Would the New Democratic Party of Canada at least take me seriously if...

[Sephirstein]

I suggested that we militarise Canada so that we can defend ourselves if the Repukes try to impose a puppet regime?

[qwertyMike]

1. Thank God for Chretien

We had a puppet regime with Mulroney (another alcoholic !)

Not so with Trudeau (Vietnam? Who? Me? Nawwwwwwww I don't think so) + Chretien (Ditto: Iraq). Of course they were FRENCH (Freepers note)

Our new guy Paul Martin is French also, sorta - but Big Biz. he'll be a Bush-buddy :(

[Sticky]

3. Is Canada going to send forces

after Paul Martin moves into Sussex? bush must be thinking that with a new Canadian leader and one whose values ($$$$) line up with his own, Canada will see things the American way.

Please tell me I'm wrong.

[glarius]

18. You said "please tell me I'm wrong" so I will...You're wrong...IMO

:)

[glarius]

5. I don't agree on your assessment of Martin

I think he'll play it just right...Not too close to the U.S.A government, but close enough....Wait and see!!!...His father was a real humanitarian and he admires his father so.....wait and see....

[MrPrax]

7. I don't think so...

Martin family wealth comes from their shipping biz largely made from plying the Yankee goods on the Great Lakes...he will move Canadian policy firmly into 'lapdog' mode...
Why would Canada be any different than Britain or Australia? Canada supports the 'war on terrorism' and Canada is spending 300 million protecting Karzai in AF (not a UN mission--BUT NATO) thus contradicitng Canada's whole rationale for oppsing Iraq...

Cretin is a flimflam artist--Martin will just come out and say it without the 'spin' for le belle province

[Sephirstein]

11. lol...

Chrétien barely held onto his own damn riding in 1997. Imagine how much the stupid separashits would have let the BQ win by without him.

[Frederic Bastiat]

15. The BQ are history

That's the talk on the street. The Federal Liberals are attracting big numbers in Québec primarily because of Martin's popularity.

[Flying_Pig]

2. Better to take solid, irrevocable steps to insure that your media

remains free, and open. I don't know if Canada has a "Fairness Doctrine" type law like we used to have here (which mandates equal time for opposing views), but if they don't, they should. It would also be wise to pass laws against media consolidation. A free and open media is an absolutely necessary componet to democracy, and it works much better than guns, and is considerably less messy.

[dutchdemocrat]

4. Too late

Between Conrad Black and Izzy Asper (now dead) newspapers are controlled by only a few and that includes small town papers, which have been sold out by mom and pop operations and sucked into larger corporate holdings. Hey the money was good can you blame them? Then you have Asper trying to put in generic editorials from head office in Winnipeg that are anti-Palistine and Pro-Israel and editors start to get offended. It got messy.

Canada has pretty serious problems concerning the delivery of news. Nothing on the scale of Faux, the Wash. Times or the NY Post, but still have problems. At least Asper is a liberal on national subjects.

Media ownership is polorized in Canada - the one saving grace being the CBC, Canada's version of the BBC. The National Post (Newspaper) is disgusting and full of rightwing nuts spewing crap. Funny enought the Globe and Mail, which was once considered Canada's voice of the right - is now regarded as the only readable print news in certain parts of the country (like BC) by liberals.

-----------------

[Sephirstein]

6. What I do wish...

Is that the left-leaning components of our media would do more for the NDP and less for the Liberals.

I'm a New Democrat because I like the Liberals some of the time, but don't trust them very often.

[JohnKleeb]

8. Canadians who would be my party should I move to Canada ever

Remember I am all around left evident with my support for Kucinich. Maybe thats not helpful enough. I just always wonder what I would be politically in other nations, in britain I know labour or maybe liberal democrats.

[Sephirstein]

9. New Labour?

Just say no!

[JohnKleeb]

13. I hate new labour the same way I do new democrats

lol you know me being how I am with Ireland, I could be Sinn Fein lol. No way in hell I would be New Labour Sep, they are like the democrats here Ive observed. Its a crying shame that the party that represented the people are now turning more and more to the center, and people wonder why people go Green, I am a democrat all right but I am proudly in the left wing of the party and support a likeminded candiate.

