#-- & the centrist liberals & centre-left ndp

[allthecanadianpolitics]

You and I support the NDP party. Though are you more leftwing than the NDP party? I think I am. Though I like the NDP party, they are like Bernie Sanders and AOC.

My personal politics are Socialist. The NDP is Social Democracy and at best are Centre-Left.

The NDP is only desirable in Canada because every other party ranges from Centrists to Right Wing fascists. Even the Liberals are a Centre-Right party.

The NDP is not the best party for leftists in Canada, but its really our only option right now if we want any chance to stop the steamrolling of human rights, income inequality and labour rights from the constant tug and war between Liberals and Conservatives.

Ideally either the NDP elects a Socialist as its leader in the future or helps to implement proportional representation, and that would much more easily allow more leftist voices to get into government.

[chrismcshell]

theres a provincial election happening in ontario right now & there’s this new “New Blue” party & the house right across from mine - visible from my bedroom window - has a couple of New Blue lawn signs.

i finally looked up what exactly the New Blue party is, & apparently they’re a Socially Conservative party that was created because the existing Conservative party was too left-of-centre for them (fact check: the ontario “Progressive Conservative” party is very much centre-right, NOT centre-left). Doug Ford isnt right-wing enough for them. they want ontario to be MORE right-wing. they want to stop covid lockdowns & vaccine mandates. they want to stop “woke culture”; they want to stop “critical race theory” & “gender identity theory” being taught in schools.

and my neighbours support them. very cool i definitely feel safe here haha :-)

[theleftycanadianradical]

Dear Canada, Make a Different Choice

Polling averages show that Liberals are ditching Trudeau for O'Toole. Some Lefties vote Liberal. Some anti-establishment types vote Conservative. I hope they both reconsider, the NDP.

This is hard for Liberals and Conservatives to hear, but Liberals / self-proclaimed "Centrists" are NOT on the Left, they're Centre-Right. Yes, DESPITE differences around social justice /culture war issues where they differ in expression, from the Conservatives.

Both LPC and CPC are neoliberals. Neoliberalism is Right-wing.

We are told by our media, to limit the debate, that Left = LPC and CPC = Right, but this is inaccurate and helps maintain a Lib-Con duopoly that is good for business and the rich, and bad for most of us, the environment, and Indigenous Peoples etc.

The real political scale runs from (the far Left) Communism, to (far Right) Fascism and economically, from Communism to Right-wing Libertarian. But you would never hear that on CBC, CTV, Global, etc. who enforce the idea, that NDP is too far Left.

The NDP on this scale is actually in the Centre. They are capitalists. Just less neoliberal. Look at politics on a global scale. They get called "far left" here, but they are technically liberals, (ideology, of liberalism, not party). Which puts them smack dab in the middle.

The Liberal party, started abandoning Liberalism under PET, (also the first to start making cuts to health care), in favour of neoliberalism. Albeit much more moderately than we have now. Liberals today are no Pearson Liberals. I don't believe we'd get medicare right now under Trudeau, if we were fighting for it today. The reforms NDP espouses and economic policies, are Keynesian to social democratic - things we see in Scandinavia, for instance, universal health care vs our two-tiered diagnostics but not treatment system. Those countries aren't socialist either. A party's economic beliefs guide the policy of the party. Which is why, despite different stances of the Liberal and Conservative party on some social issues, they agree on quite a bit in practice. Which also explains when CPC wins, Liberals voted Blue.

Don't take my word for it, read the voting record from Parliament at ourcommons.ca You'll find the CPC and LPC, even Bernier, when he was in Parliament... on the same side of the issues time and again even though they appear so different on the surface.

If we ever want real change in this country, no matter how you identify politically, it will never come from continuing to vote in the Libs and Cons. The party that's different from both, with the most viable path to Parliament, is the NDP.

[kimsiever]

Last week, I conducted a survey asking people whether they were going to vote for me. Over 200 people responded.

One of the questions I asked was how people had voted in the previous federal election. The attached chart is how the people who plan to vote for me claimed to have voted in the 2019 election.

There are a few interesting things.

First, the majority of respondents who plan to vote for me said they had voted for the NDP in 2019. But even then, that’s barely a majority, with less than 55%. Just under half voted for someone other than NDP in 2019.

Second, more than 1 in 4 of the respondents said they voted Liberal in the last election. When you add the Greens in there, it’s more than 1 in 3!

Third, for every 14 people who said they planned to vote for me, 1 of them voted for the Conservatives in 2019. This doesn’t surprise me. So many people have told me that this is the first time they (or someone they know) are voting for someone other than a Conservative candidate in a federal election.

Finally, roughly 1 in 20 supporters said they didn’t even vote in 2019. This wasn’t a surprise either. I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve had people tell me that until I announced, they’d planned on not voting at all, that they were disappointed in all the parties.

These results tell me that my message is resonating with people across the political spectrum. Even though I tried to run for the NDP, people don’t see me as the NDP candidate. And that’s fine, because I’m not trying to be.

I’m trying to be the people’s candidate, focused not on partisan politics, but on real, practical solutions that are meant to address underlying issues instead of using bandaid solutions to buy votes every four years.

