• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Terrell

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,624
Canada
Saskatchewan NDP elects Ryan Meili as new party leader

To the surprise of no one except people who thought Wotherspoon's caucus support would make the race a lot tighter than it actually was. There were 2 parts that raised my eyebrows, however.

One was his acceptance speech. To the shock of many, he pledged (if elected to lead the government) to bring legislation in his 1st year that would end both corporate and union donations to political parties. Considering he campaigned on a promise to only accept donations from individual donors and not the unions that typically fund the NDP here, it's no shock that he believes that to be the right thing, but to actually go out and promise year-one legislation to end it for everyone? Bold. My Sask Party-loving mother and grandfather were stunned when they heard that and (if only for a second) looked like they had a change of heart politically on the merits of that promise alone, so maybe he was onto something.

The other was the turnout. 81% of the Sask NDP membership voted for the leader. This isn't really big news in and of itself, but when you consider that the Saskatchewan Party leadership vote in January was to essentially elect the premier of the province for the next 2 years and they only mustered 65% turnout of their members? Well, no one is entirely sure what to make of that, but people see it as something significant.

As a sidenote, he seems to be happily going for that same sort of "let's change the party in a big meaningful way" rhetoric that got Jagmeet Singh in as party leader federally, so it seems to me like younger voters are eager to change the faces and the definitions of our left-leaning political parties moving forward and are tired of safe centre-hugging status quo. I am willing to admit that this last point is debatable, though.
 
Last edited:

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,035
From CBC

Gatineau youth support decision to pull controversial drink after teen's death

After FCKD UP was launched last fall, reports rolled in about young people landing in Montreal emergency rooms after consuming the sugary, caffeinated beverage, which contains 11.9 per cent alcohol.

Health experts criticized the makers of FCKD UP, claiming that Groupe Geloso was deliberately marketing to teenagers who are ill-prepared to handle the drink's effects.

Groupe Geloso had recently relaunched its advertising campaign, featuring posters with a new message warning that a single can is equivalent to consuming four glasses of wine.

The French-language posters also urged consumers to "share your can, big guy."

Gatineau health advocates criticized the posters, however, which had appeared on bus shelters within meters of west Quebec high schools.

"It shouldn't be okay to have ads of this type of drink right next to a high school," Émilie Dansereau-Trahan, an official with the Quebec Association for Public Health, told Radio-Canada last week — just days before Gervais disappeared.

Dansereau-Trahan and other health advocates want Health Canada to strengthen its rules against what she called a dangerous combination of sugar, caffeine and high levels of alcohol.

Quebec's 24-hour dépanneur Couche-Tard announced Friday evening the drink would would no longer be sold at its stores.

UQO student Camille Faubert said that was an important decision, since "in a way they contributed to [the teen's] death," noting that FCKD UP was sold in convenience store refrigerators right next to Coca-Cola and other alcohol-free beverages.

The government needs to regulate these "energy drinks" full of fucked up contents. High-sugar, high-caffeine and high-alcohol? How the fuck is that legal to sell as a product? Also, a product that is sold next to sodas? I'm sorry, but aren't all alcoholic beverages required to be sold in their own section, which can be locked after 11pm?

I hope that company is sued to oblivion.
 

Ac30

Member
Oct 30, 2017
14,527
London
There's plenty to be critical of Trudeau about, but I gotta say it is a bit surprising that people are already turning to Scheer. As this article states it's less about Scheer becoming more appealing and a lot more about the series of terrible own goals from Trudeau and his ministers in the last few weeks. Could the dull, nothing budget and endless fuckups of the India trip been the straw that broke the camels back for a lot of people?

We've had two do nothing, treading water budgets in a row, meanwhile when Canadians turn on the CBC National they see this:



The contrast could be the sort of thing that causes people to cool on a leader quicker than you'd think. I normally ignore polling outside of an election, but suddenly the next bit of polling will be an interesting read to see whether or not this one was an outlier.


Man, I'm getting a ton of second-hand embarrassment from this GIF. World leaders shouldn't be dancing at a press conference.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,301
From CBC



The government needs to regulate these "energy drinks" full of fucked up contents. High-sugar, high-caffeine and high-alcohol? How the fuck is that legal to sell as a product? Also, a product that is sold next to sodas? I'm sorry, but aren't all alcoholic beverages required to be sold in their own section, which can be locked after 11pm?

