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Thursday, August 23, 2012

When Is A Religious Symbol Not Religious?

I have been going over the arguments I have presented why it is hypocritical for the PQ to want to eliminate religious symbols in public areas, but yet still keep the crucifix. But after much deep consideration I have come to the conclusion that I am wrong.

Because fundamentally is the crucifix itself being in the national assembly a religious statement, and can symbols that can be characterized as religious be able to get government funds? For example if the crucifix is broken and needs repair should taxpayers pay for it?

In this situation I find myself agreeing with the PQ and complacently disagreeing with my former post. That the crucifix does have historical reasons to be in the national assembly. It is a historical artifact, and like many historical artifacts in the world they do have religious meaning. For example in Mount Royal there is a big cross and many historical places that we preserve can be characterized as religious.

That doesn't mean simply because we invest in repairing or preserving these symbols that we are therefor endorsing a religion or another but rather that we are preserving it's historical meaning. For example the UN does spend money on preserving many very historical sites which can in some cases be a religious site, It doesn't mean that we endorse the religion the symbol may represent to some people but rather the protection of an old historical site.

On the question of whether people should be able to wear religious symbols in public I do still disagree with them, because I believe we should live in a very tolerant society that allows people in most cases (with very few exception) the ability to wear whatever we want as long as it is decent of course. Which means Hijabs, Kipahs, Kirpans etc... should be allowed to be worn by anyone anywhere in public.

In conclusion the crucifix should be allowed to stay in the national assembly, because it is historical.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Premier Legault? Not Happening !!!!!!!!!

With current polls putting Francois Legault a close third to the other two major political parties many are wondering whether Francois Leagualt will be able to make it all the way and win government in this election. There are many reasons to suspect that the CAQ will make major gains in this election and that they will no doubt out do the ADQ, but when it comes to the question of whether they can achieve a government, but I think they won't.

First it's very easy to look at the polls and say that the surge in CAQ support may give Legault the support he needs to form a government. A poll done on August 16th have the CAQ at 27%, QLP at 28% and the PQ at 33%. This poll suggest that the CAQ can make this a three way race, but if we look deaper into the numbers you will know why the CAQ won't end up victories September 4th.

In the Leger Marketing poll they asked people who said they would vote one way if their choice was final or if they could change there minds on election day. The PQ and the PLQ both scored high among there supporters. With 71% of PQ supporters and 64% of PLQ supporters saying that there choice was final. The CAQ  on the other hand has half it's supporters saying they could change their minds on election day. This shows that the CAQ support is weak and that his party's support is the most liquid of the three major parties.  Meaning he has most to lose and the least to gain as  Quebec Liberal supporter and PQ supporters seem to have more then CAQ supporters made up their minds.

Also when asked who in the people's opinion will form the next government the CAQ placed third with 15%, behind the PLQ and PQ with 26% and 37% respectfully. Which shows that a large number of CAQ supporters don't see the CAQ getting elected which means that the party itself isn't sure it will win even though their polling like they could.

Even with all this the CAQ have a lot going for them when asked who can bring better access to health care, who can stop corruption and who can balance the budget Francois Legault wins beating the other leaders by a large margin. But when it comes to election night the CAQ won't reach where they are in the polls as there voters are less sure about the party. When it comes to election night CAQ voters will be more likely to stay at home or change there minds and vote for someone else then PQ or PLQ voters.

See The Poll Here


Monday, August 13, 2012

Charest Will Win

I'm calling it right now. A Liberal minority government. Polls show that the PQ is leading right now with the support of those alienated by Charest's stance on education and their view of him being corrupt. But, I think that when time comes to vote, a significant portion of the PQ support will simply go with what they know best: the Liberals. They will reason that the tuition increases were not all that bad and that Charest didn't do all too bad on corruption. Besides, the PQ wants a referendum and when time comes to actually take action and vote, they will not support the PQ.

And what about the CAQ? Why won't Quebecers vote for Francois Legault's party? Because, so far the party has not proven to be a serious choice. They seem like disorganised buffoons. Charest is just feeding off this. And so, Charest will win the same way Harper did: by making sure that only the Liberals seem in control of the situation while the other parties blow themselves up.
Charest had a field day with this, saying: “If I understand it correctly, François Legault will run the Twitter account and organize cocktail fundraisers, while Jacques Duchesneau will run the rest of the government.” Marois also pounced, accusing the CAQ of “improvisation” and calling them “amateurish.” In other words, not ready to govern.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

PQ Proposes New Language Law!

