[Laner]

From what I gather here in Vancouver, most people would support Harper at the ballot, but are insanely Anti Harper in public.

All of the crazy bullshit news that floats around on social media these days paints Harper as a devil. Classic BC knee jerk reaction.

But the reality is BC is finally able to flex some economic muscle under Christy Clark. Remember BC hated the BC Liberals (centre- right) but they wont be voted out any time soon. Not with money in the bank and jobs flowing in.

Its just a matter of dealing with the incredible welfare system that BC has set up for its self. The bureaucracy here is massive. I deal with 25 yo government gatekeepers way too much who have not a fucking clue about business and would rather pass things off to each other for a couple years than take a risk and make BC competitive.

With all of the Chinese, Indian and Persian business smarts here, there is no way that Trudeau will win. As bloated as the left wing whiners are here, they really dont have the brains or the money to make any changes back to the way BC was. All they have is noise on social media.

I consider that good.

[DjembaDjemba]

Scotian hit the nail on the head in regards to some not so cherished traditions in Canada brought over from some parts of the middle east and south east asia.

Either than that, there does seem to be an unfortunate anti success bias that reverberates throughout society. This is a worrying trend.

Here in Canada its become more common for us to try to drag each other down especially in respect the East-West-Quebec dichotomy. And while we're are generally an open country of diverse people, there is deep seated anti immigrant bias based purely on economics.

The comment sections of any Canadian newspaper, especially liberal ones (but not exclusive to) underlines a deep and summering resentment against the success of Chinese and Indian immigrants. They are very successful and this is rubbing many people who aren't really cutting it in modern society the wrong way. Does anyone remember the "OMG Our Universities are too Asian?!" controversy a few years ago? That anti success mentality especially from the dominant society is fucked up and dangerous. We shouldn't be cheering and rewarding mediocrity and shouting down success.

This is why the ethnic enclaves are turning to the conservative bastions (Rob Ford in Toronto for example), people are scared of getting tax robbed. Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty come to mind. Deficit spending without an end in sight. More taxes, more bullshit.

The next election people want a debate on immigration but there won't be one, at least not in respect to how some want it framed. The conservatives are actually really screwed on that issue because their support is cobbled together by rednecks (who don't really care for non white immigrants), business leaders (who don't give a fuck, they just need more bodies), and successful ethnic immigrants. The Liberal/NDP support comes from Yuppies, Greenies, old school unionists, government workers, and broke immigrants. The liberal support is slightly more uniform than the conservative one, they can all agree that spending someone else's money is the best way to move forward.

All three parties support continued nation building through the current massive immigration system, but they differ on sources and methods of immigration. Conservatives seem more interested in bringing more economically astute and skills-ready immigrants.

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/03/12/the-e...re-racist/

I also predict a con minority government but how long can it last?

[DjembaDjemba]

(03-14-2015 03:20 PM)Laner Wrote:  

From what I gather here in Vancouver, most people would support Harper at the ballot, but are insanely Anti Harper in public.

All of the crazy bullshit news that floats around on social media these days paints Harper as a devil. Classic BC knee jerk reaction.

But the reality is BC is finally able to flex some economic muscle under Christy Clark. Remember BC hated the BC Liberals (centre- right) but they wont be voted out any time soon. Not with money in the bank and jobs flowing in.

Its just a matter of dealing with the incredible welfare system that BC has set up for its self. The bureaucracy here is massive. I deal with 25 yo government gatekeepers way too much who have not a fucking clue about business and would rather pass things off to each other for a couple years than take a risk and make BC competitive.

With all of the Chinese, Indian and Persian business smarts here, there is no way that Trudeau will win. As bloated as the left wing whiners are here, they really dont have the brains or the money to make any changes back to the way BC was. All they have is noise on social media.

I consider that good.

BC and Saskatchewan are the only 2 provinces to balance their budgets this year. Christy Clark seems to have her shit together and is moving BC in the right direction economically. The hippies tend to be the loudest, but the voice of reason seems to have won in BC...for now.

