LIVEPOST: Breakout da Two-Four + Moose Meat: it's the National Leaders Debate (Canada Election '15).

[ladypolitik]

Canada's 2015 federal election will be the most important and dramatic in a generation. Who wants your vote? And what will they do with it? Watch and engage during the Maclean’s National Leaders Debate, Thursday, August 6 at 8 pm ET. Maclean's political editor Paul Wells will moderate as Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair, Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth

Comments

[fenris_lorsrai]

an unusually long election campaign - 11 weeks

GODAMMNIT CANADA, is everything better there? 11 weeks is unusually long?

DAMN YOU CANADA!

(you should also tag this "meanwhile in Canada...")

[magedragonfire]

Longer than usual, yes. The date of the vote is always fixed (well, just about always), but it's up to the PM to officially call the election and get the campaigning started. During the last fifteen elections the campaigning period has been about 50 days; this time it's 78. Harper has called it this early because, of course, there are benefits to him and the Conservatives (that his party has instituted pretty recently).

It is not really a good thing, basically, and I am not looking forward to the bombardment of infuriating attack ads that the Conservatives have started on my radio station of choice at work. (They are doing a fantastic job of making me more sympathetic to the candidate they're attacking, and I normally wouldn't even vote for him.)

[azetburcaptain]

Longer than usual, which means the Conservatives apparently have a better chance, since they have more money to do more outreach. The funding of the parties works like this: partially from the number of seats, partially from donations. There IS a limit on individual donations, as far as I know, but idk how enforced that is.

Based on the current amount of seats, NDP will get some money, but it is the Conservatives who will have the most.

/late etc

[ivegotanlj]

So... Harper can pick and choose how many debates he wants to participate in? How does that make sense?

[magedragonfire]

Harper does what he wants, basically, especially where the media is concerned. He's got a terrible track record for answering questions at press conferences and public appearances of any kind, and doesn't even show up for question period at Parliament most of the time.

[azetburcaptain]

Yes. Nobody makes anyone show up for debates though. And Harper's always done whatever the fuck he wanted.

[ladypolitik]

Weak post; not enough Trump.

[spiritoftherain]

Watched it from the Green Party offices in Victoria. Am perversely pleased to report that all of the snacks I brought got eaten or vanished--I apparently have good taste in junk food! Elizabeth May was on point and was great at holding the other boys to task--they seemed almost afraid to engage with her, even when she was grilling Mulclair about the Keystone Pipeline!

[sunhawk]

Dammit i want to vote green party but May has earned my permanent side-eye after her support of the ignorant scaremongering idea that wifi can cause cancer and her blunder with Jian Ghomeshi

[ladypolitik]

Damn, the comm was pretty dead when Ghomeshi was exposed, huh? What a circus.

[sunhawk]

It's probably for the best, given how many people bought into his "The law doesn't belong in the bedroom!! I am being persecuted like gay people!!" schtick early on, we probably avoided any sealioning charades.

JG being a creep was like an open secret around Toronto, at least in the art/entertainment circles I drift in and out of, but I never dreamed what they meant was that he abused women repeatedly, holy moly we need to take a long look at ourselves what we just ignore, art people of TO sheesh.

[spiritoftherain]

Okay, but that compared to Trudeau supporting Bill C-51, Mulclair talking both sides of his mouth on a cartload of issues (including Keystone Pipeline) and everything Harper's done?