When I say that my campaign is centred around the concept of solidarity, I mean it. My solidarity for workers is for all workers. I don’t care if you’re a left-leaning nurse, a right-leaning farm labourer, or a centrist teacher, I stand with all workers in supporting their constitutional rights to stand up for themselves and their ability to care for themselves and their families.

Same goes for solidarity with the marginalized. Homelessness doesn’t affect one side of the political spectrum. Neither does poverty or disability or discrimination. Everyone should be treated equally and have their needs met.

And finally, solidarity with the environment isn’t based on only one type of environment users. We all drink the same water, eat food grown from the same land, and breathe the same air.

A vote for Kim Siever is a vote for everyone.

[youcouldmakealife]

Huh, interesting. I can't keep track of the timelines, so I honestly don't even try. But you've said before that Marc & Dan coming out when Liam was relatively young was key to his mindset and perspective on being gay in the NHL. If Jared is actually *younger* than Liam and has that same formative background, why do he and his family feel so differently?

That’s a really interesting question! There are a few reasons.

One: Liam grew up a Habs fan. This is notable because he saw a lot of the initial backlash but then he also saw other Habs fans basically adopt Marc the second he was ‘their guy’? Not all, but a significant number. By the time Marc and Dan were getting married, he was pretty firmly in ‘our guy’ territory. No one talks shit about our guy, even if he’s marrying a fucking Senator. Jared was aware of it across the country, and while Marc and Dan weren’t rivals like they were as Leafs, he saw a lot more general negativity with nothing really countering it.     

Which leads to two: Different support groups. Liam’s three best friends were girls, and importantly, he wasn’t the first person to come out in that friend group: his friend Izzy came out before him. Being a year older also kind of helped? He was going into high school when the news broke, and had already known he was gay for awhile, while Jared was in middle school and his sexuality was at the time a source of a lot of confusion for him. (Liam came out to his parents within months, while Jared wouldn’t come out to his family for three more years)

Jared heard mostly disgust in the locker rooms, and he didn’t see a lot to counter it; there were some half-hearted attempts from the coaching staff, and Jared could see that they didn’t really care that much, which made him feel worse than if they’d pretended not to hear. So he heard, through comments made about Marc (the vast majority of the attention was on Marc, because he was much higher profile, and also – and this pisses Dan the fuck off – because he’s the less traditionally masculine of the two.) what people might say about him behind his back.

It should also be noted that Alberta is a comparably conservative province to Nova Scotia (specifically Halifax in this case, and major cities trend more liberal than their provinces). They’re both city kids but Liam grew up right downtown Halifax, and Jared lives in a residential neighbourhood on Calgary’s outskirts? Basically suburban, which trends bluer than downtown cores (lest Americans get confused: blue is right wing. Red is Liberal, blue is Conservative…there’s also orange: NDP (left of Liberals, my personal political party), green:…Green Party. So the Liberals, despite being further to the left than the Democrats as a whole, is basically our centrist party, though our centre is considerably further left than the States’.). 

Re: Alberta itself: in a poll on same sex marriage support in 2015 (the year IJ(aoe) is set and ten years after same sex marriage was made legal in Canada), 33% of Albertans polled opposed it. 78% of Quebeckers supported it in that poll, for context of the Habs situation. I don’t have an exact number on Nova Scotia, because the coverage of it was just key facets, but Alberta was marked as the province most opposed.  

So we’re looking at different social and regional and political landscapes, but also:

Three: Liam and Jared are very different people? In a lot of ways. I definitely have a hard time imagining Jared attempting to seduce an enforcer over ten years his senior at eighteen (IMAGINE THE HUMILIATION POTENTIAL. NO THANKS.) So even if Liam had grown up in Calgary without his Tyrannical Triplets and Jared had grown up in Halifax and had a support group or like, close friends, Liam would still probably be less cautious than Jared is, purely because he’s Liam.

Jared’s not Liam level comfortable. It’s hard to be Liam level comfortable: it requires not really giving a shit about what people think about you, and that is something Jared is not able to do, as much as he pretends he doesn’t care. 

That said, Jared compared to even, say, Andy, who’s Bryce’s age, and Bryce himself, is a lot more out at seventeen than they were (he’s more out at seventeen than Bryce is NOW). 

He’s been out to his family for a year, including limited extended family, he told Raf he was gay within days of meeting him because he trusted him with it, and a few of his friends (’friends’? teammates he occasionally hangs out with!) he also trusts not to be assholes are aware. So he’s actually more open about it than, say, Evan at seventeen, and Evan’s five years younger than him.

