Canada

[Heracleum Persicum]

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[Heracleum Persicum]

pch108-FedElxn+Liberals+201.jpg (29.68 KiB) Viewed 3988 times

Justin Trudeau among his Constituency (in Montreal 19th October 2015)


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[Typhoon]

If nothing else, it's interesting to discuss another country in N Am for a change

Two more points:

1/ Negative campaigning does not work well in Canada.

2/ Appeals to xenophobia, including Islamophobia, do not work well in Canada.

Apparently the incumbent Conservatives, unlike the other two parties, tried both this recent campaign only to have both backfire on them.

NP | Canadians fed up with divisive niqab debate turn out to vote in masks and — in one case — a pumpkin



[The NP is a fairly well written newspaper. Will have to add it to my list of English language papers.]

[Heracleum Persicum]

If nothing else, it's interesting to discuss another country in N Am for a change

Two more points:

1/ Negative campaigning does not work well in Canada.

2/ Appeals to xenophobia, including Islamophobia, do not work well in Canada.

Apparently the incumbent Conservatives, unlike the other two parties, tried both this recent campaign only to have both backfire on them.

NP | Canadians fed up with divisive niqab debate turn out to vote in masks and — in one case — a pumpkin



[The NP is a fairly well written newspaper. Will have to add it to my list of English language papers.]


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The central, real, issue in this Canadian federal election was, "what kind of Canada do the Canadians want" ?

Canada will be a 80-100 million population in 2-3 generations (to compete with future giant economies, to be somebody, to achieve "critical mass").

That population growth with come from Non European countries (as they themselves need immigrants)

That means, future Canada will be different than "John Diefenbaker Canada" .. population majority will be non-European, Chinese, Iranian, Philippine, Mexican, Syrian, Lebanese, Indian, African, etc.

In that sense, Canada must define (like America has) what "Canadian" means, national psyche, mindset, culture.

Pierre Trudeau started this process .. B4 him, it was same as Australia, official immigrant policy was "European only".

Pierre Trudeau opened the gate

1980, when Iranians arrived in Vancouver, the most exotic fruit in Vancouver was Banana .. Now, Vancouver has the most 5 star Hotels in North America and Chinese and Japanese come to Vancouver for Chinese and Japanese food .. Condo and House prices are higher than Manhattan.

That was what this election was about.

Harper either did not understand this, or he wanted to force Canada to another direction, probably both.

A mistake

Canadians said NO


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[Heracleum Persicum]

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Netanyahu Loses an Important Canadian Ally

Under Harper and his Conservative Party, Canada essentially turned its back on decades of support for multilateralism and the United Nations—the bêtes noires of Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its followers here and in Canada—as well as the country’s relative even-handedness when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This has gone largely unnoticed in the United States, where the electorate and the elites tend to take Canada for granted.

But it marked a pretty radical reorientation of our neighbor’s post-World War II foreign policy, which had previously been closely tied to that of Western Europe and even the Nordics.

It isn’t just that Harper’s government, particularly during the campaign, resorted to the Islamophobia identified with the European Right. From the outset of his premiership in 2006, Harper aligned himself and his country with the Israeli right. Last May, The Forward described him as “Netanyahu’s fiercest supporter among world leaders” who was “playing up his unstinting support for Netanyahu” in the then-upcoming election campaign.

Among other moves, Harper defunded what his government considered “pro-Palestinian” non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including human rights groups, active in the Occupied Territories. He also phased out Canadian financial contributions (about $30 million a year) to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) between 2009 and 2012. Previously, Canada was one of the beleaguered agency most important donors. Although officially Canada’s position on the illegality of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories remained unchanged, Harper himself consistently avoided criticizing them, an omission which distinguished him from, for example, that most pro-Israeli of U.S. presidents, George W. Bush.

Since Harper came to office, Canada has also consistently defended Israeli military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

In January 2014, Harper became the first Canadian prime minister in history to address the Israeli Knesset, pledging that “through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.” Included in his delegation was a leader of the Canadian arm of the far-right Jewish Defense League (JDL), an organization whose chapters in Israel and the U.S. have been outlawed for terrorist activities.

