Really

I was agreeing with Your argument about the inappropriateness of bringing up the "Boat People". Then I rolled My Eyes when You made the comment about "Them not being Scandinavian looking". I find that this is just playing the Race card. Would We have open Borders if Everyone looked the same? Its hard to say.

Who Will Win This Election And Will People Get Out And Vote?

Polls change daily and so does the people's perception of government. Harper it seems is counting on a low voter turnout and this time around I think he is in for a surprise, of course that will be proven on election day but the mood of the electorate is shifting and more and people and paying attention. Perhaps Mr Harper will not get a majority and another party will win. Who knows?. The only real way to know is to cast your ballot on May 2/11. I know that I'll be watching the debate and I've already read over various party platforms and from what I see Iggy has my vote, although I like Jack Layton's plan I like the idea of students getting funding for good grades and I especially like the re-balancing of our dysfunctional government. I am not stating that Iggy and Co are perfect and that the Libs can save or change everything but I think they can lead our country in a way that is balanced for all Canadians not just a select few. The two things that the Cons are ignoring in my view are the enviroment and poverty, there is no mention of these issues in their platform with one exception a 300 million dollar increase to seniors OAS and the GIC, which is a drop in the bucket for low income seniors. More promises for years down the road in my view is the wrong approach to secure my vote. Get and vote and express your distaste for this system so change in Ottawa can begin.

Laziness? I Don't Think So...

"What's to predict about his election?
Same old -- same old!" Alive.

Agree but disagree. It has little to do with the laziness of "the people" and more to do with the absence of "real choice" as creates the interest and excitement of "real change" in society that is, frankly, just about a complete mess.

What we have is the One Big Party of Capitalism, with four competing factions as passes for our "bourgeois democracy." Missing from the essential mix of a class divided society, decimated by the anti-Left pogroms of the postwar "prosperity period", is a "Serious Left". Without which there is no real challenge to capitalism and its endless growth driven "greed imperatives". Who else is going to be prepared to talk about extending the principles of "worker and community control" democracy finally, into the economy, ending a privileged ruling class power there? Hence no interest and excitement around a possibility for "serious change". There is only the great boring AND dangerous homogeneous and fundamentally agreed "sucking sound" of the current party factions lot... with its entirely predictable outcome, no matter which "faction" wins. Same old shit.

Personally, I'm voting a write-in "None of The Above" this time around. This bullshit excuse for democracy has to end somewhere sometime. The sooner the better.

The serious left

They are contesting this election just as they have previously. But their vote totals demonstrate there's not much support out there for parties to the Left of the NDP.

In 2008 :

the Marxists got 8,565 votes.
the Communists got 3,572 votes
the People's Political Power got 186

the Canada Action Party (formed by a Liberal, maybe not that left-wing) got 3,455

They need more people to vote for them if they are to have any political power.

The obvious answer

The Conservatives (as with the Liberals) have done and continue to do exhaustive polling. That polling has significant influence on which issues the parties choose to focus on and which they downplay. Their is no confusion here, Bill. These positions on issues are ones that polling indicates will deliver the Conservatives a majority. I understand that you do not agree with their positions on these issues but you are smarter and more politically experienced than to not see this obvious answer to your own question. And in case you doubt this talk to swing voters outside of urban ridings and you will learn that these are popular positions with that key voter segment.

Serious and Serious Lefts...

Ohhh, I know the work that has to be done as well, nay better than you even on this score, Frank. Which includes a not insignificant element of the "serious Left" that is actually still wasting its time on the NDP, still chasing that pipe-dream.

The truth still stands that UNTIL there is a "serious Left" finally created, that comes together prepared to challenge capitalism and its ideological assumptions, and all the factional elements to the One Big Party of Capitalism, which includes the NDP, what passes for democracy here is a waster of friggin' time. If you are voting NDP in the hopes of some meaningful change to the status quo paradigm, of endless growth and planetary destruction, and soul destroying "classism", you might as well have your wang out an open window seeking satisfaction. Ain't gonna happen. The NDP is less capable ideologically and programmatically now, than it was nearly a hundred years ago. Now, it's totally Sold Out!

And like I say, regardless of what the stats are or are not, until there finally is a rebirth of a serious Left in this country, shaped of its own national reality, ideas and not already failed, ancient revolutions and ideological notions, what is, is what you get. No wonder there is a great sense of the futility of it all, around these so-called elections of bourgeois democracy. It'd be a wonder if there wasn't this dead zone sense of expectations.

coyote

"The truth still stands that UNTIL there is a "serious Left" finally created"

But it already exists. There's no reason to say "until" because that would be like me saying "until a social-democratic party exists..." when there already is one.

As far as I know, the Marxists and Communists do challenge capitalism. The options is there for those that want to change the system utterly.

The problem in Canada isn't lack of choice, its the electoral system itself which produces results that don't reflect the ratio of votes cast for each party.

And its the parliamentary system which allows the majority party to rule as if it had 100% of the votes.

sadly it resonates

Unfortunately, in the fairly recently arrived immigrant communities with which I interact, this type of xenophobic and racist message does resonate and that, for me is very worrisome. The thought generally follows that if I waited in line (or bought my place in line in the case of business class immigrants) and I'm waiting for family,then the people arriving are just jumping the line entirely. The concept of refugee is not one that seems to be the least bit understood or if it is, there is no sympathy whatsoever. I hope that the people with whom I interact are not a representative sample but the number is quite large and the views are consistent enough for me to be concerned.

