Canadian Politics

I mean, a lot of areas who had their traditional fishing/manufacturing/coal mining/farming sectors gutted by globalization and automation are turning to high-tech fields and tourism. Building up service economies designed to serve an influx of retired baby boomers is also a route a lot of smaller communities (at least those with nice facilities and locales) are taking.

Essentially, the trend seems to be towards smaller, more specialized industries. Which also requires a lot of retraining, advanced education and possibly relocation.

About Alberta: I've heard some talk about certain prairie plants being good for biofuels, but I'm not really sure how feasible it is on a large scale. Probably not very.

Biofuels aren't viable, because photosynthesis is so inefficient - you would get more fuel. and not a little more fuel - we're talking something like 10, 15 times as much fuel - from paving a given acreage over with solar cells and running ammonia synthesis with the power. And in turn, this isn't viable in canada, because if the world starts doing this, they'll do it in the equatorial deserts where solar influx is abundant. Shipping is, after all, to a first approximation, free.

Looks like the battle for the Conservative party's soul is in full swing.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-leadership-raitt-oleary-leitch-1.3921244

Last thing the world needed right now.

Yes, UN General Assembly? we'd like to claim one "Leader of the Free World" title for the Argentine Presidency, seeing as nobody else can fulfill the position right now.

I mean, current opinion polling suggests that the Tories shifting rightward would only cement Trudeau's advantage among centrist voters who dominate the country. But a lot can happen between now and 2019, especially with a lunatic at the helm of our largest trading partner and protectionism on the rise there.

So I'd really prefer that all three parties stay where they are on the political spectrum. Though the risk of the NDP becoming extreme is pretty minimal, and it would probably kill the party.

Oh, that's better.

You know, you say it'll work out, and then you wake up and find your country has elected a populist, anti-intellectual jackass, rather than choosing the experienced candidate.

As an American, I really, really hope you're right.

I am mindful of the risks of populist assholes coming to power, we've got a handful trying to take over the Tories.

I think the biggest risk is having trade talks with Trump breakdown, and Trudeau losing to a radicalized Conservative party due to economic downturns. I almost wonder if the American government (or their Russian liege....) would do that intentionally to get a friendly government in Ottawa...

edited 4th Jan '17 6:14:24 PM by Rationalinsanity

Mhm. It doesn't feel, to me, like Trumpism currently has the potential to take hold in any province other than Alberta, but them taking over Alberta would mean the Conservative's sanity is insecure, and that would be scary as hell because they're going to win another election eventually.

So we're not in immediate danger, but it is worth worrying about how long the status quo will last. One hopes the mainstream Tories will triumph over their fringe, because that would be the simplest way of averting what happened to the US.

edited 4th Jan '17 6:18:21 PM by Gilphon

Ugh, maybe. I hope Trump's handlers are dumb enough to view Canada as America's hat and nothing more.

The thing with Russia though? Canada has no real incentive to be friendly. We still have the arctic border dispute going on and we compete heavily with Russia in production of raw materials, especially since a lot of the rare earth metals both countries produce are way easier to get to in Canada.

Long story short, there aren't really a whole lot of avenues the Russians can use. Now, if China was trying to interfere, I could see that happening.

And Beijing has no reason to destabilize us, we are investing heavily in an economic relationship with them and they might see us as a backup place to invest if the US goes tits up or starts a trade war.

And while it is probably resistant to Trumpism, there are some really scary European style far-right/neo-Nazi groups popping up in Quebec. CBC did a series on them, they are still on the far fringes but they are on the rise. And Quebec was the cradle of Fascism (though it died stillborn) in Canada before WW 2...

edited 4th Jan '17 8:45:53 PM by Rationalinsanity

So, we've spoken about how the alt-right might be spreading up here from the US, particularly into Alberta but also into other provinces like Ontario. But in Quebec there is an even more worrisome trend, the rise of far-right, neo-Nazi groups in the European mold. While still considered political lepers by the establishment and the majority of the general population, their numbers are swelling and they are gradually becoming more "respectable" in public (where before they'd be relegated to the internet and basements.)

CBC has done a series of articles covering the various groups, of which there is significant membership overlap and communication between them.

Part 1) Deals with La Meute (the Wolfpack), a relatively moderate (in relation to the rest of the far-right) group that's grown rapidly in the last few years. Their biggest issue is Islamophobia, and they are attempting to establish an acceptable image politics (think the move the French Front National did over the last few years), they reject Trump style rhetoric for this reason. They have no ambitions to be a political party, and seek instead to become involved in lobbying their cause at the local level.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-far-right-la-meute-1.3876225

Part 2 Deals with a direct import from Europe, the Soldiers of Odin. Originally from Northern Europe, these guys take a more militant approach. They tend to patrol through areas with a significant immigrant/Muslim presence. They've spread throughout Canada, but are growing particularly strong in Quebec. Internal splits have occurred over the issue of toning down on the racism to attract more members. Other far-right groups, including explicitly neo-Nazi ones (see below), often use these guys as "security" (re: thugs) for rallies. They also want to unite the far-right, but their tactics (which have included marching downtown and near political buildings) have alienated them from other groups, including their "parents" back in Finland.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-far-right-soldiers-of-odin-1.3896175

3) Finally, we have the most extreme of the bunch, the openly fascist and racist (Francophones only) groups such as Atalante and Fédération des Québécois de Souche (FQS). These guys are essentially a mix of European fascism and American style white nationalism. Whereas the other groups use dogwhistles about religious fundamentalism and Canadian/Quebec values (sound familiar?), these guys want everyone who isn't "French" out of Quebec, and have established links with other nationalist movements in the US and Europe. The rest of the far-right claims to maintain some distance with them, but there is plenty of overlap.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/inside-quebec-far-right-alt-right-1.3919964

For fuck's sake.

