Man, and some of you Yanks think your "left" is nutty.

[yllus]

NDP's core sounds more like a fringe

From the party that compared Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to terrorists, another great idea: a Trans (gender) Day of Remembrance to be held every November -- presumably when the rest of us are paying tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The proposal is a draft resolution being proposed by a New Democratic Party riding association that will be voted upon at the NDP convention in Quebec City this weekend.

If that doesn't have you checking whether your passport is still valid -- lest the NDP win the balance of power at the next election -- how about a plan to nationalize every aspect of Canadian industry and hand power over to the workers? One resolution suggests implementing "social ownership" of industries "including but not limited to banking, communications, energy, health care, insurance, manufacturing, mass media, medical drugs, natural resources and transportation."

The same Ontario riding association, Durham, suggests the NDP appoint a task force "to consider whether it is possible for the people of Canada, and perhaps humanity in general, to rid ourselves of domination by rich and powerful capitalists."

Even ideas that sound vaguely workable are frequently wrong-headed. There are suggestions from a number of riding associations to reform Employment Insurance by cutting the number of hours an applicant needs to work to qualify by two-thirds, and increasing the amount paid out. As Herb Grubel, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and long-time critic of EI, explained, this is precisely the wrong way to go if you want to reduce the unemployment rate. "More generous benefits means greater unemployment," he said.

The list of idiotic suggestions is so long, the leadership's claim that none of them will become policy starts to look dubious: "new and robust initiatives to demystify sexual orientation and gender identity in schools;" gender identity to be made a reason for discrimination that could warrant granting refugee status; gender balance in Parliament achieved by electing a man and a woman in each constituency; large labels marked "DEATH" to be stuck on the sides of cigarette packets; Canadian withdrawal from NORAD, NAFTA and the WTO; a moratorium on oil sands development in Alberta; a campaign to make Canada a republic; a merger or electoral alliance with the Greens; and so on.

See why I always pop up in threads on AT where people mention moving to Canada and say that we don't need even more crazies immigrating in? We have enough as it is.

Sure, let's nationalize the what's pretty much the entire portion of our national industry. What fun! Oh, and withdraw from NAFTA. And the WTO. Oh, and NORAD. Not to mention that nice draft resolution that stated that our soldiers were acting like terrorists in Afghanistan.

Thankfully these are all draft resolutions so they all weren't taken into effect. The NDP did manage to make withdrawing from Afghanistan an official party plank for the next election though, which is simply embarassing IMO. Maybe you Yanks should be thankful that you only have two parties.

 

[sandorski]

I'd rather have the NDP then a 2 party system. Speaking of the NDP, they'll likely never form a Federal Government, but even if they did I highly doubt the fringe would have much influence. Nationalization of Industry would maybe happen in some isolated instances(usually the NDP provincial governments try to save failing companies, but even thee they have moved away from Nationalizing as the method), not widespread. Pulling out of Afghanistan isn't that crazy an idea, but one I can't agree with. I also doubt the Party will adopt pulling out of the various International agreements mentioned, in fact I doubt any of the radical changes mentioned will ever see official Party policy.

Unlike the sterile 2 party system in the US, parties like the NDP often raise issues of great importance that the major parties overlook. It is there that the NDP and other parties are worth their weight in gold.

 

[Horus]

Originally posted by: yllus
NDP's core sounds more like a fringe

From the party that compared Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to terrorists, another great idea: a Trans (gender) Day of Remembrance to be held every November -- presumably when the rest of us are paying tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The proposal is a draft resolution being proposed by a New Democratic Party riding association that will be voted upon at the NDP convention in Quebec City this weekend.

If that doesn't have you checking whether your passport is still valid -- lest the NDP win the balance of power at the next election -- how about a plan to nationalize every aspect of Canadian industry and hand power over to the workers? One resolution suggests implementing "social ownership" of industries "including but not limited to banking, communications, energy, health care, insurance, manufacturing, mass media, medical drugs, natural resources and transportation."

The same Ontario riding association, Durham, suggests the NDP appoint a task force "to consider whether it is possible for the people of Canada, and perhaps humanity in general, to rid ourselves of domination by rich and powerful capitalists."

Even ideas that sound vaguely workable are frequently wrong-headed. There are suggestions from a number of riding associations to reform Employment Insurance by cutting the number of hours an applicant needs to work to qualify by two-thirds, and increasing the amount paid out. As Herb Grubel, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and long-time critic of EI, explained, this is precisely the wrong way to go if you want to reduce the unemployment rate. "More generous benefits means greater unemployment," he said.

The list of idiotic suggestions is so long, the leadership's claim that none of them will become policy starts to look dubious: "new and robust initiatives to demystify sexual orientation and gender identity in schools;" gender identity to be made a reason for discrimination that could warrant granting refugee status; gender balance in Parliament achieved by electing a man and a woman in each constituency; large labels marked "DEATH" to be stuck on the sides of cigarette packets; Canadian withdrawal from NORAD, NAFTA and the WTO; a moratorium on oil sands development in Alberta; a campaign to make Canada a republic; a merger or electoral alliance with the Greens; and so on.

See why I always pop up in threads on AT where people mention moving to Canada and say that we don't need even more crazies immigrating in? We have enough as it is.

Sure, let's nationalize the what's pretty much the entire portion of our national industry. What fun! Oh, and withdraw from NAFTA. And the WTO. Oh, and NORAD. Not to mention that nice draft resolution that stated that our soldiers were acting like terrorists in Afghanistan.

Thankfully these are all draft resolutions so they all weren't taken into effect. The NDP did manage to make withdrawing from Afghanistan an official party plank for the next election though, which is simply embarassing IMO. Maybe you Yanks should be thankful that you only have two parties.

The NDP will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever get elected. EVER. Not in a kabillion years. Not if they're the last fvcking party left.

A REPUBLIC? You have GOT to be sh1tting me. Commies FTW.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: sandorski
I'd rather have the NDP then a 2 party system. Speaking of the NDP, they'll likely never form a Federal Government, but even if they did I highly doubt the fringe would have much influence. Nationalization of Industry would maybe happen in some isolated instances(usually the NDP provincial governments try to save failing companies, but even thee they have moved away from Nationalizing as the method), not widespread. Pulling out of Afghanistan isn't that crazy an idea, but one I can't agree with. I also doubt the Party will adopt pulling out of the various International agreements mentioned, in fact I doubt any of the radical changes mentioned will ever see official Party policy.

Unlike the sterile 2 party system in the US, parties like the NDP often raise issues of great importance that the major parties overlook. It is there that the NDP and other parties are worth their weight in gold.

I'd rather have any party system than a monarchy.

 

[Rainsford]

I keep saying, people who think the "lefties" are pretty liberal needs to take a look around them. By world standards, our left is about center (even center right) and our right is somewhere out in the tall grass. Hell, even by OUR standards 50 years ago our left really isn't very left...you want "loony liberal", take a look around at lefty parties in the rest of the world!

 

[jman19]

News flash, some people in every country think people of one political spectrum are "nutty", it has nothing to do with left or right :roll:

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
I keep saying, people who think the "lefties" are pretty liberal needs to take a look around them. By world standards, our left is about center (even center right) and our right is somewhere out in the tall grass. Hell, even by OUR standards 50 years ago our left really isn't very left...you want "loony liberal", take a look around at lefty parties in the rest of the world!

Not really, unless you subscribe to a Eurocentric point of view. Depends on the issues, too.