Rumours about a Canadian election!

[Horatius]

SO it's just political BS like I said?

Yes, but it's not unique to the Greens. They're all doing it.

 

[Segnosaur]

A little election news...

From: CTV News
The race between the Liberals and the Conservatives is narrowing with upward movement in favour of the Conservatives...The most recent survey shows Liberals still out front, with 34.2 per cent ballot support, up from 33.4 per cent on Aug. 12, but with the Conservatives inching closer to their lead, now with 32.3 per cent ballot support.
...
While Trudeau still remains the preferred prime minister among respondents, O’Toole has realized a noticeable gain...

So it looks like both parties have gained (largely at the expense of the other major parties, mostly the Green Party), but the Conservatives have gained more. Still looks like another Minority government.

From: CTV News
Five of Canada’s political parties will be represented at September’s federal election debates, however the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Leader Maxime Bernier will not be taking part, after the PPC fell short of the four per cent threshold of public polling needed to qualify.
...
The French-language debate is scheduled for Sept. 8...and the official English leaders' debate is scheduled for Sept. 9

Its always been a rather... complex... issue about who to allow into debates. (You want to be inclusive, but you also don't want a debate to turn into a 'clown car', with a bunch of minor parties detracting from the candidates that actually have a chance.) I'm happy with them leaving out Bernier.

And having 2 debates (one english, one french) seems to be pretty par for the course in Canada. Compare that to the U.S., where they usually have 3 or 4 (at least recently) with both the president and vice presidential candidates.

 

[Segnosaur]

A few new developments in the election:

Trudeau has had to deal with protestors (mostly anti-Vaxxers) at some of his campaign stops, and has had to cancel at least one of his appearances as a result.

From: CBC (The Mother corp)
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has had a campaign event disrupted by protesters shouting obscenities, uttering death threats against the prime minister and hurling racist and misogynist insults at people of colour and women in his protective detail....Signs brandished by angry protesters displayed slogans such as "Who benefits from the lock down?"... He was forced to cancel a campaign event in Bolton, Ont., Friday night when hundreds of angry protesters showed...Among the protesters of Friday were anti-vaccination activists who shouted vulgarities at Liberal volunteers and carried anti-Trudeau signs and flags scrawled with obscenities.

(Although I am sure there is some overlap between conservative supporters and the anti-vax protestors, O'Toole has actually condemned the protestors, and at least one candidate has barred any of the protestors from working on his campaign.)

And secondly, I'm wondering if Trudeau has much regret about calling an early election now....

From: Macleans
It was (another) difficult week for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in public opinion polls....Earlier last week, the Angus Reid Institute, Léger, Abacus Data and Ipsos all released figures indicating that the Liberals had lost ground during the first week of the campaign....support for the Liberals fell significantly as the week went along while the Conservative Party (CPC) surged ahead. As of this morning, Nanos has the CPC leading by a modest 2-point margin, whereas EKOS and Mainstreet measure the CPC much further ahead, by 6 and 10 points respectively over the Liberals.

In terms of seat estimations, the 2 parties seem to be almost tied (140 Liberals, 139 Conservatives). NDP is holding steady, and the Green party and Bloc are struggling,

To be honest, I'm not really sure why the conservatives would be gaining that much support. No major campaign screwups or revelations, and the only major event would be the Afghanistan withdrawal (which I didn't think would impact the Liberals much.) There is also a covid surge, but we've gone through those before.

 

[Steve]

Unfortunately for O’toole those cretins are his supporters whether he wants them or not. Does not bode well for the PC’s to have them as the visible face of their party in the media.

 

[Segnosaur]

Unfortunately for O’toole those cretins are his supporters whether he wants them or not. Does not bode well for the PC’s to have them as the visible face of their party in the media.

Yes, that can be a problem, if they get associated with the party as a whole.

We have seen that before... in particular with social conservatives/anti-abortionists. Even though those groups do not control the party, and do not have enough influence to affect policy, they serve as a convenient red herring for those wanting to attack the party as a whole.

I guess the question is, will anti-vaxxers/covidiots be seen as the "face of the party in the media", or will they end up getting seen as some un-affiliated rabble.

