OK, a lot to unpack here. I do like your question though, "How about you give us your own feelings and why you think Pierre is so good." I am assuming that's a genuine ask, so I will answer that below. First, a few things:
Re: Dismissing Ted.
I was thinking of saying either "He started it" or "My dismissiveness was retaliatory 😉 " But how about this instead: Fair enough, yes, I was dismissive, and probably a bit rude. Ted, my apologies. Even though we are miles apart, and I genuinely think you are 100% closed off from certain perspectives, you are obviously free to share your opinions and to be part of the conversation. So, again, sorry about that.
Re: Mostly Liberal Support in this thread
You are correct that it's a small sample size, so I like that you pointed that out.
I would argue that there is a lot of hidden support for conservatives, that will hopefully show up on election day. 2 reasons:
- Debating politics online is really depressing, and studies show Liberals are more depressed on average.
(OK that one was a joke - even though the study is real)
- Debating politics online is really depressing, and most would rather not engage with it. I hate it too, believe it or not, but I consider this election to be of extra importance, as a sort of fork in the road for us.
- There is still a high social cost to publicly defending conservative positions. Going back just a few years, and even now, criticizing some of the controversial positions on the left will get you called a nazi, a bigot, a racist, a transphobe, etc etc. (This is that concept again of the left applying intent to things.) I could give some concrete examples here but think it might derail things further.
Re: Border Experience
Your example is somewhat anecdotal, but if I were to argue against it, an hour at the border is not that uncommon... (I have certainly had that experience before and hadn't smoked nearly enough to look Chinese.) But anecdotes aside, literally millions of illegals (not an exaggeration) were flowing in from Canada and Mexico, and voters chose to fix that. So it seems fair that they are going to be extra careful on who they let in... but I assume the process for actually doing that would not be super smooth in month 2. Into another country in an hour... non issue here for me, though obviously not ideal.
Re: Media bias
Ted: When you say "the moment someone says "you have to watch this YouTube Video!" I tend to run the other way!" ... I believe you. And I think you will find yourself in the minority on that. Cable TV is a dying medium, and even though I shouldn't make fun of the old farts again... you and comp might be the only ones watching it anymore (/intentional exaggeration used here for effect).
Youtube is a video hosting site, hosting billions of videos. Dismissing YouTube because you don't like the content is like dismissing "books" because Trump has one. Like anything else, there is a wide range of content: Some are opinion. Some are long form discussions. Some are cat videos. The beautiful thing, is that you can choose for yourself, dive into literally any topic that interests you, and most importantly: draw your own conclusions. This as opposed to the pre-formed opinions compressed into 60 second sound bites for traditional media. Hard to call yourself open minded when you admit to "running" from "video". Comp did the same thing with X, and discredited an un-edited video of Hillary Clinton passionately supporting a Trump policy, because it was hosted there. Or the fact that I was practically begging you guys to watch one podcast - with my only question posed being "what are your thoughts on this?" (Narrator: And still, no one watched.)
Comp:
Interesting that you say "Well aware there are still biases but it should NOT be controlled by governments."
As I am sure you know, CBC is a government funded media operation, to the tune of over 1 Billion yearly.
I am sure we won't agree on how obvious the resulting bias is... but would hope you could at least agree on the underlying incentive to not report favorably on the candidate who says they should be de-funded.
And then back to the main question, "How about you give us your own feelings and why you think Pierre is so good."
Glad you asked.
I'm going to skip all of my outright disgust for Mr Carney, which I would just summarize as "evil con-man" and try to focus on the question: what I like about Pierre.
Number one has got to be the idea of treating every person equally, as an individual, and not treating people differently based on skin color, race, etc. We've touched on this a couple times in the thread and I don't think any one takes it as seriously as they should. Everything must be at the individual level: judge me for my character and my actions, not the character and actions of those with the same skin tone. Pierre has been very outspoken on this. Tying in to this is the idea of woke policies - fundamentally it's deciding if we are going to "play god" (figure of speech only) with trying to assemble our lives around skin/race/gender quotas, or are we going to just let people make their own choices. "Equality of opportunity vs Equality of outcome". Pierre supports the former.
Number two has got to be the policies on Law and Order. The liberals have maintained a catch and release policy. If you listen to what the Police are saying, they are incredibly frustrated that the people they arrest for crimes are back on the street the next day. Crime is rampant. I visited Hamilton and barely recognized it... I mean it looks like one of those "shithole countries" now. But seriously, there was an attempt to have compassion that turned into a nightmare: there are very little actual consequences to crime under the Liberal party. Pierre has suggested the opposite, that we clamp down, and make the streets safe again.
Number three I'll say economic policy. Maybe this should be higher on the list actually. Pierre seems to be the only one who has correctly identified our biggest elephant in the room: the cost of living in Canada is out of control. We are about the feel that... as prices on everything have (literally) doubled, while wages have not (and will not). Pierre will help by reducing taxes by 15% out of the gate, and will also do better to balance the budget, a Conservative strong point, which reduces the biggest hidden tax of all: inflation. In a country that has taxed us to death, that is a great start and the rax cut alone will put a few extra thousand in everyone's pocket next year with one stroke of the pen. He was responsible for the pressure that forced Carney to remove the carbon tax, after the liberals told us that it was necessary to save the world. (More importantly, he understands the hidden costs of taxing energy... Make energy expensive and you make every aspect of life more expensive. Those hidden costs are still there, despite Carney's fake carbon tax "pause.") He's pro-business , which not only helps make Canada investable (why would you invest in Canada when the US is more business friendly) but provides job and economic activity that we need to get back. Coming off the worst growth track record in the G7, this will be a major shift. Overall it's the conservative idea that the free market has been the largest generator of prosperity ever and should be regulated sparingly... versus the the liberal idea that more government will make things better. (Go visit your local ServiceOntario location if you think that's true.)
Speaking of energy. Pierre has committed to expanding oil and LNG production and exports. You don't have to be an oil worker to feel the resulting boosts to the economy. Connecting our provinces to trade with each other, instead of foreign companies. There's another fundamental question around "Are we done with Oil, or not."
Not getting a lot of attention is his opposition to the World Economic Forum. It's a big one for me though.
The idea that a bunch of rich billionaires fly off and brag about how much control they have over the government, should anger you. Especially when their stated position is to lower our living standards - with the justification being a sort of "long term good". Pierre opposes this and I don't want this group having any say in what happens in Canada - that should be up to voters, not elites. Also worth noting that while Justin Trudeau was only a WEF puppet, Carney is the real deal WEF elite.
On a more subjective level, I think he's a great communicator (again - please don't rely on the 60 second repetitive slogans, taken from a political rally context, to determine that. Instead, watch an hour long conversation, to see him actually speak! And I think he genuinely cares. I think he's been consistent in his messaging, and I think he's been open to change on things that he got wrong.
There's plenty more I like about him but this is getting long. Any thoughts?
