Gosh, it's hard to believe it's been 4 years. Namaste
In the spirit of us Canadians minding our own fucking business, I thought we should have a thread wherein we discuss the coming Federal election on October 21st 2019.
In the interest of an actual informed discussion, here's the platforms for all the major parties, except the Bloc. If you're going to vote for the Bloc, you're going to vote for the Bloc.
https://www.liberal.ca/realchange/
https://www.conservative.ca/about-us/governing-documents/
https://www.ndp.ca/commitments
https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/platform
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/our-vision
What are the issues you think need attention in Canada? Who do you think will best address them? Why and based on what?
I'll start:
Our defence procurement is a fucking joke. Left or right, Canada needs to be able to protect its borders or we should consider closing up shop. We have no Naval surface to air capability at the moment, and because of pan parliament ineptitude that cannot be rectified for another decade, and even then, it won't be Canadian scientists and engineers who will be involved with its implementation. New fighter jets wont be delivered until 2025, and we still don't know which jet we're purchasing (at this moment, there's only one sensible purchase).
We have our own problems to worry about with healthcare. Our wait times continue to be excessively long, and a sizeable percentage of our population does not have a primary care physician. I don't actually think this is a funding issue. We spend enough. Our government, for the moment, probably does not have the inputs to actually fix the problems with the system. One problem is that the government can't insist on more doctors of a specific type, and where they should be located. We don't have enough primary care physicians, but we also can't force physicians to be GPs, or specialists of any particular kind. Another problem is that people go to emergency rooms for primary care, including for chronic illnesses, largely because they have nothing else. This is not a spending issue, this is a systemic issue made worse by the fact that the actual implementation of systems is the responsibility of the provinces. I would support an NHS style intervention. Whatever we're doing for the moment isn't working.
Our infrastructure is a joke. It's honestly the most embarrassing thing about coming home for a visit. The 2nd largest country in the world connected by a sparse network of goat paths.
Who's going to deal with these issues?