I heard that your PM is not popular... is that so?

[ailsagirl]

[GetTheRightVote]

1. If you are speaking of the * & company, American Axis of Evil

NO way in hell, I am having an Ameridan garage sell, will sell * for - .05 cents, in other words I will pay you to take him off of our hands and thank you as well. You can take him home ASAP. WE will be forever grateful.

[jeff30997]

2. You're very interested in Canada tonight aren't you ?

Why is that ?

[GetTheRightVote]

3. Oh to bad I was hoping she wanted to take * off of American hands.

[ailsagirl]

4. It's not just tonight!!

It's because my parents were born and raised Canadian, we have driven to Canada for many summers to visit relatives in Quebec, Alberta, and Ontario, and I am planning on moving up as soon as I can get it together.

I have always felt more at home with Canadians than Americans... (after all, I was raised by Canadians!)

[Maple]

5. Yes, he's popular

He's the PM after all...elected in June.

He got a minority government this time because of a scandal that broke a short time before the election. He is however, backed by the NDP and BQ...both left.

But no one wants the rightwingers, so he'll be back with a majority government in the next election

[ailsagirl]

6. You guys don't have to worry about whether your

elections are rigged-- lucky!!

I'll tell my friend who asked me this question that Martin is perfectly popular.

I always liked Trudeau--

[Maple]

7. Trudeau

is revered by everyone but our tiny rightwing.

We just had a 'greatest Canadian' contest, and Trudeau came in second only to Tommy Douglas, the founder of our healthcare system.

[ailsagirl]

8. I heard Trudeau speak once and was very impressed

I was also saddened to hear about the death of his son.

[tuvor]

17. I beg to differ.

Born and raised in Edmonton (the most liberal part of Alberta, I believe), and lived the past ten years in BC.

I don't know of one person who even liked the self-important jerk, let alone revere him.

There were some things about his time in office that I'm grateful for, but not enough for reverence.

[Toronto Ron]

9. That's because of the modern hi-tech voting method used in Canada

Namely, PUT A FREAKIN' CHECKMARK OR "X" (or whatever - see below) IN THE CIRCLE BESIDE YOUR CANDIDATE'S NAME ON A PHYSICAL PIECE OF PAPER!!! Plus, the ballot isn't filled with myriad races for officials at all levels of government.

[Canuckistanian]

14. We still use the pine cone/birch bark method where we live

You know, put a pine cone in the ballot box for one candidate or a piece of birch bark for the other one.

[ailsagirl]

20. At least your elections aren't stolen by the biggest crooks around

[Feathered Fish]

10. Yes and no

He is popular because he is not Chretien, who will go down in history as a corrupt Prime Minister. Paul Martin, who was his Finance Minister, was also part of the corruption problem, but that, of course, will be forgotten. :eyes:
PM is not that popular among the liberal loyalists. He pissed off a lot of people in his quest to take over the party from Chretien, and that has led to a lot of former Liberals to turn to the NDP.
All in all, he won't be bad as long as he keeps left-wing principals. Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, has promised to keep PM honest, but only time will tell that. I guess I should be happy that Steven Harper isn't the prime minister, but I, personally, am not fond of Paul Martin in the least.

[ailsagirl]

11. At LEAST, and this is not to minimise what you wrote, your gov't

operates within the realm of "normalcy." The U.S. "government" (which it really isn't-- it's a collection of corrupt cronies) is rotten beyond belief. They're making it so we can't sue the drug companies (if a drug we may be taking turns out to cause cancer, it's tough luck for us); the EPA has been gutted (the polluters are now monitoring themselves); the FDA is concentrating its efforts on OK'ing every drug that comes their way and essentially no longer testing drugs for safety. Yes, we have a great little "government" down here-- Oh, and let's not forget the dismantling of Social Security. That's another one of Dub's goals.

It's just beyond comprehension.

We're sliding back into the Dark Ages.

[Mother Jones]

12. If you're asking the question in relation to your own govt,

then we LOVE our PM and he is wildly popular.

If you're asking in general, then NO, most of us do not.

He doesn't represent the liberal party well. Thankfully, we have a minority govt, and that means our PM needs to pander to us and our left-leaning politicians. We do plan to milk this for all it's worth. ;-)

I must say one thing in Jean Chretien's defense - he had the good sense to tell bush what he can do with his war!

[V. Kid]

13. This is a pretty cryptic question

It's hard to say it depends upon your perspective. Liberals on this site (and I mean capital L or hard core Liberal Party supporters) will tell you that Martin is great and that everyone loves him, and that they just wanted to keep him honest for a little bit. But I doubt this.

On the left he's unpopular because he's quite right wing economically anyways. He was sort of conservative too, but he has decided to go along with the court rulings that said denying gays and lesbians the right to marry was unconstitutional -- so he's sort of dodged that a bit. All in all though when one looks at his record in government as finance minister it's unlikely intelligent lefties will vote for his Liberals. They will continue to claim they support health care and what not, yet if there continues to be big problems with it the lefties will simply be able to say that it was his cuts that caused the problem in the first place.

In the centre, the place the Liberals try to occupy, Martin is somewhat popular. But should the Conservatives actually manage to present themselves as moderate he could be threatened here. The 'Sponsorship' scandal or 'Adscam' is still going to be investigated somemore so this could hurt him amongst middle of the road swing voters that would normally vote Liberal but would occasionally consider the Conservatives.

That being said the Liberals have the highest 'bottom' of the three parties, the NDP is around 10%, the Conservatives around 20%, and the Liberals around 30% anything less than that for any of them is rare. So he has to do a lot of work to make that happen, but for much of the previous election campaign he was hovering at around 30, neck and neck with the Conservatives until they let their crazies out, so he could end up around there.

