Canadian Election Tread (part deux)

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by optimus2861
if the state decides it has the power to strip citizenship, we're all going down a slippery slope to hell; the sole exception I could see would be a fraudulent application).

They already do, but only for those who do something serious to warrant it. It's simple, if you are born here, Canada is stuck with you even if you are Clifford Olsen. Citizenship cannot be touched by anybody in that case.

However, if you were not born here, you had to apply at some point or other for citizenship. In that case, your citizenship can be revoked by a judge after the government makes it's case and you and your representative have a chance to respond.

A criminal conviction is grounds for revokation and deportation. I'm not sure what else might be, but I suspect Ma Khadr is very close to it.

[cinch]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Meh, started to type out my responses to each one. Too much effort required.

Quitter!

It looked like fun, and so I attempt...

(Also, I just retook the test with slightly different answers, 'cause I thought about them a little bit... New Results:
Layton-100
Duceppe-63
Martin-53
Harper-37

_______________________________

THE CINCH MANIFESTO

1. I strongly wish to keep the health care system public. I think it can and will work, given adequate funding and innovation.

2. I strongly support increasing Federal Health spending to pre-1995 levels. A helping hand will be needed to rejuvenate an aging system.

3. I somewhat disagree with immediate reduction of personal income taxes. I don't think we're in that dire of a strait at the moment, frankly.

4. I am neutral on business taxes. I wish to see them cut in certain ways to attract jobs, but I don't want to give my full support to willy-nilly tax-slashing. Tax reductions also must come hand in hand with corporate-welfare reductions.

5. I strongly support the decriminalisation (and taxation! ) of marijuana.

6. I somewhat support the missile defence system. I agree with NYE's position: this is not the battle to take to the Americans. This is not the real bogeyman.

7. I strongly wish to maintain federal gas taxes. The government can certainly use this revenue, and I'd like to see some of it put into public transit initiatives.

8. I strongly support the abolition of the gun registry.

9. I wish for the Canadian government to strongly oppose the American actions in Iraq, but to also aid in the reconstruction. Condemn the past, but work for the future.

10. I somewhat oppose having the federal government work with seperatists. The only reason I don't 'strongly' oppose it is because of the 'former seperatist' caveat... If they have reformed, why not let 'em into the circle?

11. I strongly support an increase in military spending. It is necessary for our sovereignty as well as for adequate peacekeeping and peacebuilding actions.

12. I am neutral concerning the Kyoto Accord. I support reduced emissions, but am not entirely convinced of the particulars of this treaty as of yet.

13. I strongly support same-sex marriage.

14. I strongly favour a woman's right to choose. Abortion is not a wonderful thing, but it is better than having the state hold dominion over a woman's body.

15. I strongly support an elected senate that will protect less populated regions from wanton disregard by the denser areas.

16. I am neutral on post-secondary fees... I feel too biased to call for lower fees, even though I do see the benefits. Perhaps maintain the current fees, but invest in more schoalrships for the deserving.

17. I am neutral on the election dates issue.

18. I am against new holidays. We have enough already!

19. I somewhat support the citizenship of the Khadrs. I don't think stripping them of it is the best way to go about things at this moment.

The End.

[notyoueither]

I think Martin is in the process of complete self-immolation. A Tory majority is not out of the question, and his continued wrapping of the flag around himself and 'Liberal' ideas (and corruption) is driving more people in the direction of Harper and Duceppe. Ironic, but that is the sin bin reaction in action when accompanied by gross misconduct.

My bet is the NDP will do better as well, if things keep going. Far from losing votes to Liberal safety, more will be driven (gagging) from the Liberal tent, back to where they should have been voting for the last 20 years.

That's my take. I'll do seat predictions after the debates and a few days to gauge reactions. However, I'm seeing a Liberal wipe-out (less than 60 seats) as being very possible.

[Ben Kenobi]

the BQ are just as "pacifist" as the NDP (if not more), so that can't be it...

Well, my response was moderate disagreement with the war on terror rather than strong disagreement.

[St Leo]

Contradictions revealed in poll
Voters show attachment to issues identified with Liberals

Yet disaffection driving them to Conservatives, survey shows


SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

Canadians appear to want a Liberal-style government led by Stephen Harper's Conservatives, according to a new Toronto Star poll.

This contradiction emerges when respondents to the EKOS Research Associates poll were probed more deeply this week about the issues behind the tight Liberal-Conservative race in the federal election campaign.

Though the Conservatives now have the lead and the momentum, with 34 per cent support against the Liberals' 30 per cent, the poll also shows significant voter attachment to issues closer to the platforms of Prime Minister Paul Martin and even the New Democratic Party.

"There is little sense that the country will be better under Harper-Conservative rule. In fact, most see the possibility of a Conservative government as weakening key areas of Canadian achievement," EKOS president Frank Graves says. "In essence, what we are seeing is disaffection with the Liberals overwhelming wariness of the Conservatives."

Almost two-thirds of the respondents to the EKOS poll, conducted for the Star and La Presse, believe that the Liberals will win the election and 69 per cent believe it will be a minority.

Only 16 per cent said the most important reason to vote on June 28 is to kick the Liberals out of office. Four times that number, 64 per cent, said the choice should be motivated by what's best for the country.

Yet 51 per cent of the respondents said the Liberals didn't deserve to be re-elected and 48 per cent said Martin didn't deserve the mandate he's seeking.

The preferred alliance in any future minority government is one between the Liberals and the New Democrats, with 26 per cent of respondents saying this would be best for the country. Next favourite is a Conservative-NDP government, with 20 per cent — an apparent indication that Canadians would like to see the New Democrats hold the balance of power no matter which party gets the most seats.

