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boy oh boy did Steve Paiken bury Harper on "The Agenda" last night.
On September 17 2015 00:48 Djzapz wrote: Why do we insist on putting up with this shit? Now those women don't get to see outside while they run on the treadmill, great victory. Fuck that shit. And the current government is pandering to that bullshit. What do they expect, people will be like "look how open minded the cons are to close minded attitudes! how great!". For fuck's sake.
btw the Canadian dollar was born in 1867.... basically on the same day the country was born. so we have Canadian money.. no constitution and no flag for 100 years.
that'll pretty much tell you what Canada is all about right there... fuck the details about what defines what Canada is.... let's just make sure we get the money system working in alignment with our biggest trading partners.
also. the 1982 Constitution was never passed in Quebec despite Trudeau comprising 5000 ways to Sunday to get them in. Then they tried getting Quebec in via the Meech Lake Accord and that failed. So even in 1987 there really was not a constitution for the entire country.
with no constitution you really don't have any defining principles for the country.
Canada is more of an "economic zone" than a nation in the traditional sense.
Ok I gotta admit it, I normally hate attack ads, but that one the NDP just released where they straight up ripped off the Conservatives' "screening candidates and rejecting Trudeau as not ready" ad and turned it instead into a performance review where they recommend Harper gets fired and then say Mulcair should get the job is pretty clever. Heck, they even one upped the Conservatives by actually mentioning their party rather than just attacking their opponents.
The final "fuck you" with ending the ad with "nice hair though" was actually pretty funny.
The original one was beyond stupid, and capped off the last 3 years of attack ads from the Conservatives. Can't imagine how insufferable this campaign would've been like if they'd kept escalating the juvenile insults towards Trudeau.
same goes with whoever thinks they are "bringing baseball back to Montreal" or "bringing NHL hockey back to quebec"... not 1 nickel of federal money boys.. not 1.
You wish. The people want bread and games and they will have them. Welcome to Canada, nation of mostly retards.
Anyone who says anything about the Syrian Civil War and it's impact to the elections is a hypocrite imo. I've been following the conflict for more than 4 years, few people cared at all, and now it's a thing... Just because they want a topic of discussion for political debates?
In my opinion though, bringing Syrian refugees is a clear no, even though we are helping the US bomb Syria (which I don't think we should have been a part of), because naturally, bringing in people raised in a violence filled radical culture which doesn't particularly mesh with what Canada stands for as a country has its problems. If anything, Canada could give some priority to Syrian immigrants, given they have sufficient education, are young, healthy, etc, and raise the quota there.
And attack ads are so stupid, like the one above, "worst jobs record of any prime minister in decades"... So how many is that, 3?... "right priorities"... Okay, lets be as qualitative as possible? Honestly, the only reason we are stuck with parties and representatives that are shitty, are because we aren't doing our jobs as citizen of researching the parties and making an educated vote based on that.
Instead, we vote based on the stupid signs on the side of the road, attack ads, and scripted debates.
Attack ads are weird. Does anyone who knows a thing about politics want to tell me why they don't just spend those resources on explaining their platforms instead of just bashing each other? I don't even know who to vote for in this election because they're all kinda weird.
Is C24 making me a second-class citizen by default? I was born in the PRC, and don't have a dual-citizenship.
On September 21 2015 01:43 IntoTheheart wrote: Attack ads are weird. Does anyone who knows a thing about politics want to tell me why they don't just spend those resources on explaining their platforms instead of just bashing each other? I don't even know who to vote for in this election because they're all kinda weird.
Is C24 making me a second-class citizen by default? I was born in the PRC, and don't have a dual-citizenship.
Please please don't worry about C24, people just wanted to create shit to talk about it. Do your research on it, but people don't throw around "second-class" citizen as a bad thing, it's just the terminology used, hell, I'd rather be a second class citizen than a first class citizen.
All it means is that if you commit an absolutely obscene act (terrorism, spying on canada, fraud, or part of a group that has an armed conflict with Canada), you can be revoked Canadian citizenship. Essentially, instead of spending of tax dollars to putting you into a prison in Canada, we will send you back to your other country or origin, and let them deal you there.
The ONLY reason why this isn't the case for citizen born here is because you can't just revoke citizenship, and have them be a citizen of no country, as that would go against the universal rights and freedoms or whatever international act that deals with it.