I hope that company is sued to oblivion.

Yeah in this case the issue is more about how easy it was to acquire it considering the % of alcohol in the drink. You cannot buy Gin or Vodka at Couche-Tard for a reason. Putting it in the alcohol section at Couche-Tard won't do much if the cashier doesn't check ID cards or if he's too busy to see people shoplifting it. If they want to sell this product it should be at SAQ where you need to be 18 to buy anything in the store. Moreover they shouldn't allow advertising of products like this to target teens obviously and specify in the ad how much you should drink. Banning that kind of drink will be hard since cigarettes and alcohol are purchasable with ease. You probably haven't seen anything yet with marijuana soon coming into legal territory. It's all of matter of how much you drink and smoke and outside of driving it's hard to regulate by the government. Something you just shake your head in disbelief at what people do even if it's bad for them. I see patients for persantine or threadmill exams daily that have COPD and CAD and still smoke a pack a day and sometimes we get patient drunk at 10 AM haha. In QC it's the choice we made, alcohol is sold at SAQ for a premium and cigarettes are heavily taxed but some people that abuses of both will need medical care that we all agreed to pay for.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,426
One was his acceptance speech. To the shock of many, he pledged (if elected to lead the government) to bring legislation in his 1st year that would end both corporate and union donations to political parties. Considering he campaigned on a promise to only accept donations from individual donors and not the unions that typically fund the NDP here, it's no shock that he believes that to be the right thing, but to actually go out and promise year-one legislation to end it for everyone? Bold. My Sask Party-loving mother and grandfather were stunned when they heard that and (if only for a second) looked like they had a change of heart politically on the merits of that promise alone, so maybe he was onto something.

This worked for the BC NDP, and it was their first bill they passed in the new government, so I think you can be confident that the Sask NDP will follow through.

It's a politically savvy move as well. It is so reasonable that it's impossible to argue against. You look corrupt if you advocate that unfettered corporate donations are indeed a good thing. All the political opposition in BC could do was spread FUD that the NDP wouldn't actually follow through.
 

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,035
Yeah in this case the issue is more about how easy it was to acquire it considering the % of alcohol in the drink. You cannot buy Gin or Vodka at Couche-Tard for a reason. Putting it in the alcohol section at Couche-Tard won't do much if the cashier doesn't check ID cards or if he's too busy to see people shoplifting it. If they want to sell this product it should be at SAQ where you need to be 18 to buy anything in the store. Moreover they shouldn't allow advertising of products like this to target teens obviously and specify in the ad how much you should drink. Banning that kind of drink will be hard since cigarettes and alcohol are purchasable with ease. You probably haven't seen anything yet with marijuana soon coming into legal territory. It's all of matter of how much you drink and smoke and outside of driving it's hard to regulate by the government. Something you just shake your head in disbelief at what people do even if it's bad for them. I see patients for persantine or threadmill exams daily that have COPD and CAD and still smoke a pack a day and sometimes we get patient drunk at 10 AM haha. In QC it's the choice we made, alcohol is sold at SAQ for a premium and cigarettes are heavily taxed but some people that abuses of both will need medical care that we all agreed to pay for.
Force it to be sold at SAQ, and tax the fuck out of it.
 

Terrell

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,624
Canada
This worked for the BC NDP, and it was their first bill they passed in the new government, so I think you can be confident that the Sask NDP will follow through.

It's a politically savvy move as well. It is so reasonable that it's impossible to argue against. You look corrupt if you advocate that unfettered corporate donations are indeed a good thing. All the political opposition in BC could do was spread FUD that the NDP wouldn't actually follow through.

You underestimate the Sask Party if you think they wouldn't argue against it and somehow get away with it.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,426
You underestimate the Sask Party if you think they wouldn't argue against it and somehow get away with it.

Its the same in BC with the Liberals. You have the entire business and media apparatus in at the very least passive aggressive opposition to the NDP, which usually helps the Liberals get away with a lot. During the election they were like, "bububu the union support" but didn't really didn't have much to grasp onto other than fear of the unknown.

Even the Green Party got in on the act in spreading FUD, getting on their high horse because they don't take any donations from corporations or unions and trying to insinuate that because the NDP were playing by the current rules of the game and still accepting corporate and union donations while calling for their end that somehow that made their promise invalid and that voters should vote Green. Of course the NDP kept their promise.