In a move that baffled many foreign observers, Canada abruptly closed its embassy in Tehran in September 2012 and gave Iran’s diplomats five days to leave the country, calling Iran “the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today.” As the main reason for the action, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird cited concerns about the safety of Canadian diplomatic personnel because of an attack by a crowd on the British embassy. That attack, however, had taken place fully 10 months before. (During the just-concluded campaign, Trudeau indicated that he would reopen the embassy.) And although Canada’s most important NATO allies all praised the July 14 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the P5+1 and Iran as a major diplomatic achievement, Harper’s government was downright dour (albeit not quite as negative as Netanyahu):

We appreciate the efforts of the P5+1 to reach an agreement. At the same time, we will continue to judge Iran by its actions not its words…

Iran continues to be a significant threat to international peace and security owing to the regime’s nuclear ambitions, its continuing support for terrorism, its repeated calls for the destruction of Israel, and its disregard for basic human rights.

We will examine this deal further before taking any specific Canadian action.

As of yesterday’s election, Iran still hadn’t endorsed the deal, and Harper’s foreign minister, Rob Nicholson, said last month that Ottawa would not ease its economic sanctions against Tehran for the foreseeable future despite the accord.

Harper also negotiated new provisions for Canada’s free-trade agreement with Israel providing, among other things, duty-free treatment for exports from Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories. Even more remarkably, a government minister suggested as the election campaign got underway last spring that Ottawa may apply hate-crime laws against any efforts to boycott, divest from, or sanction companies doing business with Israel or its settlements as part of its “zero-tolerance” policy toward the BDS movement.

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[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Hey now, there is a leader- his mother's ditzy good looks and his father's megalomania.

[noddy]

The central, real, issue in this Canadian federal election was, "what kind of Canada do the Canadians want" ?

Canada will be a 80-100 million population in 2-3 generations (to compete with future giant economies, to be somebody, to achieve "critical mass").

That population growth with come from Non European countries (as they themselves need immigrants)

That means, future Canada will be different than "John Diefenbaker Canada" .. population majority will be non-European, Chinese, Iranian, Philippine, Mexican, Syrian, Lebanese, Indian, African, etc.

In that sense, Canada must define (like America has) what "Canadian" means, national psyche, mindset, culture.

Pierre Trudeau started this process .. B4 him, it was same as Australia, official immigrant policy was "European only".

Pierre Trudeau opened the gate

1980, when Iranians arrived in Vancouver, the most exotic fruit in Vancouver was Banana .. Now, Vancouver has the most 5 star Hotels in North America and Chinese and Japanese come to Vancouver for Chinese and Japanese food .. Condo and House prices are higher than Manhattan.

That was what this election was about.

Harper either did not understand this, or he wanted to force Canada to another direction, probably both.

A mistake

Canadians said NO


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54% of canadians said no, lets not get carried away.

3rd world basket cases like canada and australia which pretend to be advanced economies but really only sell raw materials during boom times can import middle class from elsewhere and prop up overpriced housing for a while but as a long term plan its going to cause lots and lots of troubles.

Condo and House prices are higher than Manhattan.

ahahha. to live in a frozen wasteland . madness.. its as silly as australias overpriced boom housing... tick tick tick boooom...

Canada will be a 80-100 million population in 2-3 generations (to compete with future giant economies, to be somebody, to achieve "critical mass").

this nonsense again, its always been stupid, it always wil be stupid, all the happiest and most comfortable places on earth are smaller countries without ghettos filled with millions of underclass.

the only people that benefit from this policy are those on top of the pyramid, if your in the middle or lower you just get turned into dirt.

[Typhoon]

Hey now, there is a leader- his mother's ditzy good looks and his father's megalomania.

Speaking of megalomania, his contemporary was Nixon

Looks like the global liberal press and twittering liberals are having an episode of Trudeaumania that can only end with a Trudeaugasm:

LFu8TuKG8ME

[Typhoon]

. . .