I mean, despite being "second-class," I was still able to get my security papers to clear in a week (standard time according to the secretary) at a military college so I guess it's not the end of the world. My current understanding is that:
Conservatives: Currently in power and regardless of how well or poorly they do, get a lot of hate from where I live; Liberals: Young leader: will win Kingston (where I live) regardless of whether or not I vote NDP: Will probably bankrupt us, not voting for them. :/
On September 21 2015 01:52 IntoTheheart wrote: I mean, despite being "second-class," I was still able to get my security papers to clear in a week (standard time according to the secretary) at a military college so I guess it's not the end of the world. My current understanding is that:
Conservatives: Currently in power and regardless of how well or poorly they do, get a lot of hate from where I live; Liberals: Young leader: will win Kingston (where I live) regardless of whether or not I vote NDP: Will probably bankrupt us, not voting for them. :/
Second-class and first-class is not a measure of rank.
The reason why this becomes a topic on my facebook feed is because people are too lazy/ignorant to do a 2 minute google search. Do your own research on Bill C24, I personally would say that anyone who legitimately opposes bill C24 after understanding it, is a lunatic.
Bill C-51 is the one that is controversial, because it can in theory be abused pretty easily.
I think I'll be voting Liberals, even though I don't like like Trudeau. I'm from Alberta, and I used to be a big Conservative guy... And currently, I'm really not a fan of the NDP, there's too much focus on equality and not enough focus on equal opportunity. For example, the $15 minimum wage that'll be implemented by 2018 is imo, quite unfair to others, when an new Accounting grad will make $18-$20/hour. It will also make the price of fast food, retail, low-education service products go up, and thus in a way, it's a double whammy negative for hard working people with university/college degrees, or tech diplomas.
The reason why I've been moving away a bit from the conservatives is because they have been completely neglecting the environment, and where I'm from in Alberta - irresponsible oil and gas exploitation results irreversible changes to the environment, and those decisions should be a bit closer analysed (and this is coming from someone with a minor in Petroleum Engineering). It upsets me that people are often stubborn, and think it's either the economy, or the environment, when I would think we should know, it's a balance, and it's up to us to decide how we want to weigh the two relative to each other.
And so, I think I'm leaning with the Liberals, because for me, they provide a good balance between security and freedom, social services and private income, environment and economy, and economic and social focus.
I might follow suit, although Kingston always votes red anyway. Our Conservative rep seems like a nice guy, but his platform is basically "Trudeau is an idiot, vote for Conservatives."
I'm probably voting NDP, because they seem to be the only party that will push back against some of the worst things the Conservatives blindly pushed through (C51, TPP...).
Of course it looks like we're getting a minority government no matter what happens, so I guess the only real hope is that the Liberals and NDP can be roughly on the same page.
On September 21 2015 01:52 IntoTheheart wrote: I mean, despite being "second-class," I was still able to get my security papers to clear in a week (standard time according to the secretary) at a military college so I guess it's not the end of the world. My current understanding is that:
Conservatives: Currently in power and regardless of how well or poorly they do, get a lot of hate from where I live; Liberals: Young leader: will win Kingston (where I live) regardless of whether or not I vote NDP: Will probably bankrupt us, not voting for them. :/
The idea that the NDP would bankrupt us was pretty much planted by the other parties and is consistently planted by the opposing party of the more left-of-center party. At this point I've heard it so many times, it's clear that people don't know what the hell they're talking about.
The NDP showed no signs of being fiscally irresponsible. Sure they're idealistic, but I don't doubt they can run a budget. Hell, it's the liberals who plan to run a deficit, and if the NDP's budget happens to be unworkable because they find out that they can't draw that much money from corporate taxes, they'll just do what every single party has done historically: not live up to their promises.
And remember, it was under Mulroney that debt to GDP ratio went from 70% to over 100%, then it went down when they weren't sitting and under Harper it went from 70 to 85% again (though it's more understandable). If you want fiscal responsibility, I don't think the NDP looks as bad as the people who run against them work so hard to make you believe.
I'm a gun owner, and everyone in this community is against the NDP and the Liberals because they're viewed as "anti-gun"' but I personally can't stand for Trudeau, the excitable silly guy who frankly probably doesn't have the wits necessary to be PM, nor Harper who does have the intelligence but not the morals. They're parties which voted for C-51 and that should never have happened. Haven't we learned any lessons from the US?
On September 21 2015 01:56 FiWiFaKi wrote: I think I'll be voting Liberals, even though I don't like like Trudeau. I'm from Alberta, and I used to be a big Conservative guy... And currently, I'm really not a fan of the NDP, there's too much focus on equality and not enough focus on equal opportunity. For example, the $15 minimum wage that'll be implemented by 2018 is imo, quite unfair to others, when an new Accounting grad will make $18-$20/hour. It will also make the price of fast food, retail, low-education service products go up, and thus in a way, it's a double whammy negative for hard working people with university/college degrees, or tech diplomas.
