I’m going to continue to be bitter about the lack of attention given to the Canadian election (and Canadian issues in general).
At this point I don’t give a fuck if I’m coming across as annoying or passive aggressive. This is the most important election I’ve ever lived through, and it deserves to be discussed by everyone.
Its not like people haven’t been talking about it. Canadians have been very clearly talking about these issues, but nobody is listening.
The future of this country is going to be decided in 3 days, and nobody is talking about it. The Canadians that are talking about it are drowned out by American news. That’s not ok.
Depending on the outcome of this election I may not even be able to maintain a career in Canada after I graduate (as my major is in Environmental Science and Harper gives zero fucks about science or the environment).
I completely agree with this sentiment.
Though I haven’t been actively talking about the election on my tumblr, trust me I’ve been doing so with friends and family to the point that people who don’t vote are considering voting (and some are going to vote).
This country is about to have one of the most important elections in the past decade for a number of reasons. Not only are we voting out a dictator but there are also talks of changing the electoral system. Young people (18-35 year olds) are being given incentives to vote. This election could have the potential of having a decent voter turnout (59% or more) and all I see are complaints about how Canadians are being too outspoken or whiny or what have you. You know what that’s not our problem. Our elections are constantly being overshadowed by American politics. I’m not saying that those aren’t important but to people need to open their eyes. Canada is not a utopia where “racism doesn’t exist” where “women are doing just fine” among other issues. It’s about time people start recognizing this.
This election (and those to come) can change everything. Bills that have become laws could be disputed and changed (re: Bill C24 & C51 and others). Funding can be restored to science to research, to the environment, the health care, to combating poverty, to women centres, to crisis centres, and so many other things. This is our future.
The Canadian elections are important and if you’re tired of seeing Canadian posts well too bad. We’re not going to stop.
Canadians do not vote directly for our Prime Ministers the way you vote for Presidents; rather, Canadians elect representatives (called ‘Members of Parliament’ or ‘MPs’) for their local district (called a ‘riding’), to control one seat in the House of Commons (roughly analogous to Congress).
Each candidate in a riding represents one political party. When all of the votes are counted in every riding, the party that controls the most seats in the House of Commons forms the government and their leader becomes the Prime Minister.
A candidate wins the election in a particular riding if they get more votes than any one of the other candidates; note, that I didn’t say “the majority of the votes.” This system is called ‘First-Past-the-Post’ and it can create serious problems.
There are more than two parties here. Depending on where you live in the country, there could be as many as five parties with a serious shot at winning your seat. What this means is that it’s possible (common, in fact) for a candidate to be elected with most of the population voting for other parties.
There is one right-wing party and three or four left-wing or centre-left parties. This means that vote-splitting is a much bigger problem for left-wing voters than it is for right-wing voters.
Who the Players Are
Conservative Party of Canada (AKA ‘the CPC;’ ‘the Tories’) – Leader: Stephen Harper – Colour: Blue
The farthest right of the parties and the government for the last ten years. Created from a merger between the old Progressive Conservative (moderate right-wing) and Reform (far-right wing) parties. Roughly analogous to your Republican Party the mainstream wing of your Democratic Party.
New Democratic Party (AKA ‘the NDP;’ ‘Dippers’) – Leader: Thomas Mulcair – Colour: Orange
Formerly a perennially third-place socialist party but, since 2011, it has been the largest of the opposition parties. It now lists its politics as ‘social democratic.’ Roughly analogous to Bernie Sanders.
Liberal Party of Canada (AKA ‘the LPC;’ ‘Grits’) – Leader: Justin Trudeau – Colour: Red
A centre-left party. Once upon a time, the Liberals were so secure in their power that people called them ‘Canada’s Natural Governing Party,’ but they have since been humbled into third party status; now trying to recapture their former glory. Their leader is the eldest son of one Canada’s most popular and longest-serving Prime Ministers. Roughly analogous to the left-wing of your Democratic Party.
Green Party of Canada (AKA ‘GPC’) – Leader: Elizabeth May – Colour: Green (obviously!)
An Environmentalist party. Only really a force in a few specific ridings on the West Coast. Battling against the perception of being a one-issue party, they have staked out a policy platform somewhat to the left of the present position of the NDP. Roughly analogous to your Green Party, except somewhat more successful.
