TreeBeard

A couple more Conservative candidates were turfed. One said his opponent t was “playing the victim card” as a survivor of the massacre at École Polytechnique. https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-2025/article/tories-drop-quebec-candidate-who-said-massacre-survivor-was-playing-victim-game/ Another for implying Indians should be deported to be killed (?) by the Indian government. Yeah, it’s a weird premise. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/conservative-party-candidate-dropped-etobicoke-north-1.7500698

The funny part is she’s hurting Poilievre’s chances of being elected. He doesn’t need more fringe votes from separatists. He needs votes from normal Canadians outside of the Prairies. The Conservative brand being angry separatist if they don’t get their way won’t help him. Manning forced Poilievre to imply that a Liberal 4th term isn’t the end of the world! He had to defend Carney winning! But he couldn’t say anything that even implied he is pro-secession; that would have sealed the Cons’ electoral fate. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/poilievre-disagrees-ex-reform-boss-171850864.html Manning wrote: “Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.” While campaigning at a manufacturing plant in Kingston, Poilievre was asked whether he agrees with Manning’s statement. “No, we need to unite the country,” he told reporters. “We need to bring all Canadians together in a spirit of common ground.

Then why would I care what he has to say? How do I know he’s not just a partisan hack talking out his ass?

Didn’t they vote for a premier who is of that mind? How could they be as fringe as you claim when Albertans elected a premier with these exact views?

Poilievre’s own party is forcing him to turn his back on his Alberta base with the secession talk. It’s Conservative vs Conservative! Imagine having to fight with other leaders in your party over whether secession is a good idea! Poor Poilievre! https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7502543 Smith's exuberance over the tariff announcement did not sit well with two members of former prime minister Harper's cabinet, who pointed out that Quebec and Ontario are still facing 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, and automotive exports to the U.S. "With respect, Premier, this is not a good day for Canada or the world," James Moore said in a social media post. "When Alberta is economically attacked, it is bad for Canada. "Thousands of Canadians in the auto, steel, aluminum and other industries may be losing their jobs. This is not a 'BIG WIN.' Canadians stand together." Describing the tariffs on auto imports as a "devastating blow to hundreds of thousands of good, honest, hard-working Canadians," Jason Kenney, also a former Alberta premier, told Ontarians in a social media post that "the vast majority of Albertans stand proudly with you, and have your back." Kenney even went on to challenge Smith's position on energy, saying that "everything should be on the table" response-wise in order to "defend all industries and jobs" from U.S. trade action

What is this person’s expertise? Statistics? Polling?

The folks who buy and sell houses frequently are going to profit significantly from the Conservative tax break plan. At least the Libs are targeting 1st time home buyers. Although the GST break will have negligible effect.

I didn’t say anything about “all of them already own 12 homes”. But those people will benefit from PP’s plan. So you think people who own several homes should get a GST break on another one?

Why should someone who owns 12 homes and makes money from them get a tax break?

Not a good look for the Conservatives or PP. The base won’t care, or will applaud this, but normal Canadians won’t support this position. Any predictions on whether PP pulls this guy’s nomination? I think he will. https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-2025/article/conservatives-stick-by-candidate-accused-of-denying-history-of-residential-schools/ In videos posted on social media, Aaron Gunn — the Conservative candidate in North Island-Powell River in British Columbia — has said Canada’s program of residential schools did not constitute an act of genocide and that the schools are “much-maligned.” “The comments are reprehensible, especially to residential school survivors,” said Terry Teegee, regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations.

Complain to Ford. Not federal jurisdiction.

(Only looking at the GST cut): Carney is cutting the GST on new homes for 1st time buyers. PP’s cut will apply to speculators and investors who already own large numbers of units. Carney’s GST cut won’t have much effect as most 1st time homebuyers don’t buy new. PP’s will have the effect of enriching rich people even more, as well as not having much effect for those 1st time homebuyers. For people like me, PP’s tax cut will let me get that home with a wine cellar, rather than having to forgo it for something cheaper.

