why not canada
This election has been in the works for the past year really. I’m voting conservative. Liberal signs are already posted all over the place here, but they look recycled.

Two countries have already fought over Quebec in the past….
The Green Party is not being allowed to take part in the debate. This sucks.

I guess because they were not elected under a Green platform. Because an independent switched to Green one week ago. I suppose it makes sense, but why would 3 of 4 parties refuse to participate if the Greens were allowed in. Sound like a bunch of crybabies to me.

Green leader said she will be there though

definitely crybabies. I think they were afraid of getting ganged up on since the Green’s platform is pretty similar to the libs, just more environmentally based. at least thats the sense I got when I read over their platform during the last election
I think it was a dumb move to block the greens from attending the debates. A party with more than 5% of the national vote should be allowed some speaking time.

they received 4.68% of the vote in the last election

i totally agree though and have emailed the parties and their leaders to voice my displease. please do the same.

What a pretty hat we have.

we’re bigger and on top. if this were prison, you’d be our bitch

If we were in prison, you would follow us around telling us to be nice to people while being happy you never had to actually engage in any conflict because you have 10% our strength.

and you have 10x our population

The 10% number was not created magically.
I think the new Canadian conservative party will probably retain control. I do believe that was the entire point of calling for elections at this point anyway.

Just read this on the CBC, what do you think about it?

"In arguing against May’s inclusion, the Tories and NDP cited a deal she struck with Dion, in which they agreed not to run candidates against each other in their respective Nova Scotia and Quebec ridings."

To me that seems like the greens and liberals are basically working together in some instances. Therefore there should only be one representative on the floor for both parties if they are not willing to run candidates in all the ridings. The Bloc should not be allowed in the debates either unless they run in all the ridings.

Its not like the Liberal’s (or Green’s) have a chance to win in the NS riding anyway and the Green’s don’t have a chance in Dion’s riding (its been Liberal since it was formed) so its more of a PR thing then a ploy to win

The debates are for informational purposes, and Dion/Liberals & May/Green’s have different platforms and bring different viewpoints to the table and I think given the rising popularity of the Green’s, those views should be shared in the debates.
just had an email from the Bloc

The conservatives don’t have a chance in downtown Toronto ridings, but they still run candidates.

@ green party getting more than 5% of the vote. fucking canadians
If you don’t for for the CPC you’ve probably had dicks in your mouth at one point in your life.

@ the highly polarized political system in the US which consists of only two relevant parties

Green will probably pull in at least 10% this election

.

I sincerely hope not.
Probably NDP because I can’t bring myself to vote for the other two parties. Not because I want the NDP to win, but because I feel they’re the best opposition party (they have no hope in hell of winning in my riding, so it’s essentially a throw-away vote ).

I’d vote Liberal, but their fucking carbon tax is beyond stupid.

It’s currently a ‘minority’ government, which means the ruling party has less than 50% of the seats in the house, but still more than the other parties. It usually means that parties have to cooperate, but obviously each party wants to be in control of a majority government.

This election has been "called" (it’s more or less negotiated by non-cooperation, which dissolves the House), because each party thinks they have a chance to win seats and take a majority. The conservatives have a decent chance, since Canada’s economy has done ok under conservative prime minister Harper, but at the same time there are many people who fear him as a majority leader, since he’s too far to the right on many issues (ie: too "American": more money for war, prisons, less for social programs.)

I hope we’re in for another minority government, since it usually means nothing extreme happens, because at least 2 of the parties in the House need to agree before something can get passed. Things usually go wrong when one party has too much power and not enough accountability.

yeah lets all vote ndp maybe next time they will raise the gst to 10%

PROTIP: We’re not a parliamentary system.

Ok Mr Harper

And those crooked credit card companies, shut them down! Less accountability for all!

pretty cool socialist

Probably the only leader I could tolerate if we had the opportunity to enjoy a few casual beers at the bar…
Looks like Harper has shot himself in the foot during the first 4 days… Bad Press!

I don’t get it.

He’s trying to get the gay vote.

Anyway Harper is by far the smartest politician around for a long time. Hate him but he is systematically dismantling the opposition just like Chretien did in the 90’s but with greater results. And he’s doing this while reigning in all the crazies in the party. I truely beleive that he doesn’t care about half the shit he proposes like the abandoning of the marijuana bill but he values power and votes more so he goes with it.

As a result we have the Greens, who have a very smart leader but is one note right now, the Liberals, with a person that doesn’t speak English well and that is hated my most Anglophones and Francophones (Thanks in part to the clarity act), and the NDP, whose leader is often described as a used car salesman. Nevermind that the party itself would ruin Canada.

What’s even more funny is that the Liberals have moved more to the center yet they claim to be the left opposition.

I just wish a charismic politician would actually step up and handle the real issues. Too many parties are pandering to vote getting issues like banning guns, banning marijuana, stupid environmental issues, etc… instead of addressing real problems we face or real solutions to the above problems (Like leaving the gun laws the fuck alone and making marijuana legal or a misdemeanor like a ticket).
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams is encouraging Newfoundlanders living in Alberta to vote for anyone other than Harper. He says that Harper’s gov’t has a hidden agenda.
Harper majority would signal dark era for Canada

Danny Williams
I think right now a harper minority is probably the best way to go. Basically keep things the same untill the other parties get their shit together.

Oh, the hidden agenda issue, again. Boohoo the feds did not take non-renewable resources out of the calculations for equalization payments (who would this also piss off? Oh yeah, Alberta, even more than NF, but they aren’t crying foul there) And taking his campaign outside of the province? Great premier there. I didn’t think I could say this but he gives Newfies a bad name.

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