The Canadian Election

I'd like to find out if anyone is interested in the Canadian national election. Especially the other Commonwealth people as our odious Prime Minister is employing Lynton Crosby the "Lizard of Oz" and he has sucessfully injected some ugly racist and religious elements into the campaign?
Their latest bit of ugliness is the citizenship bill that will see Canadians exiled back to their parents', or in some cases grandparents' country of origin.

We really don't hear anything about it here in Oz.

If it's any comfort to you, our own odious PM Tony Abbott (who was great mates with yours) was frontstabbed a couple of weeks ago and replaced by the party room with the PM from central casting Malcolm Turnbull. The consequent change in atmosphere has been remarkable, though policy changes are at the moment more a matter of style so as not to frighten the extreme right wing rump.

A propos of which, our very own cancel their citizenship bill is to be seriously re-drafted. As it stands, even if it got past the Senate cross benchers, it would never survive a High Court challenge.

Trust me, if Canada is at all like Australia in having a population that dislikes extremists of any sort in government, there is hope that the system will eventually correct itself.

I hope that the quiet Canadians who are not answering any of the polls will turn out to vote and get rid of our Conservative government- any other party else would work-and I would welcome a coalition!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harper-at-risk-as-progressive-parties-surge-...

Trudeau projected winner

Trudeau confirmed winner!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/20/justin-trudeau-set-to-become-pm-as-...

"Ding-dong the Harper's Dead!
Ding Dong the Stephen's flown away!"
Except he hasn't of course! Though about to immerse the Conservative Party in what could be a deliciously divisive leadership struggle that might see a shattering of his right wing coalition, he expects to sit quietly as a back-bencher beaming "Kill-o-zap" rays at any future rival to his legacy as the great silver haired hope of the brutally exploitative trade deals he's imposed on the country. It could of course be the beginning of his comeback to lead a re-vitalized Conservative party to complete his really right wing revolution in about six years! (Nothing I wouldn't put past that man!)
And I do think that the "Young Prince" Trudeau is really just more of the same, unable in the long run to best the massive environmental/economic challenge Canada faces. But we must live in hope that something can be done...
Do read "This Changes Everything" by Naomi Klein. We should at least know what is about to hit us, and the trivial motives for the ugly alterations coming to the only usable bio-sphere in this solar system!

I have to say that I'm feeling my age. I can remember when Trudeau's father, "Trendy Pierre", was PM. Justin does seem terribly young for the job.

Hubby has been reading This Changes Everything for a while.

Our new PM is doing rather well so far. At first the electorate seemed to be just relieved that he wasn't Tony Abbott, but the polls are improving as it turns out that he's actually Malcolm Turnbull (unashamed Rich Dude) and he knows how to behave. Goodness knows what will become of Abbott. I mean, what sort of position would suit a guy who eats raw onions, skin and all?

George Custer, American Cavalryman and Sioux scalp, also ate onions in that fashion......
Doesn't Australia have a set of rich industrialists who can find an ex-politician some kind of diplomatic representative post? You know, heading a trade mission to Botswana for example? Or the educational fact finding mission to Bolivia?
Justin does seem a likeable lad, and his wife is very eye attracting....Princess Sophie, our possible version of Kate Middleton rather than a Diana, we hope. Justin did climb into the ring with six-weeks warning and training, to box for charity with a skilled amateur (and Conservative) and gained a TKO over his opponent....He doesn't like to lose...a family characteristic.
His program is liberal as well as Liberal, and that party in Canada is a respected group well known for pragmatism and moderate nationalism. The climate crisis will be his true test as it is of any politician of this decade...I live in hope, and wish him well. I'm intrigued that the concept of Noblesse oblige is alive in both our countries.
Oh, it seems the Lizard of Oz pulled out of managing Stephen Harper's campaign a week before the election...in spite of introducing a vicious racialist meme, Crosby could see this wasn't going to be good advertising for his method in the future!

Any hope of election reform in the wake of the Liberal win? I heard at third hand that this was discussed during the campaign. But I suppose it's less likely after the win is so decisive.

By "election reform" I mean getting rid of winner-take-all voting, which privileges two major parties.

Holding Our new PM's feet to the fire on this point appears, after three days, to be a popular theme. He will be held accountable on this point. He seems to favour a preferential ballot rather than the First Past the Post system, which allied with strategic voting gave him his majority. If he doesn't at least publicize a committee report on it by the next election (Due in Four years) and run to implement the committee's findings or a credible alternative... his party could be severely reduced. So Canadians are optimistic on this point. Can we have some input from members with experience of PR governments to help us with this thread?

PR governments?

Governments elected under the Proportional representation system, say people from Germany or New Zealand, danes, Swedes etc....

In Tasmania they use the Hare Clarke System for state elections. I have heard it called the hair brained system. It results in multi member electorates, which of course is what Australia has with the federal Senate; however, the Senate - like everywhere else in the country, is elected by preferential ballot. Each state in the federation elects 12 senators. Don't forget voting is compulsory.