Canada will be a 80-100 million population in 2-3 generations (to compete with future giant economies, to be somebody, to achieve "critical mass").

this nonsense again, its always been stupid, it always wil be stupid, all the happiest and most comfortable places on earth are smaller countries without ghettos filled with millions of underclass.

the only people that benefit from this policy are those on top of the pyramid, if your in the middle or lower you just get turned into dirt.

Quite right.

The country that whups the planet's ass in terms of innovation, education, longevity, quality of life, etc. is Switzerland.

Who can name the President of Switzerland [without Googling]?

[Simple Minded]

Hey now, there is a leader- his mother's ditzy good looks and his father's megalomania.

Speaking of megalomania, his contemporary was Nixon

Looks like the global liberal press and twittering liberals are having an episode of Trudeaumania that can only end with a Trudeaugasm:

LFu8TuKG8ME

I think this is the same movie they show in the US every couple years, best hair or most photogenic usually wins.

Celebrity, we can't get enough of it.

[Simple Minded]

. . .

Canada will be a 80-100 million population in 2-3 generations (to compete with future giant economies, to be somebody, to achieve "critical mass").

this nonsense again, its always been stupid, it always wil be stupid, all the happiest and most comfortable places on earth are smaller countries without ghettos filled with millions of underclass.

the only people that benefit from this policy are those on top of the pyramid, if your in the middle or lower you just get turned into dirt.

Quite right.

The country that whups the planet's ass in terms of innovation, education, longevity, quality of life, etc. is Switzerland.

Who can name the President of Switzerland [without googling]?

Somebody needs to tell someone that "critical mass" is a state best avoided unless one intends to build a bomb.

There's a country called Switzerland?

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Obama & Trudeau
Why did inexperience triumph ?

Why would North American voters elect over the last decade two such inexperienced people, inexperienced even in political life, and even a second time with Mr. Obama’s dubious track record during his first term? One may say perhaps that voters perceived the alternatives as worse. Perhaps.

But it appears that something else is going on as the level of political discourse in all the Western world has been rapidly going down the drain. With the distance of time, historians will be able to give better answers. At this stage, mine is a simple speculation.

North America, as well as Western Europe, decided to give up on selecting people as they advance in their schooling and university studies, and keep them on educational real estate well into their twenties, and often beyond. The 18-year-old inexperienced kids go to business schools to be taught by faculty that most never worked in any business even a day in their lives either. The result? The kids learn words, jargons. And, what in many universities are the largest departments, education, the 18 year olds study theories of education, but hardly any math or history – to later become teachers in both. Yet teaching, accounting, finance are “trades” that one can better learn by practicing, rather than by passing multiple-choice exams. Indeed, until the 1960s, one could become an accountant (or a lawyer, another trade) by working, rather than studying at university. All the social sciences and humanities have fallen prey to the nonsense. The smarter — but smaller — crowd navigated into tech and the sciences.

By now three generations have grown up in North America (and Western Europe too) in such relatively easy and heavily subsidized (not-quite) educational environment: By extrapolating from jargon-polluted frames of mind, theories and speculations came to be valued over experience. It is this superficial frame of mind that relatively good times induce, which appears to be extrapolated to political life filled mainly with mediocrities, with then “Hope and Change” and much academia-created nonsense becoming perceived as being preferable to experience.

There are some who blame social networks for such election outcomes, since those are places where people exchange words, words, words (OK, occasionally selective pictures and videos too), and fall into comfortable group think. Maybe. But comparing a unique Canadian experiment yesterday, Election Day, when 850,000 under-voting-age students took part in a mock election tends to discard this view.

The kids’ vote turned out to be close to their parents’ and grandparents’ eventual voting patterns – except being a bit “greener,” and a bit less “conservative.” The Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, took 37.5% of the kids’ popular vote – and 39.5% of the real one. The Conservatives got 26.0% of the kiddies’ votes, and 31.9% of the real one. The “leftist” party took 19.8% of the schoolchildren’ votes, and exactly the same percentage of the real one; the separatist Quebec party got 4% in both the real and experimental election. The big disparity was for the “Green Party,” getting 12% of the kids’ votes, but only 3.5% in the elections.