Although increasing the minimum wage does have diminishing returns, I feel like gradually going up does actually help with equality and eventually the economy. A $15 wage will cause some inflation but you'll also give adequate buying power to a whole bunch of people who'll now be able to consume more, which will make accountants more valuable. Essentially, the mcdonalds worker used to make $11 and now he makes $15, and the accounting grad now makes $22 because products move off the shelves more since the people who otherwise would be broke can actually afford some luxuries. In this case, you've actually made some progress regarding equal opportunity because the mcdonalds wage can be used toward paying of school and whatnot.
I understand that you can't have the minimum wage at $40 without an insane staple economy, but I think that most businesses can afford to pay their employees more and stay competitive provided that their competitors need to pay their employees more too. In the end, people who make $15/hr don't save it, they spend it and it goes right back to the businesses who can sell more volume.
Isn't the NDP that's running Alberta right now running a deficit already? Granted that's provincial and not national, but it doesn't paint the greatest picture of confidence.
On September 21 2015 02:56 WolfintheSheep wrote: I'm probably voting NDP, because they seem to be the only party that will push back against some of the worst things the Conservatives blindly pushed through (C51, TPP...).
Of course it looks like we're getting a minority government no matter what happens, so I guess the only real hope is that the Liberals and NDP can be roughly on the same page.
I don't think you can list 5 things that the Conversatives "pushed through", that are "bad". I don't think TPP is bad, the Asian economies are the future, and there are many benefits to trade-agreement, just look at NAFTA. Imo, if anything, the added bureaucracy costs of the NDP will make the Canadian industries even less competitive. From my understanding, locking ourselves out of other markets, and purchasing only Canadian made goods will result in capital flight.
I wouldn't be so sure about a minority government, there is still a lot of time left, and as people get more educated, the NDP percentage will fall. The NDP policy is populist, and that's why it's easy to get behind for an uneducated individual that simply wants a better life, but as you read more, you truly get to see the pros and cons of all parties. The conservatives are obviously the easiest to shit on, as they are the ones making all the decisions (and 95% of the problems arose from the fall in oil price, yet people like to focus on other things), but often times, the argument for their policies do make sense if you look at it from an unbiased objective based approach.
On September 21 2015 03:50 IntoTheheart wrote: Isn't the NDP that's running Alberta right now running a deficit already? Granted that's provincial and not national, but it doesn't paint the greatest picture of confidence.
What do you suggest the NDP in Alberta does to avoid running a deficit in a province so dependent on oil revenue and the taxation on the income tax of oil workers during a steep decline in oil prices? One way would be a steep tax increase on everyone else to fill the gap, but that doesn't fly in Alberta because everybody wants everything to come free, and also it would undermine the rest of Alberta's economy. So they can reduce their expenses... yet as I understand it, Alberta's expenses are pretty barebone. Any province or country dependent on oil will see a deficit, and hell, if there wasn't a deficit that'd be bad, arguably, for Alberta. The province would be better off if it didn't rely so much on oil, though. Barring that, it's a sort of recession which means government borrows money and invests in infrastructure.
On September 21 2015 03:50 IntoTheheart wrote: Isn't the NDP that's running Alberta right now running a deficit already? Granted that's provincial and not national, but it doesn't paint the greatest picture of confidence.
Everything in Alberta is tied to oil, initially I was a bit of a skeptic, but it's true. If it wasn't for oil, we would all be farmers here. When WTI drops from $100 to $40 in a year, things will happen. Alberta has relatively low provincial income tax rates, at 10% flat (before NDP), and no PST either. And besides, economic theory says you should run deficits in recessions and surpluses in booms to level off the business cycles.
So they can't really be blamed for that, but I still dislike them for 100 other reasons.
On September 21 2015 01:52 IntoTheheart wrote: I mean, despite being "second-class," I was still able to get my security papers to clear in a week (standard time according to the secretary) at a military college so I guess it's not the end of the world. My current understanding is that:
Conservatives: Currently in power and regardless of how well or poorly they do, get a lot of hate from where I live; Liberals: Young leader: will win Kingston (where I live) regardless of whether or not I vote NDP: Will probably bankrupt us, not voting for them. :/
The idea that the NDP would bankrupt us was pretty much planted by the other parties and is consistently planted by the opposing party of the more left-of-center party. At this point I've heard it so many times, it's clear that people don't know what the hell they're talking about.
The NDP showed no signs of being fiscally irresponsible. Sure they're idealistic, but I don't doubt they can run a budget. Hell, it's the liberals who plan to run a deficit, and if the NDP's budget happens to be unworkable because they find out that they can't draw that much money from corporate taxes, they'll just do what every single party has done historically: not live up to their promises.
