That's really disappointing to hear. I wish your Province had better prospects!
The Maple Leaf Lounge
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So... Canadians protesting in front of the embassy offends the delicate American sensibilities, does it?
On the one hand, I wish Charlie Angus was sticking around to be a voice of reason in Parliament.
But on the other hand, he's now free to speak his mind. I predict the Meidas Touch Network is going to have a field day with this footage:
On the one hand, I wish Charlie Angus was sticking around to be a voice of reason in Parliament.
But on the other hand, he's now free to speak his mind. I predict the Meidas Touch Network is going to have a field day with this footage:
I have to take a small exception to this, sorry. Things can change wildly during a campaign, and we can't go into this thinking it's some kind of fait accompli. Saying that the Liberals are the "only party that matters" makes it sound like the outcome is some kind of foregone conclusion, and it is definitely not. The Conservatives still have a significant number of supporters, and Carney is a new politician who is untested in the crucible of a campaign.
If we let our guard down and become complacent, that's how you get Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre. And I definitely don't want Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre.
Elections can turn on a dime. Just take a look at the Alberta provincial election of 2015, when we finally got our first non-conservative/right-wing government in 80 YEARS.
During the leaders' debates, Conservative Jim Prentice said three words to Rachel Notley (NDP leader) in a condescending tone of voice: "Math is hard."
Rachel Notley is no dummy. She's a very smart lawyer, and her father was once leader of the Alberta NDP (Grant Notley was killed in a plane crash decades ago). Enough people were already in the mood for a change, and for some people these three words, uttered in that dismissive tone of voice, were enough to sway them.
Or if you want a federal example, take the debate between Brian Mulroney and John Turner in 1984. Mulroney was hammering Turner over his going through with the mountain of patronage appointments Trudeau hadn't had time to get to before his last day in office. Turner got a deer-in-headlights look in his eyes and claimed, "I didn't have a choice."
Mulroney said, "You had a choice, sir. You could have said 'No.'"
As much as I loathed Mulroney, he was right about that. And it was absolutely nauseating on election night to turn on the TV in my time zone and see the overwhelming sea of PC blue across the map.
Or take a more recent example, again in 2015, but federal. In some weird way, Justin Trudeau owes his win that year to the fact that Jason Kenney refused to let a Muslim woman wear a niqab at her citizenship ceremony. The whole thing simmered angrily until she sued, claiming discrimination on the basis of religion (citing the Charter), and Mulcair was caught between upholding her Charter rights and appeasing his constituents in Quebec who were very much against people wearing religious symbols in court - even a citizenship court (especially if it meant covering the person's face). Mulcair chose to support her, and enough people switched their vote from NDP to Liberal to give Trudeau an easy majority government.
I've occasionally wondered how that might have played out if Jack Layton hadn't died.
Obviously yes. I just meant that there's a solid choice here and Canadians are more united than ever. We don't want Pierre Polievre and what we want to do is to push back as much as we can and not split the vote. And I think the majority of Canadians understand what's at stake here, making this an important election, possibly our most important one in years. We have the fight in us this time around (thank you, Trump), which I think will lead to different results. I think we could possibly get more voters out to vote than in several decades. So, in other words, I think it will be a very interesting election and we'll be on the edge of our seats. And in any case, Canadians are fired up.
the toronto star has a article up about internal polling from the provincial tories.
it is not painting a pretty picture for the tories at the federal level when they're trialing 48/33.
though for some reason despite my riding being bell weather our embarassment of a tory mp is still very favoured to win (82% chance those she's dropped 14% in this week) according to 338 Canada which also has the liberals look at 10+ seat majority.
DanYell Smith pitched quite a temper tantrum in the Legislature. To hear her rant and screech and whine, you'd think she was the only person in the country "fighting for Canada and especially Alberta" because she "cares."
Honestly, if she got picked up in an ICE raid and experienced even a smidgen of inconvenience, I'd do a dance. She is so unbelievably vile.
I stumbled over a real estate channel in Arizona on YT a little while ago. The idiot running it is someone who deals in houses and other vacation properties, and more than half his clients are Canadians.
Well, they used to be. Suddenly - overnight in some cases - his clients are selling their vacation properties, or in the case of leasing, they've given notice that they're not coming back.