The difference between the BC NDP and the Sask NDP here though is that the BC NDP had put forward a bill to ban corporate and union donations like 6 times or more while in opposition, so there was a long history of them wanting to do this. If this is a new idea for the Sask NDP then maybe the Sask Party will be able to more effectively cast doubt.
 

Terrell

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,624
Canada
Its the same in BC with the Liberals. You have the entire business and media apparatus in at the very least passive aggressive opposition to the NDP, which usually helps the Liberals get away with a lot. During the election they were like, "bububu the union support" but didn't really didn't have much to grasp onto other than fear of the unknown.

Even the Green Party got in on the act in spreading FUD, getting on their high horse because they don't take any donations from corporations or unions and trying to insinuate that because the NDP were playing by the current rules of the game and still accepting corporate and union donations while calling for their end that somehow that made their promise invalid and that voters should vote Green. Of course the NDP kept their promise.

The difference between the BC NDP and the Sask NDP here though is that the BC NDP had put forward a bill to ban corporate and union donations like 6 times or more while in opposition, so there was a long history of them wanting to do this. If this is a new idea for the Sask NDP then maybe the Sask Party will be able to more effectively cast doubt.
It absolutely is a new idea for them, since union donations were the only way they stayed competitive in terms of campaign financing with the Sask Party and the PC party before it.

My guess is that was why Meili didn't accept union and corporate donations for his leadership bid in contrast to his opponent and one of the reasons for his "my Sask NDP won't be your mama's Sask NDP" rhetoric. Hard to hold them to past behaviour of allowing it to continue when you've got a leader setting the right example for himself and trying to break away from what's considered the party's provincial traditions.
 

Mr.Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,677
From the Canadian Encyclopedia:

Canadian provinces and territories have introduced their own political finance regulations — these vary by province and territory. All provinces and territories provide tax credits for contributions and require disclosure of the identity of donors who give more than a certain amount. Most provinces and territories set limits on the amounts that individuals can donate in any given year. All provinces and territories, except Alberta and Yukon, also put limits on spending in elections.

Québec, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Alberta have banned corporate and other organizational contributions altogether. In these provinces, only individuals are permitted to give money to political parties.

Add BC to that and we're half-way there. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be in the Ontario NDP's platform.
 
Last edited:

Tiktaalik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,426
Given that due to the unpopularity of the Ontario Liberals, Ontario voters seem poised to elect Doug Ford of all people instead of having a look at the ONDP, I think it's pretty clear that the Ontario NDP needs quite the reboot...
 

killerrin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,237
Toronto
Given that due to the unpopularity of the Ontario Liberals, Ontario voters seem poised to elect Doug Ford of all people instead of having a look at the ONDP, I think it's pretty clear that the Ontario NDP needs quite the reboot...
I've been saying this the past couple of pages. The entire fucking Ford family has people brainwashed. When Rob passed away I had people not from Toronto sincerely try and argue that he did actual good for the city of Toronto, despite being able to throw to them factual arguments of how much they fucked with the governance of the city and rolled back completely sane planes that would have solved many of Toronto's issues and ultimately made Torontonians less vigilant in voting single mindedly for certain issues.

Quite frankly, we are fucked.
 
OP
OP
Caz

Caz

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,055
Canada
I've been saying this the past couple of pages. The entire fucking Ford family has people brainwashed. When Rob passed away I had people not from Toronto sincerely try and argue that he did actual good for the city of Toronto, despite being able to throw to them factual arguments of how much they fucked with the governance of the city and rolled back completely sane planes that would have solved many of Toronto's issues and ultimately made Torontonians less vigilant in voting single mindedly for certain issues.

Quite frankly, we are fucked.
While older voters are all in on Ford Nation, with younger voters making up a sizeable bloc in the next election, coupled with how little time there is for the PCs to campaign following their leadership election, I wouldn't be so sure of that. I don't doubt that older voters could hand the PCs a minority or even a majority government but i'm skeptical it wouldn't be in spite of Ford rather than because of him. Put simply, there's a reason why Ford is the only PC candidate that would make general voters less likely to vote PC come next election.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,301
Alt-right and conservatism are rising worldwide. You can see it in the US with Trump and how Europe is currently changing. In Austria they elected a 31 years old at the head of the government that is also alt-right. I don't think age is a really good metric anymore. French magazine Politis had this map to show the rise of the alt-right in Europe and it's downright scary. On Radio-Canada today they had interviews with voters in Italy saying how they supported the alt-right. and they certainly weren't old people. There was also this video here with young people in Italy calling themselves fascist for a TV report by British TV channel 4. Some big youtubers and social media personalities are also alt right and young like Paul Watson, Pewdiepie, Boogie and Sargon. This seems like a trend the world is shifting towards to.