 

[Steve]

Yes, that can be a problem, if they get associated with the party as a whole.

We have seen that before... in particular with social conservatives/anti-abortionists. Even though those groups do not control the party, and do not have enough influence to affect policy, they serve as a convenient red herring for those wanting to attack the party as a whole.

I guess the question is, will anti-vaxxers/covidiots be seen as the "face of the party in the media", or will they end up getting seen as some un-affiliated rabble.

O’toole would likely be able to disassociate them from the party if he is active and emphatic enough in his condemnation. I have not seen that from him yet.

My own personal opinion is, that while not prevalent, there are enough of these idiots supporting the PC’s to make voting for them distasteful. I am not a big fan of Trudeau, but my vote this time will likely be an anyone but
PC vote.

 

[Segnosaur]

O’toole would likely be able to disassociate them from the party if he is active and emphatic enough in his condemnation. I have not seen that from him yet.

Well, the CBC article states:

...the Conservative Party tweeted: "The threatening images and behaviour are disgusting. This needs to stop immediately. Canada is better than this."...Speaking at an event...Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said he is trying to run a positive campaign, and he "strongly condemns any form of harassment" on the campaign trail...."We should be having a healthy and respectful debate. We have no time for people who bring negativity to campaigning. I urge everyone to put the country and our democracy first — let's have a positive debate of ideas on the future. That's my approach, and that's my expectation for every single member of our team," he said. "I expect professionalism, I expect respect. I respect my opponents."

Sounds like a pretty clear condemnation of the protestors, given both on-line and in person. Not really sure what else you expect. Should he personally go door to door to tell each voter that he disavows the actions of the protesters? Show up at these protests and kick them in the groin?

Whenever I hear anyone giving these sort of "The conservatives aren't doing enough" claims, the cynic in me thinks that its a knee-jerk anti-conservative reaction, and they are just latching onto something that they think proves their point. (The same goes for the issues of abortion or gay marriage, where people claimed they were going to ban both, despite the fact that by then the conservative party indicated that both were settled issues.)

I am not saying you should vote conservative, and I can point to some valid reasons why someone might not want to. (For example, he opposes mandatory vaccinations for federal public servants, instead being willing to rely on rapid testing, a flawed idea in my opinion). I just dislike the whole "A minority of a party's supporters believe something so lets assume they control the party" attitude.

Debate policy, not red herrings.

 

[Segnosaur]

A scandal involving one of the conservative candidates...

From: CTV News
The Conservative Party’s candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Troy Myers has agreed to withdraw his candidacy after the party learned of a “serious allegation” against him. Myers published a statement on Facebook on Monday, stating that the allegation is false, but he has agreed to step down.
...
...Lauren Skabar, who ran for the provincial NDP in the last Nova Scotia election, sent out a series of tweets detailing her interactions with Myers...Skabar alleged that Myers made comments about her “tiny skirt,” and then proceeded to put his hand up her skirt and into her underwear.

Sadly, one of these 'he said/she said' situations where we will never find out what happened. (I don't yet know enough about the accused or if there are any reasons to be skeptical.) If he did it, he certainly wouldn't have been the first politician to try to "grab 'em by the pussy".

 

[Steve]

A scandal involving one of the conservative candidates...

From: CTV News
The Conservative Party’s candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Troy Myers has agreed to withdraw his candidacy after the party learned of a “serious allegation” against him. Myers published a statement on Facebook on Monday, stating that the allegation is false, but he has agreed to step down.
...
...Lauren Skabar, who ran for the provincial NDP in the last Nova Scotia election, sent out a series of tweets detailing her interactions with Myers...Skabar alleged that Myers made comments about her “tiny skirt,” and then proceeded to put his hand up her skirt and into her underwear.

Sadly, one of these 'he said/she said' situations where we will never find out what happened. (I don't yet know enough about the accused or if there are any reasons to be skeptical.) If he did it, he certainly wouldn't have been the first politician to try to "grab 'em by the pussy".

So simple these days to get a politician (or any other person you disagree with) taken out of the game. Evidence not required.

 

[Horatius]

So simple these days to get a politician (or any other person you disagree with) taken out of the game. Evidence not required.

