O Canada

18 comments on “O Canada ”

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1. gitmo 1

   5 December 2009 at 2:16 pm

   Bombastic pap.
2. prism 2

   5 December 2009 at 3:27 pm

   gitmo – The information in this post is really disturbing. Could you cheer us up with some facts that show that its wrong.
   • gitmo 2.1

     5 December 2009 at 4:58 pm

     Sorry I was referring to anything written by Monbiot as being bombastic pap – I’ve given up reading anything he dribbles on about
     • Bored 2.1.1

       6 December 2009 at 7:32 am

       Hey Gitmo, try reading this one, you might learn something. Theres a hell of a lot of people I read who write bombastic pap, like the columnists and editors in the politics and business sections of the daily papers. Then there are the academics, people like Kurosawa and Fergusson, all write bombastic pap to their viewpoint. That said theres always something in there to consider, even in disagreement. Its called filtering the pap crap. Give it a go.
3. TF 3

   5 December 2009 at 5:53 pm

   Go here to the climate change debate in Canada that Monbiot was there for.
   Elizabeth May Canadian Green Leader and George Monbiot on one side
   BjØrn Lomborg and Lord Nigel Lawson on the other
   Very entertaining though I don’t think it would sway people from there original positions

   I don’t think out of the four I would describe Monbiot as being the most bombastic
   see for yourselves http://www.munkdebates.com/
4. Ag 4

   5 December 2009 at 5:58 pm

   OK. Time for a reality check.

   As a former resident of Canada I can tell you that this is a blip in Canadian politics. The practical reality of Canadian elections is this: unless a party wins in both Ontario and Quebec, it cannot win a majority in the Canadian parliament. The only party capable of winning in both is the centrist Liberal Party, so either Canada has a Liberal government, or some sort of minority government. This is because the Conservatives (whatever guise they are currently in) cannot win sufficiently in Quebec to form a majority government.

   So here’s a simplified version of the current story.

   Now everyone remembers back in the 90s when Quebec had a referendum on separating from Canada which narrowly lost. Turns out that the Liberal government of the time had engaged in a series of underhanded PR tactics to boost support for the no vote. This all came out in the early 2000s and soured many Quebecers on the Liberals. Since then, the Liberals haven’t been able to win in Quebec, with the separatist Bloc Quebecois winning instead. The Bloc is perfectly prepared to support the Conservatives up to a point, since many Conservatives would prefer to get rid of Quebec.

   The end result is that Canada isn’t going to have a properly working government until Quebec gets over its fit with the Liberal Party. That probably won’t take that long, since most Canadians don’t like the extremely conservative bent of the CCP. What they do have in the meantime is a party dominated by Albertan conservatives, who are in many respects just the same as Republicans, who happen to have a stone-faced moron as a leader. He also happens to represent much of Western Canada, which has historically suffered from “Western Alienation” and is looking to get its own back on the “liberal elite” in Toronto and Montreal.

   This doesn’t mean that Canadians are anti-environment, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the Liberals are perfect. What it does mean is that Canada has by an unfortunate accident an anti-environment government that is massively pro oil (i.e. Alberta based) at the time climate change legislation is needed.

   In the end none of this has anything to do with the environment and everything to do with the endless antagonism between English Canada and French Canada.
   • prism 4.1

     5 December 2009 at 6:25 pm

     Thanks Ag. From what you have said it seems that Canada may at present be a spoiler for hopes for the environmental summit getting a concerted mandate from the developed countries. People are talking about the next 2-3 years being important to start determined governmental measures to control emissions. So is there someone that can make way over this standoff. Sounds a bit Lilliputian to me.
     • prism 4.1.1

       5 December 2009 at 9:22 pm

       Saying that the political machinations were a bit Lilliputian wasn’t meant to be a putdown of Canada Ag. I think Canada a good country and wonder why NZ doesn’t work for closer ties. All politicians can fall into the Lilliputian mode I think, it seems a too easy slide.
5. Bill 5

   5 December 2009 at 7:08 pm

   The story of cap and trade aka why we are completely fucking fucked (sorry prism….but it is a cartoon….. and they’re kinda happier than dense text….sometimes….)
   • prism 5.1

     5 December 2009 at 9:29 pm

     When we are all getting fucked Bill, that’s equality!
     Not very efficient of me not to know, but was it your Bill that gave me the cap and trade hyperlinks? If it was you thanks. They were very informative.
6. Bill 6

   5 December 2009 at 7:28 pm

   For as long as ‘our’ elected agency (government) is competing with the elected agency of ‘others’ (‘their’ government) to gain comparative (business) advantage, we are well and truly fucked.

   Anybody wish to offer a counter argument/position which leads to a happy ever after given our present set up?
7. Lanthanide 7

   5 December 2009 at 10:21 pm

   “Don’t let the National government do this to our country ”
   Good thing we don’t actually have tar sands in NZ, so we don’t have to worry about the National governmenting “do[ing] this to our country”.
   • Bored 7.1

     6 December 2009 at 7:38 am

     I was rather hoping that tar sands were found under both Fendalton and Remuera, they might then become the either the first urban national parks or the first plutocratic Green electorates.
8. rave 8

   5 December 2009 at 10:59 pm

   NATO is expanding to the Arctic as the ice recedes. And Canada is being used as an attack dog by the US against Russia to grab the oil, gas etc that is said to be in abundance under the ice.
   http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/loose-cannon-and-nuclear-submarines-west-prepares-for-arctic-warfare/

   No capitalist government left, right, or centre will save the planet.
   http://redrave.blogspot.com/2009/12/climate-change-dire-emergency.html
   • Pascal's bookie 8.1

     6 December 2009 at 12:11 am

     I did laugh a wee while back when the Russians sent a sub to the north pole, and did some sort of sticking-a-flag-in-the-ocean-floor kind of routine. Purely to show the technical expertise of the navy of course. Just as a morale booster obviously. Not saying anything political at all.
     • rave 8.1.1

       6 December 2009 at 1:42 am

       I tried laughing then I just flagged it.

       Captcha: silly
     • prism 8.1.2

       6 December 2009 at 10:58 am

       This Russian move reminds me of the sort of thing that Terry Pratchett writes. He is a master at dreaming up weird political machinations.
9. Chris 9

   6 December 2009 at 12:00 pm

   As a Canadian this is less about Canada and more about the nature of right-wing governments. Currently, the federal government is extremely wingnut in its makeup – similar to the Mactional party here currently in power.

   The big problem is that Canada still has a FPP system, rather than a far superior MMP system that we have here. This means wingnuts get elected, and hence, are able to give vent to their hatred of Canada and drag it down in the worlds’ eyes – to wit Monbiot.

   The natural tendency is for us to have liberal (read left of centre) governments so given time, natural history will assert itself.

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