the ndp campaigns on the left and governs on the right. expect them to actually build refineries in alberta, so they can export refined product. the unions have been pushing for this for years. lots of jobs there.
but, see, i'm an actual environmentalist. and a total communist. and i want to keep it in the ground altogether. carbon tipping points and what not. i'd argue that short term jobs are less important than the environment, in the long run. i don't pretend the ndp agree with me on any of these points, and essentially nobody protesting on the ground is fooled by them...
you see the same political position show up in the federal ndp's pipeline politics. it's unifor driven, ultimately. they support the route out east - because there's refinery jobs out there, at the end of it. they oppose the keystone, because they view it as shipping refinery jobs to texas.
it has nothing to do with the environment. it just has to do with extracting wealth in the most selfish way possible. unions can never disassociate themselves from capital, or work against it. their self-interest is the same as the board's, it's just a question of who benefits most from it. the revolutionary left has largely realized this since malatesta. which was a long time ago.
so, yes, you should go ahead and relax and keep calm and vote ndp - if you're happy with the status quo.
garrtw
+deathtokoalas well when is ezra levsnt running for PC?
deathtokoalas
+garrtw maybe in the northwest territories.
garrtw
+deathtokoalas just sayn he love running his mouth off alot but we he ever run for oilberta!
deathtokoalas
+garrtw i hear what you're saying, but it's not at all likely. it would have to be a pretty obscure party or, more likely, as an independent. his media career has not been very successful, for the precise reason that he says a lot of stupid things. for that reason, none of the parties that seek to be mainstream are likely to pick him up. he's too much of a loose cannon. i wouldn't expect any kind of major conservative or progressive conservative party at the federal or provincial level to endorse his nomination.
he'd probably have to start in municipal politics.
i mean, you run him in a safe seat and you risk galvanizing the opposition, and losing that base of centrist support that votes a certain way for cultural reasons. those western ridings out in the sticks aren't really 80% hard-right conservative, it's more that the voting decisions runs in the family. no seat is completely safe. some seats are low risk so long as it's nothing too thought provoking.
you run him in an impossible seat, and you risk blowback. say what you want about the ruling party, but they're not known to take crazy risks like this, and i don't see any reason why they'd need to change that at this point. they've kept him at an arm's distance for a reason - his purpose is to try and shift the spectrum. which means he's outside of it.
what harper needs to be worried about this election is the possibility of one of the two other parties collapsing into the other, at which point it's a rout one way or the other. and, to try and prevent that, he needs to be appealing to the middle - not the fringes of his support base.
he's too taboo at this point. if he had electoral ambitions, he fell on his sword to take that sun media job - the purpose was to provoke, which he must have known would make him unelectable.
garrtw
+deathtokoalas but he still use sunmedia headlines so it that fair oops!
deathtokoalas
+garrtw generally, if you want to run for office as a conservative, you don't want to brand yourself as a 'rebel'. that's not going to win you friends in the pmo. i don't think he's really thinking about it...
...and, i wouldn't really criticize him for that, either. there's lots of reasons to criticize him, but not that. about the last thing i'd want to do is run for office. i think it's far more productive to criticize from a distance, and try to provoke non-governmental action. nothing gets done in the government anymore. it's just a rubber stamp for corporate and other special interests.