Their ultimate goal is separating the province of Quebec from the rest of the country and as such, they only run candidates in Quebec. Politically, they tend to be socialist on economic issues, but in recent years they have adopted right-wing policies on immigration and accommodation of religious minorities (especially Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Jews). For twenty years, they dominated Quebec politics, but were humiliated in the last election, when they lost all but four of their seats to the NDP. There is no analogue to Bloc in American politics.
What the Issues Are:
Harper’s Record
Stephen Harper has been Prime Minister for 10 years, and a widespread sentiment has developed that it may be time for a change. Thus, many have charged that this election is a “referendum on the Harper years”
The Economy
As the price of oil has plummeted, Canada has become the only country in the G7 to lapse into recession. Opposition parties charge that Stephen Harper is to blame for developing Canada’s oil sector at the expense of every other sector in the economy. Moreover, the unemployment rate, particularly the youth unemployment rate, has yet to fully recover from the last recession in 2008, and the value of the Canadian dollar has fallen sharply.
Austerity
The Harper Government has imposed severe cuts on spending in the wake of the recession in the name of balancing the budget. The opposition parties call for more focus to be placed on reducing income inequality by increasing taxes, either on the wealthiest 1% of Canadians or on corporations. The Liberals in particular have promised deficit spending on infrastructure to stimulate the economy.
The Environment
In his zeal to develop Canada’s oil sector, Stephen Harper has all-but-eliminated Canada’s regulatory framework for approving resource-extraction projects, and also withdrawn Canada from the Kyoto accord to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions. Relatedly, he has also strictly curbed environmental oversight, forbidden scientists in the civil service from publishing research or talking publicly about environmental issues, and destroyed research data with findings that would be inconvenient to the oil and gas sector.
Democratic Governance
The Harper Government has introduced a series a new laws, which prominent critics have denounced as being anti-democratic and authoritarian. Most notably is Bill C-51, which essentially converts the Canadian Security Intelligence Service into a secret police force with limited oversight, tasked with disrupting extremely loosely-defined “terrorist activities,” and Bill C-24, which allows the government to strip any citizen eligible for citizenship in any other country of their Canadian citizenship if they are determined to be a “terrorist” (again, very broadly defined).
Corruption
The election is taking place in the context of a major scandal involving Senators (especially Tory Senators appointed by Harper) illegitimately claiming expenses on the taxpayer dime.
Immigration
One issue that has blown-up in the middle of the campaign has been that of immigration. The Harper government has made it more difficult for refugees to come to Canada during its time in office and refused to offer such refugees healthcare. In an unrelated incident, the issue of whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear a face-veil (Niqab) while reading the oath of citizenship has become a wedge-issue in the hands of both the Tories and the BQ.
This is so important, not only for people from other countries but also Canadians who know literally nothing about politics
Also we vote on the 19th so please, please turn out!!
The election’s coming up, and it’s really frickin’ important that you vote. I know there’s a lot of talk about the American election already, but I wanted to make sure my fellow Canadians know what to do when October 19th rolls around.
These should give you a nice start in deciding which party you might want to align yourself with. I also suggest checking out each party’s website for more information on their platforms, if you have the time.
It’s super important that you get out and vote on MONDAY, OCTOBER 19TH (or in advanced polls starting on the 9th), especially if you’re a young voter. In 2011, only 38.8% of 18-24 year olds voted, compared to 75.1% of 65-74 year olds. Tumblr, that’s your demographic that needs to step up. I encourage you to do your research, and make a little time to go vote!
We’re in love with Ashley Burnham, representing First Nations pride!
This story was originally posted on Fusion’s channel on Snapchat Discover. If you live outside the US and the UK, look for our daily stories on Snapchat Discover. Also – follow our account: thisisfusion.
At issue is the Navigation Protection Act, a piece of legislation passed as part of the government’s omnibus budget bill last year.
The new law, which replaced the Navigable Waters Protection Act, drastically reduced the number of waterwayswhere development would be considered to represent “a substantial interference with navigation.”
The rest of the waterways, about 98 per cent of all rivers and lakes in Canada, now have no federal protection, which means an individual or group that depends on a waterway for recreation or livelihood would have to go to court to challenge a development it believes impedes navigation.
[…]
The new Navigation Protection Act applies to 62 rivers, 97 lakes and the three oceans, a fraction of the country’s waterways, protecting them from development that is deemed to impede navigability.
