I also commend you for giving your perspective and relevant points in a thoughtful manner. I think this shows we can have a civilized discussion on the issues without moving into the gutter. BTW – I could be slightly infamous, and I'm a bit older than 25, but I can still enjoy a good spring break in a warm tropical place.
Apology accepted, and I probably took you out of context. There is a vested interest in your politics, north of your border and I suspect south, east and west as well. Canadian politics? Very convoluted and doomed to failure over the next few decades without some sort of government regulation of the electoral process. Currently you elect your regional representative who sits for a specific party. In my region I voted Conservative and he won. There was enough Conservatives to elect a conservative minority government so the leader of the Conservative party as selcted by his peers and delegates from acroos the country becomes Prime Minister. However as I said it is a minority government, which in this case means that the Conservatives hold the most seats. They do not however hold ebough seats so that if all of the other parties put together voted against a bill it would be defeated. Some may say it is a good check and balance, however if a bill gets voted down then it is considered a non-confidence vote in the government and if you don't have the confidence of the other parties that can be enough to have another election. What happens then is that a tabled bill will not come up for vote without the approval of the other parties which a lot of times means it becomes watered down. We currently have 4 parties + a few independants in the house of commons. There is the Conservatives with the most seats, followed by the Liberals, and then there is the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Quebecois. The Conservatives are the most right wing, The Liberals are central, leaning towards the left and the NDP is pretty far to the left. The Bloc Quebecois only runs candidates in Quebec and supposedly are there to protect the interests of Quebec. However, not sure if you are aware, twice now in the last 25 years, Quebec has hel provincial referendums voting to secede from Canada and become an independant country. In both cases they narrowly voted to stay within Canada, however the rest of Canada always have to offer a lot of appeasement in order for this to occur. The mandate of the Bloc Quebecois is somewhat scewed in the sense that if the majority of the people of Quebec feel they are ready to try and separate again, then the Bloc Quebecois will represent them at the federal leve. In essence this party is recieving paychecks from my taxes and holding the threat of separation over my head. As you can imagine there is a lot of resentment in English speaking Canada towards the Bloc Quebecois. Perhaps a few others, Waste or Curvy-on-crack will lay in with a different perspective of the Bloc's position, however that is how I see things. Anyway, there is a quick and easy discussion of a little bit regarding Canadian politics and a little bit of background on how we got here.
JUST A LITTLE HUMOR ... THE DAILY SHOW http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=189759&title=goin-rogue
Just a few words on the Bloc and what was said.... Originally, the Bloc was created due to the failure of the Lake Meech accord, in 1990 (Newfoundland and Manitoba refused to be a part of it.) This lead to the departure of Bouchard from the Mulroney gov...and he created the Bloc. To defend the interests of Quebec within Canada. Bouchard is a VERY respected politician over here, and is thought to be a moderate person. Unlike Duceppe and the gang. Now...according to my own 2 cents, the problem lies in how the whole thing unfolded since the creation of this party...I think the separatist movement (more popular in the early 90's) took this and ran with it, to almost end up making a mockery of the whole thing. The Bloc is now seen as ''an aside'', only reprensenting a fraction of what Quebecers really think (PQ fanatics, at the provincial level, will automatically vote Bloc, regardless of who leads it. A cow would be at the head of the organisation, and they would elect it). Currently, the only thing the Bloc helps in doing is getting some seats to ensure that the party in power isn`t forming a majority government. To be honest, this is probably a good thing. Would you like Harper to have 0 opposition and pretty much pass any 1950's-type law he wants? I think not. Also, the Bloc's popularity is stronger in outside regions, away from the metropolitan centers - people who are not used to living around people from various backgrounds, who do not speak English but know a few words thanks to Celine, and have not been exposed to much diversity-wise). Anyhoo, i digress. This sentence is making me cringe a little: The mandate of the Bloc Quebecois is somewhat scewed in the sense that if the majority of the people of Quebec feel they are ready to try and separate again, then the Bloc Quebecois will represent them at the federal leve. In essence this party is recieving paychecks from my taxes and holding the threat of separation over my head. FACT: The majority of people in Quebec do NOT feel ready to try to separate again. If we did, the PQ and the Bloc would push to hold another referendum in a heartbeat. The reason they don't is because there is a clear voice, now saying that the separation of Quebec is in fact an OLD debate, that does not adhere to our reality anymore. And I'll be honest, I have no clue as to how the party is funded, so I won't comment on that part too much...but if it is publicly funded (I guess they get x federal dollars per vote), so was the Canadian Alliance? Far from being a representative party of Canada as a whole? Also, we have elected Jean Charest, who is a liberal (hence no chance of a referendum). He is about to lauch a new election (he does not HAVE to at the moment, his 4 years aren't up), because he knows he will be elected again. I think it's important to try to be aware of the real situation, before assuming that Quebecers are trying to ''get more''. I think we simply want our fare share of the pie according to our economic weight, just like any other province? We each bring something to the table. K, now it's Halloween and it's Friday night, the best evening shall be held. Also, tomorrow night is ''turn back the clock night'', which means 1 extra hour of clubbing.
"Gerd your loins". A little more humor from last week's SNL. Sen. Biden and Rep. Murtha say crazy things in Johnstown, PA. http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/road-to-the-white-house/787141/
