Life

[miffy495]

Canadian politics time!

 

I live in a province that, for the past 44 years, has elected Conservative government after conservative government. I was -16 when the Progressive Conservative Party took their first majority government in my home by kicking out the even MORE right wing Social Credit Party (founded by a guy who actually went by the name "Bible Bill"). They have ONLY ever had majorities. A thing to understand before I go on is that Canada basically has three viable parties. You have the Conservatives (at the provincial level, named the oxymoronic "Progressive Conservatives"), who I should not need to tell you the stance of, the Liberals, another poorly named party that's actually the centrist option, and the New Democratic Party, the left wing fringe group (if you ask the media, anyway) that has never actually held federal power and can occasionally get a premiership in the zanier provinces. There are always provincial fringe parties, but the only one of these that ever fields candidates in federal elections is the Parti Quebecois. In Alberta, we have the "so right wing it's terrifying" Wild Rose Party, which actually nearly kicked the PCs out in the last election and terrified anyone who is not attending church several times a week.

 

With falling oil prices blasting the shit out of our economy and a lot of terrible PR choices, the PC have been taking a bath on the provincial level lately. This all culminated in Tuesday's election. Overnight, Alberta went from a right wing stronghold and the most conservative place in the country to being run by a very strong NDP majority. Wild Rose managed to take second place and form the opposition, but they have less than half the seats of the NDP. This lead to a Conservative cabinet minister at the federal level saying "I guess they're Albertastan now", which is a joke that both sides have rallied behind. The right wing people because ha ha casual racism, and the left wing because it means that THEY'RE actually afraid of US now. I am very proud of my province this week.

 

Two days after that, unfortunately, bill C-51 passed. This is an invasive government monitoring program hastily introduced in the wake of a terrorist attack last year that allows citizens to be arrested and held without explanation. That is less good. Luckily there is a federal election still to come this year and I am latching on to this hope that the left wing resurgence in Canada from the last few years may actually come to fruition and we can finally stop being embarrassed by Stephen Harper. Keep us in your thoughts.

[tberton]

Yeah, the Alberta election is quite heartening, although just to make a couple corrections to your post, miffy, the Parti Quebecois is actually a provincial party only - it's the Bloc Quebecois that fields candidates on a federal level. That leads me into my second point, which is that I think it's tough to draw too many straight lines between provincial parties and federal ones in Canada. There are a ton of differences between them and lots of examples of a province going one way provincially and another way federally. So I'm not too confident about what this election means for how Alberta will vote federally. Still, though, I'm happy for you guys.

[Thrik]

Our Conservatives in the UK just got elected in and all of the other significant party leaders resigned on the spot. My Facebook has been an inferno of people dissing those who voted them in and people dissing those who didn't vote at all. Also, the Scottish National Party just decimated Scotland's political seats by taking something like 80% of the region.

 

My feelings about the parties aren't particularly strong, but one thing I don't like about the Conservatives is their intention to do away with the EU-wide human rights law and also increase the jurisdiction of government web monitoring and control — under the guise of defeating terrorism, of course. Sounds eerily similar to your Canadian counterparts. I hope it doesn't come to fruition.

[deleted user]

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[Merus]

See, what's weird is that Tony Abbott is awful but even he isn't awful enough to dismantle the public health system, and half the time when he tries to fuck over the poor or give his mates a bonus there's a huge outcry. So it's been bad, but it's nothing that a new government won't immediately be able to reverse.

[Dewar]

*sigh* My state (Washington) has been pretty much constantly dominated by the democratic party, but there are still so many ways that it feels like we're conservative.

[JonCole]

It's easy to forget that Democrat doesn't equal progressive/liberal.

[Dewar]

Yeah, I know, it's kinda the option we've got I guess. I'm thinking I'm going to start voting crazy fringe candidates in the next election. At least the way that primaries work in Washington, you aren't "throwing your vote away."

