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Milkman Dan said on March 19th, 2008 at 1:15 am

I miss the Rhinoceros Party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Party

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What’s that pronunciation bit at the end all aboot?

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BC also has fake liberals who are not liberal, at the moment headed up by Gordon “no, I don’t hate unions and the fact that I didn’t let local unions bid on building ferries and had Germans build them doesn’t mean anything, really” Campbell. Some people called him Slash Gordon for his stance on educational funding. But that was at a Canadian college, which are notorious hotbeds of leftism (seriously, the school newspaper had a tough time finding someone who was right-leaning for a series of articles, after having the one guy’d who’d written the right side for years finished and left college).

They got in through the long-standing Canadian tradition of “voting for the other guys after being fed up of the people who’ve been doing a darned good job, only to realize you massively fucked up later.”

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This is great. I have often wondered how our neighbors to the south governed themselves.

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lilacsigil said on March 19th, 2008 at 3:44 am

I always wondered who the Dippers were. We used to have some (called the Democrats) but they imploded in a magnificent orgy of infighting. Canadian politics are dead easy to understand for an Australian – we even use the same colours for the slightly-left and getting-more-and-more-right major parties. We also did it before the US, and I always snicker when I see the Republican states listed as “Red”.

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Rob Brown said on March 19th, 2008 at 4:13 am

Why is “the 905” called “the 905”, some of you may be asking? That’s the area code.

One other thing is that even though I don’t live in Toronto but rather in that same 905 for 31 years, I’ve heard people talk about Toronto an awful lot, and in my experience they usually pronounce it “Tore-on-toe”. The one case of “Trawnna” I can think of off the top of my head is in this song..

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Rob Brown said on March 19th, 2008 at 4:23 am

Actually, now that I think about it some more, it’s also often pronounced “Ter-ronto” or “Ter-rondo.” In any case, if you’re an American and you’ve been saying “Toe-RAWN-toe,” don’t worry about it because there are Canadians and even Ontarians who say it that way.

Yay for phonetics.

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Cool beans. Thanks for the primer.

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myclevername said on March 19th, 2008 at 7:09 am

Are TOO fun facts about Manitoba and Saskatchewan…

The term “from the wrong side of the tracks” comes from Winnipeg. FUN!

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CandidGamera said on March 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am

Everything I know about Canada, I learned from the Arrogant Worms.

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Nice job. Slight correction:

Then again, the Liberals also elected John Turner to office

Turner wasn’t elected; he stepped into the job when Trudeau retired.

Canada’s list of prime ministers has a couple of things the U.S. doesn’t really have:

1. A lot of prime ministers who only served little bits of terms (Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, Tupper, Clark, Turner, Campbell, etc.)
2. A few prime ministers whose overall tenures as PM were noncontinuous (MacDonald, King, Trudeau… Meighen?)

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There was a time when King was Prime Minister but didn’t hold a seat in Parliament, wasn’t there? So he had to watch the proceedings from the visitor’s box.

Further details about Jack Layton should probably be given for our American neighbors, after his recent appearance on Lou Dobbs as a Canadian expert on NAFTA.

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Genevieve said on March 19th, 2008 at 9:14 am

…How can you be whiter than New England?? It doesn’t seem possible, and yet, it is.

So, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are like, the Canadian equivalent of Cleveland, or Detroit? I’m sorry. And, I’m also very, very sorry about Alberta wanting to be Texas.

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mightybaldking said on March 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am

One small correction/addition:

Quebec has been traditionally a Liberal stronghold, mainly because it was a Conservative Prime Ministers that draughted their young French men to fight the English war in 1917. However, in the 60’s, Diefenbaker (a conservative) and again in the 80’s, Mulroney, both won significant majorities in Quebec. The Quebec population tends to switch parties en masse, which means it’s a critical region to win in order to form a government. This means that all politicians pander to Quebec.

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Just a little thing: “Libertarian Socialist” makes a lot more sense than “Progressive Conservative”, considering the people who coined the term ‘libertarian’ (in the French, ‘libertaire’) were anarchists, and anarchists have always been socialists. I would suggest the libertarian socialists have a lot more claim on the term ‘libertarian’ than the propertarians of the Right, who have no love for liberty and rights apart from property rights.

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Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the Canadian equivalents of the US heartland — they are our Dakotas, our Kansas, our Minnesota and more. Also: Bleak.

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Cookie McCool said on March 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am

Look. I don’t even know jack shit about American politics, and I live here. How about some more cute dogs?

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Genevieve said on March 19th, 2008 at 10:59 am

Ah… the “Flyover states”, if you will. Thanks Mike!

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Thanks for the primer.

Once again I am envious of countries with a parliamentary system. As an American, I have had plenty of opportunity to get frustrated by our imperial commander-in-chief, two-party system (or one corporate party with competing divisions), the electoral college, and our winner-take-all election scheme. Separation of powers is a great thing, and I like our independent judiciary (which, alas, has become ridiculously political); but really our President is weak on so many domestic issues, yet strong on military ones, leading us to the current health care crisis, destruction of social services, and the 5-year-old giant clusterfuck we are “celebrating” today.

And, yes, more puppies, please.

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Oh, and: What BlackBloc sez. In the States, some anarchists prefer the term “Left Libertarian” but I think that just confuses people.

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Kevin, I should probably point out that we – like most common-law countries – have an independent judiciary as well. Admittedly, we don’t have judicial elections at any level, but frankly I look at that as a plus rather than a minus.

