Canadian election....

[AAAhmed46]

You will - and should - vote your self interest. In the end

It seems so selfish though. What if my self interests are bringing someone else's down?

In 1972 - the first year I voted - I voted for George McGovern. It wasn't because I wanted George McGovern to be president. Oh my god... he was god awful. The real reason is because I hated Nixon THAT much. He was a terrible president on the economy (wage and price controls, which killed the stock market), on the Vietnam war (his "peace with honor" was a virtual surrender") and his character (it was only a matter of time before the burglary at the Watergate Hotel was tied to him). I wanted to bring the bastard down, although at the time I was in the minority.

Over time, most of the country saw the wisdom of my sentiments.

Buh bye, Tricky Dick!



Vote your self interest, Adam. It'll all even out, and the right thing will happen. More importantly, just VOTE! Most of the young do not vote. And you know what? They then get the government that they deserve - one chosen by others.

- Bill

I take elections VERY seriously. I hear most of my peers complain about the government, but they never ever vote.
So do they have the right to complain?




Problem is, i find as time goes on, do we really vote for the political parties? Or are we voting for the people who are in them?

DO we even need the party system? Look down south, within just the democrats and republicans, how much variation is there? Lots. Whithin those two parties, look at how different everyone is.


RANT MODE:


Thats why research takes more dedication i find. Because it shifts from election to election. Different people are running form last year.

The party platform may not change too much. But the people may believe another...and they DO another.


Remember Belinda stronach?Yes i know spelling.

SHe was part of the conservative party, but she came off as an a bit of an oddity.

Guess what? She ended up jumping ship to the liberals. But she was right on the edge, so it's not surprising. However, it would have been quite possible for her to go on for years without jumping ship.

Some liberals are so left they might as well be NDP, and some liberals are so to the right, their practically conservatives.


It's damn annoying.

[Laird2]

With an upcoming election, if you are having trouble keeping the political parties straight here is a good example to keep in mind.

I was talking to a friend's little girl, and she said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day.

Both of her parents, NDP supporters, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'You don't have to wait until you're Prime Minister to do that.

You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and clean my yard, and I'll pay you $50.

Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds while her Mom glared at me, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked,
'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Conservative Party.'

[AAAhmed46]

With an upcoming election, if you are having trouble keeping the political parties straight here is a good example to keep in mind.

I was talking to a friend's little girl, and she said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day.

Both of her parents, NDP supporters, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'You don't have to wait until you're Prime Minister to do that.

You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and clean my yard, and I'll pay you $50.

Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds while her Mom glared at me, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked,
'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Conservative Party.'

For the sake of balance ill add:

since i started studying social work, not all homeless people are lazy. Lots of a lot of issues to deal with as well. Lots have a lot of baggage and what not. Some born into it. As well as mental illness.

Yes ive seen what your talking about

yes....many many just are enablers, and are content to pan handle or whatever. Feed their addictions. Some guys i study with used to be pan handlers, and they say you can make a schit load of money doing it, depending on how slick you are. HAAAY GUYS LETS LIVE OFF WELFARE.

there are guys running around in Canada who live off of welfare. So being jaded about welfare isn't being mean or illogical.

I don't think we should get rid of the safety net all together. But we should stop looking at it as the be end all.

The safety net has to be re-thought, and the welfare system should either be scrapped or have a great screening process.


I'm not the only social libertarian social worker.

There are libertarians social workers. Which was interesting to find out about.

RON PAUL FOR THE WIN!!!!

When is Canada going to have it's Ron Paul?



Ron Paul must come to Canada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

[AAAhmed46]

Why don't we do stuff like this instead of relying on the state?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_loans



Who said you have to be a leftist to care for those in poverty?

One can be right wing and still want to help his fellow man.

Im not very good at finances or economics. But i really believe this stuff can blur the lines in the political spectrum, at least when it comes to dealing with poverty.