[rudebwoy]

Harper came on the scene he was anti immigration, now he is busy on his knees in front of the Chinese premier looking business.
He is a fraud like the whole political system, look at Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy incidents.

[komatiite]

(03-14-2015 05:34 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  

Harper came on the scene he was anti immigration, now he is busy on his knees in front of the Chinese premier looking business.
He is a fraud like the whole political system, look at Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy incidents.

I see a big difference between trying to make economic deals with the leader of a foriegn state and opening the floodgates of immigrants from that country to come here...

[Mike0060]

Voting conservative for Haper. It's the best chance Canada has to prosper among the 3 main choices. I'll choose social conservative values in government over leftist liberal ideologies any day.

[rudebwoy]

(03-14-2015 07:34 PM)komatiite Wrote:  

(03-14-2015 05:34 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  

Harper came on the scene he was anti immigration, now he is busy on his knees in front of the Chinese premier looking business.
He is a fraud like the whole political system, look at Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy incidents.

I see a big difference between trying to make economic deals with the leader of a foriegn state and opening the floodgates of immigrants from that country to come here...

So let me guess, you think we should stop immigrants period.

We are not America, we have 35 million people in the what is the second largest country in the world.

There is a difference between making economic deals and selling out the country.

[Kamaki4]

Harper is the worst Prime Minister Canada has ever seen and if he is reelected we risk damaging Canada's future and reputation beyond repair. I'm an Albertan and if you look at the situation rationally he has done more to hurt Canadians than many people realize. As Kosko so eloquently put it in an earlier post, "he is a cunt".

[nek]

(03-01-2015 01:06 AM)kosko Wrote:  

the destruction of the best Stats/Data body on earth

What's this about?

[ed pluribus unum]

(03-11-2015 09:51 PM)Kaizen Wrote:  

I've seen 3 niqabs in my life in Canada and dude talking like it's the biggest problem facing the country.

3? Dude, you need to take a trip to Ottawa. You'll see that many crossing the street in 30 seconds on Sparks street on a Sunday morning. Not just the niqabs, either; you'll see them in the full-on body bags. Some neighbourhoods in the north end of Montreal you can go a long time before seeing a woman that isn't wearing some kind of veil.

Despite what the media party is trying to tell you, the niqab issue does matter to Canadians; it's a very big issue here in Quebec, despite the Toronto-based media types trying to spin referendum questions.

[ed pluribus unum]

(09-30-2015 12:50 AM)nek Wrote:  

(03-01-2015 01:06 AM)kosko Wrote:  

the destruction of the best Stats/Data body on earth

What's this about?

The progressives love to spin the PM as some kind of fundamentalist anti-science Christian, and their 'proof' is that he is shock! horror! burning books and closing libraries. You know what? Federal libraries *are* being closed and books destroyed. But here's the long version:

Federal libraries with vast quantities of reference material (all in book form) had very little actual use, with less than 10% of the total being checked out or even referenced in any given year. So the gov't has been digitizing the entire collection, saving space, cutting costs and making the whole more accessible to everyone. What the progressives are really upset about is the fact that some gov't union-dues paying employees (overwhelmingly anti-conservative) will now be losing their jobs which allowed them to collect a paycheck for sitting in an empty library 12 months a year...

Same thing when they accuse the Conservatives of cutting Veteran's Affairs; they are closing Veteran's affairs offices, but only to move them in with Service Canada offices, of which there are more. So, improved access, less infrastructure cost and, yes, a few union jobs get cut.

[DjembaDjemba]

^^ But ending the mandatory census destroyed the government's ability to collect meaningful statistics on the state of the Canadian household.

We still aren't sure who he was trying to appease by removing the government's ability to collect this data.

[Laner]

(09-30-2015 07:37 AM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

^^ But ending the mandatory census destroyed the government's ability to collect meaningful statistics on the state of the Canadian household.

We still aren't sure who he was trying to appease by removing the government's ability to collect this data.

I remember hearing of this. I doubt any government would ever get rid of statistics.

My bet, without knowing much about it, would be to move it away from phone calls and mail in questionnaires and to a much more efficient digital query.