The founding fathers intended the Senate to represent the specific interests of the states. That lasted about 5 minutes and it soon divided along party lines, with the odd independent.

In Senate elections all sorts of single issue candidates and downright ratbags put themselves up - over 60 in a larger state is not unusual. Filling out the ballot paper takes ages, you really need a sausage when you've finished (I have discoursed elsewhere on the role of the sausage sizzle in Australian democracy).

In recent years we have seen the rise of the professional "preference whisperer". Strategic preference deals between candidates can, and do, produce interesting results. The Motoring Enthusiasts Party, with about 1,500 first preference votes, gets elected. (Actually he's turned out to be more sensible than expected.)

As we operate on the Westminster system the national government is formed by whichever party commands a majority in the lower house, the House of Representatives made up of one member per electorate. But legislation has to be passed by the Senate, which can demand amendments. Negotiating with independent Senators has now become a key Prime Ministerial skill, which Tony Abbott just did not possess.

I personally like our system. There are times when it's a complete circus, but it works for us.

Gerrymandering, voter apathy, and fear mongering has destroyed the checks and balances of our, the USA's, political system. Only radicals vote in the primaries guaranteeing that only the most radical show up in the general election. The conservative's drum beating, "THEY are coming to get you" has marginalized anyone that tries to focus on real issues. The USA has a military larger than the next, is it three, combined but many voter are terrified that religious radicals from the Mideast with no air power, no navy, armed with second hand Kalashnikovs are going to conquer us.

edited for grammer

#14
My word, somebody got out of bed on the wrong side! What you need is a holiday, preferably in a functional democracy. The scenery in Canada is beautiful. It is here too, but it's a bit far away for you.

Our unlamented Harper Government tried all three of your complaints in their period in office. And for three elections they succeeded though not in the latest one, which has led to people returning their borrowed copies of "The Coming of the Third Reich" by Richard J. Evans to the libraries, instead of xeroxing them, and hiding them in the rafters.
The USA does have a very bad case of right-wing hissy-fit going on...and it is really worse than my flippancy about the point.
Vancouver Island will welcome you for visit, but I will remind dajashby that our winter is coming on...The temperature will hover around freezing for the next five months, so dress warmly, Climate change will require raingear as well. But there's a great deal of un-doing to be done up here, and it will take three or four years work.
I note that the USA has a great deal of identification with Mather's remarks about "A city on a hill etc..." The unspoken acknowledgement of the existence of other cities, not on such high hills, can elude them. My thanks to those participating in this thread.

I visited Halifax in November of 2004 and was greeted with a Globe and Mail headline that read "Americans Go Home". It was not that welcoming but I could sympathize with their feelings about us at the time.

#17
Really? What were you lot doing to them then? Were you part of the wrecking crew?

Canadians are so polite. The time for you to worry is when the signs say "Yankees Go Home".

.18:
Actually "Yanks, go home!" The pun is intended. But we are currently welcoming Americans as visitors for our dollar is down.
Hopefully, the amount of political antagonism will now diminish in Canada for the next while....but it was the tensest election I've ever seen in my quiet country. Now all we need is a lot of repealing of bills, and abandonment of many appeals to our Supreme Court that were instituted by the former regime.

Germany does not use a real proportional representation election system. Furthermore the 5% election treshold resulted in over 15% of the votes in the last general election being completely ignored as far as representation in the national parliament is concerned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Germany

I hope that Trudeau is able to implement some (most) of the ideas he advocated. I think he is sincere in his belief that inclusion of all can be attained and that social justice is necessary for a progressive country. Canadians sure showed they are not apathetic - though they might have just been wielding a big club for four years. Who really thought that the PC would lose as many seats as they did. As far as Mulcair goes, his financial ideas were retrograde. I believe that was his undoing.
When Obama won by a landslide 7 years ago he went into office with a Democratic Congress and a "mandate" for change. His mistake was not taking advantage of that mandate. He wasted his first two years trying to appease the Republicans and a new Congressional election took away his Democratic Congress.
I hope that Trudeau goes forward with alacrity. The talk around his process for choosing a cabinet is great on paper. I hope he can succeed.
Harper will be back. And remember, prior to his first election to PM he talked about how much he admired George Bush (the 2nd). He's not about to give up on that dream, because if you have it, you want it to come true. To hell with the rest of society - your guys will be the powerful ones. He's part of the 1%ers, in politics and aspirations if not in cold hard cash.

>18 dajashby: What we did was reelect G.W.Bush / Dick Chaney to the White House. I was not alone in considering that it would be a good time to jump ship. I think that most of the world shared Canada's opinion. We broke it, we need to go home and fix it. FWIW I did vote in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 but my candidate had the race stolen both times.

#22
So was the headline a command or an observation?

>23 dajashby: I took it as a polite command.