The PQ leader Pauline Marois is proposing new language laws and a her version of secularism. Both of which will make Quebec much worse off. The new Language laws or as Marois would like to put it "a new Bill 101" would harm the most vulnerable people in Quebec society. These People are the anglophone population.

New laws like instituting bill 101 in small business that used to be exempts of such laws would make it harder for the anglophone population to get a job or even keep there job. Now business with as few as 11 people would have to comply to bill 101.

But not all the new language laws will  harm the anglophone population. Other rules the PQ are proposing like barring most francophone and anglophones from attending English CEGEP's. Will make it difficult for many to become bilingual. And statistically bilingual Quebecers make more money then there uni-lingual francophone counterparts. This isn't just an issue that will effect anglophones, because trying to reduce the Quebec's populations English language skills will harm the Quebec as a whole.

Yet Marois tries to defend her language laws by using the same old fear tactics that the french language will die if we don't.

"Our identity is so important. We are French people in North America. We are a small minority. If we don't wage this battle, we could lose this identity."
'If we don't wage this battle, we could lose [our] identity,' 
 "We have abandoned the defence of our language," she told reporters, saying the use of the French language is on the decline, particularly in Montreal.

Read More Here

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Charest Strategy: Family!

Jean Charest new proposal to give parents who send their kids to public primary school will get 100 dollars every year helps many people, because Many parents today are having trouble affording school supplies for their children.  This plan will effect the parents of over 450,000 children who go to public primary schools in Quebec.100$ a year isn't a lot, but for many families it is good assistance.

Another Proposal by the Quebec Liberals to try and get young family voters was announced Sunday.This plan is to help business create daycares in workplaces. Another much needed assistance to families in Quebec which have a very hard time finding daycares. This proposal did come with some bad news, which was that the cost of daycare's will rise by the cost of living.

It seems the Liberal Party has mapped out it's strategy in this election. Since they can't get younger voters for obvious reasons then they are going for family voters. The PQ have yet to make any move on the campaign trail to attract these group of voters, which may be a fatal mistake for them as adults tend to vote more often then young people which seems to be the group they are courting.

Read More Here




Monday, August 06, 2012

Quebec Solidaire And The PQ

Amir Khadir was the first Quebec Solidaire member of the national assembly, and now the Quebec Solidaire seems poised to try and gain another seat right next to Amir Khadir's. In the riding of Gouin the Co-President of the Quebec Solidaire Francois David is campaigning to try and get her party a second seat in the National Assembly.

In the last election Francois David got 7987 votes while the PQ candidate Nicholas Girard (who is also running in 2012) got 10276 votes. In total that about 2,300 votes difference, which may be a lot for the Quebec Solidaire to get. Especially with the PQ riding higher in the polls then they did in 2008, but the Quebec Solidare seems to be doing a very local campaign. In which they will be concentrating a lot more of there time on Gouin and Mercier (Amir Khadir's riding).

In 2008 Amir Khadir unseated a PQ MNA to get elected, if Francois David get's elected September 4th she will also unseat a PQ member of national assembly. What does this mean to the PQ chances of forming government. In an election so close the Quebec Solidaires two seat could make it or break it for the PQ. Francois David had this to say:

 « Si à la fin de la campagne, il manque un seul comté pour que le PQ forme un gouvernement majoritaire, et bien je suis ouverte à dialoguer avec lui », a-t-elle lancé.
 Which in English means that she would be open to having dialogue with the PQ after the election if they are missing one MNA to form a Majority government. And one would believe it very likely that the Quebec Solidaire would support the PQ form a government.

So now one can safely assume when making riding projections that if their is a minority government one can safely assume that the QS will be supporting the PQ.

Read more here

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Marco Rubio for VP? Part 2

I will now provide the answer to the final question and give the recap as well as the overall score and compare all three VP candidates I have so far analysed.

Final Question
Does Rubio come with baggage?
He does have a lot of political experience, but Marco Rubio doesn't have any executive experience, which is what Mitt has been screaming about when he talks about how he has a lot of executive experience making tough decisions. It would be hard to explain why the we must have a someone who has worked in the private sector and knows how to make executive decisions Mitt Romney would chose someone who has been in Politics for his entire working life. Rubio has Legislative experience as Senator and state congressman. This is not just a slight disadvantage, and will for sure make some questions about Rubio being pick. John Kasich worked in the private sector very recently for 8 years and Chirs Christie did have a job as a lawyer as well as executive experience as a governor.