[classyfoxdestiny]

Canada Set to Deliver Verdict in Testy Vote as PM’s Cakewalk Becomes Nail-Biter

Canada Set to Deliver Verdict in Testy Vote as PM’s Cakewalk Becomes Nail-Biter

https://sputniknews.com/20210920/canada-set-to-deliver-verdict-in-testy-vote-as-pms-cakewalk-becomes-nail-biter-1089226454.html

Canada Set to Deliver Verdict in Testy Vote as PM’s Cakewalk Becomes Nail-Biter

Canada Set to Deliver Verdict in Testy Vote as PM’s Cakewalk Becomes Nail-Biter

TORONTO (Sputnik) – Canada will choose its next government on Monday, putting an end to an inflammatory campaign in which Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau… 20.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-20T06:27+0000

2021-09-20T06:27+0000

2021-09-20T06:27+0000

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At The WireOn Monday, all 338 of Canada’s House of Commons seats will be up for grabs with the winner of the election declared based on a much maligned first-past-the-post system, where candidates with the highest number of votes win without any further runoff ballots.At the time Governor General dissolved parliament, the governing Liberals held 155 federal seats – 15 fewer than the number needed for a majority government. Most analysts believe Trudeau triggered the election to reclaim the majority mandate lost in the 2019 federal election.However, despite the opportunistic timing of the election call – most pollsters had Trudeau several points ahead of the nearest competition at the time of the writ drop – the substantial lead quickly dissipated, and the governing Liberals have been forced to fight from behind throughout most of the campaign.The race comes down to Trudeau and and Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, with most projections showing the Liberals and Tories in a virtual tie.The Liberals holds a slight 30.8 percent to 30.5 percent lead over the Conservative Party of Canada, which is within the margin of error, according to a Nanos Research-CTV News-The Globe and Mail poll.Similarly, the latest Angus Reid Institute, Abacus Data, Ipsos, Leger and Mainstreet polls show the Liberals and Tories within two percentage points of each other.However, some are seeing the incumbent Liberals pulling away from the pack – EKOS Research has the Liberals nearly 3 points up on the Conservatives and a full 7 percent points clear in the vote-rich province of Ontario.Trudeau Brand CrumblesTrudeau’s ascension to world leader status began on 2 May 2011. The son of one of Canada’s most renowned political figures, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the younger Trudeau was one of only 34 Liberal parliamentarians elected in the 2011 federal election.The Liberals’, often referred to as Canada’s “natural governing party,” historic defeat at the polls opened the door for Trudeau, who was tasked with resuscitating the party at the party convention in 2013.Trudeau lived up to expectations, winning a majority government in 2015.The now Canadian leader’s meteoric rise is often attributed to his personal “brand.” The Montreal, Quebec native was young, charismatic, bold – participating in antics such as a 2012 charity boxing match with a Conservative senator – and an international media darling, breaking the mold of traditional Canadian politicians.However, since his election the Prime Minister has been involved in a myriad of scandals, including several high-profile allegations of corruption, turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct allegations – despite his claims of being a “feminist” – and the infamous “blackface” controversy.Throughout the campaign Trudeau, who leaves few people indifferent, has been dogged by protests, including some wild scenes of the Canadian prime minister being subjected to obscenities and in one instance pelted with gravel.Cory Morgan says that Trudeau rode the coattails of his famous family name and a personal appeal into office but is increasingly becoming a burden to the Liberal Party.“Trudeau’s tougher task will be convincing the party to keep him after the election even if he maintains his minority government,” Morgan added.Conservatives Shift to Center in Bid to Unseat TrudeauThe Conservative Party, meanwhile, has increasingly shifted to the centre in a bid to unseat Trudeau.O’Toole, who was elected party chief just one year earlier, has presented himself as a centrist and strong leader able to steer the party away from renewed conversation around social issues including same-sex marriage and abortion rights, which are considered to be settled in Canada, to policies where the Tories do well, such as the economy.However, the shift has not gone according to plan is not resonating with voters, analysts told Sputnik.Jacqueline Biollo, a Principal Consultant with Aurora Strategy Group, purports that Tories move to the centre has not been well received by potential voters.“They haven’t handled it well at all,” political strategist and columnist Clinton Desveaux said, speaking about the attempted shift.Desveaux said O’Toole has flip-flopped on several key issues, including gun control and the country’s carbon emissions pricing plan. The political strategist added that the Conservatives have been unable to substantively explain their position on vaccination mandates, including proposed plans to introduce proof of immunization documents, better known as “vaccine passports.”Spoilers AplentyThe 2021 federal election has been difficult to project for pollsters and analysts because of the various vote splitting scenarios in play.The Conservatives face a challenge from the populist conservative People’s Party of Canada (PPC), which could hinder the establishment Conservatives bid to unseat Trudeau’s Liberals come election day, political strategists told Sputnik.Support for the PPC ranges between 5 and 9 percent, most pollsters say, with the party led by Maxime Bernier eating just enough into Conservative Party support to cost them the election.The PPC surge has the Conservatives in “panic mode,” according to Desveaux. The political strategist believes that in Conservative strongholds such as Alberta, where the People’s Party commands as much as 19 percent support, there may be enough of a vote split in closely contested areas – usually in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton – to see the Tories lose important seats to rival Liberals and New Democrats.Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has its own vote-splitting concerns.Trudeau faces a stiff challenge from the left-wing New Democrat Party, led by Jagmeet Singh. Throughout the campaign Singh has presented his party as the authentic “progressive” party, hitting Trudeau for consistently missing climate targets, the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline project and the Liberals mixed results on reconciliation with the country’s indigenous community.In addition to the NDP, the Liberals have to be weary of the Bloc QuebecoisThe Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois are locked in a tight battle in Quebec, with the former holding a slight edge in the province. Trudeau’s Liberals and the Bloc often fight for the same voters in Quebec, and it is widely believed that the Prime Minister’s path to re-election runs through the province.While the Bloc struggled out of the gate, a debate question posed to leader Yves-Francois Blanchet about his party’s support for the “discriminatory” Bill 21 and 96 legislations has changed its political fortunes.The moderator’s characterization of the pieces of legislation, which opponents say limits the rights of the English-speaking population and religious minorities but are generally popular among Quebeckers, ignited a political firestorm in French-speaking Quebec drawing angry responses from provincial leaders and breathing new life into the Bloc Quebecois’ campaign.Greens in Survival Mode After Civil WarThe Green Party of Canada, which many predicted to be a rising force in the country’s political landscape after receiving nearly 1.2 million votes in the 2019 federal election, has been a shell of its former self during the 2021 campaign.The Party has been embroiled in civil war since the spring, allegedly triggered by differences over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict earlier this year, which couldn’t have come at worse time, political insiders tell Sputnik.The Party’s internal strife began with leader Annamie Paul, who was elected party leader less than 12 months ago, adopting a more conventional response to the renewed hostilities between Israel and Palestinian groups – calling for restraint on both sides.The approach did not sit well with the Party membership, Dimitri Lascaris, a former Green Party leadership candidate told Sputnik, explaining that Green Party supporters have overwhelmingly embraced the international movement to oppose Israel’s actions with respect to Palestine — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).The dysfunction was exacerbated by Paul’s former advisor, Noah Zatsman, who vowed to work to defeat Green Party parliamentarians and candidates, who criticized Israel and the defection of Jenica Atwin to the Liberals, citing the Party’s muted stance and Zatsman’s comments. Atwin was one of only three Green Party parliamentarians at the time of her defection.However, a source close to the party said in an interview that the Israel-Palestine conflict was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The division within the Green Party are longstanding and stem from differences between politicians seeking actual political gains and dogmatic activists, seeking moral “wins,” the source said.Ahead of the election the Greens descended into a full-fledged civil conflict, with Federal Council openly at odds with Paul and court documents revealing that the party and Paul filed lawsuits against each other.The internal hostilities significant impaired the functioning of the Greens ahead of the election, the source said, revealing that fundraising and volunteer recruitment is significantly down.Desveaux said the Green appears to be functioning as a loose band of individual candidates, calling the Party’s campaign an “unmitigated disaster,” and predicting that Paul’s days as leader are numbered. Key Issues For VotersThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic appears to be the issue on voters’ minds as the country enters election day.Other key priorities include the environment and the economy, although concrete policy discussion hasn’t featured heavily during the campaign. Issues including the country’s reconciliation with its First Peoples and affordability – acute topics ahead of the election – have featured far less frequently in the past 35 days.Meanwhile, PPC leader Maxime Bernier, whose party has become one of the top stories of the election, believes that Canadians’ apathy towards their political system is driving the talk of the campaign.Bernier, whose party has vehemently opposed mandatory vaccination measures, adds that Canadians are “fed up” with mask mandates, which are still in place in most parts of the country despite its high vaccination rates, as well as talk of mandatory vaccination and vaccine passports.Others may not have an issue close to heart and vote for a specific candidate, Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said.Canadians Increasingly Voting ‘Against’ Not ‘For’Desveaux also notes that Canadians are voting for “against” policies, issues, parties and candidates as opposed to voting for positive change.“Voters are voting ‘against’ something across all party lines,” Desveaux said, highlighting PPC supporters’ contempt for vaccination mandates, centrists’ concerns about the Conservative Party and left-wing backlash against the governing Liberals. Foreign PolicyRegardless of the election results, Canada’s foreign policy, which has received very little attention throughout the campaign is likely to remain the same after 20 September, foreign policy experts told Sputnik.While questions about Canada’s messy withdrawal from Afghanistan dominated discussion during the first few weeks of the campaign, other foreign relations priorities have largely been ignored and in the final days ahead of election day discussion has almost entirely shifted to domestic issues.Reflective of Canada’s foreign policy discussion shutout is the lack of international media attention to the country’s national election.Paul Robinson, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, told Sputnik that the lack of foreign interest in the election is indicative of the fact that Canada is not seen as a major player on the global stage, a sentiment expressed by Blanchet during the national debates, and that the country isn’t seen as an independent actor.Bringing Together a Divided CountryWhoever comes out on top on 20 September, faces a tall order in uniting a country after a 36-day campaign marked by protests, partisanship and, at times, personal attacks.The sentiment is reflected in the polls, where most voters say that none of the parties deserve a majority and are holding out hope for a minority government.