The idiot thinks it's "a little bit" to do with Trump (and doesn't want anyone to raise anything political in the comments), but mostly to do with... THE EXCHANGE RATE?
The exchange rate is horrible, yes. But that is so far down the list of why Canadians are boycotting American goods, cancelling holidays, selling vacation homes and camping stalls, canceling seasonal leases, and so on, that I've honestly not heard it even mentioned until stumbling over that YT channel and getting curious enough to wonder what the people there had to say.
They're full of MAGAs, at least the vast majority of them. Parroting the BS Trump is spouting, yapping on and on and on about "American superiority", and cheering when someone else mentioned that one reason why Canadians were leaving is because gas stations are denying them service.
Well, if that isn't a sure guarantee that I'd never go there even if this whole mess was resolved tomorrow...
Honestly, if she got picked up in an ICE raid and experienced even a smidgen of inconvenience, I'd do a dance. She is so unbelievably vile.
I stumbled over a real estate channel in Arizona on YT a little while ago. The idiot running it is someone who deals in houses and other vacation properties, and more than half his clients are Canadians.
Well, they used to be. Suddenly - overnight in some cases - his clients are selling their vacation properties, or in the case of leasing, they've given notice that they're not coming back.
The idiot thinks it's "a little bit" to do with Trump (and doesn't want anyone to raise anything political in the comments), but mostly to do with... THE EXCHANGE RATE?
The exchange rate is horrible, yes. But that is so far down the list of why Canadians are boycotting American goods, cancelling holidays, selling vacation homes and camping stalls, canceling seasonal leases, and so on, that I've honestly not heard it even mentioned until stumbling over that YT channel and getting curious enough to wonder what the people there had to say.
They're full of MAGAs, at least the vast majority of them. Parroting the BS Trump is spouting, yapping on and on and on about "American superiority", and cheering when someone else mentioned that one reason why Canadians were leaving is because gas stations are denying them service.
Well, if that isn't a sure guarantee that I'd never go there even if this whole mess was resolved tomorrow...
I'm not sure we're necessarily as united as you may wish. And yes, there are definitely a lot of us that don't want Poilievre. But I've noticed a disturbing trend in political discussions online over the last couple days where centrist swing voters who were supporting Poilievre when Trudeau was Liberal leader, but then jumped eagerly to Carney when he was elected leader (because they don't actually like Poilievre, but he was the only serious non-Trudeau option), are now starting to drift back to Poilievre because they don't like some of the things coming out of the Carney campaign.
The most recent thing was the announcement that Sean Fraser has changed his mind and decided to run after all. (I'm sure the change in Liberal fortunes in the polls had nothing to do with it...) People were complaining that if the Carney government was just going to be Trudeau 2.0, they were going to have to (reluctantly) give their votes back to Poilievre.
I don't know how big a segment this is (obviously some comments online are just anecdotal), but it wasn't the first issue where people had expressed disappointment with the direction Carney was taking. If he loses too many of those centrist voters, things could go badly. The campaign may be objectively short, but there's still a lot of time for the political winds to change, and we can't take anything for granted.
Honestly, I hope you're right, and Canadians do stand together to reject the Conservatives. We've seen what a MAGA government looks like down south, and many of us are repulsed, and reject Poilievre, who is cut from a similar cloth. But the unfortunate part is, there is a not insignificant percentage of Canadians who look at the current US government, and say, "actually, yes, I'd like some of that".
Definitely agree with this one!
It's crazy, they literally hate us now (or maybe the MAGAs always hated us, IDK). But you read the comments (0/10, do not recommend), and it's like a cult. Their leader feeds them a bunch of lies about us, and they spread the lies around and repeat them ad naseum, and soon everybody is just repeating these talking points on faith, when they have no actual basis in reality. And to be fair, other Americans push back on it, but the MAGA crowd just ignores them, or doubles down, or some other poster just picks up the same old tired talking points five minutes later. It's exhausting.