Europe as a whole and Canada are different but 35% is close enough for a majority government so it's a good thing to keep in mind.
 

Mr.Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,677
Alt-right and conservatism are rising worldwide. You can see it in the US with Trump and how Europe is currently changing. In Austria they elected a 31 years old at the head of the government that is also alt-right. I don't think age is a really good metric anymore. French magazine Politis had this map to show the rise of the alt-right in Europe and it's downright scary. On Radio-Canada today they had interviews with voters in Italy saying how they supported the alt-right. and they certainly weren't old people. There was also this video here with young people in Italy calling themselves fascist for a TV report by British TV channel 4. Some big youtubers and social media personalities are also alt right and young like Paul Watson, Pewdiepie, Boogie and Sargon. This seems like a trend the world is shifting towards to.



Europe as a whole and Canada are different but 35% is close enough for a majority government so it's a good thing to keep in mind.


It's the sort of thing that makes me glad we have a Senate the way we do. Speaking of...

There's currently 12 vacant seats in the Senate, and 8 more opening up before the next election. Trudeau should really get around to filling out those seats.
 

Frimaire

Member
Oct 25, 2017
826
Canada
Alt-right and conservatism are rising worldwide. You can see it in the US with Trump and how Europe is currently changing. In Austria they elected a 31 years old at the head of the government that is also alt-right. I don't think age is a really good metric anymore. French magazine Politis had this map to show the rise of the alt-right in Europe and it's downright scary. On Radio-Canada today they had interviews with voters in Italy saying how they supported the alt-right. and they certainly weren't old people. There was also this video here with young people in Italy calling themselves fascist for a TV report by British TV channel 4. Some big youtubers and social media personalities are also alt right and young like Paul Watson, Pewdiepie, Boogie and Sargon. This seems like a trend the world is shifting towards to.



Europe as a whole and Canada are different but 35% is close enough for a majority government so it's a good thing to keep in mind.

Damn, good job Spain/Portugal...
 
OP
OP
Caz

Caz

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,055
Canada
Alt-right and conservatism are rising worldwide. You can see it in the US with Trump and how Europe is currently changing. In Austria they elected a 31 years old at the head of the government that is also alt-right. I don't think age is a really good metric anymore. French magazine Politis had this map to show the rise of the alt-right in Europe and it's downright scary. On Radio-Canada today they had interviews with voters in Italy saying how they supported the alt-right. and they certainly weren't old people. There was also this video here with young people in Italy calling themselves fascist for a TV report by British TV channel 4. Some big youtubers and social media personalities are also alt right and young like Paul Watson, Pewdiepie, Boogie and Sargon. This seems like a trend the world is shifting towards to.


As you pointed out, using Europe isn't a great example given the vast difference in history that encompass the many countries in that region (as an example, Portugal's fascist, Antonio Salazar, left a massive scar on the country that makes fascism unlikely to occur in Portugal) in comparison to Canada. The possibility exists for a Trump-like populist candidate to occur in Canada; I did an entire video on that very subject. However, i'm wary to state that Ontario's next election will be the testing ground to see if this rise in alt-right/hate groups/far-right conservatism will establish itself in Canadian politics since the main reason for Ford's potential electoral success would stem from a combination of not being Wynne and having a name to the non-politically savvy. It's more likely we'll see the breadth of its presence in 2019 when Scheer's ties to Rebel Media become more well-known and whether said knowledge deters or attracts people to the CPC.

Also you are vastly overestimating the number of young people who take that soy boy Watson seriously.
I guess we should get used to living under authoritarian rule...
SG-17 isn't running Canada so we're fine (for now).
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
Orange Cheeto is sounding off on NAFTA, Canada and Mexico again.

Trudeau picked the worst time to go cosplay in India.
IMO, he should put on a serious face and try to get US Governors to fight for NAFTA in opposition to the Orange Turd.
 