[DjembaDjemba]

They made the census non mandatory, and they've received a far smaller response rate now. Let's be honest most people are too lazy to fill it out without incentive.

[rudebwoy]

Front page of the national newspaper. (source: Globe and Mail)

For the first time ever, there are more seniors in Canada than children.
Yeah, stop immigration that is a great idea!
Sure I am like the next guy, I wish they would import hot white chicks and Brazilian hotties but unfortunately they tend to stay in their home countries.

Just because they don't take census, they are not stupid. They now how many people live in a house, in some areas it is a big problem. The schools are overpopulated and they have had to build portables to house the access.

My concern, is if there is going to be a pension around when I retire.

Harper will sell and is selling out the country. I don't know if Trudeau will stop that tide, I doubt it.

[DjembaDjemba]

No political party is even discussing stopping immigration in Canada. In fact some candidates are discussing expanding it even more.

Under Harper, we've seen a little under 1 million TFWs enter the country, that's in addition to the 300,000 points system immigrants coming in annually. And there's a new skilled worker programme that will bring another 15,000 per year under a specifics skill category.

The biggest election issues are how we're going to allocate public funds and to which sectors.

The pipelines

Carbon taxes

Tax breaks for families

TFSAs

Federal transfer payments

It's still a three way horse race though.

Rudebwoy - In respect to pensions, I highly recommend having a big chunk of your earnings contributed to an RRSP and make sure you max out your TSFA if you have that option. It'll help tremendously in padding your retirement.

[kosko]

(09-30-2015 12:50 AM)nek Wrote:  

(03-01-2015 01:06 AM)kosko Wrote:  

the destruction of the best Stats/Data body on earth

What's this about?

The move to destroy the national census hurt big time as there was a long track record of robust and full data going back decades. Canadians have long enjoyed this benefit, we had the most thorough stat books in the developed world. Very fine detailed stats with high response rates, this stuff pays for itself ten-times over as the Govt can sell off data for cash and then recycle the data over and over again as needed for research for policy, its a invaluable tool worth every penny and more that is put towards it.

In Canada we have not yet seen the carnage that happens in the USA when the Govt rolls out junk data at a whim to influence policy and politics. You see some of the stuff they roll out in America and you laugh. Newspaper surveys are better then what some State's and County's put together. This type of gambit and games was always much harder to do in Canada, as you had a civil agency packed full of stat geeks who would roll out hard data to counter any fluff politicians tried to peddle out.

Example.. When Harper said we need Super-Prisons to combat crime. Stats Canada rolls out hard data of crime rates dropping across the board in Canada over a 15 year period. So now, what can Harper say? He can continue to talk non-sense as the press and opposition rings him clean and he eventually sound like a moron.

It was a solid means of keeping Govt in check, and it was a solid means of figuring out the best way to use Govt resources and implement projects that make sense. It isn't foolproof but its better to stop bad policy versus waiting till the money is wasted and having the Auditor General after some long report, give out some long winded rant going on about how the Govt wasted billions on a bunch of junk.

The new data being used is junk. The National Household Survey is no better then some shit you fill out at the mall for a gift card. Projections are still being squeezed out of the last hard survey in 2011 but you can't use that forever. Something needs to change or else Canada will fall prey to American style gimmicks and hype to push ahead policy instead of just relying on evidence and facts.

Harper canned it because he does not like to govern with facts. He did not want data and facts getting in the way of his policy positions so he gutted the census and raked the department dry.

(09-30-2015 10:52 AM)Laner Wrote:  

(09-30-2015 07:37 AM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

^^ But ending the mandatory census destroyed the government's ability to collect meaningful statistics on the state of the Canadian household.

We still aren't sure who he was trying to appease by removing the government's ability to collect this data.

I remember hearing of this. I doubt any government would ever get rid of statistics.

My bet, without knowing much about it, would be to move it away from phone calls and mail in questionnaires and to a much more efficient digital query.

The best way to collect data was and will always be via households, just as property taxes are the most sound way to collect cash. You can make the process easier by introducing online options but the point of contact should always be by fixed address.