Thought this should be separated out from the Canada > US thread as it clutters up that latter thread and is worthy of a separate thread.
This is the most important federal election for Canadian voters in recent history. Canada is in a trade war with the US and the leader of the current Conservative Party leader is a light version of Donald Trump. The outcome of the election will greatly affect the direction of the reset of Canada’s relationship with the US as well as with the rest of the world.
It’s looking like a strong majority for the liberals, led by Carney.
That’s imo good, because a majority means they can push stuff through that’s unpopular. A mixed blessing for sure, but I think it’s a good tool to have.
And, imo Carney is the smartest pm we’ve had…ever. and he knows economics. Which is exactly what is needed right now, because economics is our pending problem. So take a smart economist and give them authority to do stuff. Maybe I’ll regret that opinion later.
Carney has made one misstep so far. Canada had a mass murder with guns decades ago, and there’s people using that tragedy to drive gun laws today. And Carney did make some noises along those lines. That’s hugely unpopular with gun owners, and none of the stuff they’re pushing is based on reason - it’s all reactionary. He should just not talk about it right now.
I am also supporting the Liberals this time with the hope that they win a clear majority. Although some past minority governments have been very productive, it is critical that whatever party wins this election does so with a majority. Such a government will have a united and stronger front against Trump.
The other candidates certainly piled onto Carney which was not surprising given his lead. I thought Poilievre did well at the debate. Will be interesting to see if that moves the poll numbers in his favour. Will probably vote at the advance poll today as I expect the polling booths will be very busy on Election Day.
We were planning on voting today. Currently it’s a 45 minute wait, so maybe not.
I’ve confirmed that everyone in my family will vote for sure. We have close family friends who are lgbtq and I perceived the conservative party to be anti lgbtq this time, so extra important for us.
This is not generally the case. Around here even lgbtq often vote conservative, because there’s no agenda in that respect. This election is different that way, the party has been hijacked by socons.
Both my parents are working the election. My impression is part of the issue is almost everyone working the election is retired or otherwise unemployed. I suspect there’s a combination of computer illiteracy, stubbornness, incompetence, and disorganization at play.
My mom is working with an 18-year old deputy returning officer who was off a ballot in their count of ballots cast. They’d spent hours trying to figure out what happened. My mom found the mistake in 5 minutes.
There were inefficiencies in the ballot process that could have greatly reduced my wait. You didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to identify them but just have some common sense. Probably too rigid a process to change before this election is completed but stuff that can hopefully be changed for the next one.
The polling station folks attributed the waits just to the large number of voters. Partially true but when only one of the six queues is lined up, there is another factor in play.
I think the heavy voting means the Conservative voters desperately want to see a change in the party in power and the other parties’ supporters are equally fearful of Poilievre becoming PM. The party that gets its supporters out best will win.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the candidates took a break from campaigning on Easter Sunday to avoid offending anyone sensitive about that. Canadian politicians don’t advertise their religion so I don’t expect to see photos of them at church though.