[Frederic Bastiat]

10. As a Québec Immigrant I must say

People here love, wait adore Paul Martin, in my home city of Montréal Martin is held high esteem by both the Francophone and the Anglophone community.

What I do find interesting about the Canadian political scene is that Joe Q. Public is just as powerless here as they would be in the U.S, if Martin decides to go into lapdog mode there is little anyone can do about it and the Conservatives and Alliance will back him up too LOL.

Kinda like our own little Blair LOL

[Sephirstein]

12. lol...

NDP in 2008?

[Frederic Bastiat]

14. RE: NDP & Vancouver/ BC

I heard the NDP messed up Vancouver, is there any truth to this?

[Spazito]

19. Big time mess!

Big enough that they were all but wiped out in the last provincial election!

(and I foolishly voted for them the first time, learned my lesson the second)

[Lisa]

20. if it's the provincial BC government you mean ....

I think we're looking at a similar situation to the US pro-Bush reporting. The big media people piled on and mounted a very effective campaign telling people what dishonest failures the BC NDP were and how they should be obliterated .... after the fact, even Jeffrey Simpson (not exactly an ol' leftie) admitted that the budget actually was sound, and the province wasn't the economic basket case Campbell's people claimed it was.

The whitewashing continued through the first year of massive tax cuts to the rich, and a slashing of government services -- courthouses in small towns were being closed, and they even shut the MSP (provincial health plan) info office here in Victoria. Press coverage continued to be good, even though "grassroots revolts" like the protests against privatizing BC Hydro and the Coquihalla highway began to gain momentum ... they still aren't getting as much press in Vancouver/Victoria as one might expect, given the degree of feeling out there.

Sure, the NDP had some clueless or opportunistic hacks -- but a lot of positive accomplishments were rolled back, and even now there are a whole bunch of myths making the rounds about the government being a total disaster. So I wasn't surprised to see the Davis admin in California being spun in the same way. (If the CA situation turns out like ours did, look to see a bunch of "Davis wasn't really that bad" articles appearing next year.)

One of my colleagues gets very frustrated, because she saw 10 years of work on a water management plan go down the tubes when the BC Libs scrapped it -- and people who wanted the plan are blaming the lack of one on "NDP incompetence". Ironic. (As is the fact that many of the corporations that got the benefit of the fast ferries project, and ran up massive costs on the taxpayers' dime, turned around and worked to get Campbell into office.)

Re: the city of Vancouver itself -- the things that Jane Jacobs and other "livable cities" advocates have applauded about the town can be traced back to measures taken by progressives on city council back in the 1970s (e.g. not putting in that elevated expressway). Mike Harcourt (later mayor, then NDP premier) was one of them. But the NDP did endorse Expo 86, which is being blamed for making things worse in the Lower East Side ... so it's not clear-cut.

[Spazito]

24. The ferry fiasco????

The NDP cuts to education? Glen Clark was no prize, and neither were the crew that was in power at that time! I attended an education conference with young people and personally saw and heard Joy McPhail denigrate seniors to the youth. The B.C. NDP party needs to go back to their REAL roots and start all over if they EVER intend to be a viable party again.

Again, this is coming from someone who voted for them and believed in them.

[Lisa]

26. Re: Glen Clark ...

That's why I put in the comment about the hacks. There were plenty of people who got in (elected or appointed) who did NOT help matters much. My landlord is a longtime civil servant, and he has lots of stories about how arrogant NDPers turned a lot of the government employees against the party! (You should hear his Clark stories. Man.)

Joy's a tough cookie. (I opted not to meet her at a recent function, because her family and mine have roots in Hamilton, and let's just say that our parents have had some run-ins.)

One thing about having the ship go to the bottom in 2001 -- a lot of the people who were in power have either retired from politics or have skipped off to greener pastures. (Not exactly changing sides, but ....) So the bunch who are up-and-coming now include lots of totally new NDPers (e.g. ones from the school board and neighborhood groups, like Charley Bereford here in Victoria) who weren't in with the old gang.

