Tumbling_Dice

It will be interesting to see if Trudeau can govern effectively now. He has major problems to deal with and, whatever one thinks about it, the pipeline issue is not going away.

The fact that people still voted for him puts beyond doubt that so-called "progressives" are full of it and will make me less inclined, if possible, to put up with their sanctimonious sh*te. This is a good thing though as I am not alone judging by the more balanced comments on all the lefty news outlets.

I agree that this is likely the best outcome for the country... Trudeau does not deserve it all his own way and, as for Scheer... own goal after own goal. Rather like Corbyn being unable to nail the Tories... If you can't make the relatively easy case why people should vote for you against an opponent with all the depth of a dry stream, you don't deserve it.

dbd33

Scheer could have won if he'd just abandoned some of his bizarre prejudices; his hang ups about same sex marriage and taxing carbon make him a relic.

Shard

Given these prejudices, it's frankly surprising he was ever made Conservative leader. Time for a replacement?

carcajou

Scheer won't be replaced. His party won the popular vote and tackling a government with a huge majority, down to a minority government is a significant political accomplishment.

He will get another bite at the apple unless the polling turns very sour. If he loses the next one, he will be out.

Trudeau is the one on the clock.

Shard

Ok. You certainly were NOT spoilt for choice at this election.

scilly

He was elected leader on the 13th ballot ............... last man standing!!

He beat Maxim Bernier by a very few votes, which is why Bernier went off in a huff and started his own party.

Scheer actually was elected by the very right wing members of the party, those who have the same prejudices as him ............ the rumour at the time was that he had managed to get a whole slew of new members signed up who were of those beliefs.

That's why those of us who don't have the same prejudices were very worried about what he might do if elected.

He did confirm in an interview after the election that he would never walk in a Pride Parade ..... but also still maintained that he would not raise any of the issues (especially abortion) in Parliament . That of course doesn't stop any member of his party doing it for him.


Canada's Conservative Party is deeply split between those on the very right wing and those tending more to the left .......... the latter sometimes being called Red Tories. That's what comes of the Progressive Conservative Party uniting with the Reform Party under Harper.

There was some talk about Peter MacKay returning to politics and running for Leader if Scheer lost the review that the Party will carry out next April.

Shard

Hard to believe anyone is still talking about abortion as an issue in Canada 2019 ?!!

dbd33

At the beginning of the summer, signs started appearing on lawns "Canada has no Abortion Law". "So what?" I thought, "it doesn't have a third official language either". It was some time later that I realised the idea was that there should be such a law. Busses invariably have images of foetuses on them, it's not clear to me if the sponsors think people should be free to choose to ride on the bus nor which people can sit at the front. There's a significant fringe movement in Canada which Scheer represents.. Fortunately, I think it's mainly cradles so the force of history will do for them.

Partially discharged

BINGO JUSTIN TRUDEAU POLITICAL PLATITUDES

This sums up Justin perfectly

scilly

There is a very quiet undercurrent in Canada that abortion is wrong, which sadly is slowly becoming louder, perhaps fuelled by the ultra-right wing in the US which is trying to get the Roe vs Wade decision revisited by taking the case back to the Supreme Court. The Court now of course has more ultra-right wing members than not due to the people that Trump has nominated.

I'm old enough to remember the battle regarding Roe vs Wade, and to be greatly saddened when I read about the individual States that are removing right to abortion from their citizens.

I do prefer to call it Pro-choice, as it really is giving the right to women to make decisions about their own bodies.

I watch matters carefully up here, and that is why I say that there are more voices being heard against pro-choice

carcajou

Canada is not, and never has been, as left-wing as the media portrays it or as some people on this forum wish it was.

What may be new is the changing of the political culture; it is becoming more accepted to publicly have right-wing social views where 15 years ago it wasn't.

Doubtful it has anything to do with the US. Attempts to overturn Roe v Wade are not new and abortion was a much bigger political issue 20 years ago in the US, when the religious right had high hopes that George W. Bush would carry their banner.

Canada is not immune from the populist winds sweeping the globe, left or right.

dave_j

Secular Canada, it's a mirage.
Churches exist in abundance here and I've been visited by more door knocking 'missionaries' than ever I was in the UK. These unwelcome visitors have never been anything but polite, but it's their unshakable belief in mythology and their wish to convince me that such beliefs are simple truths that really worries me about the mental health of the nation.
You don't have to stretch their conviction very far, against all available evidence, to see how religion could come to dictate communal behaviour and to understand how the argument in favour of a woman's control over her own body would become forbidden where the idea was thought 'wrong' or against the accepted creed.
I'm afraid to say that there is a strong religious bias in this country.
How many politicians express agnostic or atheistic beliefs? It's political suicide and because of this we end up with a political class pandering to the religious right. It's happening around me as I write.
Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less what people believe, but it's their interest in what I believe and how others like me want to live our lives that I object to.

scrubbedexpat091

Canada has some pretty religious and conservative places, Abbotsford and Chilliwack come to mind.

scilly

Abbotsford is a strange one .............. part of the population is strongly religious, especially with the evangelical churches form Europe, but there is also a large part that belongs to the hippie culture. Marijuana use was as strong as religious conviction in different areas of the community!

scilly

If you have been watching the US in the last couple of years, it is apparent that the anti-abortion groups and believers are now behaving as if Trump is on their side ......... every one of the Supreme Court judges he has appointed is strongly anti-abortion, although every one of them said he could make even-handed judgements. Many of the State governors elected in the same year as Trump were right-wing Republicans, and a significant number of them have signed bills making it all but impossible for women to obtain a legal abortion in their home state.There have been huge demonstrations in every one of those states, both pro- and anti-abortion.

I've heard of about 4 intentions to take the Roe vs Wade to the Supreme Court.

Indeed Trump has said that he is against abortion, as has Scheer, while Trudeau has switched his vie from being anti-abortion to being convinced that it is a woman's right to make her own decision about such a matter.

You don't think that won't spill over into Canada??

We were here in the 1970s and 1980s when anti-abortionists were coming up to Canada from the US and shooting doctors who were daring to conduct abortions in Vancouver and Toronto. Women were having to be protected as they made their way into clinics that were doing abortions, and there were continual protests outside those from basically dawn to dusk. It was difficult to even walk down the street for several blocks around a clinic as someone who was not even going to go there. You can imagine what it was like for people who worked in the are or had offices in the same building ............ I know of at least one medical building where there was an abortion clinic, plus about 30 other medical offices. I knew a psychologist who had her office in there, and she said it was like being under siege every day.

I doubt that many of you were here during that period. It was scary!

I would hate anything like that to happen again.