Canadian Elections
polycounter lvl 18
Hey all, figured there should be a post on here about the Canadian Elections, as there are a bunch of us Canucks on here.
Hopefully everyone's going to be voting that can, as this is a potentially important election, and comes about in a rather shameful way for us Canadians (Government found in contempt of Parliament :poly117:). Which makes me think we need to get active and actually change shit for the better.
Anyways, won't say much more than that, just try to drum up some interest.
Here's something for the undecided to help you vote: http://votecompass.ca/federal/
And one last thing... whoever you vote for, for the love of all that is good and holy, please don't vote Harper.
http://shitharperdid.com
http://unseatharper.ca/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShitHarperDid?feature=mhum#p/u
Hopefully everyone's going to be voting that can, as this is a potentially important election, and comes about in a rather shameful way for us Canadians (Government found in contempt of Parliament :poly117:). Which makes me think we need to get active and actually change shit for the better.
Anyways, won't say much more than that, just try to drum up some interest.
Here's something for the undecided to help you vote: http://votecompass.ca/federal/
And one last thing... whoever you vote for, for the love of all that is good and holy, please don't vote Harper.
http://shitharperdid.com
http://unseatharper.ca/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShitHarperDid?feature=mhum#p/u
Replies
I mean seriously, Steven Harper, he just...he just...
Steven Harper...Steven Harper...S = Steven Harper, H = Harper.
S.H. = Steve Harper!
SH = Silent Hill!
Silent Hill Movie being made in Canada!
Steven Harper is in Canada!
Silent Hill = Madness of Horror!
Seven Harper = Madness of the Government!
OH...MY...LORD! STEVEN HARPER is the representation of the Madness that stems from one person when their belief become a condemnation to another persons lifestyle not based upon study, but prosecution of ability!
CANADA IS SILENT HILL AND STEVEN HARPER IS THE MASER PUPPET!
TL;DR:
- If you are really unhappy with the current political climate there are better ways to do a "Protest" vote than not vote
- There are varying degrees of bad/good in politics, even if there is little good, atleast vote for the smaller amount of bad.
- If you don't vote you have no right to bitch about politics (so vote, then bitch away!)
- Apathy is fail
The day you start voting is the day that you can start taking an active hand in pushing towards a day when politicians will do as you want, scudz.
I'd say that if you are going to sit and bitch about how you are unhappy with how politicians act, but don't vote, you really don't have any rights to talk. About any political problems. You are given a chance to participate, and don't. You are therefore a large part of the current problem with politics.
Anyways, to be completely honest it is an argument I've heard from many people, and it amounts to little more than an excuse for laziness. Anyone truly unhappy with the current political climate should be informed enough to know that there are better ways to do a "protest" vote. If you don't know enough to know that, you sure don't know enough to be actually unhappy.
As a side note to anyone thinking like this, there is definitely a point in voting, always, especially now. Even though none of the parties/options are perfect, or in your view even good, there are varying degrees of how good/bad they are. Currently, we have one very, very bad option. It's important to atleast vote for the lesser evil. If not, things get just get worse.
That didn't help at all... The result I got is might as well blindfold myself and throw a dart... heh.
I agree with this for the most part, however its really only the Liberals and Conservatives that are doing this. NDP, not so much. The NDP has some really great commercials I think.
As far as I'm concerned NDP is the only party that gives a damn. The only thing the other two main parties are worried about is having a majority government.
Eh, will probably just abstain or vote Green to get them more funding. Policies are a bit too left but May actually seems like a reasonable human being as opposed to the other ridiculous jokes for candidates.
That would be a totally valid point if I hadn't a spent the last 14 years looking for someone who was worth voting for. To clarify, I have voted multiple times in the past and in each case, weather that person got elected or not, the one who ended up in "power" was involved in some shady dealings or scandals or ignoring the entire foundation of their campaign or outright selling away every single possible thing of worth in the province, or screwing an intern; or turning out to be the stupidest person alive.
I'm not interested in voting for any of the current candidates because I have no confidence in any of the current candidates based on 14 years of irrefutable evidence that it doesn't make a goddam bit of difference. Especially, and you should be very aware of this Tulk, when BC's votes have almost zero effect on the final outcome anyway. Ontario and Quebec will decide who ends up in charge.
We have some of the lowest voting turnout per capita in the last few elections.
All they have to do is campaign at colleges and universities, and promise funding towards education, and they would get hundreds of thousands of student voters.
Problem is, not a single party wants to fund health care, education, or infrastructure development.
Here in Quebec, we have the lowest doctors per capita of any place in North America, underfunded school system, and bridges so old and unmaintained they COLLAPSE, and Hospitals that are hundreds (yes hundreds) of years old.
There is no Helipad in Montreal. So if you're in an emergency you're just fucked.
None of the parties in this province give 2 shits about any of this.
The major party in Quebec only cares about national Sovereignty, and Quebec's identity. Pretty fucked up considering we pay the highest taxes in North America (I am at 50%, and I am making below the GameDev Industry average).
