all politics, all the time

[piranha]

until october 14. we're having an election. *sigh*. so much for harper's promise of a fixed election date [1] -- typical reforma-tory -- keep promises only for as long as they're good for oneself. when there are ethics investigations, and an ailing economy, and a dem lead in the US elections, then we apparently don't need no stinking fixed election date. for 2.5 years we've seen mr "open and transparent government" be the most secretive and evasive prime minister that i can remember.

i'm _really_ worried about a conservative majority government. i hope canadians realize that the only reason we've not gone along the same road the republican handbasket is careening down in the US, is that a minority government is limited in its power.

and i hope people don't forget that stephen harper wanted to take us into the iraq war in 2003. heck, most of us want us out of afghanistan; can you imagine the mess if we were stuck in iraq?

our C$12 billion surplus is gone even without that involvement. the economy is slumping; manufacturing isn't doing so good.

harper doesn't give a fuck about the environment.

i want him gone. he's bad for canada.

[1] and wait, don't we have a law for that now? how's he weaseling around that? the bill is here; need to ferret out more info. canada elections act.


ETA: the law looks very clear (there is some more stuff about alternate days; not important here). except that section 1 basically can be interpreted to allow earlier dissolution of parliament. so really, all it covers is an upper limit of 4 years, no lower limit. (that's not what he promised, mind.)

56.1 (1) Nothing in this section affects the powers of the Governor General, including the power to dissolve Parliament at the Governor General’s discretion.

(2) Subject to subsection (1), each general election must be held on the third Monday of October in the fourth calendar year following polling day for the last general election, with the first general election after this section comes into force being held on Monday, October 19, 2009.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

What's the impetus for wanting out of Afghanistan? War weariness?

[velochicdunord.livejournal.com]

It's mixed.

1) A feeling that this will be a never-ending war. Our troops (of the NATO forces in place) are doing a fair chunk of fighting in Kandahar. They've been effective - but we're feeling a little underwhelmed by support from the European allies We've had almost 100 dead returned since we started (multiply by 10 to calculate similar political effect 'Stateside) and our dead have been publicly acknowledged, each time they've been returned. Each time a soldier is killed, we have a convoy from Trenton (the main air supply base) three hours down the highway to Pearson, where the casket is sent on to the soldier's family. These convoys draw a lot attention locally, with people stopping to pay their respects from the overpasses as the convoys go by.

2) Lack of clear understanding as to why we're there and frustration with some of the local politics. If it's to make peace, why hasn't this been accomplished already and if it's to stop terrorism, well, we aren't being horribly effective, are we?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Actually I think your guys have been tremendously effective. It's a damn shame that the US hasn't put more effort into the Afghan conflict over the past several years, but US forces are already over-stretched in Iraq due to a certain bit of poor executive judgment.

That said, I can certainly see how that lack of clear understanding has the effect of eroding support for the Afghan conflict. I truly hope your guys don't go away, because right now it's the Commonwealth countries that are really carrying the brunt of the effort that's keeping Al Qaeda (the real one) on the defensive. I hope we Americans get our combat troops out of Iraq soon and move some into Afghanistan to get your guys some relief, because Al Qaeda and the Taliban really do need to be defeated in enough detail to prevent them from being able to reconstitute themselves.

wanting out of Afghanistan

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

in addition to what velochic enumerated:

canadians are grumbly about this having become a fighting mission. we like to see ourselves as peace makers (whether or not that's justified is another question), and this mission stretches beyond that.

and then there is the fact that our ally the US dragged us into this, and then didn't follow through themselves because they got distracted by the iraq war which doesn't do squat in fighting terrorism. and which has even less support here than afghanistan.

Re: wanting out of Afghanistan

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I can see how both of those would happen. Mission creep (peace keeping turning into war fighting) always erodes support, and it sure doesn't help that our damnfool in the White House made some very poor decisions that have left the Canadians and Australians and British holding the bag in Afghanistan.

All that said, I do hope you'll manage to stay. It's going to be hard enough to get it done with you (assuming we can get somebody in office who understands the vital importance of multilateralism), never mind trying to do it without you.

(And yeah, I have cousins in the CF, so this is not just an abstract desire on my part.)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

our elections aren't until november 9th. i have no sympathy for you and your month of all politics all the time, since we've been all politics all the time since, uh, 2006, and have another two months to go.

[redbird]

Just for the record: Nov. 4, not 9. (The range of possible dates for US federal elections, under current law, is November 2-8 of even-numbered years.)

all politics all the time

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, i wasn't complaining about _our_ elections so much as about both ours and yours running at the same time. i think our runup is just about long enough. except that i think canadians are still a little tired of having too many elections so close together.

yours are just abysmally long. it's too much.