Briefly: the kids were voting exactly as their parents and grandparents eventually did. This implies that, surprisingly perhaps, social media — where youngsters are far more active than older generations — does not appear to have an impact in Oct. 19 elections. Something else must shed light on this triumph of inexperience. My conclusion remains: inexperienced politicians reflect the wishes of equally inexperienced, spoiled by easy life, voters. It is a broader implication of the saying: “three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves”: the first generation creates, the second expands, the third, spoiled one, goes awry. In resource-rich-endowed Canada, the chances of going awry may even be more severe.

Which now brings us to the question: What may Mr. Trudeau now do?

Hopefully, he may have learned from Mr. Obama’s gravest mistake and he will not surround himself with inexperienced people, while creating illusions of using experienced ones by taking pictures with them. Remember the advisory committee he put in place when he was first elected, headed by Mr. Paul Volcker? The committee rapidly disappeared into oblivion – some pictures excluded. Instead, his administration consisted of inexperienced people like Mr. Obama himself – or worse perhaps, Mr. Tim Geithner, his Treasury Secretary, is a good example. He was previously at NY Fed, where the events leading to 2008 crisis escaped him. Fine, one can say: the credit expansion leading to the crisis escaped smarter observers too. True: but still, why reward him then to become Secretary of the Treasury? But then the frame of mind in politics today is: Who cares about experience?

Let us hope that Mr. Justin Trudeau will. He does not appear to be an egomaniac as some politicians south of the border do by surrounding themselves with people of dubious, if any achievements. Let us hope too that he would learn from one of his father’s big mistakes, which led to the serious weakening of accountability in the Federal governments – and correct some.

Here is what happened: In 1969, during the first year of the Trudeau Sr. administration, he and his entourage were impressed with the Great Society programs in the US, built on the assumption that good times would never end. The problem for Trudeau’s ambitions for Canada was that large-scale spending for all the new programs required at the time scrupulous vetting by the parliament prior to approval. So he changed these rules.

Before, the House of Commons discussed spending estimates. With the change, the deliberations were moved outside the House to “standing” committees, stipulating that if these committees did not vote on spending measures by June 15, they automatically pass. Paul Dick, then Parliament member and later Cabinet Minister in Brian Mulroney’s government, recalled that once this rule passed, “people started arguing and discussing policy at the standing committees, but they didn’t discuss the finances of a department anymore. And we lost public scrutiny of parliament … Nobody was taking a look at the beans anymore. Nobody was taking a look at what was happening with the dollars and cents.” The change of rules allowed then to circumvent the office of controller general, and politicians no longer had to follow budgets for which the controller general held responsibility.

The auditor general’s office did not fare better. Max Henderson, who occupied that office during 1960-73 when big-spending academic theorizing got translated into budgetary reality, exposed the government’s waste and extravagance. Trudeau Sr. cabinet’s reaction was to introduce a bill in the House of Commons cutting staff salaries in the Auditor General’s office and freezing its size.

There was sufficient uproar across Canada at the time – Henderson ending up on front pages — that Trudeau was forced to withdraw the bill later in the year. But following Henderson’s 1973 retirement, the measure was revived and pushed through. In an interview before his death in 1997, Henderson observed: “They curtailed the fellow in that office so he would behave himself. That was a tragedy … I hate to brag, but I prophesied what was going to happen. The depreciated dollar, the incredible size of the national debt, the terrifically high taxes that would sap the incentive of our people.” Though subsequent governments repaired some of the damage, the repairs have been rudimentary.

Perhaps Trudeau Jr. would correct some of his father’s grave mistakes. There is no shame in that. Nobody is perfect. Hope and change indeed.

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[Heracleum Persicum]

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The country that whups the planet's ass in terms of innovation, education, longevity, quality of life, etc. is Switzerland.

Who can name the President of Switzerland [without googling] ?

