5846 replies to this topic

[johnk]

I don't think it will hurt JT all that much.
It's not a vital issue to most voters, there was/is no groundswell grassroots clamour for PR. Chretien promised to axe the GST, it was in writing in the Libs' famous Red Book. It was a perfect campaign promise, a tax/pocketbook issue of the kind that usually rouses voters. He fudged, never did it, and Canadians did not hold the Libs to account on it at the next election.
The next election is nearly three years away and, as they say, a week is a long time in politics. More compelling issues are bound to arise in that time.
That said, I favour PR but no party in power will risk losing their grip over it.

[jonny]

The electoral reform promise will harm Trudeau in a number of ways:

 

1) The NDP, Greens and CPC can legitimately call him a liar in public

2) Something like 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 centre left people voted Liberal because of the promise because he matched the NDP and Greens.  In BC it will be biggest problem and will lead to the loss of a lot of seats here

3) A lot of electoral reform activists got involved with the Liberals.   The party is already weak in active members, losing the electoral reform community will reduce the grassroots strength of the party

4) The issue is more important with people under 35 than over 60.  Trudeau won because he managed to get a huge increase in the under 35 vote to come out.

 

It will not be "The Issue" of the election but it is much more damaging to the Liberals than a lot of older commentators are saying.   This together with other issues is making a one term Liberal government not unrealistic

 

A lot of Dippers seemed to be legitimately surprised when Trudeau approved the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. I was quite surprised that so many people were shocked and felt like Trudeau let them down. A lot of Sunny Ways voters on the Left Coast will be voting Green or NDP next time around because of TM alone.

[jonny]

I agree that one item is not going to sink Trudeau’s ship. I do think that the one item that probably has the most negative impact to Trudeau’s chances (thus far) is the electoral reform broken promise. That one was heavily covered by media and promoted by Trudeau himself. I think it will be quite interesting if in 2019:

• Significant tax increases occur (like increasing the capital gains inclusion rate)
• Electoral reform was abandoned
• First Nations are no better off than they were in 2015
• Canada has racked up $100B+ in extra debt under Trudeau
• Canada is not actively involved in many peacekeeping efforts
• Another major military procurement goes sideways (the F-18 replacement already sort of has…they did after all promise to immediately launch an open and transparent competition for their replacement)
• Pot is still illegal

[Bernard]

It is one thing for a politician to fudge on a vague promise but it is rare for a politician to make a very specific promise and then go back on it for no reason other than a personal self serving desire for power.

 

Chretien did renege on the GST promise and in 1997 only managed to get 38.5% of the vote but the vagaries of First Past the Post meant he won another majority.  It would only have taken a few votes to have gone differently for 1997 to ended up as a Liberal minority.

[VicHockeyFan]

O'Leary is in Vancouver tomorrow.

 

[Nparker]

O'Leary is in Vancouver tomorrow...

Are you sure this shouldn't be under the entertainment thread?

[VicHockeyFan]

https://www.trudeaumetre.ca/

 

[VicHockeyFan]

Incredible turnout at my Vancouver-Granville event tonight. Miss it? I hope to see you tomorrow in Surrey! Free admission with a CPC membership. Get yours for $15 here: https://olearyforcan.../en/membership/

 

 

 

[amor de cosmos]

you'd think with numbers like these mr wonderful would want to talk about jobs & the economy as little as possible 
 

Employment rose by 48,000 (+0.3%) in January, building on gains observed in the latter part of 2016. The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 6.8%.

On a year-over-year basis, employment rose by 276,000 (+1.5%), with most of the increase occurring from August to January.

Following a significant increase in December, full-time employment held steady in January. Compared with 12 months earlier, full-time employment was up 86,000 (+0.6%), with increases totalling 141,000 since August.

Despite little change in January, part-time employment was up on a year-over-year basis (+190,000 or +5.6%). In January, 19.6% of employed persons worked part time, compared with 18.8% the same month a year earlier.

In the 12 months to January, the number of hours worked declined by 0.8%. In general, changes in actual hours worked reflect a number of factors, including changes in the composition of employment by full-time/part-time status, industry, occupation, age and sex.

From December to January, employment increased among core-aged men and women (25 to 54 years old). There was little overall employment change among the other demographic groups.

http://www.statcan.g...170210a-eng.htm
 

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index soared to a new record high Friday, driven by strength in bank and energy stocks.

At one point, the S&P/TSX composite index surged to 15,736.64 points, beating an intraday record high of 15,685.13 set on Sept. 3, 2014.

In mid-afternoon trading, the benchmark index was up 110.46 points at 15,727.76.

The growth was fuelled by the three largest sectors of the market — materials, financials and oil, said Allan Small, a senior adviser at Holliswealth.

“You have all those three higher,” he said. “Usually, it’s a recipe for success at the Toronto stock market.”

The TSX’s all-time closing high is 15,657.63, set on Sept. 3, 2014.

https://www.thestar....-also-soar.html

when trump was saving a few hundred carrier jobs, obama didn't seem to care to mention the millions of jobs that were created or saved by the auto bailout & other things over the last 8 years. i wonder if the liberals will ever let us hear the end of it.

Edited by amor de cosmos, 10 February 2017 - 12:03 PM.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ Trump is the president when the Dow hits the all-time high today!

 

...anyway, back to O'Leary.