Basically, those that want to help themselves will help themselves.

[AAAhmed46]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjhZfZqfIo

Ron Paul on the safety net.

[2Green]

Our political/voting system is overdue for a major revision.

In the US you get to vote for the President, we don't get to vote for our Prime Minister -- we should.

Sometimes the local representative of the party I DO want is such a sleaze/inept/crook whatever, that I can't vote for him/her.

Vice versa, an excellent representative, but of the party HEADED by sleaze/inept/crook whatever -- makes a difficult decision.

We don't need 5 parties and the Bloc-Heads aren't a Federal party anyway; they don't even want to be in and of Canada!

Stefan Dion can't even understand why the FACT that he is A CITIZEN OF FRANCE should concern anyone???? That alone should disqualify him, and in my opinion, to which everyone is entitled, NO elected official should have ANY other than single sole Canadian Citizenship -- just like our Military is required to have.

( Yes, I know you do not have to be a US Citizen to serve in the Marines -- our local Mi'q M'ac Natives have a long proud tradition of Marines service.)

~N~

[Chris McKaskell]

I liked Laird's joke about the homeless guy and the $50.

And I agree with Adam that the social safety net is important, if in need of some re-working.

And Neil is dead on -- the whole system needs a re-work.

The thing that really pisses me off is the simple fact that politicians lie -- and do so with our permission and expectation.

I don't have the time to look it up -- too busy working (and I was once on welfare -- yeah, WELFARE -- had been laid up in my early 20's because one of my kids brought home chicken-pox and I'd never had it. I Got it bad and couldn't work for a few months and didn't have enough set aside to weather it -- ended up selling my text books from university and my grandfather's medals to make rent the second month I was off -- before even thinking about applying for welfare -- by the way, I made my own way through university by working as a carpenter, and drinking beer -- there, some conservative credentials for those that might wonder )

Anyway, the thing I don't have time to look up is stories on a lawsuit: years ago a citizen sued Mulroney for going back on election promises claiming he'd lied to voters. The judge ruled that the plaintiff was stupid and naive to believe a plolitician while in campain mode.

So there ya go -- vote all you want; complain all you want.

Humbug!

[f.Channell]

Happy belated thanksgiving to my Canadian Uechi "cousins".

I actually invaded Quebec Sunday........

Third time in Canada this year.

Had some deer pate and left.

F.

[Chris McKaskell]

Hey Fred, I was in Montebello, where were you?

As to the election, I woke up this morning and found the air out side my house smelled pretty much the same as it did yesterday.

I'm glad we don't need to discuss this topic again -- for few months anyway!

[f.Channell]

I was in Austin in the Eastern Townships. On beautiful Lac Memphremagog.

F.

[Chris McKaskell]

Now there's a georgeous place to eat deer pate.

Good on you, bro.

[f.Channell]

What do you call French Canadian rednecks by the way?
The ones driving the lousy trucks and cars and fishing all day.......
Just for future reference.

[Chris McKaskell]

What do you call French Canadian rednecks by the way?
The ones driving the lousy trucks and cars and fishing all day.......
Just for future reference.

I do believe that in Quebecquois 'redneck' is simply 'redneck'.

You've probably noticed other identical words like hamburger, for instance.

Although, surprizingly often, when a francaphone is refering to someone from Alberta they often use the term 'redneck' as well. Seriously.

But I can't imagine any of our Albertan Uechi brothers driving lousy cars!

If you really want an insulting descriptive for an undesirable person use 'fausse-couche' -- it literally means 'spontaneous abortion'.

Nasty!

[Laird2]

Can't speak for the rest of the Uechi rednecks in Alberta, but this one drives lots of old pick up trucks. Cars ****** for haulin venison. And yeah Got lots of tacky bumper stickers on the old gas guzzlers too!

[Laird2]

I guess if fuel prices get much higher I'll just have to go hunting in a rental car like the tourists.