Oct 25, 2017
319
Ottawa, Canada
The Canada Working Benefit is the sort of thing that will materially reduce inequality and poverty but nobody seems to care about that. Yes the Working Income Tax benefit existed before but now it's been increased and enrollment has been made automatic, both are significant improvements.

The CPP reforms are also a really important thing that has similarly not gotten much attention.

The forcing of every province to have a carbon tax is a really important move.

There's a lot of really important things that have been accomplished. But I guess none of it is as exciting as infrastructure. But why should the federal government take the lead on infrastructure? I found the recent The Weeds Infrastructure Week episode interesting. I don't know how much of it applies to Canada but I think it's good to think about what we mean when we say "infrastructure" and what level of government should really be doing it.

Seriously, the critique that this government is all style and no substance completely falls apart with even the tiniest bit of scrutiny. Just off the top of my head, there's been:

- Canada Child Benefit
- Canada Workers Benefit
- first-ever early learning and child care agreement with the provinces (+ $7 billion in funding)
- national carbon tax
- first-ever national housing strategy (+ $40 billion over ten years, + a right to housing becoming legislatively enshrined)
- rolling back the Harper changes to Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement
- enhanced the Canada Pension Plan
- legalizing pot (not quite done yet, but the Senate can't hold it back for too much longer)
- gender equal cabinet (more symbolic, but still meaningful)
- preclearance with the US (C-23)
- rolling back all the problematic parts of the old bill C-51, and adding a layer of oversight to it)
- extended parental leave
- added gender identity as a protected class in the Criminal Code and the Human Rights Act
- brought back the Census
- pension for life for veterans
- oversight for election debates (rather than having them managed by the broadcast consortium)

And that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's quite a bit I'm forgetting. We could debate the merits of all these policies, but the fact is, this government probably doesn't talk enough about what it's doing, rather than too much.

It's the sort of thing that makes me glad we have a Senate the way we do. Speaking of...

There's currently 12 vacant seats in the Senate, and 8 more opening up before the next election. Trudeau should really get around to filling out those seats.

Enh, I'm pretty sure they will be. The new process just takes more time.

Orange Cheeto is sounding off on NAFTA, Canada and Mexico again.

Trudeau picked the worst time to go cosplay in India.
IMO, he should put on a serious face and try to get US Governors to fight for NAFTA in opposition to the Orange Turd.

I mean...they have been? So have all the premiers. Right now Trump is getting pretty hard pushback from his own party on NAFTA and tariffs, so it's not like it's all happening in a vacuum. And in the meantime, there's nothing wrong with Trudeau going elsewhere in the world to expand our trade.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
I mean...they have been? So have all the premiers. Right now Trump is getting pretty hard pushback from his own party on NAFTA and tariffs, so it's not like it's all happening in a vacuum. And in the meantime, there's nothing wrong with Trudeau going elsewhere in the world to expand our trade.
His trip to India had nothing to do with trade, it was 95% about pandering for votes locally in Canada but ended up raking in net negative due the Atwal blunder
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
Salazar was fascism-light compared to Franco. Education and Infrastructure got a boost under Salazar. He got the country out of the red and ended corruption that plagued the country for decades prior.

The negatives about Salazar was the never ending wars in the old colonies cost the lives of so many young men. The clamping down on civil rights during the 60s and the worst of his regime were political jails.

I'm not defending Salazar, I'm stating the historical facts of the Pros and Cons.

Portugal was an unstable, bankrupt and corrupt country from the fall of the Monarchy and the 2 decades of the 1st Republic.

Love him or hate him, the fact about Salazar is that he never took a penny and actually did good in the 1930s and 1940s.
Recovery after Great Depression, ended corruption, played diplomacy during WW2 and avoided spilling blood during that war.
Acceped refugees during WW2 and post WW2.

It's in the 1950s and 1960s when his regime turned sour on civil rights.
Yes the negatives during those decades were bad.
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
Playing devil's advocate for the Estado Novo gets the stink-eye from me. Whatever its fleeting material gains, it was monstrous, repressive, and deeply regressive.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
Read the Wikipedia history of the turn of the 20th Century from the Regicide, overthrow of the Monarchy, the 1st Republic and the Coup d'état in the late 1920s.

