New poll shows Conservative could achieve a majority in next election.

[wrenegade]

This thread is hilarious, especially the first two pages.

Add me to the list of people who would prefer a conservative majority. I don't think Harper would touch gay marriage or abortion with a 10 foot pole. I do hope that he would fix the senate and change the equalization regimen. Quebec is just the worst example, but the Maritimes and Newfoundland shouldn't be getting a ride like they are either.

I do hate the "He didn't come back for you" ads though as well. No taste, but what else is new in political ads.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

It will be another 50 years till the world's population peaks.

Anyways, it'll be better for the world's environment if the population drops by a half or so. That's a greater long term concern than a couple of generations of old people not having enough of a tax base to support them and having to postpone their retirement. Cleaner air and water, and more room for wildlife with less of them becoming extinct is a good thing, eh?

Yes but to play the devils advocate maybe if the worlds population drops by half then maybe productivity/efficiency of the human race drops by more than half. Economies of scale.

A less efficient human race can be a more destructive human race.

But I do agree with your point overall, just saying that it could infact be bad for the environment long term, its possible.

[cornholio]

^To add to my above point it is the one thing that all the green people forget about. Lost opportunity costs of their green ideas, lost opportunity costs that could postpone cleaner and more efficient technologies, systems and policies from being developed.

Example.

You implement a policy that reduces CO2 emissions by 2 tons per year, but costs society 10% efficiency points(just made that term up). So now a technology that would reduce CO2 emissions by 30 tons per year wont become available for 11 years instead of 10 years from now.
So what is the net result in this scenario?

By year 11 you have reduced CO2 emissions by 52 tons, yet you could of reduced them by 60 tons if you didnt handicap productivity.

Just one example but something to keep in mind. Always have to atleast try to look at the biger picture.

[cornholio]

To get back on topic I have to say I was extremely anti conservative and I still hate many of their policies and finds them dangerous. But at the same time there are many other policies that I find very good and they do seem to have more of a backbone in many ways then the liberals. There have been some good things they have done lately like stopping the CRTC as one example of hiking rates, and they are revamping the immigration system which could be a touchy subject but I honestly would not trust the liberals to do a good job. I remain positively optimistic about the conservatives though.

It really really hurts me to say this but I think im starting to lean towards voting conservative in the next election, and I hope I dont regret it. But putting emotions to the side I cant think of many reasons at the moment why not to vote for the conservatives.

I do think they will get a majority the next election, I can see thats where we are heading now.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Do you advocate Libertarianism? This was the brainchild, in essence, of the late-17th Century English economist and philosopher John Locke, and which formed the backbone of the "every man for himself" and "if you're down and out, it's your fault" philosophy at the bedrock of the American constitution. With no universal social programs, and so many people falling between the cracks in America, I would rather have thought it a flawed philosophy.

Apparently not. Is this the type of societal attitude you are recommending for Canada? Yes? No?

I support the idea in principle. I don't like the idea of forcing anyone into anything. But in practice, we'll have to settle for a compromised version, with some social safety netting.

In any case, minimal government is good.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by awvan

This thread is hilarious, especially the first two pages.

Add me to the list of people who would prefer a conservative majority. I don't think Harper would touch gay marriage or abortion with a 10 foot pole. I do hope that he would fix the senate and change the equalization regimen.

I think that totally revamping the senate is a priority in Canada. The current structure of the Senate overloads the small, now-underpopulated Maritime provinces, gives representation to Ontario and Quebec, but only token input from Manitoba on west.

This is ludicrous and archaic.

I think that three elected senators from every province (30) plus one elected senator from every territory (33) would make a fair and unarguable representation for the Upper Chamber.

Also having 33 elected senators, being an odd number, means that any very contentious bill which was voted on, AT THE MOST EXTREME, would be either 18 against/ 19 for, or vice versa, and therefore a tie breaker, or at best, a vastly reduced risk of stalemate.

The equalization payments are another issue, too. Quebec gets spoon-fed, and BC still pays in, and receives the smallest (or near-smallest) amount of federal money for anything. / correct me if I'm wrong.

[madmigs]

Wow, nobody has yet mentioned the in-out scheme the Tories concocted nor the Bev Oda document forging which she initially lied about, but was found out anyways.

And the Conservatives only got up in arms about UBB after all the other parties were already slamming the decision. They were silent before that.

