Yesterday the “Mound of Sound” ranted about how Thomas Mulcair was a traitor for not backing the Liberals in the Quebec election. I pointed out how this absurd and baseless smear is exactly the kind of nonsense the Cons resort to (like them calling Jack Layton “Taliban Jack” for opposing Canada's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.)
Today he went off on a tangent about how his daddy fought in WW2, therefore we should all vote Liberal. Ok… My guess is that he has gone off his medication or something. It's painfully obvious he not making the slightest lick of sense.
He called me a “Dipper” for coming to Mulcair's defense. (And I guess that makes me an enemy of Canada as well…)
But the fact is I supported Ignatieff in 2011. I voted for Trudeau as Liberal leader. When he became leader, I signed up as a member of the Liberal party.
Buy now I'm having serious second thoughts. Trudeau has ruled out reversing any of Harper's $44-billion/yr in “starve the beast” tax cuts. There isn't a bitumen pipeline he isn't hot and heavy for. He ditched his commitment to ranked ballot voting reform. So what in the hell am I supporting, exactly?
In the next federal election (2015) people should stick to their values and principles. Their vote should be policy-dependent. Because that is the kind of government they are going to wind up with. If you want to pretend otherwise, that's fine too. But you will probably be better off not having your emotions manipulated by blind partisans of any stripe.
I think it's time to wind down this drama and return to a rational debate about policy and issues.
" There isn't a bitumen pipeline he isn't hot and heavy for. He ditched his commitment to ranked ballot voting reform. So what in the hell am I supporting, exactly?"
ReplyDeleteYou might want to check the validity of your assertions, as they contradict what MSM have reported on both of the above.
The MSM says Trudeau supports Keystone, plus the Kinder Morgan expansion that will see tanker traffic off the coast of BC increase from 6 tankers to 30 a month; the pipeline will pump 895,000 barrels a day; Keystone will pump 825,000.
DeleteTrudeau says he doesn't support the Northern Gateway because of the First-Nations issues. But Jim Prentice is trying to hammer out a deal. If that is worked out, Trudeau will also support that pipeline which will pump another 525,000/barrels a day to the BC Coast then ship it in tankers to China.
Trudeau has said nothing on the West-East proposal, which Mulcair favors. That's because it hasn't been approved. If the National Energy Board approves it...
Trudeau also supports more Chinese foreign investment in the tarsands to "create middle class jobs."
He says he wants to strike a balance between economic and environmental concerns; but I don't see it.
As for ranked ballot voting; the Liberal party passed a resolution in 2012 supporting this by 70%. Trudeau ran on ranked ballot voting during the leadership race. But at the 2014 convention, he bundled up his democratic reform package and tacked onto Resolution 31 that will put the decision of voting reform system in the hands of a citizens' assembly. That, in one fell swoop, got him out of his leadership promise and killed the 2012 resolution in favor of RBV.
This is the same process Liberal governments used in BC, ON and PEI to kill electoral reform. The citizens' assemblies always recommend PR. (PR is used by 85% of developed countries.) Then the Liberals hold a PR referendum, tacked onto an election, but put up roadblocks so it will fail, including a 60% win threshold that would've killed PR in New Zealand.
The fact is the vast majority of Liberals do not support PR. Trudeau himself stated he is opposed to PR. Like all Liberal leaders before him (excluding Dion,) he favors FPTP and the fake majority on 39% of the vote: which he hopes to achieve in 2017 after winning a minority in 2015.
At the recent Liberal convention a resolution was passed which put a 12 month deadline on implementation of either Preferential balloting or Proportional Representation. Your original statement was "He ditched his commitment to ranked ballot voting reform. ".
DeleteAs to your pipeline comment, it was basically an inadequate round house swipe, which you correct to a large extent in your response.
Mulcair's positioning on Quebec sovereignty issues is also inadequate and self serving. Continuing the Layton tradition I presume.
When has the MSM ever been trust worthy?
ReplyDeleteI've read the referenced blog posts from Mound, no where does he say "vote for Liberal, or vote Trudeau" in fact the post he published right before the one you're referencing basically counters everything you're saying that he said. (See: http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2014/03/define-progressive.html )
ReplyDeleteIt is disingenuous to claim someone is saying something without quoting them or even providing a link to the material you're commenting on so people can judge for themselves.
I'm referring to his original post (which I referenced in my last post which I refer to in this post.) Plus there's an update he adds to his original post where he refers to me specifically as a "Dipper." Then he goes off the rails with a rant directed at left-leaning progressives telling them to "Go F_ck Yourselves!"
DeleteThese posts are filled with rabid partisan attacks, including the comments he makes to others his own posts. This guy appears to want to start a war between Liberal and NDP supporters. That is not the kind of political debate we should be having.
"So, Canada be buggered, no provincial NDP, no assistance from the official opposition. Good on ya, Tommy. Now we see your true colours. Party over country, Tom. I always suspected as much.
"Update - it didn't take long for some Dipper to claim I 'smeared' Mulcair. This fellow maintained that Mulcair is a fierce federalist. Well, I'm going to go by Mulcair's own words. He stated, quite clearly, that he'll be remaining "neutral" in this election and he said he was going to stay neutral because there's no Quebec NDP in this election. Presumably if the NDP was running candidates in the Quebec election, Mulcair would be federalist in a heartbeat. That's certainly what he indicated.
"I know on Planet Dipper any criticism of Tom Mulcair has to be a cheap smear but this is Canada, "
Dog in the Manger Mulcair Won't Back Federalists in Quebec Election
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2014/03/dog-in-manger-mulcair-wont-back.html
Go Fu_k Yourselves!
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2014/03/go-fuk-yourselves.html
It's true! Justin will have the same free trade deals and peddle the same tarsand oil. He'll just do it with a compassionate smile on his face.
ReplyDelete