It was a Banana Republic Status inside Europe.
 

Tiktaalik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,426
Apparently Singh was on Tout le monde en parle last night.

This doesn't get english subtitles anywhere does it? My French is better than most British Columbians, but not nearly good enough to really keep up even with French subtitles on.

Edit: Here's an article about it from Chantal Hebert.

Jagmeet Singh's debut on a well-watched Quebec talk show was his best night yet
The rookie NDP leader made the most of his time on Tout le monde en parle but it's too soon to say if it will translate into votes, Chantal Hébert writes.
 
Last edited:

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
Read the Wikipedia history of the turn of the 20th Century from the Regicide, overthrow of the Monarchy, the 1st Republic and the Coup d'état in the late 1920s.

It was Banana Republic Status inside Europe
Read Wikipedia, he says, when my partner is a veritable fount of eyewitness Portuguese history. You have a sterile grocery list of names and dates, but you lack any and all perspective of the human toll of the regime.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
Read Wikipedia, he says, when my partner is a veritable fount of eyewitness Portuguese history. You have a sterile grocery list of names and dates, but you lack any and all perspective of the human toll of the regime.
he was a product of his time and historically unavoidable.

but Portugal got lucky that he was soft core compared to his Spanish neighbor.
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
he was a product of his time and historically unavoidable.

but Portugal got lucky that he was soft core compared to his Spanish neighbor.
The "product of his time" pushed and represented a regression against even the times. He cultivated a personality cult and made it clear he expected women to be homemakers and baby-producing machines, and their husbands to be subservient farmers. And unavoidable? That's mere apologism.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
The "product of his time" pushed and represented a regression against even the times. He cultivated a personality cult and made it clear he expected women to be homemakers and baby-producing machines, and their husbands to be subservient farmers. And unavoidable? That's mere apologism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Portuguese_Republic

The sixteen years of the First Republic saw nine presidents and 44 ministries (IIN 15YEARS!!), and have been described as consisting of "continual anarchy, government corruption, rioting and pillage, assassinations, arbitrary imprisonment and religious persecution (1911-1926)
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
And yet, not unavoidable. Salazar might have chosen otherwise (to have become a priest, for instance), or he might very well have been killed. Other men certainly could have tried to fill that vacuum, but circumstances and capability differ. Talk of historical destiny is moonshine.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
It could have been worse, it could have been bloodier and have a Military General nut case like Spain.

Don't forget that Spain at the same time was in a bloody Civil War with fratricide, brothers killing brothers. Uncles against Nephews.

What happened in Portugal at that exact same time cannot even compare to the blood spilled in Spain.
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
It could have been worse, yet it also could have been better. There was nothing inevitable about Salazar or his Estado Novo. But for a minor change here or there, the outcome is wildly different. That's the antithesis of inevitability.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
It could have been worse, yet it also could have been better. There was nothing inevitable about Salazar or his Estado Novo. But for a minor change here or there, the outcome is wildly different. That's the antithesis of inevitability.
Only if they rebooted Republic like France did...

wait... when France did that, they went full Napoleon this first time.

A Republic Reboot would have been the better way, true.
 
Last edited:

Vamphuntr

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,301
As you pointed out, using Europe isn't a great example given the vast difference in history that encompass the many countries in that region (as an example, Portugal's fascist, Antonio Salazar, left a massive scar on the country that makes fascism unlikely to occur in Portugal) in comparison to Canada. The possibility exists for a Trump-like populist candidate to occur in Canada; I did an entire video on that very subject. However, i'm wary to state that Ontario's next election will be the testing ground to see if this rise in alt-right/hate groups/far-right conservatism will establish itself in Canadian politics since the main reason for Ford's potential electoral success would stem from a combination of not being Wynne and having a name to the non-politically savvy. It's more likely we'll see the breadth of its presence in 2019 when Scheer's ties to Rebel Media become more well-known and whether said knowledge deters or attracts people to the CPC.

Also you are vastly overestimating the number of young people who take that soy boy Watson seriously.

SG-17 isn't running Canada so we're fine (for now).

I feel there is starting to be a lot of hints that something not so good is brewing.