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Switzerland opted out of World intellectual property (Patent), built an industry (in Basel) for Chemical and Pharma by copying German patents for chemistry and Pharma, when established, they adapted, entered again, the world patent agreement .. also, when French revolution happened, all French Bankers and money (pretty much all Jewish) moved from Paris to Geneva .. pretty much a parasite state.

Also swiss population density is 200 persone per square kilometre, Canada population density is 35 persone per square kilometre.


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[Apollonius]

Weird post

The only thing weird about my post is that despite all the many disagreements we've had over the years, we voted for the same party!



BTW, can't agree at all about your hope that Canada becomes as overpopulated as the rest of the world. Goldman is always going on about having more children. I think we need fewer humans in this world. There are already far too many of us. I did my part. I'm not a breeder.


Maybe you like living squeezed into densities like Hong Kong (or, for that matter, Vancouver), but my idea of a good place to live is one where you can't see the smoke from the fireplace of your closest neighbour.

[Brecher]

I hear that Trudeau wants Canada to have some form of proportional representation.

That could keep the young fella in power for a generation, with either a Liberal majority or a Liberal-NDP coalition.

He could last longer than Thatcher did.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Hey now, there is a leader- his mother's ditzy good looks and his father's megalomania.

Speaking of megalomania, his contemporary was Nixon

ah, but no one ever accused Nixon of having a son with a mug like that.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Another Trudeau Makes Canada Cool

[Typhoon]

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The country that whups the planet's ass in terms of innovation, education, longevity, quality of life, etc. is Switzerland.

Who can name the President of Switzerland [without googling] ?

.

Switzerland opted out of World intellectual property (Patent), built an industry (in Basel) for Chemical and Pharma by copying German patents for chemistry and Pharma, when established, they adapted, entered again, the world patent agreement .. also, when French revolution happened, all French Bankers and money (pretty much all Jewish) moved from Paris to Geneva .. pretty much a parasite state.

Also swiss population density is 200 persone per square kilometre, Canada population density is 35 persone per square kilometre.

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Thanks for the ha ha.

[Typhoon]

Another Trudeau Makes Canada Cool

I don't recall a time when the global media took such an interest in a Canadian election.

Okay, so Trudeau and his LIberals won, but why did Harper and his Conservatives lose?

The Star | How irony killed Stephen Harper

More than anything, it was the irony that lodges deep in the Canadian soul that was Stephen Harper’s undoing.

[monster_gardener]

Another Trudeau Makes Canada Cool

I don't recall a time when the global media took such an interest in a Canadian election.

Okay, so Trudeau and his LIberals won, but why did Harper and his Conservatives lose?

The Star | How irony killed Stephen Harper

More than anything, it was the irony that lodges deep in the Canadian soul that was Stephen Harper’s undoing.

Thank You VERY Much for your post, Typhoon.

[url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/10/23/how-irony-killed-stephen-harper.html]The Star | How irony killed Stephen Harper[/url]

Wondering if the title of the article was inspired by the title for this song

"Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.......

Well........ At least they almost rhyme......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Kil ... Radio_Star

Iwuy4hHO3YQ

Wd_pU80mGXk

[Typhoon]

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

Catchy pop tune.

[monster_gardener]

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

Catchy pop tune.

Thank You VERY Much for your reply, Typhoon,

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-ki ... mtv-2015-7

Catchy pop tune.

Glad you liked it............

Your Friend,
MG

[Nonc Hilaire]

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

Catchy pop tune.

The Vapors song 'Turning Japanese' must have been a close runner-up.

[Typhoon]

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

Catchy pop tune.

The Vapors song 'Turning Japanese' must have been a close runner-up.

Ah, yes. The good old days when, at least according to the pundits, Japan was poised to take over the planet.

[Typhoon]

I've often read that Video Killed the Radio Star was the 1st video played on MTV.

Catchy pop tune.

The Vapors song 'Turning Japanese' must have been a close runner-up.

Ah, yes. The good old days when, at least according to the pundits, Japan was poised to take over the planet.