Canada doubles down on North American Douchbaggery

[Col. Crackpot]

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/shark-ta ... anada.html

Because dammit if the US is going batshit nuts and electing a mouth breathing amoral business douche to its highest office then Canada should too! Also Rob Ford is already dead and can't run. Thoughts and prayers.

[Tribble]

With regards to Rob Ford, it does need to be mentioned that he accomplished most of what he had set out to do within his first term (and the only reason why he didn't accomplish everything on his list was due to an oversight on the transit file which counsel later used against him). He was actually quite popular despite all his personal issues and probably would have been re-elected if he hadn't been forced to withdraw due to cancer.

It's kind of sad that a crack-smoking binge-drinking homophobic-misogynist was still a lot better than his opponents when it came to fulfilling campaign pledges.

[Col. Crackpot]

With regards to Rob Ford, it does need to be mentioned that he accomplished most of what he had set out to do within his first term (and the only reason why he didn't accomplish everything on his list was due to an oversight on the transit file which counsel later used against him). He was actually quite popular despite all his personal issues and probably would have been re-elected if he hadn't been forced to withdraw due to cancer.

It's kind of sad that a crack-smoking binge-drinking homophobic-misogynist was still a lot better than his opponents when it came to fulfilling campaign pledges.

Maybe it's just my perspective from South of the border, but I can't help but think that if Rob Ford was born 40 years earlier he'd have been beatified as the Canadian LaGuardia or Daley. Big City Mayor that got shit done.

[LaCroix]

Well, certainly not the candidate you would wish for, but he is leagues better than Trump (e.g. not a babbling idiot).

[Broomstick]

Yeah, Ford at least was capable of admitting his flaws and made some attempt to better himself even if he wasn't successful.

Trump, on the other hand, fancies himself God's gift to America.

[Tribble]

As for O'Leary... he's kind of an odd duck. Supports gay marriage, abortion, assisted-suicide, legalising weed etc. Also supports Canada using its own oil, which I agree with wholeheartedly (sorry environmentalists, but I would rather have Eastern Canada use Canadian oil then import it from such lovely places as Saudia Arabia, Venezuela and Russia). And that the current PM is going way overboard by having a deficit over 3x as large as he said he would. On the other hand, I strongly disagree with his open love for income inequality, tax breaks for the rich, his desire to deregulate things like the housing industry (its bad enough as it is already) and his apparent Trump-like personality.

[SCRawl]

Rob Ford couldn't possibly have won on a national stage. He was a buffoon, and outside of the suburbs of Toronto (which he represented and in which he resided) he really wasn't all that popular. In the rest of Canada, and even in a great deal of Toronto, he was a joke.

I suppose it's possible that O'Leary could win the nomination, but he'll get very little support from Quebec, so even if he were to win the leadership race he would be a rotten candidate to lead the Conservatives in the next election.

[Tribble]

Rob Ford couldn't possibly have won on a national stage. He was a buffoon, and outside of the suburbs of Toronto (which he represented and in which he resided) he really wasn't all that popular. In the rest of Canada, and even in a great deal of Toronto, he was a joke.

Oh he certainly wouldn't have won on a national state, no question of that. As I said though, he probably would have been re-elected. It kind of shows the state of affairs in Toronto, when a guy like that still remains the top contender.

From what I've been told by friends who lived in his ward he actually made a pretty good councillor, so perhaps he should have stayed as one. Peter Principle and all that.

I suppose it's possible that O'Leary could win the nomination, but he'll get very little support from Quebec, so even if he were to win the leadership race he would be a rotten candidate to lead the Conservatives in the next election.

Conservatives tend to do very poorly in Quebec most elections anyways, I doubt he'd make much of a difference in that respect.

[SCRawl]

Conservatives tend to do very poorly in Quebec most elections anyways, I doubt he'd make much of a difference in that respect.

Brian Mulroney won the majority of the seats in Quebec in 1984 and 1988, but that was a different conservative party. These Conservatives are still a mish-mash of Reform and PCs, and so long as the Bloc Quebecois are around I think that it will be difficult for any other party to do particularly well there.

[aerius]

As for O'Leary... he's kind of an odd duck.

Think of him as a hardcore libertarian and all of his positions become consistent and make sense.