Why are so many neo-Nazis Odinic? You'd think all they knew about Old Norse culture was metal albums and Skyrim playthroughs.

Because the actual Nazis held up the Scandinavians as the Aryan ideal, and even got some ideas from them. That thing about genetic superiority? That came from Scandinavia, Norway specifically, I believe. The difference was that the Scandinavians had a sort of Noblesse Oblige viewpoint, which was basically "We are superior, therefore we have a duty to care for the inferior peoples." Really condescending and annoying, but well-meaning.

The thing though? When the Nazis got going, the Scandinavians, especially the people who came up with the genetic superiority thing, were horrified. It's a big part of the reason why the Scandinavian nations tried to stay out of WWII as much as possible, and when they didn't have a choice, they proved to be incredibly useless to the Nazi war effort because of the endless beauracracy they threw at everything.

You can see the Scandinavian approach to the superiority thing in how Denmark reacted to the Nazi invasion. They gathered up all the Jews, and sent them to Sweden because it didn't matter about genetic superiority or inferiority, no one deserved to die like that.

The Danes were certainly much better with the Jews than Canada was. Our head of immigration at the time was a monster.

edited 9th Jan '17 8:48:01 AM by Zendervai

While it's true that there were eugenicist movements in Norway at that time (experimenting primarily on the Saami ethnic groups), it's worth noting that eugenics and racial superiority movements were everywhere in the early 20th century. The magnitude of the Holocaust is part of what caused an immediate reaction against it in the postwar world.

Also, besides the saving of 7.000 Jews, the Danish Red Cross also operated a hospital in a German death camp in then-Czechoslovakia whose name escapes me. And they treated non-Danish Jews as well.

That's not to diminish the crimes of the Scandinavian nations in that regard - Sweden had a racial supremacy institute as well that even persisted into the postwar years - more to contextualize the fact that everyone had racial hierarchies in the 20th century. Part of the reason the fighting in the Pacific was so vicious was because of these racial undertones.

edited 9th Jan '17 12:14:21 PM by math792d

The Atalante guys also got come coverage in La Presse (One of Quebec's biggest francophone paper) who noted their rise as worrysome. They are based in Quebec city (which tends to be more Right-wing than Montreal) and it's mentioned that they have drawn the attention of the Quebec City Police.

edited 9th Jan '17 1:24:56 PM by Ghilz

What about Justin...?

Looks like he's shuffling the Cabinet tomorrow.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-cabinet-shuffle-1.3927947

Of note is that Democratic Reform Minister is being moved out of the portfolio, where she is going afterwards is unknown. Stephane Dion is moving out of Global Affairs (probably because they want someone tougher to deal with the new maniacs running the US), but I'd be very surprised if he was phased out of Cabinet entirely. He's a decent manager and a big voice in the party.

All righty, we've got the details of the Cabinet shuffle and its more of a dozy than I thought it would be.

For starters, both Stéphane Dion (Global Affairs) and John Mc Callum (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship) are leaving politics to take up diplomatic positions.

Chrystia Freeland (International Trade) is taking Dion's position, probably because she proved her mettle in Europe and our largest trading partner/core ally is showing signs of violent dementia.

Other changes include:

• François-Philippe Champagne will become minister of International Trade
• Patty Hajdu will move from Status of Women to Labour
• Maryam Monsef will transfer from Democratic Institutions to Status of Women (I suspect this one might be a case of minor scapegoating, given the reaction to the election reform survey. Putting someone so young into such an active file was probably a mistake)
• Karina Gould will be named minister of Democratic Institutions
• Ahmed Hussen become minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Apart from those who are leaving politics, it looks like no one is heading to the backbenches.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-government-cabinet-shuffle-2017-1.3928723

Mary Ann Mihychuk (Labour) is going back to the Backbench actually, since she's being replaced by Patty Hadju.

On the bright side, the cabinet is maintaining parity between men and women.

edited 10th Jan '17 10:31:46 AM by Ghilz

Adding:

It seems like Stephane Dion is going to turn down the Ambassador position and retire.

Not a huge surprise, he's been in politics a long time.

Was reading an interesting article about the Conservative race and how Quebec's getting a disproportionate vote. Despite 10% of their members only being in the province, the conservative party has a rule that every riding got equal weight in deciding the conservative chief (the vote is based on ridding, not absolute number of votes in the party, this was decided during the Conservative / Canadian Alliance merger to avoid the Alliance parts of the party taking over). Since Quebec has the second largest number of ridding, those 10% of members get an insane amount of pull on who gets to be the next Conservative leader. Which may be bad for all those running who can't speak French.