Here is the text from the G&M article: Preston Manning is the former leader of the Reform Party of Canada and a former leader of the Opposition. Because of the vastness of Canada’s territory, the differing interests of its various regions, the abundance of competing economic and social interests, and the weakened state of democratic instruments for reconciling conflicting interests, national unity will be a perpetual challenge for whomever we choose to form our national government. Recent polling by Pollara Strategic Insights shows a temporary decline in support for secession in Quebec but, paradoxically, support for the separatist Parti Québécois remains high. Were the PQ to win the next provincial election in Quebec as predicted, it has promised to hold another referendum on secession. And so the next federal government, no matter who forms it, will be faced yet again with a challenge to national unity on the Quebec front. But whether politicians, the media, or voters in central Canada realize it or not, the greatest future threat to national unity is emerging not from Quebec, but on the Western front – again, revealed by the recent Pollara survey. On account of the mismanagement of national affairs for the last decade by the Liberal government, and its consistent failure to address those issues of greatest concern to Western Canadians, large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it. The support for Western secession is therefore growing, unabated and even fuelled by Liberal promises to reverse many of their previous positions. Such promises of expediency simply don’t ring true in the West. Who, except the most politically naïve, would believe Mark Carney’s promises to reverse the Liberal positions on everything from east-west pipelines to identity politics and climate change, when standing behind him is a cabinet of 23 MPs who, just a month ago, were advocating for the very opposite and have done so for years? The bottom-up support for Western secession – another one of those populist movements that central Canada has never anticipated or understood – is currently centred in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But it has the potential to spread to most of B.C., Manitoba and the adjacent territories depending on how it is organized and led. And this time, unlike the late 1980s, there is no Reform Party to redirect that populist energy in a “West Wants In” direction. So what can be done? Here are two suggested actions, the first by voters in central and Atlantic Canada, and the second by Western political leaders. Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it. If you couldn’t care less about the concerns or actions of Western Canada, then ignore this unsolicited advice. But understand that separation of the resources-based economic engine of Western Canada from what’s left of the rest of Canada will have dire economic and social consequences for the latter. Secondly, Western political leaders need to provide a mechanism for recognizing and addressing the growing support for Western secession in an orderly and democratic manner, so that its support and leadership are not surrendered to extremists or eccentrics for lack of thoughtful consideration of how best to proceed. Initially, this mechanism need not be a Western secession party after the Quebec model of the Parti or Bloc Québécois, but rather a democratic forum to first consider various alternative courses of action. For example, consideration should be given to organizing a “Canada West Constitutional Conference” as soon as possible after the federal election, with a flexible agenda and the backing of at least one provincial government. If there is a genuinely new federal government after April 28, then the agenda of that conference should be twofold: first, to constructively address ways and means of co-operating with that government to redress the damage done to Western Canada by a decade of Liberal neglect and misrule, and second, to consider how best to negotiate new and better Canada-U.S. trade relations. But if the Liberals, employing the fear of U.S. President Donald Trump to secure the support of easily frightened voters, should be returned to office, then the agenda of the conference should be to consider ways and means of peacefully seceding. The next prime minister of Canada, if it remains Mark Carney, would then be identified in the history books, tragically and needlessly, as the last prime minister of a united Canada.

Yes, PP should definitely tell normal Canadians that he admires Trump’s goals and wants to be more like him. Sounds like a winning strategy.

Even his “Canada first” rhetoric is so Trumpy that it turns normal Canadians off. And talking about women’s ovaries is probably not a smart move. Fire that speech writer and hire a woman speech writer.

It actually seems pretty good. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-double-pace-home-building-1.7497947

So if I can afford to build a million dollar home, I should get tax breaks, rather than maybe reducing my budget to $920,000?

He wants Canadians to believe that Trump is the Libs fault. It’s a weird talking point that makes zero sense. Clearly it doesn’t resonate. People take it as blaming their fellow Canadians for the actions of the orange menace. Very unpatriotic and doesn’t play well to normal Canadians.

Sounds very Trumpy.

Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session in 2023 in the wake of the shooting. Lee wanted to pass an extreme risk protection law, which would allow courts to remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Instead Republicans focused instead on policies to "harden" physical security at places like schools.

What’s PP’s housing plan? I know he was dropping the GST so I can now build a $1.1 million house rather than just spending a million. Thank goodness I can add another bathroom and a rec room downstairs. That should help middle class women with aging ovaries afford a new house, right?

Someone did. You all blend together.

In Canada, it’s much more expensive to get bitumen out of the ground than oil elsewhere. The price needs to be high. This is why I laugh at @PIK’s suggestion that oil prices would drop a lot if we would just let the oil companies have at it! As if the oil companies would allow it to become less profitable for themselves. Oil is boom and bust. Right now, there’s a boom due to the high world oil prices. There will come a bust again where it’s not worth digging. Personally, I think we subsidize the oil industry so much now that we should nationalize at least a portion of it. We bought them a money-losing pipeline. We are talking about taxpayers funding more pipelines. We underwrite the risk on the pipelines that are built. Time to put a stop to the corporate welfare.

If the government changes, it takes a couple weeks to change over.

“Involvement”