On the topic of religion, there are several postings by mainstream churches that emphasize, without directing votes toward any particular party, questioning candidates on their views on a range of issues. These appear to be very far from the conservative's social conservative stance
http://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/2011_Federal_Election_Guide.pdf

Joyce Murray

Don't forget that Murray, as Gordo's "WLAP" minister, signed of on the culling of Golden eagles, which were being scapegoated as responsible for the logging-caused extinction of the Vancouver Island marmot. (wild-born VI marmots are now extinct -the species only persists on account of lab-generated animals) I guess she's trying to burn off some of the massive karma she acquired during her stint as Gordo's Greenwasher specialist, by campaigning for a legislated tanker moratorium off the BC coast, -oh, and except for the projected half-million barrels/day of tar-sands dirty-oil to be exported via Port of Vancouver...

Social Democracy = Capitalism As Usual I

"But it already exists. There's no reason to say "until" because that would be like me saying "until a social-democratic party exists..." when there already is one." Frank.

But one of many issues we differ on, from quite different perspectives, Frank.

Indeed, other Left parties do exist, within this atmosphere of lingering "system generated" hostility toward the Left... from which the NDP itself still suffers some itself, even though it is really just another faction by now, of the One Big Party of Capitalism. Which is regrettable for all of us... even what passes for the Left on the Right of Canadian politics. :-) (Part of that different perspective of which I speak, Frank.)

That said, as much as I respect ALL these other parties on the Left, as I respect NDPers on the Right, despite my differences with them, my point remains: That politics in this country remains stuck in the current "dead zone" it is in UNTIL a Left model is created untainted by old failed revolutions from another time and reality, AND the social climate exists of greater receptiveness to new ideas and willingness to actually challenge capitalism. There is a growing scepticism with the status quo, to be sure, but this must mature and evolve into this, immediately above.

There could be a hundred or more parties on the "serious and transformative" Left of which I speak, and the reality truth would remain the same. This Left has been decimated by past pogroms of persecution and broad working class abandonment over the Prosperity Time.or the Social Democratic State period, I concede. And their own shortcomings and failings of vision, in my view. But a transformative or revolutionary left, in this particular context, in my view, is still increasingly and desperately needed. The NDP, sold out and by now fully integrated into capitalism as it is, will not do what only this new, reborn Left must, in my view.

But which, I again concede, will not begin to happen until there is even yet quite a different social climate than now exists... of a greater casting about for new ideas, prepared to challenge status quo capitalism.

continued next post...

Social Democracy = Capitalism As Usual II

From previous post...

Until then, there is really only the One Big Party of Capitalism, of which the NDP is its "tepid left" faction, moving more and more right. (Which again, in my view, is part of what is needed and "seen to be happening", as part of the reconfiguration of politics that needs to happen in this country, creating this "new social/political climate" of which I speak. (Actually, already underway in these shifting alliances and political positions going on, on the Right... which includes especially yourselves.)

For now, there remains only this Dead Zone of the status quo, mutually supported by all the so-called "parties", who are actually lined up behind neo-liberal economics and cyclical crises, commitment to the endless growth paradigm of capitalism that is destroying the planet, an absence of real diversity of ideas in what passes for democracy, and a drift toward global war.

New polls

Ontario :
Nanos has it as a 5% lead for the Cons over the Libs. That's the same as Leger said a few days ago. Harris-Decima has it as a 9% lead for the Cons. Angus-Reid today says the Con lead is 8%. The latest Ekos poll on the other hand says the Con lead has narrowed to 3.5%

For Quebec Angus Reid says the NDP is now second only to the Bloc. The new Ekos says its the Libs who are now in 2nd place by a wide margin. Leger says the Libs and Cons are tied for 2nd. Harris-Decima and Nanos says its Cons-Libs-NDP.

In BC
Ekos :
Cons 35
Libs 27
NDP 17.5
Grn 16

Harris-Decima
Cons 34
NDP 28
Libs 23
Grnb 13

Nanos
Cons 39.3
Libs 29.6
NDP 24.7
Grn 5

Leger
Cons 40
NDP 28
Libs 19
Grn 5

When did BC ever have any influence on a federal election?

Those polls mean nothing.Try the polls for Atlantic Canada to the Manitoba/Ontario border.

"Why is Harper's team taking unnecessary risks bashing the environment and refugees?"

Maybe it's because we realized that the "environmental lobby" is really all about costing SOME OF US a load of money in taxes and environmental levies, while others are exempt? Maybe it's because after such a long, cold winter, "Global Warming" is a little hard to accept?
Maybe it's because we open our eyes and see what a filthy city Vancouver has become since the mass of immigration in the '80s ?

Maybe it's because most people are recognizing "minority pandering" by political parties for what it really is, just reverse-racism and developing special interest support ?

Well said: " The Dead Zone of the Status Quo"

I have this small and perhaps foolish hope that the NDP will hopefully (soon) find the wisdom in the old adage "To thine own self be true" and become courageous enough to stand strong in that belief instead of continually retreating and forfeiting such hard fought for ground.

But for all that small hope of mine, I think you eloquently nail it here, Jerry....and describe the true reality of these times.

It cannot be said better:

"For now, there remains only this Dead Zone of the status quo, mutually supported by all the so-called "parties", who are actually lined up behind neo-liberal economics and cyclical crises, commitment to the endless growth paradigm of capitalism that is destroying the planet, an absence of real diversity of ideas in what passes for democracy, and a drift toward global war."