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Harper gains ground in Canadian election

Mandos's picture
Submitted by Mandos on Fri, 09/12/2008 - 12:28pm
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Department of If I Don't Laugh I'll Cry
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election
Canada

So the first polls of the Canadian campaign are out, and despite a number of gaffes, the Harper neocons are gaining ground, apparently with some warm, fluffy advertising. They've been gaining ground among women, who have been a particularly difficult constituency to crack, gaining ground despite a known tendency of some of their members for...fetal rights activism, which is never popular in Canada.

While I don't see them doing much better than this, I don't think that they are in for a big fall any time soon. The problem for the NDP is the usual: they are the left party and they have to run hard to stand still. But the biggest problem for the Liberals is that, well, Stéphane Dion cannot win Québec, as he is the remaining intellectual heir of Trudeau and Chrétien, and that no longer sells anywhere in Québec.

I am coming to feel that Neoconnery is a gauntlet that Canada is going to have to run, as it were. The money has been pounding at this gate for decades now, and it was only a matter of time before it was going to break through. The Canadian elites have to tire of it before it is consigned to the dustbin, as they may be sort of starting to tire of it in the USA, being optimistic.

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DCblogger's picture
Submitted by DCblogger on

I think the neocons want to destroy the Canadian health care system because it is such a good example.

Mandos's picture
Submitted by Mandos on

A similar social dynamic kept the Harris Tories in power for a decade in Ontario. The health care system in Ontario survived, sort of. However, that was partly because the Federal Liberals hadn't yet entirely yielded up the Canada Health Act enforcement powers. Still, it's a comforting thought---Ontario survived a decade of Mike Harris.

Maybe the provinces will play the defensive role this time around.

Note that Canadian involvement in Afghanistan is *still very* unpopular, yet Harper (its biggest pusher, who would also have sent us into Iraq) is popular.

Mandos's picture
Submitted by Mandos on

So Canada is running afoul of its cultural belief that the most important thing in government is someone who knows how to run it, not what s/he wants to do with it. It's the dynamic that kept the Liberals in power.

And since Stephen Harper---who is an educated, competent man---has not messed up spectacularly, this is going to be the overriding thing in people's minds. What his policies are, meh...

amberglow's picture
Submitted by amberglow on

if i was Canadian--i can't believe Harper's doing ok--i thought people were unhappy?

regarding competence tho--that's McCain's advantage--most see him as ready and competent in foreign policy-- and in how govt. works.

Mandos's picture
Submitted by Mandos on

But they'll still vote for him. That is what is frustrating me about this season. It's now a metacampaign.

amberglow's picture
Submitted by amberglow on

Canadians maybe are becoming more and more like us, unfortunately.

Mandos's picture
Submitted by Mandos on

You have to realize that this tendency has been bashing furiously at the gates since the end of the 80s with the growth of the Reform Party. It was only a matter of time before it managed to break through. Once the Reformists managed to form a pact with the former Harris Tories in Ontario, it was really over from that point on.

And once the sovereignty movement in Quebec started subsiding, Quebec politics became more "normal", allowing the rise of the right-wing populist ADQ, which then offered a route for the Harpazoids to seize the Quebec City area.

peter's picture
Submitted by peter on

Why do many Canadian mothers had American babies? Child birth should be a normal activity that any healthcare system can handle. Canada seems to have problems and to remedy the problem often cost so much more to the system.

There was a mother having quads in Edmonton, a city of 1.2 mil. She couldn't find the beds required for her. They tried Vancouver, Victoria, and Calgary, no room at any centers there. They med-evaced her to a small town of 56,000 in Montana for her delivery of four healthy babies. Try googling "canadian mothers giving birth in America".

There are many other problems that should be easily taken care of. A guy with appendicitis in Ottawa was sent to Montreal for care. Ottawa, the nation's capital couldn't handle this guy medical care at 8 PM. No surgeons available at that time!

We're not even talking about hard problems, just normal medical procedures. Several years ago, there was a strike by hospital workers that lasted for three weeks. Any person who had heart work had to wait it out. Unfortunately some 28 couldn't wait and died, then most of those living got subd out to northern US hospitals.

What happens if we have the very same standards as Canada. Where would they go?

Routinely, the tunnel from Windsor to Detroit gets closed down to permit emergency medical transport through to US hospitals. This country of 28 mil knows that US hospitals are there for backup. They us American hospitals a lot.

And preventive care..."waiting in lines doesn't constitute proper health care." The Chief of the Canadian Supreme Court said recently.

Submitted by hipparchia on

iirc, the canadian government pays all expenses associated with shipping its patients across the border -- the transportation, the doctors, hospital, lab, treatment, whatever fees are incurred. meanwhile, we have all this empty capacity for the canadians to use because so damned many of us live right here in this country but will never be able to pay for any of that wonderful american care.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

Plus de tricoteuses...

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

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