Canadian Politics II: The Polite War

[kairparavel]

Rob Ford's only 45? Jesus Christ. I thought he was in his 50's.

At any rate, liposarcoma - malignant fatty tissue tumour. Ugh.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rob-ford-to-undergo-chemotherapy-for-treatment-of-liposarcoma-1.2768498

[Fragile Bird]

The article says it's rare, and I went to Wikipedia to see what they said about it. 2.5 cases per million people will be diagnosed with it. At least the good news is that it's a kind of cancer that rarely metastasizes.

Oh, and yes, he's a relatively young man. He does not take care of himself, and looks worse for wear because of that. I mean, drugs, booze and way too much lousy food.

[maarsen]

Another problem is that he does not tend to listen to anyone telling him what to do,even if they know what is good for him. He is his own worst enemy.

[Fragile Bird]

Wow - poor New Brunswick. They have an election on tonight and their voting tabulation machines are not working properly. As far as I can tell, every riding in the province is missing at least one poll, the special votes poll, being the advance poll. In many ridings the advance poll determined the winner in the last election. These are brand new, very expensive, machines that people wondered why a province with a huge deficit would buy. On a positive note, I gather there are paper votes that the machines were supposed to tabulate, and they may need to hand count them.

On the bright side of things, the Green Party has apparently made a big break-through, electing only the second provincial legislative member in Canada, the first one having been elected in BC.

[Angalin]

New Brunswick: creating jobs for election workers since 2014. Unless they're all volunteers, in which case too bad.

I dropped in on the UK politics thread and it's like a retread of Canada vs Quebec in there. Have fun with your constitutional squabbles, ancestral lands! I admit that I breathed a sigh of relief when the referendum went No, for the simple reason that our own separatists would have made hay, hay and more hay of a Yes. Scotland, I wish you well, but I cannot take another thirty years of will we/won't we between Quebec and the RoC.

[kairparavel]

I believe the separatist movement is dying off in Quebec, literally. While there may be a few youthful exuberant types who want a Quebec libre, the old guard have passed on in the past 15 years and after the last provincial election it seems clear voters have other issues more important to them.

[Angalin]

That makes sense, kair. The Quiet Revolution is a long time ago pour les jeunes.

[Shryke]

The separatists still see support in the youngins, as you kind of expect as any political but especially more revolutionary ones tend to attract young supporters.

The general feeling I get though is that they don't feel as strongly about the issue and don't stick with it in the kind of numbers they did before.

Just generally the Quebecois seem to think there's more important shit going on.

[Lord of Oop North]

Just generally the Quebecois seem to think there's more important shit going on.

Exactly. I know that my relatives (from Montreal) feel that Quebec has all the independence over it`s own affairs that it really needs (provincial taxes, health care, transportation, health care, etc.), and the stuff that actual independence would bring (ie. control over foreign policy, immigration, defense) aren`t worth the cost or effort.

[Chaircat Meow]

How extensive are the powers possessed by Quebec within Canada. Does they control most tax policy for instance?

[Angalin]

How extensive are the powers possessed by Quebec within Canada. Does they control most tax policy for instance?

Like all provinces, Quebec has the ability to tax its residents both on income and with a sales tax, plus any other fees and levies it can come up with. Provincial governments are also responsible for managing education, health care, provincial-level infrastructure. I forget what else. The federal government collects income tax, sales tax, user fees, levies, blah blah; manages immigration, defence, international trade, foreign policy; transfers equalization payments between provinces; coughs up money directly to the provinces to help cover their regional expenses. That's off the top of my head.

Three levels of government in Canada: municipal (urban or rural), provincial, federal. All of them tax, all of them spend. Municipalities are responsible for most of the day-to-day business that citizens are exposed to, such as garbage collection, road maintenance, public transportation, sewers, water, etc. etc., and have the smallest revenues.

[Shryke]

Yeah, Quebec is just a dick about tax policy and forces us to file a separate return for provincial taxes because they are Quebec and that's the kind of dickery the province runs on.

[Chaircat Meow]

Like all provinces, Quebec has the ability to tax its residents both on income and with a sales tax, plus any other fees and levies it can come up with. Provincial governments are also responsible for managing education, health care, provincial-level infrastructure. I forget what else. The federal government collects income tax, sales tax, user fees, levies, blah blah; manages immigration, defence, international trade, foreign policy; transfers equalization payments between provinces; coughs up money directly to the provinces to help cover their regional expenses. That's off the top of my head.

Three levels of government in Canada: municipal (urban or rural), provincial, federal. All of them tax, all of them spend. Municipalities are responsible for most of the day-to-day business that citizens are exposed to, such as garbage collection, road maintenance, public transportation, sewers, water, etc. etc., and have the smallest revenues.

Okay thanks. I was just wondering how it compared to the situation in the UK/Scotland. In Scotland the Parliament has very very limited tax and spend powers (almost nothing), and all of the money it spends comes from a block grant from London. Apparently we are lined up for tax powers given the no vote, so that should make the Parliament equivalent to the body in charge of a Canadian province I suppose.

[Angalin]

When comparing federation vs. union, I remind myself that a big difference is that here the population is scattered over a very large area, while in the UK the population is ~2x as big and crammed into a much, much smaller space. It might be easier to administer the small space than the large, but more work to meet the needs of the larger population.

[Aemon Stark]

It might be easier, but the UK has historically been far more centralized than a lot of other similar-sized countries. Germany has an even bigger population in a comparable area, yet has managed a stable federal system over 65 years.

[Fragile Bird]

I keep marking Follow this Topic, and it keeps eliminating me from it.

Must be an American plot.... :p

[Ser Reptitious]

This has to be a new low in Question Period

[snake]

This has to be a new low in Question Period

That is totally disgusting. I cannot believe the speaker did not do their job here.

[Fragile Bird]

The speaker is a Conservative. In the past, the speakers usually managed to maintain neutrality, but we are talking about the Harper government here.

[maarsen]

I have heard Mulcair talk before. He was very funny and very incisive. I kept waiting for him to let go. Restraint is so hard sometimes when faced with idiots.