5846 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

and a two-time failed green candidate.  both here and in the maritimes.

 

From what I have heard and in my opinion, both May and Weaver were pushed out the door. The party leadership wants to reform the Greens with a more progressive and socialist agenda (in line with AOC and the squad) and they feel as though they need younger and more energetic leadership to match their demographic..

Edited by spanky123, 05 November 2019 - 07:31 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

weren't the two people that left "the party leadership"?

[AllseeingEye]

Frankly as the dust settles and I peruse VV, and especially as I recall innumerable mainstream media articles and TV debates, I'm still waiting (quite obviously in vain) to hear about the various party platforms re: Foreign Policy and Defence matters - after all every other power on this planet worthy of the term routinely puts one if not both of those topics squarely front and center of any policy platform and election...oh wait, this is Canada after all, your sickeningly sweet uber-friendly neighborhood 98 pound weakling, where we don't like to discuss icky things like guns or weapons.....

 

Seriously - without looking them up online - what is the NDP Defence Policy? The Green Foreign Policy? Will either of the Refor-er....."Tories" or Fiberals pledge to fix an utterly broken Defence Procurement system, one that has all but crippled the Canadian Forces for two generations and counting now?

 

Who knows, since absolutely none of the main players spoke directly to any of these issues and moreover, incredibly as far as I am aware, did any major media outlet (yes I'm looking squarely at you Mother Corporation, aka the CBC) actually...you know....ask anyone.

 

Rather stunning in light of the fact Canada is desperately pimping itself for a seat on the UN Security Council; and that NAFTA negotiations will be starting up soon; that Canada-China relations remain more or less in the toilet, and considering Canada is (still) a member of two major military organizations (NATO, NORAD), has a rust bucket air-force, barely worthy of the term, a navy that can only just muster up operations of any duration much beyond its own shores, and remains a nation that has virtually zero ability to patrol and conduct surveillance on any of the THREE major oceans upon which it borders, including especially the one in the Far North, where Putin's Russia is busily launching nuclear powered ice breakers and re-activating dozens of Soviert-era military bases....

 

In the meantime, as far as I can recall, one of the NDP's primary pledges re: "defence" matters was to purge the records of ex-CAF personnel deemed unfairly treated because of their LGBT orientation. Seriously? Given the state of utter disarray of the Armed Forces I would rate that particular NDP 'policy plank somewhere around 118th on the priority list, possibly lower......

 

Also if an ancient article I recall reading insofar as Green intentions were concerned was in any way accurate, I believe their primary goal was to turn the CAF into little more than glorified Boy Scouts who would be employed on such high security, mission critical operations as planting trees. I'm being somewhat facetious here but it really does boggle the mind when you consider that Foreign-Defence policy concerns and considerations in this country carry about as much weight as the Ministry of Silly Walks in a Monty Python sketch....

Edited by AllseeingEye, 05 November 2019 - 10:44 PM.

[spanky123]

weren't the two people that left "the party leadership"?

 

The Green Party "leadership" these days is run from the polysci departments at UBC and UVIC. A bunch of bitter, disillusioned 30 somethings who feel that the world has served them precarious work and unequal opportunity because of their gender, religion, or hair colour (not because they chose useless degrees and pursued them for 10 years). 

[lanforod]

^^ mind you, the biggest thorn in Canada's side re. Canada-China relations seems to be going away, per yesterday's news.

[Cats4Hire]

Conservative MPs decided not to vote for the ability to kick Scheer as leader https://www.ctvnews....uture-1.4672597

[tedward]

The party leadership wants to reform the Greens with a more progressive and socialist agenda (in line with AOC and the squad)...

 

Or more in line with the NDP?

How is this gonna play with the large right/libertarian wing of the party?

[RFS]

Or more in line with the NDP?

How is this gonna play with the large right/libertarian wing of the party?

I guess we'll find out if that was actually a thing or just a meme

[tedward]

I guess we'll find out if that was actually a thing or just a meme

 

If it was just a meme WTF are they wasting time and energy running a separate party when they agreeing with the NDP on almost everything? Their differences seem to be details, not policy in general. I have tried to find a difference between the NDP and Greens for years and literally all I can find is that Greens seem to not like unions. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Local MP Elizabeth May said she plans to run in the next election as Member of Parliament for Saanich Gulf-Islands and will not resign from her seat to make room for the next leader once elected.