[Spenny]

I'm taking two weeks off to take a road trip with my girlfriend and our dog. We're driving from Toronto, Ontario to St John's, Newfoundland, which will be over 6000 km round trip, and at least 70 hours of driving. Bringing the dog will be a test for sure, and we're probably going to be scrambling over the next week to get ready for the trip, but I'm looking forward to the time off.

 

If there's any advice for taking a dog on a long trip, I'd be happy to hear it 

[Bjorn]

*sigh* My state (Washington) has been pretty much constantly dominated by the democratic party, but there are still so many ways that it feels like we're conservative.

 

Yeah, I live in the most *liberal* town in Kansas, often referred to as the San Francisco of Kansas, and it's still shockingly conservative in a lot of ways.  They're just easy to overlook because it's not the rest of Kansas. 

[Vasari]

I figure this is as good a place to ask as any. I've just finished my degree and I'm about to start applying for jobs in the games industry. There's one company that would be a perfect place to work who are hiring for alot of positions right now. Specifically they've got two positions I'd be qualified for; QA and junior producer. I have a better shot at QA, but the producer role would be an amazing opportunity to get started in the industry. What's worrying me is that I don't know if it looks bad to apply for two jobs at the same company. I don't want to give the impression that I only care about one job over the other, or that I'm just firing out applications for jobs I'm not really interested in. I'd be really excited to work in either, I just don't want to screw up and end up with none. Should I apply for them both?

[Professor Video Games]

You're over analyzing things. Apply to both. It won't look bad.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Turn that into a positive by saying that you like the industry/company that much that you just want a chance to start off working there and see what it's like.

[Gormongous]

Turn that into a positive by saying that you like the industry/company that much that you just want a chance to start off working there and see what it's like.

 

Yeah, that was going to be my advice, even though I'm pretty far away from the games industry. "I want to work with your people/at your business in whatever capacity" sells really well, especially if actually true, unless you're using it to beg for an entry-level job that isn't there.

[jennegatron]

Also hiring for those 2 positions may be handled by 2 completely different people, and as such they would not know that you applied for both.

[Vasari]

You're over analyzing things. Apply to both. It won't look bad.

 

Phew! Okay, Thanks!

[Bjorn]

Oh man, some local asshat who's run a skeezy furniture business for decades decided to flame out in a blaze of glory, publishing a billboard sized rant in front of his store about Obama and hippies and the homeless and urban rats and the developmentally disabled and Obama and Marxism and and and...

 

I always hated this place because their advertising was obnoxious as hell, and its not surprising at all that the owner turned out to be a racist dirtbag.  But at least everyone knows now. 

[Professor Video Games]

Kinda get a Timecube vibe from that rant. Lib Marxists are EDUCATED STUPID.

[JonCole]

The fake American flag and "retards" crack really tie everything together. Man, what a piece of garbage.

[Badfinger]

Oh my goodness what an amazing day.

 

...And I was wrong, as usual.

 

Back to being alone forever, per the norm.

[mikemariano]

There'll be other beer tours!

[Henroid]

Oh man, some local asshat who's run a skeezy furniture business for decades decided to flame out in a blaze of glory, publishing a billboard sized rant in front of his store about Obama and hippies and the homeless and urban rats and the developmentally disabled and Obama and Marxism and and and...

 

I always hated this place because their advertising was obnoxious as hell, and its not surprising at all that the owner turned out to be a racist dirtbag.  But at least everyone knows now. 

If I was there I would totally tell that guy, "The free market has spoken, and you're out of business."

[Badfinger]

Looking for apartments. Is the common adage that you shouldn't spend more than 30% of your gross income on rent, or on total living accommodations? That makes a pretty big difference and I have seen both. It's making me nervous.

[JonCole]

I spend like 35% of my income on rent, it can get pretty tight some months.

[Spenny]

I think its 1/3rd of post tax income on total living expenses. I do about 45%, it's great