In Quebec were are trivializing far right groups more and more. French media don't call La meute alt right or extreme right they call them "droite identitaire". They show footage with them saying how they are not racist but against illegal immigration. Québec city has a radio station dedicated to vomiting on poor, minorities, Muslim and leftists and the candidate they backed for the mayoral election in the city came second with 28% of the vote. Jordan Peterson gained notoriety and is making a fortune out of his new book and most of his thoughts come from religious authoritarianism with zealots praising him and all of this came from not wanting the law to force him to refer to trans people they way they want too. Rob Ford, the insane crack smoking populist mayor was the mayor of Toronto for 4 years. His brother cut from the same cloth will try to win the OPC leadership campaign and become PM of Ontario. This is not even taking into account the mosque shooting, the fake hijab scare, the Rebel Media drama and the current outrage at University Censorship.

Instead of showing how these people are wrong we simply allow them to say what they want and even elect some of them into office. Disappointing and a tad scary.
 

SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,014
I feel there is starting to be a lot of hints that something not so good is brewing.

In Quebec were are trivializing far right groups more and more. French media don't call La meute alt right or extreme right they call them "droite identitaire". They show footage with them saying how they are not racist but against illegal immigration. Québec city has a radio station dedicated to vomiting on poor, minorities, Muslim and leftists and the candidate they backed for the mayoral election in the city came second with 28% of the vote. Jordan Peterson gained notoriety and is making a fortune out of his new book and most of his thoughts come from religious authoritarianism with zealots praising him and all of this came from not wanting the law to force him to refer to trans people they way they want too. Rob Ford, the insane crack smoking populist mayor was the mayor of Toronto for 4 years. His brother cut from the same cloth will try to win the OPC leadership campaign and become PM of Ontario. This is not even taking into account the mosque shooting, the fake hijab scare, the Rebel Media drama and the current outrage at University Censorship.

Instead of showing how these people are wrong we simply allow them to say what they want and even elect some of them into office. Disappointing and a tad scary.

The media rarely reports the truth; they spin it to whatever they need to get views.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal
especially considering the way the media swept under the rug after the shooting at the mosque over a year ago.
The French language media never wants to bring up the subject of racism, xenophobia or Islamophobia.
They always minimize it.

Even the Premier, who was supposed to launch an inquiry on system racism, backed off and never started it. Because the French language media were complaining that the Premier was calling the province "racist"

Philippe Fehmiu made the case that the reason that is prevalent is because French language media, news and radio doesn't have any proportional minority representation in their media.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/medium_large/2013-2014/chronique.asp?idChronique=423457
https://www.facebook.com/twoguysonecouch/videos/551505671702402/
 

firehawk12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,161
Not enough of the sponsors have done the confirmation business and it hasn't gone through. I've kinda forgotten about it tbh.
Can you do it again? With the ESA doubling down on their bullshit, I feel like Canada just needs to get ahead and deal with this head-on, particularly when tax payer dollars are basically funding game companies to create a new generation of gambling addicts.
 

gutter_trash

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
17,124
Montreal

Mr.Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,677
Can you do it again? With the ESA doubling down on their bullshit, I feel like Canada just needs to get ahead and deal with this head-on, particularly when tax payer dollars are basically funding game companies to create a new generation of gambling addicts.

I've resent the email asking people to confirm. Here's the text of the petition if you'd like to try to put it through again you're free to use it.

Petition to the Minister of Justice
Whereas:
  • Increasingly video games feature loot boxes, a consumable virtual item which can be redeemed to provide a random selection of further virtual items.
  • Loot boxes may often be purchased using real currency.
  • Loot boxes are a form of gambling that is currently unregulated.
  • The current industry body responsible for self-regulating video game content, the ESRB, is not adequately equipped to protect children from exposure to gambling practices.
  • Current laws do not address the intentional exposure of gambling to children found in video games.
  • Other countries have put in place regulation on loot boxes, such as Japan which banned the practice of having a predetermined set of items gained from loot boxes which would combine once complete to form a rarer and thus more valuable item, and China which requires online game publishers to publicly release the draw probability of all virtual items and services.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Justice to regulate gambling practices in video games, such as loot boxes, to (a) protect children from being exposed to, and encouraged to participate in, gambling; (b) protect consumers from being pressured to participate in gambling in video games; (c) require the disclosure of draw probabilities of all virtual items and services obtainable from loot boxes.
 

firehawk12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,161
Well I hope everyone here signed it and confirmed it. :p
Is it possible to add new people to your original petition?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.