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At The Wire

On Monday, all 338 of Canada’s House of Commons seats will be up for grabs with the winner of the election declared based on a much maligned first-past-the-post system, where candidates with the highest number of votes win without any further runoff ballots.

At the time Governor General dissolved parliament, the governing Liberals held 155 federal seats – 15 fewer than the number needed for a majority government. Most analysts believe Trudeau triggered the election to reclaim the majority mandate lost in the 2019 federal election.

However, despite the opportunistic timing of the election call – most pollsters had Trudeau several points ahead of the nearest competition at the time of the writ drop – the substantial lead quickly dissipated, and the governing Liberals have been forced to fight from behind throughout most of the campaign.

The race comes down to Trudeau and and Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, with most projections showing the Liberals and Tories in a virtual tie.

The Liberals holds a slight 30.8 percent to 30.5 percent lead over the Conservative Party of Canada, which is within the margin of error, according to a Nanos Research-CTV News-The Globe and Mail poll.

Similarly, the latest Angus Reid Institute, Abacus Data, Ipsos, Leger and Mainstreet polls show the Liberals and Tories within two percentage points of each other.

However, some are seeing the incumbent Liberals pulling away from the pack – EKOS Research has the Liberals nearly 3 points up on the Conservatives and a full 7 percent points clear in the vote-rich province of Ontario.

Trudeau Brand Crumbles

Trudeau’s ascension to world leader status began on 2 May 2011. The son of one of Canada’s most renowned political figures, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the younger Trudeau was one of only 34 Liberal parliamentarians elected in the 2011 federal election.

The Liberals’, often referred to as Canada’s “natural governing party,” historic defeat at the polls opened the door for Trudeau, who was tasked with resuscitating the party at the party convention in 2013.

Trudeau lived up to expectations, winning a majority government in 2015.

The now Canadian leader’s meteoric rise is often attributed to his personal “brand.” The Montreal, Quebec native was young, charismatic, bold – participating in antics such as a 2012 charity boxing match with a Conservative senator – and an international media darling, breaking the mold of traditional Canadian politicians.

However, since his election the Prime Minister has been involved in a myriad of scandals, including several high-profile allegations of corruption, turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct allegations – despite his claims of being a “feminist” – and the infamous “blackface” controversy.

Throughout the campaign Trudeau, who leaves few people indifferent, has been dogged by protests, including some wild scenes of the Canadian prime minister being subjected to obscenities and in one instance pelted with gravel.

Cory Morgan says that Trudeau rode the coattails of his famous family name and a personal appeal into office but is increasingly becoming a burden to the Liberal Party.

“While the Trudeau brand may be losing its shine right now, the Liberal brand itself is as strong as ever. People are supporting the party rather than the leader at this time and it likely will maintain the status quo in this election,” Morgan, a political commentator and a columnist with the Western Standard, told Sputnik.

“Trudeau’s tougher task will be convincing the party to keep him after the election even if he maintains his minority government,” Morgan added.

Conservatives Shift to Center in Bid to Unseat Trudeau

The Conservative Party, meanwhile, has increasingly shifted to the centre in a bid to unseat Trudeau.

O’Toole, who was elected party chief just one year earlier, has presented himself as a centrist and strong leader able to steer the party away from renewed conversation around social issues including same-sex marriage and abortion rights, which are considered to be settled in Canada, to policies where the Tories do well, such as the economy.

However, the shift has not gone according to plan is not resonating with voters, analysts told Sputnik.

Jacqueline Biollo, a Principal Consultant with Aurora Strategy Group, purports that Tories move to the centre has not been well received by potential voters.

“These efforts have seen [disingenuous] and the undecided voters may not step up to the plate to support the Conservatives in numbers that would substantially help the party win the election,” Biollo told Sputnik.

“They haven’t handled it well at all,” political strategist and columnist Clinton Desveaux said, speaking about the attempted shift.

Desveaux said O’Toole has flip-flopped on several key issues, including gun control and the country’s carbon emissions pricing plan. The political strategist added that the Conservatives have been unable to substantively explain their position on vaccination mandates, including proposed plans to introduce proof of immunization documents, better known as “vaccine passports.”

Spoilers Aplenty

The 2021 federal election has been difficult to project for pollsters and analysts because of the various vote splitting scenarios in play.

The Conservatives face a challenge from the populist conservative People’s Party of Canada (PPC), which could hinder the establishment Conservatives bid to unseat Trudeau’s Liberals come election day, political strategists told Sputnik.

Support for the PPC ranges between 5 and 9 percent, most pollsters say, with the party led by Maxime Bernier eating just enough into Conservative Party support to cost them the election.

The PPC surge has the Conservatives in “panic mode,” according to Desveaux. The political strategist believes that in Conservative strongholds such as Alberta, where the People’s Party commands as much as 19 percent support, there may be enough of a vote split in closely contested areas – usually in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton – to see the Tories lose important seats to rival Liberals and New Democrats.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has its own vote-splitting concerns.

Trudeau faces a stiff challenge from the left-wing New Democrat Party, led by Jagmeet Singh. Throughout the campaign Singh has presented his party as the authentic “progressive” party, hitting Trudeau for consistently missing climate targets, the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline project and the Liberals mixed results on reconciliation with the country’s indigenous community.

“The reality of vote-splitting on the left is more crucial for the Liberals to consider their messaging to their base and differentiate themselves from the NDP if they want to secure a majority, or even minority government win at this point,” Biollo said.