The poll was conducted through 2,117 telephone interviews with Canadians 18 years of age and older from Monday to Wednesday this week. Results are considered accurate within 2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Over-all, the poll showed that most respondents placed abundantly more faith in the Liberals to strengthen the social agenda. A full 46 per cent said Liberals would strengthen equal rights for same-sex couples, compared to 17 per cent who thought Conservatives would do the same. On women's rights and access to abortion, 43 per cent said Liberals would strengthen them, compared to 21 per cent for Conservatives.

Liberals were also trusted more to keep up the commitment to the Kyoto air-quality protocol, with 41 per cent saying it would be strengthened by Martin's team, compared to 21 per cent who placed their faith in Harper (who said this week that the Kyoto accord was effectively dead).

On specific issues being raised in the campaign, the poll respondents showed more Liberal-NDP leanings. On health care, for instance, 54 per cent support national health standards, while 42 per cent would leave those to the provinces.

On financing health care, a full 40 per cent preferred that this happen through tax or premium increases of some kind, and more Ontarians were offended by the recent budget's broken promises than the actual health-care premium increases. The Conservatives favour tax cuts, while Liberals and New Democrats have not ruled out Canadians paying more for health care.

Meanwhile, 54 per cent of Ontario respondents said the broken promises bothered them most about Premier Dalton McGuinty's recent budget, while only 24 per cent said they resented the money being taken out of their pocket.

Same-sex marriage, supported by the Liberals and especially the New Democrats, is also supported by 53 per cent of the poll respondents. Mandatory abortion counselling, one of the hot-button issues in the campaign after it was raised by a Conservative MP, is opposed by 56 per cent of the people surveyed.

Even on the issues on which Harper and the Conservatives claim as their own — trust, prudence and integrity — voters aren't embracing the front-runners with any enthusiasm.

"Surprisingly, Mr. Harper is not being viewed as the guy to clean house in Ottawa," Graves says. "Rather, he seems to be filling the vacuum caused by the air leaving Paul Martin's rapidly deflating balloon."

Joy. 21 percent of Canadians think that the Conservatives are sane enough to be pro-Kyoto. This bodes well.

[joncha]

Bill Tieleman (former NDP hack, current media pundit) on the problems with the Federal Election polls.

From the Georgia Straight.

POLLSTERS IPSOS CANADA seem intent on proving true former prime minister John Diefenbaker's statement that polls are for dogs to urinate on.

Take the June 1 Ipsos poll conducted for CTV and the Globe and Mail. Their widely reported news release said: "Jack Layton's recent campaigning has not proved fruitful for the NDP in British Columbia, as they have dropped 6 points to 14% decided voter support."

In an e-mail to the Straight, Ipsos president Darrell Bricker declined to give a regional breakdown of his results in B.C.

"It's a nation-wide sample of 1,000. It's proportionate to pop[ulation]. You can figure out the rest," he wrote.

But the detailed Ipsos tables on other questions showed the sample size was a mere 132 people in B.C. And the last regional Ipsos breakdown on May 22 used just 116 decided voters to determine party choice. (The company's quarterly B.C.Âpolitics polls regularly sample about 800 residents.)

That probably means a margin of error of about nine percent, larger than the alleged drop of six points in the polls! More damning is that just days later, on June 5, another Ipsos poll had the NDP jumping back up nine points, to 23 percent.

The sketchy sample size may be why Ipsos also absolutely bizarrely predicted on June 5 that the Green party could actually win two B.C. seats, which even Adriane Carr said would be "remarkable".

[Ben Kenobi]

Yep.

That's why it's dangerous to correlate provincially based on the size of these polls.

[Ben Kenobi]

Joy. 21 percent of Canadians think that the Conservatives are sane enough to be pro-Kyoto. This bodes well.

How many of that number even understand anything about Kyoto? That I would be curious to know.

[Tingkai]

Probably the same number as the anti-kyoto crowd.

[Tingkai]

Latest Ipsos-Reid saying that support for the NDP has increased to 27% in BC, up from 11% in the last election. Based on poll of 1,066 BCers.

Conservative support in BC down to 33% from the 56% support achieved by the old Alliance and PC parties in the last election.

It will be interesting to see how this is reported.

[KrazyHorse]

Where do you currently live, Tingkai?

[Tingkai]

HK. Planning on moving back to Toronto in the fall.

[KrazyHorse]

Did you vote? If so, what riding?

[Tingkai]

No, I can't vote because I'm no longer a resident of Canada.

This is one of many reasons why I want to move back. I feel detached from everything. I can't vote in Canada, can't vote here (and even if I could I don't know if I would feel comfortable getting involved in local politics).

I'm seriously thinking about trying to get a job with the NDP as a writer/editor when I move back.

[KrazyHorse]

You could have voted even if you are no longer a Canadian resident as long as you have visited Canada in the last 5 years and intend to reassert your Canadian residence iat some point in the future.

Voter eligibility criteria

Do not use the form if you are at your ordinary residence and wish to vote by special ballot. If this is the case, click here to get information on voting by special ballot in your own electoral district.

If you are a Canadian citizen (other than a member of the Canadian Forces) who will be 18 years of age on June 28, you may register to vote using the form provided here if:

your permanent residence is in Canada, but you expect to be outside your electoral district, either in Canada or elsewhere, on polling day and during the advance polls at an election; or

you have been residing outside Canada for less than five consecutive years since your last visit to Canada, and you intend to resume residence in Canada.

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=ele&document=eligible&dir=38e/svr&lang=e&textonly=false