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44th Canadian Federal Election

It looks like we're in for an interesting ride with the way the polls have opened up. Right now a majority seems to be out of reach for any party, so we'll wind up right back where we started. Speaking personally, a week ago I considered myself a solid Liberal vote, but that's looking shakier right now. I find myself falling into the "undecided" category.
 
PinkLucy said:
I really dislike the whole “wasted vote” sentiment. Just because the person you want didn’t win, your vote isn’t wasted. That’s how our system works. Otherwise, we would all vote for whomever the media projects as the winner just so our vote “counts”. How is that helpful?
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I want the wasted vote sentiment to grow and thus drive people to demand change.
 
I am all for a change in our system, but that can’t happen unless we …. vote for it. Granted, we tried that recently, and it didn’t happen. But thinking that your vote doesn’t count won’t bring about change. Being politically active will. Being engaged with the process will. Encourage your kids to find a candidate who represents their values and then work to get that candidate elected. The campaign trail is fun, even when you don’t win. Not winning is part of it, but continuing to work towards a goal is important. The back room can be more fun than the campaign trail.
 
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Several Conservative Candidates Directed Public Money to Canada’s Biggest Anti-Abortion Lobby Group​

One candidate billed taxpayers for a $169 ‘gift’ to the anti-abortion group

From link.

Several candidates for Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives used money from their MP’s office budgets to place self-promotional advertisements with Canada’s biggest anti-abortion lobby group last summer.

One candidate even billed taxpayers for a $169 gift to the anti-abortion group.

Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group that has likened abortion to the “Nazi holocaust” and launched homophobic attacks against former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, received a total of $2,149 from the taxpayer-funded offices of seven Conservative MP’s who are currently seeking reelection.

Saskatchewan candidates Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton – Melville), Rosemarie Falk (Battlefords – Lloydminister) and Jeremy Patzer each paid the Campaign Life Coalition $350 for “advertising” while Alberta candidate Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River – Parkland) paid the anti-abortion group $250 and Ontario candidate Bob Saroya (Markham—Unionville) paid $280.

Arnold Viersen, Alberta Conservative candidate for Peace River – Westlock, paid Campaign Life Coalition $400 for advertising. Viersen also expensed $169 for “gifts given as a matter of protocol” to the anti-abortion group on November 30, 2020.

Neither Viersen nor the other Conservative candidates responded to requests from PressProgress to clarify details about the ads and gifts.
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The group opposes same-sex marriage, Gay-Straight Alliances and comprehensive sex-ed in schools. On its website, the group claims the existence of a “gay agenda” and attributes HIV/AIDS to the “gay lifestyle.”

“The State cannot have a parallel interest in homosexual unions, nor in promoting the gay lifestyle, which is intrinsically sterile,” the group states. “The State has no genuine interest in encouraging homosexual unions or behaviour.”

Campaign Life Coalition organizes the annual March for Life event in Ottawa where hundreds of activists from across Canada travel to Parliament Hill to protest the decriminalization of abortion.

The 2020 March for Life “souvenir program” features ads from all seven Conservative candidates who expensed advertising to Campaign Life Coalition the same month the program was published.

Ads from Conservatives Ted Falk, Gary Vidal, John Williamson, Damien Kurek and Tom Lukiwski also appear in the program, however, no advertising expenses linked to Campaign Life Coalition appear in their MP’s expenditures.
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Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was forced to clarify his position on abortionyesterday after the Liberals raised questions about an anti-abortion policy in the Conservative platform that would allow doctors to opt-out of providing medical services.

O’Toole said he is “pro-choice” but also supports the “conscience rights” of medical professionals to deny services not aligned with their values.

Anti-abortion activists have described that policy as a “very powerful first step and foundation” to allow medical professionals to deny access to abortion. Earlier this year, Conservative candidate Kelly Block consulted and employed an anti-abortion activiststo help craft Bill C-268, the “Protection of Freedom of Conscience Act,” which would protect the “conscience rights” of medical professionals who refused to provide Medical Assistance in Dying under Bill C-7.
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Although O’Toole insists he is personally “pro-choice,” the party’s social conservative wing has been successful in quietly nominating candidates from the anti-abortion movement.

Anti-abortion groups like Campaign Life Coalition and RightNow have been organizing to take control of the federal Conservative party and stack nomination votes to get anti-abortion candidates on the ballot.