PS: There was an article somewhere about how the big pollsters in Canada said that the polls really cannot be trusted for accuracy anymore, as they rely on telephone polling and more and more people only have cell phones/etc and thus numbers that are not listed in any phone book. ie. its becoming less of a random sampling

[SpikePhanta]

Originally Posted by cornholio

Yes but to play the devils advocate maybe if the worlds population drops by half then maybe productivity/efficiency of the human race drops by more than half. Economies of scale.

A less efficient human race can be a more destructive human race.

But I do agree with your point overall, just saying that it could infact be bad for the environment long term, its possible.

Advances in technology (example: moore's law) can make up for the lost productivity from less population.

It would take less people with todays technology building a transcontinental railway then past technology but many more workers.

[navazan]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

You're free to volunteer to get us started down that path~

my thoughts exactly. to all the psychos that THINK that the world is overpopulated, well, go ahead and kill yourselves, you self centered pigs. our own "quality of life" and the environment are NOT at stake if abortion were made illegal. (thats simply a couple of excuses too often used by the immature irresponsible tools that CHOOSE to have sex without being ready for the inevitable outcome.) the only real affect it would have is on condom sales, which would skyrocket. and no im not a secret trojan exec. again, i dont know how some people can harbor such disapproval towards our own species!@!!^#@%^

[navazan]

PS. tho i may sound angry and perhaps some view me as "hateful", i just like to say i love humanity. i love our ingenuity and our passions which separate us from wild animals. i just feel that abortion is so primal, i get worked up at the thought of destroying innocent lil souls. blah. the end.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

You're free to volunteer to get us started down that path~

I have 0 (zero) children, if that's a good enough start.

If you're so worried about your retirement prospects, maybe you should raise your children to look after you in your old age. If they don't love you so much, maybe life isn't worth living at that age.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by navazan

my thoughts exactly. to all the psychos that THINK that the world is overpopulated, well, go ahead and kill yourselves, you self centered pigs. our own "quality of life" and the environment are NOT at stake if abortion were made illegal. (thats simply a couple of excuses too often used by the immature irresponsible tools that CHOOSE to have sex without being ready for the inevitable outcome.) the only real affect it would have is on condom sales, which would skyrocket. and no im not a secret trojan exec. again, i dont know how some people can harbor such disapproval towards our own species!@!!^#@%^

So how many abandoned children have YOU adopted?

Speaking of pigs, what are your feelings towards something like this? (As a warning to everyone else, this video is disturbing.)

• Video Link

So are you really so emotional and compassionate towards all sentient life forms, and images like these bother you just as much, if not more than the removal of a yet unthinking and unfeeling collection of cells developing inside of a woman's womb? Or are you just kissing God's ass for better afterlife prospects, like a good sycophantic hall monitor seeking favour with school officials?

Also, note that an increase in human population will also necessitate an increase in factory farmed animals, and incidences like that seen in the video occurring.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by navazan

PS. tho i may sound angry and perhaps some view me as "hateful", i just like to say i love humanity. i love our ingenuity and our passions which separate us from wild animals. i just feel that abortion is so primal, i get worked up at the thought of destroying innocent lil souls. blah. the end.

Look in to the research done on crime. Approx 18-25 years after abortions were made legal, the crime rate dropped significantly. The hypothesis, in a crude sense, is that less poor people were having children they didn't want/couldn't afford, who were growing up in bad homes and becoming criminals.

That's progress.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by awvan

This thread is hilarious, especially the first two pages.

Add me to the list of people who would prefer a conservative majority. I don't think Harper would touch gay marriage or abortion with a 10 foot pole. I do hope that he would fix the senate and change the equalization regimen. Quebec is just the worst example, but the Maritimes and Newfoundland shouldn't be getting a ride like they are either.

I do hate the "He didn't come back for you" ads though as well. No taste, but what else is new in political ads.

I wish I were that confident about Harper. If you look at his record and statements before coming to power, he's completely ignored many of his principles. So either he didn't believe in those stated principles in the first place, or he's willing to throw them under a bus to cling to power. Neither is flattering.

The chances that he's had some complete change of heart are remote. Better the Tories ditch him for someone like Jim Prentice.

As to the "tough on crime" "build more prisons" mantra, that hasn't worked so well in the USA.

[DKaz]

I like Iggy but maybe he needs to step down. I think we can all agree that the Conservative attack ads on Ignatieff are childish at best but from what I'm hearing from the right leaning voters, it's working. Put Bob Rae etc. in and the Conservatives wouldn't have anything legit to attack.

For the record, Ignatieff is just as Canadian as any of us, read his book True Patriot Love and see, but they won't listen.

[Stingray2004]

Ipsos-Reid has just released a federal poll and it shows the CPC at its highest level that I have ever seen them at 43%. 40% or above could be defined as majority government territory.