As far as the education thing goes -- I've seen the situation over the past 10 years, and while I'm not whitewashing the effects of the first round of cuts ... the tuition increases and cutbacks since Campbell came in have been just murder. We're seeing school closures, and at the postsec level, a lot of students are simply unable to attend due to the near-doubling in fees (which were frozen for much of the NDP period).

[Spazito]

27. I agree wholeheartedly regarding what Campbell has done....

that's why the NDP has to get it's crap together in order to become even a viable opposition, never mind a governing party again.

[Lisa]

28. now's the time to get involved (fed NDP too ...)

It sounds like both the BC and federal parties are ramping up for some profound changes. For example, the national NDP went to a system where the leader is elected directly by the members ... and it seems Layton is serious about implementing a bunch of reforms. (He's already demonstrated that moving it "onto the street" can be a viable opposition strategy ... and at the same time he's intent on building bridges and not isolating either the old or new groups in the party -- smart move, giving his former leadership rival Pierre Ducasse a post.)

The BC NDP was hoping to get away from the traditional delegate selection system in time for the leadership convention next month -- but the only way that would have happened on schedule would be if they had used Accenture consultants. (Those are Arthur Andersen's little helpers!) So it will have to wait until next convention. But in the meantime, from what I've seen, there is PLENTY of scope for interested people like Spazito to make changes. I don't know who will win the leadership, but even if it's not someone we particularly like, s/he will be obliged to listen since so many reforms are needed ... better you making those suggestions than certain party hacks I could name!

Re: Seph's defence suggestion ... I'm sorry I didn't address this earlier, since concerns about being integrated into the US military machine ARE a very relevant issue. The national NDP has been asking new members to sign up for a bunch of policy forums ... international relations/defence included. I believe I've already heard some people in the party talking about becoming more independent in that regard (if only so we are able to field peacekeeping troops and not rely on the US, which might not be helpful if it's not in line with their goals).

So, not necessarily arming ourselves against the US, but having a military consistent with our society (and in my books, this means NOT continuing with the trend towards being American auxiliaries). Will likely mean increasing defence spending (something the NDP has traditionally opposed) -- but if we mean "defence" in a different way (e.g. search-and-rescue, humanitarian relief, rapid deployment without the US), I bet a lot of NDPers would be receptive. If they have the address of the caucus member who's running that particular forum, it's seriously worth writing in, Seph.

[glarius]

17. There is a difference in this respect....We didn't like what Mulroney's

government did and at the next election we voted the whole damned bunch out except for TWO members of parliament.(Lying Brian had "retired" by then..slithered away is more like it) but we decmated his party..They are still trying to get back from that wipe out....

[glarius]

16. I Repeat...WAIT AND SEE...I think you are all misjudging Martin!

I think he's more of a humanitarian than you are giving him credit for!

[Spazito]

21. I agree!

From everything I have read about Martin he pushed a social agenda while he was finance minister. I am leary, however, about any cozying up to Bush but will hold my judgement until I see a reason to be concerned.

[glarius]

22. I saw him in a live interview recently....when he started talking about

his father's humanitarianism, he teared up....I think we have the right leader for the right time...But time will tell of course...

[Lisa]

23. inside info from an acquaintance who was a parliamentary page ...

Paul Martin Jr. had a reputation as being one of the nicest people in cabinet to work for. Respects his office staff, and doesn't mess with people's heads. The kids who work behind the scenes in Ottawa see a lot of stuff, not all of it pleasant. (Yes, there is groping up here, too!)

I worry about all the high-level business connections too -- but the ex-page is adamant that as a Westerner, Martin's the only Liberal she'd vote for.

Hope you (and she) are right, Glarius!

[glarius]

25. I'm glad you wrote this....thanks....I always trust my instincts about

people and I'm not often wrong....I just have a good feeling about him....He has kind eyes....I know this sounds silly, but I judge people by how they register to me as a person....Let's hope I'm right too!!!:)