To Recap?
Rubio will have an enormous amount of support coming with him on the ticket,and he would defiantly help Romney in some must win states like Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa as well as New Hampshire. He also seems to have a clean record and shows no major disadvantage. Which is why many people in the Republican party are hoping Romney will chose Rubio. The only problem he did state before he isn't interested in running for VP, but that hasn't stopped many before. 

Here is all the scoring of all three candidates with some slight changes

Score                                                 Marco Rubio                John Kasich                    Chris Christie
Can he Help carry a state                          4/4                              1/4                                   2/4
Motivate a group                                      3/3                               1/3                                  2/3*
Does he come with Baggage                     1/3                             2.5/3                                2.5/3

Total                                                        8/10                           4.5/10                              6.5/10

* The Reason I changed Christie's 3 to a 2 was because I found it unfair I gave him a 3 out of three for motivating the tea party and Marco the same score for motivating the tea party and getting Latino votes.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Marco Rubio for VP? Part 1

Like I did for Christie and Kasich I will now analyse the benefits and the disadvantages of Marco Rubio as a VP choice.

First Question
Does he help carry any state?
Marco Rubio is the Senator from Florida which does for some reason always seem to be in the center of political campaigns. The only issue is Rubio isn't very popular in his state. Current polls have him with 46% disapproval and 41% approval, but I will explain why Rubio can still help Romney win Florida soon. Rubio like Christie can help carry states that are very pro Tea party. Like Iowa, Missouri and New Hampshire. Although it should be noted that Missouri is already leaning for Romney Iowa would still be a toss up and so would New Hampshire. But unlike Christie though he can get Latino voters. Which may help Romney in states like Nevada, New Mexico, Colardo and even Florida. This makes Rubio a very attractive candidate when it comes to electoral calculations.


Does he attract a group Romney can't?
Yes he does! Not only would the so called "crown prince of the Tea Party" be able to motivate the Tea party movement which has been very slow to go full out supporting Romney, but Rubio would also get Latino voters which helped Obama get elected in 2008. Exit polls in Rubio's senate race showed that Rubio got 55% of the Latino votes while Obama in 2008 won the Latino vote by 57% in Florida and 67% nationwide. If Rubio is the VP candidate he could attract many Latino voters which is a very crucial block for the Obama campaign especially in Florida where Latino voters already vote more Republican than the national average.

I will provide the answer, the recap as well as the score for all the three VP candidates that I have so far analysed on Sunday at 7.

Marois Startegy Clever, But Will It Work?

In an effort to try and win the election Marois asked student Protesters to hold a truce on strikes until the election is over. Future confrontations with Police Marois said would benefit Charest Law and Order agenda.

She is right if there are major confrontations with police that leads to mass social unrest Charest will be seen as the person who can fix it all, and Marois will look like she is siding with the protesters. Also mass riots will take the issue of corruption and even tuition hikes off the view of the public. Just like it did a few months ago, because the issue become not whether we should reduce tuition, but how do we stop this unrest? Right now the more militant student group called La CLASS is considering whether or not to listen to Marois  advice.

What Most probably will happen is that there will be some student protest, but there will be less. Whether the protest will be the main issue on voters mind has yet to be seen.It is clear more then ever that how to solve civil unrest will play a major factor in this election, but will it be the main theme of the election is yet to be seen.

“It would certainly be good to hold a truce,” Ms. Marois said on Thursday. “I invite students and those who marched in the streets to march towards their voting booths on election day and send a clear message to this government.”
 Ms. Marois made the plea as she unveiled plans to freeze tuition fees for 100 days if the PQ forms the next government, promising a public forum to examine university funding. She said a PQ government would index any potential tuition fee hikes to the cost of living.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Boussole Électorale

Which is french for Electoral Compass. The French version came almost right after an election on September 4th was certain on RDI. The English version is now Available on the CBC.

 So, find out who you would vote for!
Alor, trover qui vous voteriez pour!

I got the Liberals as my first choice, take your try now.

And They Are Off.. PQ Lead!

In a snap poll done just a few days ago shows the PQ may form the next government. According to the poll the PQ will get 39% and the Liberals will get 38%, while the CAQ will get 14% and the Quebec Solidare as well as the green party will get 4 and 3 percent respectively.