And remember, it was under Mulroney that debt to GDP ratio went from 70% to over 100%, then it went down when they weren't sitting and under Harper it went from 70 to 85% again (though it's more understandable). If you want fiscal responsibility, I don't think the NDP looks as bad as the people who run against them work so hard to make you believe.
I'm a gun owner, and everyone in this community is against the NDP and the Liberals because they're viewed as "anti-gun"' but I personally can't stand for Trudeau, the excitable silly guy who frankly probably doesn't have the wits necessary to be PM, nor Harper who does have the intelligence but not the morals. They're parties which voted for C-51 and that should never have happened. Haven't we learned any lessons from the US?
On September 21 2015 01:56 FiWiFaKi wrote: I think I'll be voting Liberals, even though I don't like like Trudeau. I'm from Alberta, and I used to be a big Conservative guy... And currently, I'm really not a fan of the NDP, there's too much focus on equality and not enough focus on equal opportunity. For example, the $15 minimum wage that'll be implemented by 2018 is imo, quite unfair to others, when an new Accounting grad will make $18-$20/hour. It will also make the price of fast food, retail, low-education service products go up, and thus in a way, it's a double whammy negative for hard working people with university/college degrees, or tech diplomas.
Although increasing the minimum wage does have diminishing returns, I feel like gradually going up does actually help with equality and eventually the economy. A $15 wage will cause some inflation but you'll also give adequate buying power to a whole bunch of people who'll now be able to consume more, which will make accountants more valuable. Essentially, the mcdonalds worker used to make $11 and now he makes $15, and the accounting grad now makes $22 because products move off the shelves more since the people who otherwise would be broke can actually afford some luxuries. In this case, you've actually made some progress regarding equal opportunity because the mcdonalds wage can be used toward paying of school and whatnot.
I understand that you can't have the minimum wage at $40 without an insane staple economy, but I think that most businesses can afford to pay their employees more and stay competitive provided that their competitors need to pay their employees more too. In the end, people who make $15/hr don't save it, they spend it and it goes right back to the businesses who can sell more volume.
Poor people will consume more, at the expense of others consuming less (the people paying the higher taxes to pay for the minimum wage subsidy). This link here:
Shows the number of people in each salary range, and then you could subtract 25k from 35k, to get the # of people who make 25k-35k, and so on. And then you could plot the probability distribution function thing, that'll look like a bell shaped curve, with a long right tail. From my initial inspection, the wage gap between the rich and the poor is quite reasonable. If I was going to draw my own curve of what I thought was optimal, I think it'd be somewhere at that level.
50% of people earn $35-50k in Canada, and so having <1% of people earning 250k+ is reasonable to me.
Anyway, at the end of the day, I think we need to focus on being more competitive and improving that TPF term in the Cobb-Douglas if we want to be academic, instead of regulating every industry to extinction.
On September 21 2015 02:56 WolfintheSheep wrote: I'm probably voting NDP, because they seem to be the only party that will push back against some of the worst things the Conservatives blindly pushed through (C51, TPP...).
Of course it looks like we're getting a minority government no matter what happens, so I guess the only real hope is that the Liberals and NDP can be roughly on the same page.
I don't think you can list 5 things that the Conversatives "pushed through", that are "bad". I don't think TPP is bad, the Asian economies are the future, and there are many benefits to trade-agreement, just look at NAFTA. Imo, if anything, the added bureaucracy costs of the NDP will make the Canadian industries even less competitive. From my understanding, locking ourselves out of other markets, and purchasing only Canadian made goods will result in capital flight.
I wouldn't be so sure about a minority government, there is still a lot of time left, and as people get more educated, the NDP percentage will fall. The NDP policy is populist, and that's why it's easy to get behind for an uneducated individual that simply wants a better life, but as you read more, you truly get to see the pros and cons of all parties. The conservatives are obviously the easiest to shit on, as they are the ones making all the decisions (and 95% of the problems arose from the fall in oil price, yet people like to focus on other things), but often times, the argument for their policies do make sense if you look at it from an unbiased objective based approach.
The problems with TPP is that large sections of it are wish lists from Hollywood and Pharmaceutical companies which screw over consumers, and help corporations that would rather increase prices and trade barriers than lower them. Not to mention the corporate sovereignty bits.
Plus the fact that the entire thing is secret, so we really don't know what's changing in it except for what leaks.
I mean, considering your entire argument for the TPP is "trade agreements can be good and Asian markets are growing", and absolutely nothing about the agreement in question, says quite a bit.
EPT