Actually, the existence of Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman suggests that it's actually quite hard to successfully frame a politician like that.

 

[Segnosaur]

A scandal involving one of the conservative candidates...

From: CTV News
The Conservative Party’s candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Troy Myers has agreed to withdraw his candidacy after the party learned of a “serious allegation” against him....

And the Liberals, appearing to be jealous of the conservatives, decided to get rid of one of their own candidates....

From: CBC
Raj Saini, the Liberal candidate for Kitchener Centre, is ending his campaign for re-election after a series of allegations of unwanted sexual advances... Saini again denied all the allegations as "unequivocally false" but said he would no longer be running to win his seat....Trudeau had initially defended his party's decision to allow Saini to run... But in a statement released by the Liberals on Saturday, the party reversed course....The end of Saini's campaign comes after the deadline to file nomination forms with Elections Canada, meaning the Liberals will not be able to field another candidate in the riding.

Slightly different situations... in the case of the conservative candidate, the allegation came from a single person outside the party, whereas in the Liberal case, the allegations came from multiple staffers. (There also appears to be allegations of cover-ups in the Liberal case, as Sani had been investigated, but they failed to interview at least one key witness.)

 

[Segnosaur]

Looks like gun control has become an issue in the election...CTV News
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole maintained his commitment Sunday to keep a Liberal ban on so-called "assault-style" weapons in place, as he attempted to distance himself from the firearms lobby.

Some conservatives are saying they will repeal the Liberal ban on assault weapons. O'Toole said he will maintain the ban. O'Toole has talked about reviewing and repealing some gun control laws (claiming some of them are too much like the previous gun registry), but wants to maintain things like strict background checks.

 

[Horatius]

Some conservatives are saying they will repeal the Liberal ban on assault weapons. O'Toole said he will maintain the ban.

Jeeze, you'd think this wishy-washy back and forth would piss off everybody involved in the gun debate, both pro- and anti- sides. At this point, we literally have no idea what they'd actually do if elected!

How are they gaining in the polls?

 

[Segnosaur]

Jeeze, you'd think this wishy-washy back and forth would piss off everybody involved in the gun debate, both pro- and anti- sides. At this point, we literally have no idea what they'd actually do if elected!

How are they gaining in the polls?

Actually, from the looks of it they aren't. At least not anymore.

Liberal support dropped and conservative support increased from the initial election call in mid-august until around the start of September. Since then, both parties have been relatively flat (with the Liberals even gaining on the conservatives a little).

Polling Canada (Twitter)

 

[Steve]

I cannot support a party that has politically violent supporters.

Unfortunately, in north America at least, political violence seems to be largely a conservative trait.

 

[Thanz]

I voted in the advance polls over the weekend, and it led me to wonder: With pot being legal now across the country, why is there still a Marijuana party on my ballot?

 

[Steve]

I voted in the advance polls over the weekend, and it led me to wonder: With pot being legal now across the country, why is there still a Marijuana party on my ballot?

Nothing wrong with marijuana parties.

 

[dudalb]

I cannot support a party that has politically violent supporters.

Unfortunately, in north America at least, political violence seems to be largely a conservative trait.

Yeah, mainly, but the left is also quite capable of violence. I give you the violence during the BLM protests.

 

[Jimbo07]

I voted in the advance polls over the weekend, and it led me to wonder: With pot being legal now across the country, why is there still a Marijuana party on my ballot?

That's funny! At least you're not in my riding with no fewer than 4 conservative parties to choose from!

On the centre-left, I can choose the Liberals
or NDP, but on the right I have my choice of:
the Conservative Party
the Peoples Party of Canada
the Christian Heritage Party
or the Maverick Party

It's an embarrassment of riches! A real embarrassment...

 

[Segnosaur]

I voted in the advance polls over the weekend, and it led me to wonder: With pot being legal now across the country, why is there still a Marijuana party on my ballot?

Nothing wrong with marijuana parties.

But now that it's legal, their main reason for existing seems to be null and void. And their existence is diverting votes from parties that might otherwise benefit from their votes. (I suspect most of their voters would gravitate to the NDP or Liberals if the party did not exist.)