DIVERSITY OUTREACH TO COVER UP ECONOMIC ILLITERACY

by Rémi Tremblay

At the last Canadian federal election, Canadians expressed their will to "make a political change." Many felt that ten years of Conservative rule had been enough for them.

It wasn't that the country had been mismanaged or anything like that. They simply felt they needed "change" and Justin Trudeau, the flamboyant leader of the Liberals, represented just that. The Conservatives had applied a libertarian-inspired approach along the lines of "the less you hear about the federal government, the better things are," while Justin was more a "look at me" histrionic personality.

STORM OF "FEEL"

One of these small, cute, furry creatures is now Prime Minister of Canada.

by Alex Fontana

This Wednesday, November 4, 2015, Justin Trudeau became Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister, replacing the Cuckservative Stephen Harper, after a landslide electoral victory. The win restored the Liberal Party to its position as the prevailing political force in Canadian politics (they’ve governed Canada for roughly 70 percent of the last century), as the electoral swing towards them was the largest-ever numerical increase in Canadian election history, with the Liberals moving up from third position before the election (36 seats) to a dominating first (184 seats). 

Trudeau, has already been labeled the "prime minister of hugs," known for his omnipresent photogenic smile, which imbues him with a sense of bumpkin-like wonderment, rather than the marks of a piercing intellect – a modern ‘positive’ politician whose boyish goofiness makes it hard to call him ‘Mr. Trudeau’ rather ‘Justin’ – which, in gleeful derision, I shall now commence to do.

Justin no doubt inherited that breezy countenance as the result of a life served with a silver spoon and a political position passed down from father-to-son as name recognition and branding had more to do with this election than charisma or any other merit or policy. "Sunny ways my friends. Sunny ways," Trudeau told his enthusiastic supporters in Montreal. "This is what positive politics can do." What a dunce!

THINKING OF VOTING, EH?

by Rémi Tremblay

On August 2nd, Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper launched the longest and therefore most expensive electoral campaign in Canadian history, one that will culminate on October 19th with Canucks voting for their MPs.

Canada lives under a parliamentary monarchy, a system imported from Great Britain. But unlike in Old Albion, the political parties running in the federal elections differ from those running for provincial or city elections. While non-mainstream parties can do well at local elections if they campaign on local issues, they find it almost impossible to make a breakthrough at the federal level because of the constituency-based electoral system. Because of this, we have no nationalist party like France's Front National or even the BNP. Although we are not trapped in a two-party system, like our Southern neighbours, only a few mainstream parties can hope to have MPs elected.