The LuLac Edition #3035, September 29th, 2015

OH CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE “OTHER” ELECTION

October 19th, 2015 is a significant election date. Not a debate or a blasted caucus but an honest to God election. It is not in America though but rather a big race to our neighbors in the North, Canada.
Currently ads are running on all the radio stations. The Liberal Candidate Justin Trudeau is sounding a Bernie Sanders type note on income inequality. Incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper is saying his government has been a steady engineer of growth. Meanwhile, Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic party hopes to expand the growth of his organization poetically. In the last Federal Election, the New Democratic Party bypassed the Liberals by winning so many seats in the Canadian House of Commons that it put them in the position of being the Opposition party for the first time in its history.
Mulcair became the beneficiary of the hard work of Jack Layton who stepped down after the election and passed away of cancer in 2012.
This election, unlike the Presidential races here are not about one person’s pull or charisma. Rather it is a contest to see who will get the most seats in Parliament. The last election had 308 seats but this new election has an increase to 338 because of the Fair representation Act.
There were and will be a number of debates with the three leaders. The next two are set for October. The topics covered were the Economy, General topics, and Foreign Policy. There has been a few dust ups especially between Mr. Harper and Mr. Trudeau.
It is only a fairly short campaign but the top money raiser has been The Conservative Party with 7.5 million, NDP at about 4.5 million and the Liberals with about 4 million. There are individual donors but there are limits of $1500.00 per person as well as to an organization. The Koch brothers money in the Provinces would be limited.
Get this, I mean this would kill me. There are 11 Third parties registered in this election.
Other than the top three I had mentioned, there are the Marxists-Leninists, the Greens, the Libertarians, the Independents, the Marijuana party, the Quebec Separatist party, the Christian Heritage party, the Communist party which is NOT to be confused with the Marxist Leninist people as well as the Pirate party.
The slogans of the top three parties are as follows:
Conservative, Harper’s party: “Proven leadership for a strong Canada”.
"Safer Canada/Stronger Economy”
The New Democratic Party: Mulcair’s party: “Ready For Change” and no to be outdone,
The Liberals, Trudeau’s party, “Real change”.
What is happening now: From CBC News: The CBC Poll Tracker now shows the widest gap between first and third place since Sept. 8, as the Conservatives move ahead with 32 per cent and the New Democrats fall back to 27.6 per cent. These numbers represent the highest and lowest polling averages for these two parties, respectively, since May. The Liberals, in second place, are holding steady at 30.4 per cent.
We’ll be following this and have a report after the results are in. It’s a long way from LuLac but since I have relatives in Canada, it has been of interest to me. Hope you will be too.
Sources: Zoomer Magazine, Toronto Magazine, Wikipedia. LuLac.
Here is a sampling of some of the videos making the rounds to the North. But before you see these, one final note. I asked a co worker of mine who was born in Quebec and still has family there if any of his people were getting excited about their election. He said, “No, the politics in the U.S. is far more crazy and entertaining”.