NOHOME
UberDork
10/19/15 9:13 p.m.
Was kind of funny if not a bit sad. Two business calls that I had today with US clients, I mentioned that Canada was in the midst of electing a new Prime Minister. They did not have a clue. Even less who might be running.
So I am curious, who honestly knew or was not aware that we are having the equivalent of your presidential elections? Could you name the candidates without going to Google?
Hell, I not even sure I can name the candidates in the US elections.
Whats a Prime Minister??? ... jk
Yes, I am aware. Some of us do read the newspaper.
I did see some stuff about it but I do not know much about either person.
Paul B
The only reason I knew anything about was that I watched John Oliver last night.
We have an official Canadian "Pirate" party, but I don't have anyone running locally to elect....
Doesn't matter who you vote for - the government always gets in.
Honestly, it's about as relevant to me as Greenland's politics so...
I remember reading it, but I don't know who was running.
So, who won.
The guy with nice hair... And nothing else
We have a Canadian in the online racing league. He asked about elections last night.
He figured (based on the news I would guess) that our election was coming up soon also. He was a bit shocked to learn that it over a YEAR away.... argh (for us).
Who won? Zero personality, or the legacy?
The_Jed
UberDork
10/19/15 10:45 p.m.
I read a blurb about the election and Trudeau in the paper tonight.
I only knew because I was watching HNIC on NHL Game Center Live and they ran a commercial. Some guy wearing a suit, cheerfully talking about the "end of the Harper decade" with a bunch of red on the screen at various times. The overall impression I had was "I have no idea what he wants, but he's on the opposite side of somebody named Harper, and I still prefer it to our national election campaigns."
Huh. I listen to NPR all day at work, no mention. I read some of the interwebz, no love there.
So no. No idea that Canada had an election. No idea who was running or who won. Sorry
OTOH, we just had a school board election, any idea of the results? I mean, that's about the same right?
////Joking///
In reply to KyAllroad:
More like a county commissioner I think. Or maybe the Queen just dispatches some inbred lackey nephew to be governor. I think that's how it works.
KyAllroad wrote:
So no. No idea that Canada had an election. No idea who was running or who won. Sorry
No worries - just be involved in your ~own~ elections, eh?!
NOHOME
UberDork
10/19/15 11:08 p.m.
Well, to be fair, the Canadians only get to campaign for 11 weeks, so its not like they are in your face 24-7-365-eternal.
Not judging, just curious.
By comparison, is there a hole in the world somewhere where a person could hide so that they would NOT be aware of the USA candidates?
In reply to NOHOME:
In ye vile Queen's court, one would presume.
So, cool hair dude won, robotized shark person is out, the bearded one came third and the party that has no idea what it's doing is dead last. The party that only campaigns in one province came in fourth. I'm not sure how to feel about this.
I knew about the elections!
Only because I work for a Canadian company though.
EvanR
Dork
10/20/15 12:32 a.m.
Mezzanine wrote:
I knew about the elections!
Only because I work for a Canadian company though.
I work for a Canadian company also, but it's French-Canadian, and that's a whole other breed, apparently.
I think the length of the campaign period makes a huge difference in the politicking relative to the US. Also, the PM isn't elected directly like the US President is, the PM is just the leader of the party with the most seats. You can hot-swap a PM without an election if you want and they don't have any special veto powers, so that does take a little bit away from the individual. In theory, anyhow. The leader still makes a big difference, ask the NDP who just lost more than half the seats they won when they had the highly respected Jack Layton at the helm in 2011.
The thing I love about Canadian elections is the big swings. In the US, picking up 51% of the popular vote is a "clear mandate" over the other party with 49%. In Canada, if the population gets pissed off at you, something big happens. In 1993, the ruling party went from 169 seats (out of 295) to...2. Now THAT is a message.