Our left parties are split into 4, and Harper is essentially George Bush III. He WILL win another minority government.
So.. in recap.
We get to chose between Poo, Crap, Dung, Shit, and Feces, but the Feces will win.
Yea Ontario and Quebec have more say, there's quite a few more people out there than in western Canada. Also, you not wanting to vote just makes their votes worth more. Oh the irony.
But not voting is not a good option either, voting for the other guys will help in the long run... I know the way our voting system tally works is a bit weird.. well really weird... but I think that if we get enough votes for the right guys the tally will be in our favor... So what if the Conservative own majority seats in the senate? We can easily reverse that... but if everyone sits in their house again that's not going to happen. I know that it is our choice to vote as much it is not to.. but that doesn't mean we should sit around, glaring at the TV to find out Harper won again even though 70% of the people didn't pick him as their top choice.
I think Jean Chr
Goddammit people.
Edit - Found stats for 2006. Improvement! Although still crappy in my opinion.
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I personally jsut wanna see something done about gas prices, and someone have the balls to actually create, and KEEP, a law saying all car companies must have a zero emissions car in their roster. It was possible in the 90s... man up and bring it back! pussies.... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F)
Catch-22.
Why vote for a party that will not do anything for them, and raise tuition costs anyways?
And if they wanted the student vote, they would campaign on campuses (which they don't). So they obviously do not want to have anything to do with youth.
Bleah, I'll likely vote for NDP this year. Not because I actually like them, but because I hate Harper the most, and NDP is the left/non-separtist party most likely to be voted in at my riding. I absolutely hate the NDP, just not as much as Harper.
You know how shitty it is to vote in an election based on hating the person who will likely win anyways? If it rains on election day, I probably won't even be bothered to get off my ass.
Well, you have to vote for your top 3 choices right? Then they tally the votes, whenever it's a draw they add the votes for the guy who got the least to the second most favorable person on the ballet the person voted for, then it keeps going... or is it different?
You vote for the local party representative running in your area. There's no top 3 choices. The winner is the party with the most seats won.
Hey man, that's great. It's a start. It may not be instant, but atleast if a lot of us start voting for the least shitty option things can start moving in the right direction. If we just leave it be it will continue to move farther and farther the wrong way.
Gah! Don't buy into this bullshit. Our parliamentary system is set up to work well with minority governments. In fact, I'd say they are the ideal way. They force the government to do compromises between varying viewpoints to get things done, meaning that they actually work in a somewhat democratic fashion. The only reason that our recent minority governments haven't worked in this way is that The Harper Government refuses to cooperate with any other party.
And honestly, given how absolutely terrible The Harper Government has the potential to be, it's better for them to be in a neutered minority than a strong majority. Harper has a lot of traits of a megalomaniacal control freak with some frightening ideas on how things should be run. I'd rather have someone like that in charge of a government that can do nothing, than to give him the near absolute power a majority government could afford him. :S
Early Voting had good turnouts, but I think Cons. are winning.
Elections Canada is not releasing final numbers for advance voter turnout until later this week. In the last election, about 1.5 million people in the country and more than 575,000 Ontarians voted in advanced polls out of the 13.9 million who voted in total.
I've actually never voted sadly, and most of the time I've never felt a reason too, and this election is no different. Just from doing research here and there, it seems like Conservatives have a shoe in anyways...
Maybe they do. But that'd be just because so many people are lazy and defeatist like you and don't vote.
The conservatives don't have the support of nearly half of Canadians. They do have the support of a lot of bitter, old farts though. And sadly for those of us who give a fuck; bitter, old farts vote a hell of a lot more than the rest of us.
Seriously, it's 20 fucking minutes of your time to go and make an x on a piece of paper once every few years. Is it that hard?
There needs to be a consolidation of NDP and Liberal. There is virtually ZERO difference between the two parties.
Even in a recent interview, Layton mentioned that the only difference between the two parties, was that the Liberals have been in power and have screwed up, whereas the NDP has never been in power.
Each province will vote for what benefits them the most.
My voting going in this year isn't just to vote for who I'd like to win, but I'm rather voting for the Conservatives to NOT win. Our voting system is fucked, and if I don't want Harper in this year (I don't) I'm simply going to have to vote for 2nd place and hope to fuck it knocks him out of office. Next election I'll go with who I'd like to win, but until we embrace an alternative voting system where the power is giving to the people it'll have to go this way
But I don't think it's impossible for the Libs or NDP to win, it can happen if there is a big voter turnout for them, still not impossible. It's not like the Liberal have never won or never will, usually thats what happens, when the people get sick of one they switch and see what the other guys will provide.
For BC I can't see the Cons winning, for Ontario... hmmm not sure, but if the youth vote they might lose. All they have to do it not vote for Harper man.. thats all I care about... vote for the Green Party, or the Marijuana Freedom Party.
If 40% of the votes go Conservative, 35% of the votes go Liberal and 25% go *Other (NDP, Green, etc). that is 60% of the country who did not want Harper to win.