Plus, our Supreme Court? Majority female right now. Wild, eh?

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For “Maritimes” it should really read “Atlantic Canada” (unless you’re intentionally expressing a grudge against Newfoundland & Labrador? Damn them and their squid-jigging ways!) And though AC is pretty darn white, it has a relatively sizable Aboriginal population compared to New England (except for Newfoundland, but we don’t talk about that).

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Saskatchewan is a strange province because most of the farmers are still Diefenbaker Conservatives. If your name isn’t Goodale, the people here vote Tory to stick it to Eastern Canada. It hasn’t worked yet, but they keep on trying.

Western Alienation is fun.

Fun Fact about Saskatchewan: We had the first socialist government in North America.

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Awesome. Thank you.

Now I can go up to canada and only worry about driving on the proper side of the road and How much petrol costs per liter.

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Nicely done

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(Exception: Nova Scotia, which has a respectable black population descended from escaped slaves. I bet you didn’t know about that!)

I did not.

More important, however, I also do not know which Canadian politician gave the luncheon keynote at Take Back America on Monday. And apparently, neither does anyone else.

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Bunnyofdoom said on March 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Well mr MGK, as a Canadian history/studies major, who has class literraly five minutes from Parliment Hill,* I would like to add to your section on the Conservative party. The two Canadian Prime ministers responsible for our independance, Sir John A Macdonald and Robert Borden**, were both conservative. What’s funnier is that both of them got in office due to anti-American rhetoric. Sir John A, who was goddamn awesome btw, basically united Canada by saying “The Americans are dicks, trying to cut off our trade, and invade us. Let’s get together, trade with each other, and they’ll back the fuck off.” and it work, and that’s confederation. Borden got elected by going “The liberals want free trade with the US. If we do that, they’ll annex us!” and he got elected! And what’s Harper doing now? Stating his love of the states….. how the conservatives have fallen ***

* WOO! Ottawa U!
** I know Borden was knighted, but he didn’t want it, nor did he want to be called sir, so I respectfully omit it.
*** I am not a conservative, and I have voted Liberal in the past, but I do feel that credit should go where credit is due.

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Bunnyofdoom said on March 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Also, fun fact about Manitoba: It was founded by a rebellion by natives and Metis! A violent revolution! Bet you did know that, but didn;t mention it!

saskatchewan: It’s flat and boring!

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saskatchewan: It’s flat and boring!

Oh, come on, not only is its name fun to say, but it contains cities named Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, and Regina. And remember how much fun it was to call up establishments with public lavatories in Prince Albert and ask if they had anyone in their can?

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Oh, hey. Isn’t Dog River in Saskatchewan? That’s got to be something fun about it!

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Charlotte said on March 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

Saskatchewan also has the honour of housing both of Canada’s “most crime” cities – Regina and Saskatoon!

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080312_162114_5536

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IslandLiberal said on March 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

I would give Laurier and King as much credit for Canadian independence as MacDonald and Borden; King, in particular, was in the 1920s the principle opponent within the Commonwealth to increased ties with Britain, leading to the Statute of Westminster in 1931 (by then the PM was Tory R. B. Bennett, who, ironically, was the only PM to become a British lord, moved to Britain in a sulk after losing office, died and is buried there), and through the conduct of World War II and its aftermath forged a firmly independent path, including the first independent Canadian citizenship.

“Maritimes” should be “Atlantic Canada”, though that’s common mistake made by people who aren’t from this area; Maritimes refers to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; Newfoundland and Labrador is part of Atlantic Canada, but not the Maritimes.

One of the major differences between Canadian and American systems is that the Canadian system is largely uncodified practice, rather than the super-codified US government style. As well, the electoral system is frankly a lot fairer and more organized in operation; the blatant, acceptable gerrymandering of electoral boundaries is basically unheard of here, and elections are administered centrally by non-partisan agencies with the same rules and voting systems for everyone (we also don’t use voting machines, just strict “mark an x” ballots).

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Rob Brown said on March 19th, 2008 at 8:11 pm

Andrew Says:
March 19th, 2008 la 4:46 pm

Oh, hey. Isn’t Dog River in Saskatchewan? That’s got to be something fun about it!

But Stephen Harper’s been there, so I’m staying as far away as I can. Blecch.

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Very interesting! Prior to this, all I knew about Canadian politics was that Stephen Harper is a giant potato who feasts on the hate of the maritime provinces. And that despite what George W. Bush thought back in 2000, you have never had a Prime Minister Poutine.

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Oh, one picky little point regarding your Point 3, above.
After 30 or 40 years as America’s largest trading partner, Canada has just been eclipsed by China.
We are unlikely ever to get the title back.
Maybe Americans should know more about us simply because we are their closest friend and ally. And we need the hugs.

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No, Stephen Harper was only there in a daydream about the cost/benefit analysis of putting normal-sized Prairie Dog statues around town. It didn’t technically happen.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to wreck a barn!

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Rob Brown said on March 25th, 2008 at 6:04 am

But maybe being there would make me have dreams with Stephen Harper in them, like Hank. I don’t want to risk it…

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Powell Lucas said on March 25th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

Great primer, but you missed one small detail. Like our U.S. cousins nearly all of our candidates for office are primarily people who lie through their teeth.

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[…] post by MGK Filed under Political Strategy […]

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[…] truth, I don’t know enough about Canadian politics to be passionate one way or another. This site has an interesting (although difficult to read, because of the awful color scheme) primer on […]

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