In addition to the NDP, the Liberals have to be weary of the Bloc Quebecois

The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois are locked in a tight battle in Quebec, with the former holding a slight edge in the province. Trudeau’s Liberals and the Bloc often fight for the same voters in Quebec, and it is widely believed that the Prime Minister’s path to re-election runs through the province.

While the Bloc struggled out of the gate, a debate question posed to leader Yves-Francois Blanchet about his party’s support for the “discriminatory” Bill 21 and 96 legislations has changed its political fortunes.

The moderator’s characterization of the pieces of legislation, which opponents say limits the rights of the English-speaking population and religious minorities but are generally popular among Quebeckers, ignited a political firestorm in French-speaking Quebec drawing angry responses from provincial leaders and breathing new life into the Bloc Quebecois’ campaign.

Greens in Survival Mode After Civil War

The Green Party of Canada, which many predicted to be a rising force in the country’s political landscape after receiving nearly 1.2 million votes in the 2019 federal election, has been a shell of its former self during the 2021 campaign.

The Party has been embroiled in civil war since the spring, allegedly triggered by differences over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict earlier this year, which couldn’t have come at worse time, political insiders tell Sputnik.

The Party’s internal strife began with leader Annamie Paul, who was elected party leader less than 12 months ago, adopting a more conventional response to the renewed hostilities between Israel and Palestinian groups – calling for restraint on both sides.

The approach did not sit well with the Party membership, Dimitri Lascaris, a former Green Party leadership candidate told Sputnik, explaining that Green Party supporters have overwhelmingly embraced the international movement to oppose Israel’s actions with respect to Palestine — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

The dysfunction was exacerbated by Paul’s former advisor, Noah Zatsman, who vowed to work to defeat Green Party parliamentarians and candidates, who criticized Israel and the defection of Jenica Atwin to the Liberals, citing the Party’s muted stance and Zatsman’s comments. Atwin was one of only three Green Party parliamentarians at the time of her defection.

However, a source close to the party said in an interview that the Israel-Palestine conflict was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The division within the Green Party are longstanding and stem from differences between politicians seeking actual political gains and dogmatic activists, seeking moral “wins,” the source said.

Ahead of the election the Greens descended into a full-fledged civil conflict, with Federal Council openly at odds with Paul and court documents revealing that the party and Paul filed lawsuits against each other.

The internal hostilities significant impaired the functioning of the Greens ahead of the election, the source said, revealing that fundraising and volunteer recruitment is significantly down.

Desveaux said the Green appears to be functioning as a loose band of individual candidates, calling the Party’s campaign an “unmitigated disaster,” and predicting that Paul’s days as leader are numbered. 

Key Issues For Voters

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic appears to be the issue on voters’ minds as the country enters election day.

Other key priorities include the environment and the economy, although concrete policy discussion hasn’t featured heavily during the campaign. Issues including the country’s reconciliation with its First Peoples and affordability – acute topics ahead of the election – have featured far less frequently in the past 35 days.

“The two defining issues are: Who is best positioned to handle the [pandemic] and who is best positioned to open up our economy, while dealing with the COVID problem,” Desveaux said.

Meanwhile, PPC leader Maxime Bernier, whose party has become one of the top stories of the election, believes that Canadians’ apathy towards their political system is driving the talk of the campaign.

“I believe that people want to send a strong signal to these establishment politicians – they don’t want more government control. I believe they want more freedom,” Bernier said in an interview with Sputnik. “I believe that some of our candidates will be elected and we will have a real freedom voice in Ottawa, a common sense voice in Ottawa that will be ready to fight for all Canadians.”

Bernier, whose party has vehemently opposed mandatory vaccination measures, adds that Canadians are “fed up” with mask mandates, which are still in place in most parts of the country despite its high vaccination rates, as well as talk of mandatory vaccination and vaccine passports.

Others may not have an issue close to heart and vote for a specific candidate, Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said.

“Different voters cite different issues. Some don’t cite issues at all, they refer to the leader they trust or like more,” Wiseman told Sputnik.

Canadians Increasingly Voting ‘Against’ Not ‘For’

Desveaux also notes that Canadians are voting for “against” policies, issues, parties and candidates as opposed to voting for positive change.

“Voters are voting ‘against’ something across all party lines,” Desveaux said, highlighting PPC supporters’ contempt for vaccination mandates, centrists’ concerns about the Conservative Party and left-wing backlash against the governing Liberals.

“It is a mix. Some vote to keep the Conservatives out, others vote to keep the Liberals in. Some may say they are voting for a particular party because it is more sympathetic to enriching social policy programs like health care and education,” Wiseman said, noting that the possibilities are infinite.

Foreign Policy

Regardless of the election results, Canada’s foreign policy, which has received very little attention throughout the campaign is likely to remain the same after 20 September, foreign policy experts told Sputnik.

While questions about Canada’s messy withdrawal from Afghanistan dominated discussion during the first few weeks of the campaign, other foreign relations priorities have largely been ignored and in the final days ahead of election day discussion has almost entirely shifted to domestic issues.

“The reason there isn’t much discussion is that there isn’t much to disagree about,” said Radhika Desai, a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba. “Neither the Liberals or the Conservatives have anything to gain by creating a controversy around foreign policy… it is very hard to see light between the two of them.”