This week, PressProgress reported that RightNow hosted hosted a training workshop to help activists stack the boards of local riding associations as they prepare for a leadership race to replace O’Toole within the next two years. Anti-abortion groups recently installed actvists into 40% of the Conservative party’s National Council positions.

Last election, Campaign Life Coalition endorsed over half (56%) of former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer’s slate of candidates in the 2019 federal election, stating that their anti-abortion positions made them supportable.

At least one-third (36%) of O’Toole’s 2021 slate of Conservative candidates are incumbents who were previously endorsed by the anti-abortion group.

That does not include O’Toole, whom the group accuses of promoting a “pro-abortion, pro-LGBT ideology.”
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Bjays92 said:
No offence but idk how you can say a vote for the NDP is a wasted vote while simultaneously voting green lol.
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They're both wasted, but by voting Green, or whatever the guaranteed loser of your choice we demonstrate the folly of our system. That's why I voted Green, beyond their policies I liked at the time.
 
Admiral Beez said:
They're both wasted, but by voting Green, or whatever the guaranteed loser of your choice we demonstrate the folly of our system. That's why I voted Green, beyond their policies I liked at the time.
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How does that work?
 
Admiral Beez said:
I want the wasted vote sentiment to grow and thus drive people to demand change.
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Actually, one purpose a so-called "wasted" vote *does* serve is barometric. That is, you contribute to the polling data, and provide an idea of the poll-by-poll electoral lay of the land around your parts.

So, when it comes to Toronto Centre, here's the poll-by-poll results

And the maps of the polling subdivisions are available via here

And it makes for fun perusing. And in a way, it practically *justifies* "wasting" a vote. But if you're indifferent to such maps and stats, well, then...
 
I am questioning whether I ought to vote. Feels like my brain isn't quite up to scratch these days. In our education we were told it was an offense against all those who had died in the wars not to vote but I really feel out of the loop, most of what the press is talking about doesn't connect with me. I like renting. Don't have kids. Paying off cemetary expenses. So here is my manifesto - grave sites are tax deductible, pets are dependents and the childless are given double pensions. There! Selfishness aplenty!
 
Rufus8 said:
I am questioning whether I ought to vote. Feels like my brain isn't quite up to scratch these days. In our education we were told it was an offense against all those who had died in the wars not to vote but I really feel out of the loop, most of what the press is talking about doesn't connect with me. I like renting. Don't have kids. Paying off cemetary expenses. So here is my manifesto - grave sites are tax deductible, pets are dependents and the childless are given double pensions. There! Selfishness aplenty!
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Read the parties platforms, you dont need the media to tell you who to vote for.

After you've looked thought the platforms vote for whichever strikes a chord with you. Simple as that.

You should always, ALWAYS vote. Nothing to do with our veterans but simply allowing for us to have a legitimate impact on the trajectory of our country and also not take for granted what most of the world doesnt have.
 
Admiral Beez said:
I don't like telling people what they should be doing. You don't need to GAC about what I care about, do what you want.
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No one is forcing anyone to vote, I'm not telling anyone they have to vote, but choosing not to vote is the definition of privilege imo.

Determining it's not worth your time to spend a couple hours once every few years to have a say in the future of your country means an individual completely takes for granted the freedoms they have. They're allowed to take those freedoms for granted, because we have said freedoms, but that doesn't make it ok to me and I'm also allowed to voice that.

I grew up where you couldn't vote, so millions of people took to the streets to make their voices heard instead. And they did it year after in the hopes that one day they could vote. People I know sacrificed their entire lives and are rotting away in jail simply for wanting a say in governance, so of course I'll be upset when I see people who aren't bothered enough to even go to the polls, especially when those same people often complain about the state of our country.

Obviously an organized boycott of illegitimate polls is completely different but that doesn't apply here.
 
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For those not remembering, Ms. Brosseau was a very surprised winner in the Orange Crush election, a single mum, and bar tender at the time, who spoke relatively little French (lived in Ottawa) and was an NDP
Candidate in name only, until she won.

She ultimately earned a great deal of respect learning French and was considered an extremely popular legislator and MP, though still lost when the NDP imploded in Quebec in 2019.
 
In line w/the theme of the above..........

I want to suggest that the I feel the current round of NDP Ads attacking Trudeau's voting record may resonate.

That's both a personal vibe and an observation of reaction to them I'm seeing.

Long way to go yet..........
 
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