(with difference from 2008 election in parenthesis)

National:

CPC: 43% (+6.5%)
Lib: 27% (+1%)
NDP: 13% (-5%)
Green: 5% (-2%)
BQ: 10% (+-0%)


BC:

CPC: 48% (+3.5%)
Lib: 21% (+2%)
NDP: 22% (-4%)
Green: 8% (-1.5%)

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Tor...919/story.html

Yep, I smell the government minority falling and an election right after the budget this month.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by DKaz

... Put Bob Rae etc. in and the Conservatives wouldn't have anything legit to attack...

Umm, how about Ontario 1990-95. Whether deserved or not, with Bob Rae, Ontario would be a waste land to the Libbies. From "Rae Days" to "transit cuts" to "massive deficits" to "auto insurance scandal", it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Again, I am not saying if it is deserved, but it is what it is.

As a datum point, remember that due to the unpopularity of the provincial Dippers, the Federal Dippers were decimated in the '93 election in Ontario. Don't think for one second that the Cons wouldn't spend every dime they could reminding Ontarions of those days.

In the rest of the country he would probably be a wash compared to Iggy (though I'd expect the Cons would play up his old Dipper heritage in light of the coalition fear), but with up to 1/3 the seats up for grabs in Ontario, no way.

To me the problem isn't so much the leader of the Libbies, but more their policy. Really, how different is it from the Cons? Maybe they'd buy the planes, maybe they wouldn't. Likley build a few less prisons (or not since these are great local pork barreling) and possibly cancel the corporate tax cuts (which they previously approved). But where is the massive reason to change one horse mid-race?? Until the Libbies present a real reason to vote for them, they will sit on the sidelines.

Say what you will about Harpo, but in stealing the middle ground, he effectively neutralized the Libbies and their claim to natural governing party. IMHO

[ckkelley]

^
That would be sweet! I think swing voters are ready to give Stephen Harper the keys next time around.

I really, really, really hope we'll see some serious reform of laws regarding violent offenders. Specifically I'd like the focus to be on victim's rights rather than the current criminal rights.

I'm not advocating for Capital punishment but I would like to see 'life with no parole' for first-degree murder.

[wrenegade]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I wish I were that confident about Harper. If you look at his record and statements before coming to power, he's completely ignored many of his principles. So either he didn't believe in those stated principles in the first place, or he's willing to throw them under a bus to cling to power. Neither is flattering.

The chances that he's had some complete change of heart are remote. Better the Tories ditch him for someone like Jim Prentice.

As to the "tough on crime" "build more prisons" mantra, that hasn't worked so well in the USA.

I do agree with you in parts, Harper has ignored many of his previously stated principles which is both good and bad in my opinion. Backtracking on gay marriage is good, backtracking on fixed election dates and deficits is bad (though he was somewhat forced into the second one). It's a minority government, concessions have to be made no matter what. I wouldn't necessarily say he is trying to "cling to power."

Being tough on crime and building more prisons is something I support in Canada, though obviously not to the same extent as in the US. There are far too many criminals who spend too little time behind bars. Obviously prisons themselves aren't the answer, but there are many parts of our Justice system that need revamping. To use a pertinent example, the Winnipeg Justice who sentenced someone convicted of rape to a suspended sentence in part because he thought the victim was "asking for it" and "wanted to party". Disgusting.

I do like Jim Prentice more than Harper myself, but I think that one is a lost cause now, but my man is Maxime Bernier. Obviously the whole Julie Couillard thing was a bit of a mess, but since being sent to the back bench Bernier has absolutely been on fire calling for reforms on provincial/federal taxation, transfer payments, calling out his own province of Quebec, and even the how-dare-ye-touch-it Canada Health Act. I'd love to see him as the PM. Perhaps he could even convince Irwin Cotler (pretty much the only Liberal MP I like) to cross the floor and be Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[madmigs]

Originally Posted by ckkelley

^
That would be sweet! I think swing voters are ready to give Stephen Harper the keys next time around.

Somehow i doubt it, we swing voters don't easily forget things like:

* corruption and cronyism - http://ca.news.yahoo.com/tory-senato...43435-315.html

* Bev Oda document doctoring - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1903110/

* Too much secrecy - http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mps-denied-...70346-226.html

* Wild spending and imposition of temporary police state for G20 - http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/c...15/G20-toronto

* Outright election fraud - http://ca.news.yahoo.com/conservativ...45342-846.html and http://ca.news.yahoo.com/appeal-ruli...25923-413.html