Like I said, our system is fucked and I'm voting to get Harper out, not to get who I want in. Sad, but I feel I need to vote this way.
or
-Two pieces of ID (or Official Mail like a Utility Bill) with your name and address
or
-A person with ID as above to swear they know you and that you live in the riding.
Here is a list of everyone across Canada to vote for to best beat the Conservatives! I removed some because my guess it no one from here lives in that province.
I could have spent 20 minutes and voted... instead... I did this, and I feel much more fulfilled as a person because of it.
Thanks Tulkamir
also....
IF YOU DONT VOTE, YOU DON'T HAVE A RIGHT TO COMPLAIN....
So, at the very least, vote so you have the right to complain. otherwise, stfu
To each his own.
1 - I haven't banned anyone in a while. So keep you opinions about a person and how they vote to yourself or you will be the one to relieve me of my dry spell. With that said....
2 - Do we all agree that Harper should be out of office? Anyone want him in?
3 - If we all want him out of office, do you agree that our system is fucked in that you'll vote for who you want in but won't get that based on my example in my previous reply?
Am I even correct in that way? I hate feeling like I can't vote for who I want but rather who I don't want. If I have to vote this way to get rid of Harper, then so be it.
People in this thread keep mentioning that they should look at who they want to win and vote for that person. I think, if we all do that, Harper will win based on him receiving the highest % of votes amongst the candidates.
/shrug, coffee.
In Wash St, we get a voter pamphlet where all the candidates state their stances on the issues and plead their case. It also covers the initiative and laws. We're also slowly moving away from the party system and just having "candidates" at least on the local levels. Then we get our ballots in the mail, fill em out and send em in. Super nice to take your time and read up on it all.
I would be shocked if Canada didn't have some kind of mail in Absentee mail in ballot set up. Before we switched over state wide that's how I got mine, fuckin rocks!
And im not sure how it works in teh states, but here, you vote for your local candidate, then which ever party gets the most candidates voted in gets to have their leader as PM. And each party is suppose to be represented in the house of commons according to how many votes they got from the public, but there are parties that dont have the proper representation. like the green party is missing something like 1.5million votes worth. But, that setup is suppose to make it so minority governments can still rule, but it doesnt work very well because most of the parties say screw them, we dont want them in power, so we`ll say no to everything and force another election, instead of working together and doing something good for the country. But most of the advertising the parties do during the election is just them saying everything bad they can think of about the other party, with a small "vote for us" at the end of it. Integrity is not very common. Makes me sad.
They also have the largest Sr population in the US and they keep changing the voting machines. They also have long lines at the poles and certain parties have been fingered for either hiring or strongly encouraging people to take their time when voting so people leave. If you're a republican living in a largely democratic area you can help sink the vote by being a confused and befuddled. It's not always about turning out the vote, but often discouraging votes that won't go your way...
They've also done stupid things like allow early voting, then jack around the dates of just how early since the early voters tend to favor one party or the other. They're doing it again right now...
I won't even get into "redistricting".
That's different than the US the majorities of the parties in the upper and lower houses are set purely by the elections.
If your party gets enough people elected you can control that house absolutely, if its a slim majority you get people switching parties (rare), dying (cancer, age), being taken out by spin (tax evasion, marital infidelity, Glen Beck) or occasonally by head wounds while speaking.
I agree, its the same thing here in the states, maybe worse... I don't want to know what you don't like about the other guy, I want to know what you can do for us. Your commercial is a job interview. In an interview when you're asked "how do you plan to do this job better than anyone else?" You don't say stuff like "THE OTHER GUY STINKS! DON'T HIRE THEM! THEY EAT BABIES!!!!"
Anyway... you guys can stop ruining my idea that "Canada is great, they're like America without all the messed up stuff".
Come on world get your politics in order...
just illustrating this point with a video
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Yep, pretty much agree with you fully. I've been pretty torn between voting for who I actually want in, and for who will do the best job of denying Harper a vote. Pretty shitty situation. I really, really wish we'd change our shitty system. Would love to be able to vote by a proportional system or something some day.
No dude. It's your right to vote as much as it is not to. You can complain all you want, it's because you can and you're allowed to.
With that said, if you complain because you wanted someone to win/lose and you didn't do anything about it, although it's perfectly fine that you didn't vote, and not wrong at all, it's just... lets say bad
It's true it's a person's right to vote or not vote.
Luckily it's also within the rights of those of us who do vote and participate to discount someone's opinion because they haven't voted and tell them just that.
What if it smells like poo.
And we get to chose whether we get to smell:
1) Shit
2) Crap
3) Feces
4) Poo
5) Manure
6) Dung
People who don't vote have every right to complain as much as the next guy. We have some absolutely putrid selection of parties to chose from.
Think of it this way; If you are at a Gamebuzz, and there are a selection of 8 video games to buy, but you don't like any of those 8 games. I believe it's within your right to NOT buy a game, and complain at the lack of selection.
Just like we don't have to vote. And we can complain all we want.