Canada election debates

[aurora]

I mentioned on here some weeks ago that I would be in Canada for the election this fall, so I watching tonight's English-language debate.

My takeaways so far:

1. Trudeau looks older
2. Did the Bloc Quebecois leader really just say he had no interest in leading Canada? I understand from the internet that his party is pro Quebec independence, but...does that mean he wouldn't even consider leading the whole country? I don't understand how that works!

[aurora]

The French and English debate format also makes me wonder: are basically all of Canada's national-level leaders bilingual? It seems like you might almost need to be, even if it's not a formal requirement.

[aprilsails]

aurora they effectively do need to be bilingual to be taken seriously in Quebec. We’ve had some anglophone party leaders in the past and they don’t get the support in Quebec, which is really important to obtaining a majority.

And yes the Bloc Québécois is theoretically a single issue party and that single issue is Quebec independence. They don’t even run candidates in most of the country, so it is impossible for them to govern. Their goal is to take all the votes in Quebec away from the other parties and force a minority government which would then have to cooperate with them to pass policy, thereby getting more leverage for issues of interest to Quebec. There were referendums in 1980 and 1995 but nothing since. Only voters in Quebec voted, and the turnouts were insanely high, like over 90% of all voters participating.

[aurora]

Thanks, aprilsails! That definitely helps me understand the Bloc party and his answers.

[aurora]

I know there are a lot of important things going on but I'm definitely happy to hear so many questions related to climate change.

[chickadee77]

I haven't watched the debates yet, but was vaguely frustrated with how much airtime the PPC candidate got on CBC - I was like, "learn from the US; don't give the crazies airtime even if you're laughing at them "

ETA Assuming what I've read is accurate and these folks are similar to US right-wingers. I'm admittedly fairly new to Canadian politics.

[aprilsails]

aurora I’m mad at the Liberals and what happened with calling this election and that they walked away from implementing proportional representation during the last majority they had, so on the one hand I am quite frustrated with them.

However, the actual work they are putting in on climate change at the federal level is mind blowing. I’m an electrical engineering consultant and we have at least 4 major projects that would likely be dropped if the conservatives get in. These projects are intensive greening of federal properties in the National Capital Region, and will be used to develop policy and proof of concept that can then be passed to industry and commercial operations in the country through policies and through the National Building Code, etc. I will be utterly gutted if these projects are cancelled since it will be a massive setback.

[aurora]

chickadee77, there isn't a PPC candidate in this debate (Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat, Green, and Bloc Quebecois), but I can't speak to their air time overall.

[loira]

Agree with aprilsails, the Bloc is literally a federal separatist party (we also used to have a "Progressive Conservative party" - Canada is a country of contradictions lol).

As to the issue of bilingualism, yes Québec makes up a huge number of seats in the house of commons so it's necessary in that sense. Canada also has a number of other francophone regions and communities, including the Acadiens in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Franco-Manitobans and more. I personally would never, ever vote for a party whose leader could not speak both French and English. I grew up bilingual and it is a huge part of my identity. Fine if they aren't as perfectly fluent as Trudeau (Sr too) but if they're Anglo, they need to put in the effort (generally francophone candidates speak English because it is basically the pandemic of languages and is easily caught).

ETA: but I'm pretty sure most anglophones don't really care if their preferred party leader speaks French. I live in BC, where it sometimes seems like the motto is "keeping the 'British' in British Columbia". ☹️

[chickadee77]

Sept 9, 2021 21:02:15 GMT -5 aurora said:

chickadee77 , there isn't a PPC candidate in this debate (Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat, Green, and Bloc Quebecois), but I can't speak to their air time overall.

  I was talking about Maxime Bernier. Is he not an official candidate? Like I said I'm new to this - I know he wasn't invited to the debates and was cheesed off about it and seems to be talking a lot about "personal freedoms" when it comes to getting vaxxed, etc., which sets off warning bells to me. I might just be extra gun-shy, though, due to the nuts we have running around down here.

[aurora]

Sept 10, 2021 7:25:13 GMT -5 chickadee77 said:

Sept 9, 2021 21:02:15 GMT -5 aurora said:

chickadee77 , there isn't a PPC candidate in this debate (Liberal, Conservative, New Democrat, Green, and Bloc Quebecois), but I can't speak to their air time overall.

  I was talking about Maxime Bernier. Is he not an official candidate? Like I said I'm new to this - I know he wasn't invited to the debates and was cheesed off about it and seems to be talking a lot about "personal freedoms" when it comes to getting vaxxed, etc., which sets off warning bells to me. I might just be extra gun-shy, though, due to the nuts we have running around down here.

I don't pretend to be there expert here at all, but when I was reading news about the debate last night I saw some criticism about how the media* got to decide who had a large platform by participating at the debates. Reading between the lines, I think that someone can be an official candidate but not be at the "leaders debate." It's maybe not all that different from deciding who gets to participate in which primary debate in the U.S. when there are 20 candidates early on.

*I don't actually know how much of this decision is "the media," but that's what one article said

[loira]

aurora and chickadee77 yes, there are often party leaders who are not featured in the debates. This was problematic for the Green Party a few years ago - Elizabeth May, their former leader, wasn't invited to participate. And while the greens didn't hold many sitting MPs, May has always been a very vocal participant in parliament.