On the right he's popular with the business liberal variety, and not so popular with the social conservative variety. Like I said earlier he has decided to go along with Gay Marriage, and even marijuana decriminalization so that hurts him amongst more conservative people who occasionally vote Liberal. But if one looks at his caucus there are quite a few conservative Liberals that got re-elected even with the new united Conservative Party. With the business liberals he is popular because as finance minister he cut taxes and social spending, a popular thing amongst that sort -- besides they don't really care about moral issues -- it's about the money with them. He will always be popular amongst that crowd.

So all in all it's hard to say what will happen and if he's truly popular. Unluckily for him the other party leaders come across as younger because they are, and the Liberals have been in power since 1993. But if he can come across as a statesman, avoid negative social spending issues and come out of the Adscam related stuff fairly unscathed he should be able to win another strong minority or even a majority. But it's very important that he hold what he has in Ontario and regains strength in Quebec. The only other place that has growth potential for him (realistically) is BC -- but all three parties see openings there so it won't be easy going for anyone.

[arikara]

15. Hey, great answer, V. Kid

And welcome to DU!

[V. Kid]

16. thanks

:)

[Pierre Trudeau]

18. it's hard to give a simple answer to this

He's certainly not as unpopular as Brian Mulroney (former Conservative PM from 1984-1993), who was widely reviled by the end of his term. He bailed and left the next leader, Kim Campbell, holding the bag... she proceeded to lead the party to the worst electoral defeat in Canadian history, leaving them with a mere TWO SEATS in Parliament (which did not include her own). So by comparison, Martin is relatively popular.

But that's not saying much.

He's not particularly popular because he's trying to be all things to all people, and ends up pleasing none. But to his benefit, he has no real competition: new Conservative leader Stephen Harper has not won the confidence of anyone outside Alberta, and new NDP leader Jack Layton, a decent fellow who was a good city councillor in Toronto, has zero federal political experience. So Martin is, at the moment, the best of a bad bunch.

Here's an oversimplified summary of Martin pros and cons:

PRO:
- he is the son of venerable Liberal politician and cabinet minister Paul Martin Sr., who served under four Prime Ministers (King, St. Laurent, Pearson, Trudeau), and who played a significant role in the creation of our health care system
- as former PM Jean Chretien's finance minister, he eliminated federal budget deficits beginning in 1995
- at the last minute of the 2003 federal election campaign, he suddenly remembered his Liberal heritage and finally said some good things about the Charter of Rights, multilateralism, and his opposition to the weaponization of space (ie. the US' hare-brained Ballistic Missile Defense pipedream)
- he has a lot more federal parliamentary experience than any of the current party leaders
- while nobody really likes him that much, nobody really dislikes him that much either

CON:
- he was responsible for massive cutbacks to federal programs in the course of his deficit-elimination strategies
- he has close ties to Big Business, and his former company, Canadian Steamship Lines, is known for various tax evasion schemes
- everyone thinks he was implicated in the notorious sponsorship scandal which cost the Liberal Party a great deal of support in the last election
- he is seen as the guy who stuck a knife in Chretien's back, coveting the party leadership while Chretien was still PM, and alienating a lot of party stalwarts who were loyal to Chretien and have since left the party.... and contrary to what some posters have said, many of us still have a soft spot in our hearts for Chretien, doofus though he may be
- he always looks like a deer in the headlights

So that's just my own biased assessment as an old-time Pearson/Trudeau Liberal who finds the current crop don't measure up. But apparently a lot of other Canadians seem to feel similarly, from what I can tell.

[ailsagirl]

19. I saw him being interviewed the other day and...

I thought he was fantastic: elegant, diplomatic, educated, informed, articulate... and nice looking, to boot.

I wish we had someone like him down here... and I hope you'll NEVER have someone like Shrub up there!!

I hope Canada continues to distance itself from its brainwashed southern neighbour... (at least, from those who are Shrub's disciples)

BTW, Pierre Trudeau, thank you for the pros and cons... and everyone else who responded. Food for thought

[V. Kid]

21. I understand that

you live in the States and see Bush everyday thus would be yearning for decent leader. But what you've based your opinion of Martin on is very dangerous and lazy (imo). And I think it's part of a much larger problem where people simply base their impressions upon visceral responses. Maybe this is a very human thing to do, but I think we should strive to avoid it. First impressions are important but they can be deceiving. I don't like Bush, but it's not because of the way he talks, or the way he looks -- it's because of many of his policies and actions.

It's well within your rights to have a viscerally positive reaction to Martin, but I think it's intellectually dishonest. This is going to sound like preaching but one shouldn't base their liking of a politician upon how they present themselves, and frankly if they do I don't think they're very informed. IMO they should base their views of a politician upon their policies and actions first and formost and then 'what they think of them as a person'. This is what their real presentation is -- all the other things are essentially just for show.

I don't think Paul Martin is a horrible fellow but coming across as thoughtful on television isn't enough to critique him imo, either in a positive or negative light.

[ailsagirl]

22. You're right, of course

That was a visceral reaction-- but he did make a good impression on me. He seemed to care about what was best for Canada. And really mean it. Whether that's true, I cannot say.

We're saddled with a real wacko and practically anyone would shine next to him, but Dub is cruel and vicious and conspicuously lacking in grey matter. The same is not true of Martin (though that doesn't mean he's perfect, of course!).

It's like meeting someone for the first time-- the guy could be an arsonist but come across as Prince Charming. I know you that frequently happens.

I so wish we had someone halfway normal...