“Absolutely not,” said May in a phone interview with the Peninsula News Review from the train on which she is currently travelling to British Columbia. Canada’s parliamentary system makes MPs responsible to their constituents, not to their party, she said in lamenting what she called the “presidentialization” of Canadian politics. She also promised that she would poll constituents after the next election (assuming she wins) about plans to become speaker of the House of Commons.

May said she has no plans to run for the House speaker-ship in this upcoming parliament.

 

 

https://www.vicnews....or-a-safe-seat/

[Mike K.]

Perhaps the decision to step down wasn’t hers.

[Victoria Watcher]

i agree her running again next election does make it seem that way.  i can't think of a leader that resigned then continued on as a mp or mla or councillor etc. for any time.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 10:09 AM.

[Mike K.]

Will voters want this drama? I’m not sure.

Another interesting angle to all of this is she appointed a former MP candidate as the interim leader. I would have thought Manly or the east coast MP would have received that title, even on an interim basis.

[Victoria Watcher]

when the conservatives needed an interim they used rona but insisted she could not run for leader.  maybe that's the thing here.  they needed a replacement that was not going to get an advantage if they run.   

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 10:27 AM.

[Hotel Mike]

First Jo-Ann Roberts was the deputy leader. Second, I believe she has indicated she would not be seeking the leadership. She is the logical placeholder.

[Mike K.]

But Ambrose is an MP. Roberts is just a member of the public.

[Victoria Watcher]

But Ambrose is an MP. Roberts is just a member of the public.

 

lol.  not many green mps to pick from!   and perhaps neither does not have leadership ambitions.  surely you do see the problem of naming an interim leader that can also fight the leadership contest right?  especially one that's an mp.  being an mp already is an advantage but on top of it being the interim leader adds more.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 November 2019 - 11:37 AM.

[Mike K.]

Oh I get that.

I probably should have stated this as I think what I’m putting down is not being picked up: the Green Party is such a fledgling effort that they can’t even name an MP as an interim leader because there aren’t enough MPs.

Without May, the face and image of the party is lost. May in some (many?) respects is the party.

[AllseeingEye]

For "Tories" who are still scratching their heads wondering why Scheer and Co were unable to sway sufficient electoral support - including from traditional Progressive Conservative supporters like me - this article should be required reading. In particular this comment should be read by them, re-read and taken to heart.

 

".....The prospect is always there for fratricide among the loose confederation of warring tribes that agreed to merge under the Conservative Party of Canada banner in 2004...."

 

"We" didn't vote you because simply put you aren't "Progressive" and you are no longer recognizably Conservative, certainly as I remember the party prior to the emergence of its Reform wing; you are nothing but hard core intransigent Reformers masquerading as Tories. As such, to be blunt, we don't trust you, particularly as Scheer was wont to do on multiple occasions when asked direct questions about abortion or LGBT rights for example, he'd adopt that faraway gaze and simply duck the question altogether or fall back on some party drivel about 'respecting the rights of all Canadians". Which is to say he refused to answer the question. Again and again. 

 

You have morphed from your true PC roots and become a party of alt-RIght ideologues like Kenney, and Ford and Scheer. We no longer recognize - or like - what you have become and until you deal with that reality governing this country will remain problematic: whoever wins in Canada needs above all to sway Quebec and specifically the 55 seats in the GTA - which are increasingly non-white and immigrant and who do not share your zealous Judeo-Christian ideology rooted in so-called 'traditional' values - I would ask you "whose values are they exactly?" You OTOH should be asking whether in the 21st century they still apply. It isn't 1953 any more, after all.

 

And while you're at it rather than adopting a smarmy half-assed attitude re: climate change I would suggest you actually sit down and map out a real and actionable strategy for dealing with a real problem and then communicate that plan to Canadians, openly and honestly. With millennials - who rightly or wrongly view climate change at or very near the top of their personal priority lists - and who now outnumber the boomers BTW as a voting block, you would be very well-advised to also start taking it seriously rather than looking down on it with disdain.

 

https://www.msn.com/...tice/ar-BBWqJ51

[Mike K.]

I would certainly not refer to Kenney as “alt right” unless the desire is to be theatrical. The alt right is a fringe at the further depths of the right wing, no more representative of Conservatives in this nation than Extinction Rebellion-esque bridge-closing activists are of the Liberal Party.