Reflective of Canada’s foreign policy discussion shutout is the lack of international media attention to the country’s national election.

Paul Robinson, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, told Sputnik that the lack of foreign interest in the election is indicative of the fact that Canada is not seen as a major player on the global stage, a sentiment expressed by Blanchet during the national debates, and that the country isn’t seen as an independent actor.

TORONTO (Sputnik) – Canada will choose its next government on Monday, putting an end to an inflammatory campaign in which Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau was expected to coast to a majority government but finds himself in a tight race as voters head to the polls.“What’s the interest? Why should they cover it? Especially when so much else going on around the world,” said Desai.

Bringing Together a Divided Country

Whoever comes out on top on 20 September, faces a tall order in uniting a country after a 36-day campaign marked by protests, partisanship and, at times, personal attacks.

The sentiment is reflected in the polls, where most voters say that none of the parties deserve a majority and are holding out hope for a minority government.

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[spider-xan]

For the record, I think it’s worth clarifying to American followers that the NDP here in Canada isn’t a third party in the way that, say, Nader and Stein were. They were elected the Opposition party back in 2011 (with the Liberals, ie. ‘Canada’s natural governing party’ falling to a really bad third place), and had the most recent election in 2015 been somewhat shorter (and if Harper hadn’t torpedoed a lot of the NDP’s support in Quebec by inflaming the Islamphobia among rural Quebecers who had previously supported the NDP in 2011), than actually would have very likely won and we’d have an NDP prime minister right now; they were actually leading at the very beginning.

But a lot of people who want to vote NDP end up voting for the Liberals because they’re seen as the better chance if the goal is to keep out the Conservatives, and that ends up hurting the NDP a lot on a federal level (they’ve been provincial governments before/currently are), since otherwise, there’s the fear of vote-splitting on the left. On the right, there used to be more than one right-wing party (and you could argue that the original main centre-right party was arguably ideologically similar to the US Democrats), but they merged about a decade ago into the present-day CPC. You do have a lot of centrists and centre-right who waver back and forth between the Liberals and Conservatives, but they have a much lower risk of vote-splitting, since they can’t really anyway.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Is it common to vote for one party provincially but another federally; for example, NDP in the provincial election but Liberal in the federal election (or vice versa)?

It happens, especially when the provincial/federal parties don't completely align.

For example, in BC there are 2 main parties: The BC NDP and the BC Liberals.

The BC NDP primarily are split between left/centrist leaning Liberals and NDP'ers as the NDP in BC is much more Centrist than in other provinces.

The BC Liberals attracts Right leaning Liberals and Conservatives as they're a Centre-Right party.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hello - I'm having a hard time finding a rundown of what each of the provinces and territories are like. do you already have a post that gives a rough summary or a site about the provinces' political leanings? No worries if not!

BC is the only province run by the NDP (Centre-Left).

Yukon and Newfoundland & Labrador are run by Liberals (Centrists)

Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties.

Every other province in Canada is run by Conservatives (Centre-Right to Right-Wing).

Large cities are generally more progressive even if a province leans towards the right, so take that into account.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Any ideas on how we could encourage the BCNDP to make Horgan resign? He's fumbled too much, said too many cruel things, his comment on this heatwave being just one of many uncaring comments he has had to walk back. We need a new face for BCNDP or else we probably won't last the next election. I'll still vote them despite what he's done because there has been good and NDP is closest to my values, but I know a lot of other people won't if he's still up there mucking things up. I hate having the closest to centrist NDP leader here. I'd feel better voting for someone more left leaning.

I think only if his popularity started falling rapidly would anything change.

Don't think that is particularly likely to change. Horgan remains very popular.

BC is a province where a large centrist voting population can determine which party gets elected (because we have a Centre Left NDP and a Centre Right Liberal Party with no real Conservative party). Doesn't really matter that leftists thinks Horgan is garbage, a lot of Centrists and Liberals like him because he's specifically appealing to them. =/

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Trump becoming president seemed to influence right wing parties and rising of hate crimes. I was wondering, besides the Keystone Pipeline ending because of Joe Biden, will him becoming president have any other influences on Canada? Is Biden more left or right wing than Trudeau? I heard it discussed here our liberals, though centre right are less right wing then American democrats. Is Biden slightly more right wing than Trudeau? I heard that Biden was pushed further left in the primaries. I wish Trudeau was less centre right and more like the NDP. Bur Trudeau is unfortunately racist for denying us ubi. But then Biden is a little racist too for not having ubi on his platform right?

Biden is a Centrist within the Centre-Right Democratic Party.

Justin Trudeau is a Centrist within the (by comparison) Centrist Liberal Party of Canada. By Canada’s standards it could be argued that Liberals are Centre Right (though less so than the US democrats).

On most issues, Biden is right of Justin Trudeau.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hey do you know how in line with the main NDP party the B.C NDP government is cuz it kinda seems they have been doing stuff that's more in line with the liberals then the NDP

I mean you can check their policies on both their websites and compare them.

