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Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 19th, 2015, 12:28 pm
by Adam54
Happy Election Day, Spacey! Sounds like if polls are to be believed, Harper might be on his way out?

Polls are fundamentally unreliable in 2015, of course, just ask the 2014 American election and the 2015 UK election, but hey! This might be the time they get it right!

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 19th, 2015, 12:57 pm
by Space Tycoon
We will see. "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau" is not a phrase that fills me with much hope.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 19th, 2015, 10:16 pm
by Adam54
You're gonna need to get used to that, apparently.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 19th, 2015, 10:56 pm
by The Swollen Goiter of God
Space Tycoon wrote:We will see. "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau" is not a phrase that fills me with much hope.
Every time I see that name, I think of Justin Theroux.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 2:31 am
by Dalty
Is he related to Louis?

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 4:52 am
by Space Tycoon
Every political career ends in failure.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 8:44 am
by Dalty
Does it? Teflon Tony Blair seems to be doing alright.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 8:49 am
by Space Tycoon
I suupose, but he's not in politics anymore, I thought. Didn't his term end kind of shamefully?

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 10:15 am
by Dalty
The illegal war, or the hideous wife and the unseemly financial self interests?

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 4:33 pm
by Adam54
Does Blair get blamed for the war, or enabling Bush to enable the war? I feel like it's a fine distinction to be had.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 20th, 2015, 5:12 pm
by Space Tycoon
Dalty wrote:The illegal war, or the hideous wife and the unseemly financial self interests?
The first and third.

I don't consider her hideous. And I kind of respect it when a powerful man marries a homely woman. Good for you, sir. Take one for the team.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 21st, 2015, 1:41 pm
by Dalty
Nothing homely about that lunatic!

So - looks like this new guy in t'North might ruffle some feathers.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 22nd, 2015, 5:01 pm
by Space Tycoon
Indeed.

It's been said that Canadian federal politics is usually about four years behind the US, give or take. It's a statement that bears up to scrutiny, actually:

Kennedy/Johnson 1960-1968--> Pearson/Trudeau 1963-1984 (not including June 1979-March 1980)

Reagan/Bush 1980-88--> Mulroney 1984-1993

Clinton 1992-2000--> Chretien/Martin 1993-2006

Bush II 2000-2008--> Harper 2006-2015

Obama 2008--> Trudeau II 2015.


We never really had a Nixon. Kinda skipped that one.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 22nd, 2015, 5:06 pm
by Space Tycoon
There were a few other caretaker PM's in between upheavals.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 12:40 am
by Dalty
Says he might cancel the F35 for Canada?

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 4:04 am
by Space Tycoon
I believe so. Part of me is sad, part of me thinks we should build our own fighters.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 4:06 am
by Space Tycoon
Pot is soon to be legalized throughout the land, as per election promises.

So how's that Canadian vacation looking, Dalty?...

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 2:01 pm
by Dalty
I know what you mean about self built fighters, and other kit. Back in the 50s and 60s the world looked in envy at UK military aviation and wondered how we did it. World beater after world beater from numerous indigenous producers.

Problem is that we don't order enough volume for them to be economically viable to produce alone.

Same with subs (the Astute class is beyond anything else on Earth currently) and with ships (ditto the Type 45 Destroyer) however the low volume makes the unit cost crippling due to our insistence on going domestic.

It'll be the same story with Taranis - a trans continental deep strike drone we have tech demonstrators for. Already courting the French to come in with us. We can do the innovation, just can't afford the mass production/deployment.

I imagine Canada is in the same situation.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 3:04 pm
by Space Tycoon
I'm not too knowledgable about the economics of it, but as a rule we have purchased most of our gear from across the border or overseas. Not that I advocate a massive military buildup, but I always felt that we did ourselves a disservice by relying so heavily on foreign suppliers.

There was actually a bit of a row some years ago over the purchase of some secondhand subs from the UK. Subs which turned out to be full of problems. I could dig up some links.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 3:09 pm
by Space Tycoon

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 3:46 pm
by Dalty
Jesus! You bought Oberons???

I suppose it depends how much patching you are able/willing to do. The Indians still have a carrier in service with them that was used by us in the Falklands and then, in 1982, it was practically decommissioned and pressed back into service within hours when the Argies invaded.

Why buy Eurofighter when we could have bought 2nd hand F15s from the US for pennies? Because those airframes were already on their last legs. Same same the Oberons.

Canada and the U.K. are good buddies both with fine aviation histories. Also maritime needs. Hell, our troops do cold weather and arctic conditioning over there. We should team up and build shit together!

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 5:14 pm
by Space Tycoon
We totally should. Definitely in the naval arena. Canada borders THREE friggin' oceans, for God's sake!

As much as I may have disagreed with the ends to which our armed forces are called upon to serve, I actually do support a stronger Canadian military with a mandate to defend Canada's legitimate security needs.

As opposed to the needs of certain foreign interests.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 5:34 pm
by Dalty
I fear the need for much stronger military is coming. In the UK (and much of NATO) we are all quibbling over the need to spend 2% of GDP on defence. In the mid 80s we were spending about 6%.

I think we may need to head back in that direction.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 23rd, 2015, 6:15 pm
by Space Tycoon
I certainly hope not. I mean, I support a credible military, however in my view Canada has already squandered far too many lives and resources in the pursuit of other nations' defence needs.

One of my biggest differences with Trudeau II has been his boast that he would "tell off Putin to his face."

Wow. Really? Putin is basically the Krushchev of our time. If Justin does anything more than wet his pants in Vlad's presence, I'll be impressed.

Re: The Canadian Politics thread no-one will care about

Posted: October 24th, 2015, 1:37 am
by Dalty
Putin isn't especially strong. He just knows we are weak and indecisive. He'd get slapped back into his box pretty hard and very fast if he was facing a modern day Reagan / Thatcher axis.

Not saying that I dislike Obama or long for a return to the days of Reagan etc - but Putin is generally making hay while the sun shines.