Another Majority of Vandals?

Despite what the CONs say, Canada is a progressive country.

Yet, with our fucked-up electoral system, the majority vote is split so that the CONtempt Party squeaks in.

This must stop.

Look at yesterday's by-election results.

In Calgary Centre, the CON got 36.9% of the vote while other (variously progressive) parties combined for 61%. Numbers sound familiar?

They should. They are very close to the overall ranking in the 2011 federal election.

A party with less than 40% support is now vandalizing a progressive country to the shock and disgust of the majority.

I am not a partisan but I was delighted to hear someone actually in politics say out loud what ordinary people are increasingly focussed on.

We must stop the CONservative vandals.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray launched her bid for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party on Monday with a call for “one-time” only cooperation among the three major opposition parties in the next federal election in order to defeat Prime Minister Harper and bring in lasting reform to Canada’s electoral system.

Pointing out Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his Conservatives won a majority government with only 39.6 per cent of the vote, Ms. Murray (Vancouver Quadra, B.C.) said her campaign will include a new proposal for the kind of cooperation discussed since the 2011 election by Liberals, New Democrats and Green Party figures.

Many, including former NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley, Valley, B.C.), have said the only way to defeat Mr. Harper’s election machine is by joining forces to field only one candidate from all three opposition parties in ridings the Conservatives won with less than 50 per cent of the vote.

A one-time only deal. Worked out at the riding level. Perhaps with a run-off vote among the non-CON candidates in advance to determine the best chance to beat the CONs.

Then, election reform.

Now. How do we do this? We've got two years.

On Twitter, Sadie Tucker says she has been phoning and writing riding offices and talking to friends.

Let's get this show on the road. Canada cannot withstand another majority of vandals.

ADDED: Elsewhere our polyboggous (h/t deBeauxOs) bud, Mandos, has an interesting analysis of the mess Canadian politics is in and wonders if an Amerkican-style two-party system is inevitable.

ADDED: Pundit's Guide says it won't work. Lotta reasons, too. *sigh*

Canada's Got Young Radicals!

This twelve year old girl has more savvy and brains in her little finger than all the CON MPs, including Cabinet Ministers like idiot Peter Kent.

It's unlikely that you'll see Victoria being exploited by Harper's Politburo for a photo op with PMSHithead - unless they hold her parents and the family pet hostage.

We Know It: Canada Is Progressive

This


puts the lie to this.

[Harper] said it was "a sign that Canadians of all regions and backgrounds have found a home in our Conservative party, that Conservative values are Canadian values and that the Conservative party is Canada's party."

There are insightful and appreciative tributes coming from all corners.

Check out Montreal Simon and Alison at Creekside.

Here's my fave photo*, also from Alison's, titled 'And After They Ran Out of Room on the Wall'.



Canada is progressive and compassionate and inclusive. I, and millions of others, know it in our hearts. Organs sadly lacking in the minority of Canadians in charge.

At. The. Moment.


*photo is bigger at Alison's

Yo! Progressives!

A few elections ago, a friend who doesn't follow politics closely told me she was fed up with all the old parties and was going to vote Green. Appalled, I refrained from detailing the many ways that the Green Party of Canada is NOT progressive, NOT like Green parties in Europe. Instead, I just asked her to go read their platform.

She did, and being a smart broad, thanked me for saving her from making a bad booboo.

I'm going to save everyone a bunch of time and point out one policy of the GPC that demonstrates how UNprogressive and how much more rightwing than leftwing they are.

You know that 'income splitting' proposal the ReformaTories rolled out? The one so roundly ripped to ribbons by sensible people -- real economists even -- as classist, sexist, unfair, useless for those who really need some financial help, yadayada, neatly summed up by some wag on Twitter as the 'June Cleaver policy'?

Not coincidentally, it is also intended to stir up a Mommy War, pitting working mothers against stay-at-home mothers, at least one of whom, by the way, rejects the policy even though it would benefit her family 'ENORMOUSLY'.

Well, guess who is also for that policy. Who, in fact, were for it before the ReformaTories.

Right. Elizabeth May and the Green Party.

So Harper has borrowed part of #GPC income splitting policy, but partial & only after deficit eliminated. We use tax shifting to do it now.

Do you need any more evidence that EMay and the Greens are not progressive?

How about her stand on abortion? I dug this up from 2007. You can revisit the whole Macleans interview here.

M: Last year, you made some comments on abortion that attracted attention - namely that you would never have an abortion, “not in a million years," and that “nobody in their right mind is for abortions.” Is there a conflict between you and your party on this?

EM: The party has the same position. The party’s position is called "pro-life, pro-choice." What we’re saying as a party, and what I’m saying as an individual leader, is that any civilized society must provide safe legal access to any woman who needs or wants an abortion. But it’s not something someone is for, in the same way that no one is for chemotherapy.

I admit it. The woman has a gift. Here she re-offends prochoicers WHILE dissing cancer patients and their loved ones.

Oh, and a gift for whining. She's real good at that, too.

Some Good News

It's a fact. Stephen Harper and his Conbots are delusional.

It’s widely said these days that Canada is moving politically to the right and that Canadians are becoming generally more conservative in their outlook on public matters.

It’s an assertion based sometimes on hope, often on conjecture, occasionally on fragmentary evidence, but never on serious facts and deep analysis. Indeed, the latest Focus Canada survey by the Environics Institute so completely demolishes the assertion that perhaps now it can be laid to rest.

Go read the whole thing. It will cheer you up.

Well, except for this bit:

The Harper government can take heart that 52 per cent of Canadians are satisfied with the country’s direction, compared with 40 per cent who aren’t. That’s the second-highest satisfaction rating (after China’s) in the world.

Well, and except for the fact that this news is based on sciency-truthy stuff, you know, that stuff that right-wing nut jobs are impervious to.