The BC NDP is a bit centrist, partly because Horgan is a Centrist within the party and partly because the NDP has had to become more of a ‘big tent’ party in BC because we have no real Centrist party. We have a Centre Left party and a Centre Right party. Federal Liberal voters tend to support the NDP more than the actual Liberals here (who are Conservatives) and that can influence the NDP’s policies that way.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

is there a province that's considered more leftist than others? i'm an american that has been considering trying to immigrate to canada (i am well aware that canada shares many problems with its southern neighbor, but at least there's healthcare). i would call myself an anarcho/ecosocialist, if that provides better context for what i would consider leftist. unrelated to my question, but thank you for putting your time and energy into this blog. i've found it a really helpful resource. :)

British Columbia has the most left government in Canada (BC NDP), though they’re just left of Centre, social democratic.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, PEI and New Brunswick are run by Conservatives.

Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and Yukon are run by Liberals (Centrists).

Northwest Territories and Nunavut doesn’t have political parties.

I should point out that Quebec is very socially left compared to other provinces despite what government they have in power. British Columbia has a lot of leftwing and environmental activists.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

hawtdawgblog replied to your post “I know this question may seem irrelevant due to the current situation,...”

If the Liberals are centrists or even moderate right wing or barely left leaning at all, then why are they called the Liberals? Sounds kinda contradictory to me :/

Because this isn’t the USA where Liberal is a euphenism for leftism (which isn’t even true in the USA as the Democrats would be a right wing party in every other country).

The Liberals have always straddled the centre, and recently have become more Centre Right.

The only major party left of Centre is the NDP (which makes sense because the NDP was formed from a merger of the Socialist CCF and the Canadian Labour Congress).

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hi I am from the usa and was wondering about the different political parties of Canada and what each one stands for. You probably get this question a lot and I’m sorry to be a bother. I try to keep an eye on Canada politics since I do travel there often so my family can escape the summer heat.

I’ll describe them in relation to US political parties and politicians if that helps.

Conservative Party of Canada: Like a slightly less rightwing version of Republicans. Often gives tax cuts to the rich, cuts funding for healthcare, education, environmental protection, etc. Generally supports less immigration, and has been caught in scandals with racism and islamophobia. The Party leader Andrew Scheer has attended rallies shared by white nationalists. They currently have the 2nd most seats in Parliament.

Liberal Party of Canada: Like a slightly more left version of Centrist US Democrats. Is supportive of social issues (LGBTQ Rights, Feminism, etc), but also gives tax cuts to millionaires, buys oil pipelines and sells weapons to Saudi Arabia. Justin Trudeau’s Party, and has the most seats in Parliament prior to this election.

New Democratic Party (NDP): Closest to AOC, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in terms of policy. Canada’s largest left of centre party. Supports things like taxing the rich, Eliminating interest on student loans/wants to eliminate tuition, wants to expand Canada’s healthcare system (Pharmacare, dental, etc), wants to increase funding for anti-poverty programs, and wants to tackle Climate Change. Had the 3rd most seats in Parliament prior to the election call.

Green Party of Canada: Very strong on the environnment, but are a mixed bag otherwise. They have some progressive policies like Pharmacare and a basic income, but they also are branding themselves as Centrists and a lot of their economic and fiscal policies tend to lean right of centre. Had 2 MP’s out of 338 seats prior to the election call.

Bloc Quebcois: A Quebec only party that advocates for Quebec’s interests, and has an ulterior goal of the Separation of Quebec from Canada. Is left of centre politically but often espouses islamophobic and xenophobic policies and opinions. Had 10 seats prior to the election call.

People’s Party of Canada: Far right political party that wants to do fun things like drastically reduce immigration, do nothing about Climate Change, opposes basic LGBTQ rights and protections and who’s leader has repeatedly hung out with Neo-Nazi’s. Has one MP (Maxime Bernier), as this is the party’s first election.

Also this grid might help. Its from the 2015 election, but should still be relevant: 

The NDP has since moved more to the left while pretty much everyone else has moved more to the right (2019 election below):

[allthecanadianpolitics]

hawtdawgblog replied to your post “I know this question may seem irrelevant due to the current situation,...”

Perfect recipe for a CPC majority....

This is not true:

A strong NDP does not necessarily translate into a Conservative win

Since its creation in 1961, the New Democratic Party of Canada has an historical electoral average of 16,66%.  Out of 18 elections, the NDP was above its historical average 11 times.  Out of these 11 occurrences, the Liberals won 5 elections and the Conservatives won 6 times.  Pretty even stuff, I’d say.  In fact, when you look at the NDP’s top 4 results, you get two Conservative majority governments (1988 and 2011) and two Liberal majority governments (1980 and 2015).

The truth is, the performance of the NDP during an election has not been the determining factor of Conservative victories over the past 55 years.  The Conservatives win when they stay united and when they can convince a significant number of Liberal voters to turn their way.

-

Don’t want the Conservatives to win a false majority government? Vote the NDP so that we get proportional representation and they can’t win 60% of seats with 38% of the vote.

All merging the NDP with a Centrist party will do is create a Centre-Right party like the Democrats in the USA, while kicking any left-leaning politics out of our country.