[andyt]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

This makes me almost want to run for a seat with the NDP.

Job expeience required? None.

Again, what job experience do the CPC candidates have? Some candidates from all parties likely have municipal or provincial experience, but not all of them.

[Lemmy]

saturn_656 saturn_656:

This makes me almost want to run for a seat with the NDP.

Job expeience required? None.

Job experience? Hell, ANY experience. How about some life experience, at the very least?

[bootlegga]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

DerbyX DerbyX:

I'm sorry? Did the NDP break any rules for their candidates? Did they not win their elections?

That is democracy.

I don't mean it in a legal sense, I mean in a general sense.

If the Liberal party tried running some golf course beer girl it wouldn't be generally accepted by the party, the opposition or the voters.

Every party has ballot fillers, not just the NDP.

Have you looked at some of the candidates the parties fielded in this or past elections? Are you honestly telling me that Ryan Hastman was the best candidate the Conservatives could find to run against Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona?

Out of a province of 3 million - the majority of which are conservatives by nature? He had no chance even with all the support he got federally. For the CPC to claim they wanted to paint Alberta blue, they blew it big time IMHO. I'm sure they could have found a real candidate to run against her, not a twenty-something pretty face like Hastman.

Or take a look at some of the Liberal candidates running in rural Alberta and Saskatchewan? Or some CPC candidates in big cities in previous elections? Ballot fillers appear all the time, and 99% of the time, they get wiped out.

The problem here is that a dozen or so were elected - and only time will tell if their constituents get properly represented or not.

[andyt]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Every party has ballot fillers, not just the NDP.

Have you looked at some of the candidates the parties fielded in this or past elections? Are you honestly telling me that Ryan Hastman was the best candidate the Conservatives could find to run against Linda Duncan in Edmonton-Strathcona?

Out of a province of 3 million - the majority of which are conservatives by nature? He had no chance even with all the support he got federally. For the CPC to claim they wanted to paint Alberta blue, they blew it big time IMHO. I'm sure they could have found a real candidate to run against her, not a twenty-something pretty face like Hastman.

Or take a look at some of the Liberal candidates running in rural Alberta and Saskatchewan? Or some CPC candidates in big cities in previous elections? Ballot fillers appear all the time, and 99% of the time, they get wiped out.

The problem here is that a dozen or so were elected - and only time will tell if their constituents get properly represented or not.

[saturn_656]

andyt andyt:

saturn_656 saturn_656:

This makes me almost want to run for a seat with the NDP.

Job expeience required? None.

Again, what job experience do the CPC candidates have? Some candidates from all parties likely have municipal or provincial experience, but not all of them.

None were 19 years old... or post secondary students... etc.

You can't deny the Orange Wave elected persons who were seen as having no chance of winning when this election started.

Everybody was caught by surprise, including the new NDP MP's.

[andyt]

Oh, sure, I agree. But read Boot's post. You could run for your CPC's and still have no job experience. And you wouldn't have to deny your beliefs to do it.

[saturn_656]

andyt andyt:

Oh, sure, I agree. But read Boot's post. You could run for your CPC's and still have no job experience. And you wouldn't have to deny your beliefs to do it.

I agree that every party runs filler candidates in ridings that are considered "safe seats" for other parties.

The difference this time is (amazingly) many of those filler candidates were elected. Jack Layton is going to have his hands full.

[andyt]

I'm not arguing that with you.

[saturn_656]

andyt andyt:

I'm not arguing that with you.

Shit... we're in agreement?

Damn... I'm lost now... so used to arguing.

[andyt]

[bootlegga]

[Zipperfish]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Why is it that the NDP can get away with this? Canadians just laugh it off that we're paying a girl with no job experience 100k. Do we give them a break cause they're a 3rd rate party?

If the Conservatives or Liberals did that, shit would hit the fan.

Same thing happened with Reform. You got all these yahoos in that had absolutely no clue what they were doing. The grassroots candidates are not the polished politicains that the Liebrals and Conservatives, for the most part, produce. And grassroots change is celarly what these people voted for.

Seems like the 19 y.o. party girl from Quebec might be running into some difficulties with her candidacy papers though. She might be a capital "L" libaility.

As for paying her $100K--well, actually it's $157K. But what are you going to do? If you get elected MP, that's the pay.

[dino_bobba_renno]

It's not a matter of if but rather when the NDP will run into problems with some of the MP’s who ran and were elected in Quebec. Quebec voters are a fickle bunch, the NDP has their work cut out for them just dealing with the fact that there are going to be some pretty high expectations placed upon them which are really beyond their reach due to the Conservatives having a majority. Adding young MP’s that have limited or no experience in politics (or life experience as Lemmy rightly pointed out) to that mix is a recipe for disaster.

In the short term the NDP may be riding high but it’s very likely that their success in Quebec will hurt them in the long run especially with the group of MP’s they have in there.

I see this whole election as a bit of an anomaly. I just don’t see the NDP’s success as a long term thing nor can I see the Conservatives maintaining the majority the have gained. Canadians want change from time to time, it’s unusual at the best of times to see any party hold power for more than three terms in a row. I suspect that as long as the Liberals can get there shit together a bit they will bounce back in the next election.