Canada

[mattyq]

Warms the cockles of my heart to see a liberal party go from third to first.

I don't know much about Canadian politics but was under the impression that the Liberals were the Canadian version of our Labour party and the NDP were their version of our Liberals

[SasaS]

Really? I thought NDP are to the left of the liberals.

[Alan Sex]

NDP are the left sided socialist party, Liberals are the tax now pay later party, and the conservatives are a bunch of self serving privatizing pricks.

 

Hope this helps!

[Strontium]

Yeah, that's it. NDP are affiliated internationally with Labour. Libs and Tories are affiliated with ours. For whatever reason, lefties never displaced the liberals as the main anti-Tory force in Canada like they did in Britain.

 

Canada's liberals are definitely a broader church than ours - they'd have to be to poll 40% - but still very much liberals. Except they're quite popular.

[Ranxerox]

Really? I thought NDP are to the left of the liberals.

 

 

They are but in this campaign they tried to run on a centrist platform including balanced budgets. The Liberals outflanked them on the left by promising short term deficits for a massive infrastructure program. 

[Ranxerox]

Yeah, that's it. NDP are affiliated internationally with Labour. Libs and Tories are affiliated with ours. For whatever reason, lefties never displaced the liberals as the main anti-Tory force in Canada like they did in Britain.

 

Canada's liberals are definitely a broader church than ours - they'd have to be to poll 40% - but still very much liberals. Except they're quite popular.

 

 

Essentially during our history the Liberals have been the governing party (69 years in the 20th century). The Tory's are actually the "insurgent" party that gets a period of ascendancy every 10 or 15 years when the Liberals have exhausted themselves. Harper's period of Conservative rule was one of the longest but is a bit of an exception due to an unusual period of weak leadership in the Liberal party. 

 

Left wing parties like the NDP got a start during the depression but have never enjoyed wide spread support. Canada has never suffered under a social class system in anything but superficial ways. Urbanization was slow and with plenty of cheap land and opportunity, social mobility has always been strong enough to prevent a hard "Left" movement from gaining a plurality. As well whenever the Left wing parties came up with popular policies the Liberals were quick to make them their own and reap the political benefits (Single-payer health care being the best example). Our proximity to the US has also influenced our political culture as has our distance from Europe. 

 

 We're simply to content to be radical in either a left or rightward direction hence our tendency to keep electing the middle of the road Liberals. There's been loads more violence in our hockey rinks than our streets have ever witnessed. 

[VladimirIlyich]

I always thought those Hockey players were over compensating myself!

[mattyq]

Essentially during our history the Liberals have been the governing party (69 years in the 20th century). The Tory's are actually the "insurgent" party that gets a period of ascendancy every 10 or 15 years when the Liberals have exhausted themselves. Harper's period of Conservative rule was one of the longest but is a bit of an exception due to an unusual period of weak leadership in the Liberal party. 

 

Left wing parties like the NDP got a start during the depression but have never enjoyed wide spread support. Canada has never suffered under a social class system in anything but superficial ways. Urbanization was slow and with plenty of cheap land and opportunity, social mobility has always been strong enough to prevent a hard "Left" movement from gaining a plurality. As well whenever the Left wing parties came up with popular policies the Liberals were quick to make them their own and reap the political benefits (Single-payer health care being the best example). Our proximity to the US has also influenced our political culture as has our distance from Europe. 

 

 We're simply to content to be radical in either a left or rightward direction hence our tendency to keep electing the middle of the road Liberals. There's been loads more violence in our hockey rinks than our streets have ever witnessed. 

Ah, ok, thanks for that

[Nunavut Patrick]

Good result, my mate Hunter Tootoo running for the Liberals, unseated a Minister in my riding, Nunavut.

 

High hopes (literally as marijuana legalization is a promise of his) for Trudeau. There needs to be true reconcilliation with first nations, and infrastructure is abymsal as Harper downloaded it all on the provinces and cities. Montreal is literally falling apart.

 

He has promised some big investments and running defecits which can be a dodgy game as if oil stays low and the US economy craps we could be fucked.

 

However, I like the fella and mkst of the old Liberals from his Dad's era are gone. they became too comfortable at the trough.

[Arl arse]

[Alan Sex]

Ok, so NP, Scott and myself live in the Great White North.

 

Anyone else?

[neko]

Ok, so NP, Scott and myself live in the Great White North.

 

Anyone else?

 

meow ?

[Nunavut Patrick]

Fucking DaveU has ignored promoting our little corner of the world.

 

I bet there are more NZ cunts on here than us....

 

I even sent him a christmas card of a moose one year

[Nunavut Patrick]

How could we forget the West Coast?

 

Sorry neko.... actually BC is the only province I have never been to.

 

And the man who started Images of War thread to boot, eh?

[neko]

I'm sorry as well.

 

p.s don't forget Tittty City.

[Nunavut Patrick]

Titty City is like Fight Club. Did it ever really exist? Should we even mention it?

 

Sorry again.

[neko]

no no sorry.

[Nunavut Patrick]

Okay buddy, we're both sorry, eh?

[Alan Sex]

meow ?

How could I forget you, kitty?

 

Here's some catnip by way of an apology.

 

So sorry.

[Alan Sex]

Oh, and sorry NP.

[neko]

sorry to make a fuss....sorry

[neko]

Canada has one bridge that connects East from West.

 

Second largest country in the world is basically severed in half because a bridge buckled in the cold in Northwestern Ontario.

 

It's kind of quaint.....

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nipigon-bridge-transcanada-update-1.3398207

 

edit: one lane re-opened today.

[Nunavut Patrick]

Canada has one bridge that connects East from West.

 

Second largest country in the world is basically severed in half because a bridge buckled in the cold in Northwestern Ontario.

 

It's kind of quaint.....

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nipigon-bridge-transcanada-update-1.3398207

 

edit: one lane re-opened today.

Spanish engineering firm built it....

 

That stretch of road just past the Hwy 11 and Hwy 17 merge and on into Thunder Bay is supposed to be twinned. They were also upgrading all the bridges on the Superior North Shore Hwy 11 as well. None of them are not cable suspension bridges. Most of the traffic is semi trucks as well.

 

From North Bay to Winnipeg its 1500km of road with only the flat stretch at the Manitoba/Ontario border on into the Peg a dual carriageway.

 

Some stunning scenery along the way- Montreal River Harbour, Batchewana Bay near where the Edmund Firzgerald went down, White River where the bear cub that was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh was spotted by Milne, Sleeping Giant just outside of Thunder Bay, Rossport which is always shrouded in fog it seems...it is said Superior has her own weather system.

 

Thunder Bay is one weird town, a collection of Finns, Italians, and First Nations peoples.

[neko]

I've spent my fair share of time in the region. The lake of the woods area is great. Went there camping a few times in University.

 

I did see that they are in the process of twinning this particular bridge, which obviously makes sense.

[Lee909]

I'd love to go to Canada. Looks amazing. We had family in Alberta but both are dead now