The Reason this shows that the PQ will form the government is, because when only polling francophone people who tend to decide most of Quebec's ridings come election night the PQ have a strong lead. With 43% saying they will vote PQ and only 32% saying they will vote Liberal.The Most surprising thing about this poll is that at the end of July the CAQ was hovering around the low 20's.

Another reason to suspect that the PQ are in the Lead is that according to the survey PQ voters are more excited to vote than Liberal. With 96% of PQ supporters polled said that they were sure they would vote in this election. The Liberals didn't even get close to that number among there supporters.

Still the election is still anyone's game. In Quebec in only takes a few weeks for everyone to change there minds completely .

Read more here

Thursday, August 02, 2012

John Kasich for VP? Part 2

And now as promised the final question as well as the recap and the overall score.

Third Question
Does John Kasich Bring any Baggage?
John Kasich does come with some small pieces of baggage. Let's begin with the less serious. John Kasich is undecided on whether Ohio should allow more use of casino's which traditionally most Republicans are against it, but again John is undecided so you can't attack a lot on that, and this is a very unimportant. The more serious baggage John as a VP nominee may face is a controversy he had with a police officer back in 2008. Where a police man pulled him over and gave him a ticket for not yielding to an emergency vehicle, and he admitted to wrong doing. The problem was that even after he admitted to doing wrong he then called   the police man an idiot for doing his job. These are very small almost not worthy mentioning issue's.

To Recap
If Romney picks John Kasich there seems to be no gain for the Republican candidate. John doesn't motivate any group Romney is lacking, He also doesn't even help carry his own state. John also doesn't have any negative attributes, which means that he would be a safe choice for Romney. Because he wouldn't cause any damage or gain.

Scoring
Does he help Carry any state         1/4 (I gave him the one, because he wouldn't make Romney lose a state)
Does he motivate a group              1/3 (I gave him one because he doesn't unmotivated a group)
Does he have any baggage             2.5/3 (Because he brings very little baggage)

Total                                            4.5/10

John Kasich For VP? Part 1

This is a part  of my continuing quest to research every possible VP pick before Romney announces them. Today I will analyse John Kasich. He is the governor of Ohio. His name has been thrown around as a VP candidate over the past weeks.
I will be using the same format I used for when I researched Chris Christie , where I will pose some of the very important questions of choosing a VP and score them.

Let start with the first question
Does he Help Romney carry any state?
John Kasich is the Governor of the all important swing state of Ohio, which so far has the longest holding record of voting for the winner. The only issue he isn't popular in the state. His current approval rating in his state is 41% and disapproval is 44% according to a recent poll. Even when people of his state where asked who would make the best VP choice for Romney the current Governor came in 3rd place behind Rubio and Christie. While this doesn't mean Romney will lose any votes nominating Kasich doesn't seem like it would help the ticket. Other than that Kasich has no benefit for Romney in any other state.

Can he get any group Romney can't get?
The best answer to this question for Romney is usually either Hispanic voters or Tea Party voters (as they aren't so motivated to go out and vote). Unfortunately for Kasich he isn't well known by the country and Tea Party people don't very much know him. So he's hardly someone who can excite the base. According to exit polls he won the Governor race in 2010 by getting the demographics most Republicans rely on. He doesn't much motivate any group to come out and vote for him.

Later today I will post the nest question as well as the recap and his overall score.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Harper's Religious Agenda?

Does Stephen Harper's religion affect government policy? He is associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical group. We all know how these evangelical groups have managed to shape policy in the US, helping create policies that aren't based on reason and science. Stephen Harper seems to be doing the same thing in Canada, cutting funding for research and ignoring environmental investigations. If there is an organisation that controls some areas of government policy, then we should know about it.

Therefore, I agree with Lawrence Martin: Stephen Harper's religion is fair game when his policies emulate the goals of his religion. It could be guilt by association: just because he is a member of that religious group, doesn't necessarily mean his policies are controlled by it. But, more likely, it's a way for him to impose his beliefs on government policy or keep his grassroots happy. Whatever the case, because the line between policy and religion for Stephen Harper has become increasingly blurred, his religion is fair game.
Because Stephen Harper otherwise appears to be a clear-headed rationalist, there is some wonder about the motivation for these impulses, including the question of whether they are triggered by his evangelical beliefs. The Prime Minister is a member of the Alliance Church, more specifically the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Read more at the Globe and Mail.