 

Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O'Leary backs prescription-heroin program that Harper tried to shut down

 

 

http://www.straight....-program-harper

[VicHockeyFan]

Nonetheless, a surprising number of people within the Conservative establishment are backing Mr. O’Leary, convinced that his business background and flamboyant showmanship make him the best candidate to take on Justin Trudeau.

 

Former Premier Mike Harris is on his advisory committee, as are Marjory LeBreton, former leader of the government in the Senate; Mike Coates, who was a close adviser to Mr. Harper and is now a senior figure at Hill + Knowlton; Ken Hughes, former MP and energy minister in Alberta; Ontario MP Guy Lauzon, who was national Conservative caucus chair; and former Edmonton MP Tim Uppal.

 

While Stephen Harper will support no candidate, the two had a long and friendly telephone chat before Mr. O’Leary entered the race and Mr. Harper said nothing then or later, to Mr. O’Leary or others, to discourage his campaign. A conversation with former prime minister Brian Mulroney was equally cordial.

 

Organizers say they have signed up an average of 700 new members a day since the campaign launched three weeks ago, which is impressive. Last week, billionaire businessman and Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini hosted a fundraising luncheon for his friend in Vancouver. Some 100 people contributed about $100,000, according to a representative for Mr. O’Leary. Total fundraising to date, according to the campaign, is $500,000. That’s real.

 

http://www.theglobea...rticle33994602/

[VicHockeyFan]

O'Leary will speak French tonight.  And I suspect some of the other candidates will choose the most obscure French words to try to confuse O'Leary. 

 

Conservative leadership debate to take place in Pointe-Claire

 

 

http://globalnews.ca...-pointe-claire/

[HB]

Or they may speak in authentic French not the Quebec version

[VicHockeyFan]

O'Leary gets the headlines again.  And he delivers both opening and closing remarks in French.

 

http://news.national...ther-candidates

 

O’Leary organizes Quebec team

Amid persistent questions over whether he can win support in Quebec without being bilingual, new details emerged in Montreal Monday night about O’Leary’s organization in Quebec.

Among O’Leary’s organizers in the province is longtime partisan Patrick Robert, who confirmed Monday he’s been acting as O’Leary’s Quebec campaign chair for a few weeks.

 

 

 

Robert had previously been organizing a potential bid of his own in December, with $100-a-plate fundraisers in Ottawa and Montreal.

Robert said party veteran Norm Vocino, a former chief strategist for the Conservatives in Quebec, is acting as O’Leary’s head organizer in the province, and that more names would be rolled out in the coming weeks.

“There’s too many people in the race, and at the end of the day Kevin said a lot of things to me that made sense. His willingness to learn French is very important. His strong team in Quebec. And the fact that he won’t attack any other candidates in the race I think is very important,” Robert said in an interview before the debate.

 

[spanky123]

you'd think with numbers like these mr wonderful would want to talk about jobs & the economy as little as possible 
 

http://www.statcan.g...170210a-eng.htm
 

https://www.thestar....-also-soar.html

when trump was saving a few hundred carrier jobs, obama didn't seem to care to mention the millions of jobs that were created or saved by the auto bailout & other things over the last 8 years. i wonder if the liberals will ever let us hear the end of it.

 

This is the same mistake Hillary made. The TSX hitting new highs is great if you have a lot of money in equities in the markets. Does nothing for you if you don't or if you are on a fixed income relying on dividends or interest. Worse, if companies are supporting their stock prices by laying of people to boost earnings then it sucks if you are one of the folks losing their jobs.

 

There are a lot of people who continue to be left behind on this 'recovery', those are the ones that will swing the vote as they did in the US.

Edited by spanky123, 14 February 2017 - 07:52 AM.

[VicHockeyFan]

If Kevin O’Leary becomes the next leader of the Conservative Party and perhaps the next prime minister of Canada, social conservatives will have no political home. If social conservatives wish to avoid that scenario, then they had better act now: Buy party memberships, research the candidates, and refuse to rank Kevin O’Leary in the final leadership vote. If he’s in, so-cons are out. It’s that simple.

 

 

https://www.lifesite...its-that-simple

[lanforod]

J van Maren tells it like it is there for sure. Some of these other candidates need to drop out and put their weight behind one.

[VicHockeyFan]

Kevin O'Leary pulls ahead: Ottawa Power Rankings - Macleans.ca

 

 

http://www.macleans....power-rankings/

 

A new poll shows the businessman/showman edging out self-styled libertarian Maxime Bernier as the top leadership choice of Conservative voters. More than one-third picked O’Leary as the leadership candidate most likely to beat Trudeau at the polls in 2019. His chief weakness appears to be in Quebec. On Monday in Montreal, he participated in an unofficial debate where he trotted out rickety French that nonetheless seemed appreciated by the crowd.

 

[RFS]

i really want to like oleary but i don't

[rjag]

I think O'Leary is like Jeremy Clarkson, they speak what lots of people think but are afraid to say. There is definitely a magnetism to that type of personality. btw if you dont know who Jeremy Clarkson is, he was one of the main presenters of Top Gear until 2 years ago which happened to be the most watched television show on the planet, he was also a contributor to several mainstream newspapers and an author of several books. His sarcasm and calling out over-regulated or ridiculous laws/bureaucracy is legendary. His new show on Amazon became the most illegally downloaded show ever surpassing Game of Thrones. 

 

http://fortune.com/2...d-tour-pirated/

 

This type of personality draws people like moths to a flame. O'Leary calls it as he sees it and the media is soaking it up and the result is he gets more press than all the other candidates combined. Sound familiar?