Under the old rules, a waterway was considered “navigable” if a vessel such as a canoe was able to float across it. Anyone who wanted to build anything on or near one of these waterways needed permission from Transport Canada, which would determine if the project threatened the ability of anyone to navigate the waterway.
White person in Canada: my god this country is amazing, a cop bumped into me and said sorry! Everyone here is equal! This country has never done a bad thing!
Native Person: *Looks at camera like they’re on The Office.*
Nice Hair? Harper Flew makeup artist around the world courtesy of the Canadian tax payer
The Conservatives have a bizarre obsession with Trudeau’s hair, but the truth is, neither Justin Trudeau nor Tom Mulcair have makeup artists. In fact, the only leader who does is Stephen Harper.
The Toronto Star recently reported that “In fact, the taxpayer has picked up bills in the past for another Harper stylist, and around the same time period. Michelle Muntean traveled around the world with Harper, applying makeup, styling hair, selecting clothing and trimming nails.“
The story goes on to say, “Department of Foreign Affairs paid her travel expenses, including flights, meals and accommodation. The records for 2009-2010, for example, show she traveled with Harper on 13 different trips.“
I would submit that Canadians are not getting good value for our money here.
Among the many embarrassing things that the Mike Duffy trial has highlighted is the prime Minister’s vanity. You can read the whole story here.
Speaking of linguistics, there’s one particular linguistic tick that I think clearly separates Baby Boomers from Millennials: how we reply when someone says “thank you.”
You almost never hear a Millennial say “you’re welcome.” At least not when someone thanks them. It just isn’t done. Not because Millennials are ingrates lacking all manners, but because the polite response is “No problem.” Millennials only use “you’re welcome” sarcastically when they haven’t been thanked or when something has been taken from/done to them without their consent. It’s a phrase that’s used to point out someone else’s rudeness. A Millennial would typically be fairly uncomfortable saying “you’re welcome” as an acknowledgement of genuine thanks because the phrase is only ever used disingenuously.
Baby Boomers, however, get really miffed if someone says “no problem” in response to being thanked. From their perspective, saying “no problem” means that whatever they’re thanking someone for was in fact a problem, but the other person did it anyway as a personal favor. To them “You’re welcome” is the standard polite response.
“You’re welcome” means to Millennials what “no problem” means to Baby Boomers, and vice versa.The two phrases have converse meanings to the different age sets. I’m not sure exactly where this line gets drawn, but it’s somewhere in the middle of Gen X. This is a real pain in the ass if you work in customer service because everyone thinks that everyone else is being rude when they’re really being polite in their own language.
Something interesting to note is also the more literal meaning behind these two phrases and how they themselves differ and oppose each other
‘No problem’, coming from a millennial’s mouth, within the context of helping someone – whether it be holding a door open/picking up something someone may have dropped/etc. – and, naturally, being thanked for it, implies that the kind gesture was indeed, not a problem, that it was just the thing to do, that they were happy to help and that no thanks was really necessary.
While a Baby Boomer’s ‘You’re welcome’ in contrast, says something miles different, it actually highlights the fact that the person went out of their way to help someone; almost brings attention to it in a way, saying ‘Yeah, I helped you, I did you this favor I accept your thanks.’ which, malicious intent or not, is strikingly different than the millennial downplay of their act of kindness for the sake of helping someone.
The broad class that these expressions belong to is that of phatic expressions, formulaic expressions that are used less for their literal meaning and more for their social contribution. Others include “hi/hello/good morning” and “how do you do?/how are you?/what’s up?/how’s it going?” (Fun experiment: next time someone asks you “what’s up?” try replying smoothly “good, how are are you?” – or the inverse, replying “not much, what’s up with you?” to “how are you?” – and see if they even notice.)
The sub-class of phatic expressions involving “you’re welcome” and “no problem” is known as minimizers, and “no problem” is indeed newer (although it seems to date to the 1980s, so it’s not a perfect correlation with Millennials). Other minimizers are “no worries”, “sure”, “my pleasure”, “okay”, “anytime”, “don’t mention it” and others in this list. Minimizers often vary by age, geographic location, and other factors: ”you’re welcome”, for example, isn’t so old either – the OED’s first citation for it is from 1907 (”my pleasure” and “don’t mention it” are older). Another which I’ve noticed Americans using over the past few years is “mmhm” or “uh-huh”, which I’ve never heard in Canada as a minimizer. That’s about all the research I can find on them at the moment – anyone know any more detailed studies?
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