see, under normal circumstance, the ndp would be nailing the liberals on this, and i'd probably be voting ndp. instead, the ndp have spent most of the election trying to position themselves to the right of the liberals, and have only backtracked in the last couple of days on "supply management" - something that is meaningless in urban canada. maybe it's a generational gap, but i have little interest in defending the interests of these dairy farmers, who have forced us to endure stephen harper and the bloc quebecois. maybe putting them out of business will be good for the country. forcing them to sell their farms and sending them to the cities sounds like a good idea, if it means breaking up the conservative base. although, i hardly think that's likely; three week old curdled milk from new zealand isn't much of a threat to canadian dairy farmers, i don't think.

i actually buy canadian grown soy milk, anyways.

nobody really thinks the liberals are going to oppose this, do they? see, the benefit of having the liberals in power during the negotiation process would have been that they would have been far more likely to argue against certain things that are not in our interest. we're definitely better off having the liberals negotiate these things. but, mulroney tied our hands with a bad nafta deal, and now it looks like harper is about to tie our hands with a bad tpp deal. for once, it would be nice to get a deal that the liberals had some influence in. as it is, they will sign the deal, even if there are things they don't like about it - because they are pragmatists.

but, the ndp are going to do exactly the same thing. this is a difference, but c'est la vie. so, it's essentially a non-issue. what should be the biggest issue on the table is supported by all three major parties.

of all the things mulcair has failed the left on, it his absolute failure in presenting a principle opposition to the tpp that is the absolute worst. not a word on so-called property rights. not a word on so-called investors rights. not a word on prescription costs. why? because he doesn't oppose any of it. he's on side with it. all we've got is a cynical attempt to win traditionally right-leaning votes by promising to protect supply management.

if this really bugs you, you only have one option: the green party. they are the only party that credibly opposes the agreement.

i'm taking the position that it's a non-issue because the three parties have the same position, that it needs to be opposed using other means and that my voting decisions will have to be based on other concerns.

but, technically? sure: wait and see is the correctly logically coherent position. but, there's really little doubt that the reality is that it will have to be exceedingly poorly written for the liberals to reject it. it's so obscure, you can more or less ignore it.

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/04/liberal-rally-brampton-trudeau_n_8241412.html