Jasmine18
Senior Member
Huh. And here I thought the point of politics was to do something to help your city/province/country succeed and prosper.
the point of politics is to win elections
Huh. And here I thought the point of politics was to do something to help your city/province/country succeed and prosper.
CBC Toronto @CBCToronto
26s
BREAKING: Christine Elliott has chosen to abandon her plan to challenge the results of the Ontario PC leadership race and thrown her support behind Doug Ford, CBC News has learned
the point of politics is to win elections
I'm going to beg to differ.
I think @PinkLucy is quite right in saying Huh. "....the point of politics was to do something to help your city/province/country succeed and prosper."
Winning an election MAY be necessary to achieve that; though that isn't necessarily the case.
As an example, one might argue that the NDP provided impetus for the CPP expansion, the new Pharmacare initiative and the recent minimum wage hike; even though they never obtained government, nor directly implemented said measures.
Equally might note the influence of the Greens in BC w/only 4 seats.
Suffice to say, in each case the party did win some ridings; and surely would have preferred to win many more.
But it is, in fact, possible to seek public office w/an aspiration of positive change in your society, while not attempting to win at any cost.
Yes and no. The people who care about Ornge, gas plants, etc. are already voting PC.
They real risk here is that Ford taps into a ton of middle class resentment for the Liberals. Go and talk to an average voter in Scarborough or Brampton. They don't perceive any tangible benefit from all that Liberal spending. And that is what has them mad.
The public is very tolerant of government overspending, as long as it benefits them personally or their community. And there's a huge segment of the population that doesn't think Liberal largesse has benefitted them much.
And yet your ability to impact the policy discourse is directly proportional to your ability to win. You cite the Greens in BC. How much impact have the Greens had nationally? How do you account for two very different levels of influence?
The Greens support has been strongest in BC and in the current circumstance, their 4 seats are key to supporting an NDP minority government.
Their national numbers in popular vote are below 1/2 what you see in BC; and in electoral support 1 or 2 seats out of 338 is much less than 4/87.
That said, I would note Elizabeth May does have outsized influence for single MP.
Exactly my point. "Outsized influence for an MP." Which is slightly above zero. Is there a single piece of legislation that May has pushed forward herself through Parliament?
Jeez, where’s my tambourine?Huh. And here I thought the point of politics was to do something to help your city/province/country succeed and prosper.
Yes.
Bill C-442 – Federal Framework on Lyme Disease Act
She's also got two amendments passed to Bill C-46, the Pipelines Safety Act.
From Wikipedia:
"The first amendment enabled "aboriginal governing bodies to be reimbursed for actions they take in relation to a spill."[30] Prior to the amendment, the bill outlined that those at fault in a spill would only be liable for "costs and expenses reasonably incurred by Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province or any other person."[30]
The second amendment was related to the concept of polluter pays. The original line in the bill said that the National Energy Board "may" recover funds to compensate those affected by a spill, the Green Party amendment changed the "may" to "shall."[30]"
Also from Wikipedia:
In 2012, May was voted by her colleagues in the House of Commons as Parliamentarian of the Year, in 2013 she was voted Hardest Working MP, and in 2014 she was voted Best Orator.[31][32][33]
I would imagine that getting your colleagues support in that way means you are well liked, and probably able to get an audience for your views in many cases.
Jeez, where’s my tambourine?
Seriously, find me one government that ever had that as their top priority or motivation. Certainly not McGuinty/Wynne, where pandering to your pals seems more the norm.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/liberal-insider-gets-wind-power-contract-1.510278
I can understand people not liking Doug Ford."Doug Ford".
I think people are realizing that Trudeau's promises "small" deficits have not actually accomplished anything - just added future debt for our children to pay off. That is why the most recent Trudeau budget was mocked. Liberals even announced that infrastructure construction would not be done to the timelines originally thought, but the deficits still pile up.The public is very tolerant of government overspending, as long as it benefits them personally or their community. And there's a huge segment of the population that doesn't think Liberal largesse has benefitted them much.
In my life I see people who live in big houses, who have multiple vehicles in the driveway, who are regularly flying off on vacation, who cheer the unsustainable rise in real estate and equity prices, really upset about that Kathleen Wynne. They don't appear to be living hard lives. If anything they'd be boastful about the great lives they do lead. I'd grant you that the Liberals have been in power too long and haven't been the best managers. But that doesn't seem to be the real issue. Seems to have more to do with giving the least in society a raise, or updating the sex ed curriculum after decades, or windmills, or something like that.The Ontario Liberals have made life harder for the people of this province.
Because the perception, rightfully or not that a vote for the NDP weakens the votes against the PCs in our FPTP system. You can be guaranteed that the Liberals will play to that perception, campaigning that if you want to stop DoFo you must vote Liberal, even if that means holding your nose.I can understand people not liking Doug Ford.
I can't understand why someone would vote Liberal when we have two left wing parties with nearly identical policies, but one has a 15 year track record of incompetence and corruption.