I mean, sure, I think there will always be some small margin of error, but I'm basing those thoughts on friends and family, local experience and what I've seen online and the sense is that it's much more wide ranging and on an intellectual level. Canadians are angry and pissed-off and they aren't taking it, which has instilled a fighting spirit in people. Trump has awoken an angry beaver. Shopping behaviors have changed, you may have noticed, in that stores are now making more of an effort to display Canadian products, and that's all due to the sentiment rolling over nationally as people started to boycott American products. And this wasn't due to anything our government said, it was all due to people voicing their frustration. And that's just one aspect to all of this, but I do feel it's showing how people are feeling in general. And the one big sentiment being shared is that Canada shouldn't be underestimated. I haven't seen Canadians be this patriotic in decades. Elbows up!
And yes, I admit my original post probably will age like moldy cheese.
But I think what I was getting at was more about the sentiment than the actual parties involved. Btw, guess this would be a good time to mention I'm going to be seeing Charlie Angus on April 2nd on his Elbows Up tour.
I'd suggest looking beyond your own inner circle. I'm in rural Ontario, and I can tell you that there remains absolutely no love for the Liberals. A lot of Canadians still view Carney as simply being an extension of Justin Trudeau. That mark Trudeau left on the Liberal party is not so easily washed away. I'm betting this election will be a lot closer than a lot of people expect.
Oh, I have. I've been spending a lot of time looking at comments all over the place. And I've also seen reference to this election being down to a two-party race, being that unless the NDP manage to pull out a miracle out of their hats given there isn't all that much time before the elections, they're not likely to make much of a difference, leaving it down to two parties, that of the PCs and Liberals. And I'm normally an NDP voter. So while yes the Liberals have made themselves enemies, if it ultimately comes down to the choice between the Liberals and the PCs, what are you going to do? I'd be voting for the party that has the best chance to topple Polievre.
When it comes down to it, we all need to rally. This is one of our more important elections.
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If I encounter anything like that when I come up there (in June) I will take it in stride. The situation is very fragile, I get it. I won't take offense at it. I know it's not personal.
Like if the US national anthem gets booed during any of the games I'm seeing at the skydome. (I'll still SING it, though.
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Just keep in mind that the protesters are protesting Trump and his gang of thugs. Not regular, sane Americans like you.
It's the same for booing the anthem. It's not directed at regular, sane Americans, and not at the players. Some people prefer not to boo, and turn their backs instead while the American anthem is being played.
It's the same for booing the anthem. It's not directed at regular, sane Americans, and not at the players. Some people prefer not to boo, and turn their backs instead while the American anthem is being played.
Yeah, and I've seen a number of Americans voicing their shock and dismay over the administration's treatment towards Canada and offering their support.
But as far as I'm concerned LB is fully Canadian.
But as far as I'm concerned LB is fully Canadian.
When the automotive tariffs were announced recently, I kid you not, I saw a MAGA post "If Canada didn't want this, then Trudeau shouldn't have started a trade war".
That's some serious "Ukraine started the war with Russia"-level revisionist history right there.
What's a non-religious equivalent of "Amen!"?
Charlie Angus' latest rally in Toronto:
If I were someone who believes in an afterlife, I think Jack Layton would be smiling at this.
When he comes to Alberta, I hope he outright uses the word 'traitor' to describe Danielle Smith. That's exactly what she is, for so many reasons. She would hand this country to Trump on a silver platter in a heartbeat.
If I were someone who believes in an afterlife, I think Jack Layton would be smiling at this.
When he comes to Alberta, I hope he outright uses the word 'traitor' to describe Danielle Smith. That's exactly what she is, for so many reasons. She would hand this country to Trump on a silver platter in a heartbeat.
Absolutely. I totally get it. They're mad at my president, they don't hate my country. Hell, if I were the protesting type, I might have been right out there with 'em.
And if either of my teams - Yankees & Mets - were in town when I'm up there, I'd still wear their gear without hesitation. (The Jays are actually playing the White Sox and the Diamondbacks that week.) And as I said, I'll still sing my anthem, even if it ends up getting booed. I'm certainly not afraid anything's going to happen to me personally.
Actually I'll probably wear my Liverpool FC gear all week. But that's just because I love showing it off.
And I love that "51-with-a-slash" logo. I wonder if I can get a shirt!
Edit: I haven't actually heard about the US anthem getting booed at the skydome. I don't know if anyone's actually doing it. I think it would have made the news down here if they were. But we'll see.
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That's why we must give them a swift kick off the podium and disabuse them of the notion
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