Canada to fire starting gun for October general election

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

Campaigning for Canada’s federal election on 21 October will formally begin on Wednesday, as Justin Trudeau seeks a second parliamentary majority amid an increasingly divided electorate.

The prime minister will meet the governor general, Julie Payette, at 10am EST to officially request the dissolution of parliament and commence the country’s election, sending party leaders on the gruelling task of crisscrossing the vast country to pitch to voters.

“It’s going to be different from elections we’ve seen over the last couple of decades. There’s deep polarisation in the country,” said Frank Graves, president of the polling company EKOS Research. “On issues such as climate change, immigration and attitudes towards public institutions, the divisions have never been starker.”

The upcoming campaign will last nearly six weeks: half the length of the marathon campaign of 2015, when voters endured almost 80 days of mudslinging by political leaders – a brief dash compared to US elections, but a marathon for Canada.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/11/canada-general-election-campaign-start-trudeau

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Current polling has Liberals and Conservatives tied at 38%, with the New Democrats at 19%.

[knightmaar]

1. No question, a lot more hate than before.

I get a shit load of text messages and FB ads for right-wing dog-whistling racist groups.

"Trudeau is a traitor" "Trudeau is attacking the middle class" "Trudeau loves immigrants more than pensioners"

All of the RW American crap has come north.

[luvtheGWN]

2. It sure has.

Got its foot in the door with Rob Ford as Toronto mayor, and has gotten much worse with the Ontario and Alberta Conservatives.

[brooklynite]

3. Update: Canada's election is officially underway

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid a mid-morning visit with Governor General Julie Payette at Rideau Hall Wednesday to ask her dissolve Parliament and kick off the campaign for the Oct. 21 vote.

Trudeau emerges from his meeting just over 40 minutes later. Speaking to reporters, he began by remembering the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks 18 years ago.

And then the Liberal leader made his pitch for a second term, saying his government has put more money in the pockets of middle-class Canadians, strengthened the Canada Pension Plan, and renegotiated a trade deal with a “protectionist” United States.

The choice is to “keeping moving forward” or return to the politics of the “Harper years,” he said, referring to former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/09/11/canadas-election-is-officially-underway.html

[LiberalLovinLug]

4. No offense, but to my American brothers and sisters, look how short and simple it can be

No lead up. No one knows for sure when it will be called, other than it has to be called within a four year window. Then everyone scrambles and its all over in 6 weeks. Primaries for parties take a few weeks in the years before that if needed by the individual parties.

No year long mud slinging primaries. And it seems like the US is ALWAYS in campaign mode. Especially with Trump and his rallies. It just seems so unavoidably exhausting. Also no mid-terms here, just bi-elections when needed if someone resigns or dies. We have electoral peace for four years, nationally.

Here, its just an intense 6 weeks, with debates concentrated within that time. And then its done, and we can go back to complaining about the government again.

Its no wonder some reps in the US spend all their time campaigning and milking donors. But it must be hard to get anything done.

[EllieBC]

5. As an America living in Canada for 11 years, I agree

The US system is exhausting. Who needs what amounts to essentially 2 yeas of campaigns????

[brooklynite]

6. No, it's not that simple...

First of all, what was announced was a General Election. You could argue that our General Election doesn't start until next summer when the Conventions announce their candidates. What adds time to both is the selection process by the Parties. In the case of the US, we've decided that this is left up to voters rather than Party leadership. We've further decided that there's value in having candidates engage with voters one-to-one. If we simply had an 8-week national Primary campaign followed by a national vote, the edge would be give to well known candidates with the ability to raise huge amounts of money to pay for a national TV campaign. Lesser-know challengers wouldn't have a chance.

Additionally, there's the pesky matter of what constitutes "campaigning". Back in 2012, I was at the Democratic Convention and could easily see who the aspirants for 2016 were, because they were making speeches to the Iowa delegation meeting, or endorsing Governor and Senate candidates, or speaking at policy roundtable discussions. Which of those activities (all fully compliant with the First Amendment) would you propose to prohibit?

[LiberalLovinLug]

7. "What adds time to both is the selection process by the Parties"

Yes, and why?
Like you said, you already know 4 years in advance who will probably be fighting for the leadership, as we do. So you can keep tabs on them. You don't have to have an actual drag em out primary fight for a full year.

As far as the general, it doesn't really start next year in the US. Trump has been campaigning since his first day in office. And your media treats it that way too. People don't talk about who is best to lead the Democrats, its who would be the best performer in the next general. Which could be argued is the same thing, but not exactly. Because a candidate, or leader, can be decided years ahead of the general here. And here, leadership primaries, which only last a few weeks, are decided by party members, much like party delegates decide down there. One difference is that it is shorter because it is held at one place in the country, which changes. Delegates, or members, come to them, not the other way around. No country wide tour as part of a primary. Which takes time and money, but I can understand if that is important, to physically visit every State. Would be nice, but all of this adds up to a perpetual war. It doesn't bode well for bi-partisanship or compromise, even in the best of times.

And then to top it off, you do this again two years later federally, albeit with less at stake. There is no reprieve. Not to mention the massive cost it takes to run such long campaigns.

But we live in a Parliamentary democracy, such as the UK. So that affects a lot of things too. We need to decide on our candidates at least a good year or two before an actual election just to have a "leader of the opposition" to represent the individual parties during the rest of the time. Our "speaker" is largely symbolic, and meant to basically keep order in the House.

[knightmaar]

8. We have fixed election dates now

It's the third Saturday in October.

Yes, if there a minority gov't, it can come at other times if the government can't pass a budget, but minority gov'ts are pretty rare here.

Besides, I'm on Facebook often enough to see the Conservative mudslinging. It used to be I'd see a picture of Harper with a Hitler mustache once per year, but now I get "Trudeau is a Traitor" from every stupid "Canada Proud" "Canada Strong" group out there, sporting super edited video clips, various lies about the carbon tax and other shit-talking about refugees and how Trudeau loves them more than veterans.