All Purpose Politics and News Thread

[Natalka]

German chancellor Merkel named Time's 'Person of the Year'



Time magazine named German Chancellor Angela Merkel its 2015 "Person of the Year" on Wednesday, noting her resilience and leadership when faced with the refugee crisis and turmoil in the European Union over its currency this year.

In a statement explaining the magazine's choice, managing editor Nancy Gibbs said despite crises in the region that caused "reason to wonder whether Europe could continue to exist," Merkel, 61, emerged as an "indispensable player."


"For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is TIME’s Person of the Year," Gibbs wrote.

Merkel celebrated her 10-year anniversary as chancellor last month, making her the European Union’s longest-serving leader.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/german-cha...--finance.html

[Patty Smyth]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12...cahpmg00000001

Barack Obama Invites Justin Trudeau To State Dinner At White House

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12...cahpmg00000001

and the Vogue shoot, nice

[DaveP]

So, after the dinner will Justin and Barack retire to a sitting room to smoke a couple of... cigars?

[gryphon]

So even the toronto star is saying that trudeau's proposed electoral reform is undemocratic and wrong

[DaveP]

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/comme...al-reform.html

Trudeau is just talking talk because he made campaign promises. The Liberals will make a show of attempting change but in the end nothing will change. It's against their interest for there to be change. With proportional representation they would only have a minority government now, not a majority government.

The NDP gave the Liberals a scare in the last four years but that seems to be over. It looks like it's back to the Liberals or the Conservatives as the two main choices for voters. And the Liberals expect to be the top choice for a good while to come. They won't willingly trade majorities for minorities. At the end of the day they'll say 'Gee, we tried, but just couldn't make it work' and we'll have the status quo.

I'll take bets. (payable in 2019)

[DaveP]

The math is probably already done somewhere but I didn't find it right away so did it myself.

With true proportional representation:

The Liberals would have 133 seats, not 184
The Conservatives would have 108 seats, not 99
The NDP would have 67, not 44
The Bloc would have 16, not 10
The Greens would have 12, not 1

That adds up to 336, the missing two are due to my rounding and those who voted for someone other than those 5.

Thing is, May is right when she said strategic voting cost her party. People didn't want to throw away their vote so a vote that would have gone to her party went to a Liberal or NDP candidate instead. In a proportional representation election even more seats than what I listed above would likely wind up with smaller parties. That may result of a fairer representation in parliament of who the voters want to represent them, but it would cost the major parties dearly and that's why it will not happen, even if they make a show of trying to do it.

[gryphon]

Except the liberals dont want proportional rep, they want a ranked ballot rep...and that favors them

[DaveP]

Except the liberals dont want proportional rep, they want a ranked ballot rep...and that favors them

Ranked ballot only favors them as long as there are three left choices and only one right choice. Were that to come into effect new choices on the right would appear to balance things out. The right would not lie down.

In ranked ballot the choices would go from

Liberal
NDP
Green
Conservative

to

Liberal
NDP
Green
Conservative
New Reform
Canadian Alliance

(or whatever the names would be.)

If one person gets to vote 3 times for the left or right, the other side is going to make sure they get three choices too. It's untenable and foolish.

[heartgirl99]

donald trump, the new rob ford



http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politi...cnn-interview/
"I'm doing good for the Muslims," Trump told Don Lemon in an interview for "CNN Tonight." "Many Muslim friends of mine are in agreement with me. They say, 'Donald, you brought something up to the fore that is so brilliant and so fantastic.'"

[Patty Smyth]

Doesn't matter what way you swing it. Left out numbers right in this country. With the NDP sliding into oblivion where do you think the majority of those voters will go? 2 choices Green or Libs. very few will go to the cons.

Besides Harper tried to win this election by introducing 30 new ridings 23 of which were conservatives ridings that were split. That trick didn't work.

[Patty Smyth]

donald trump, the new rob ford



http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politi...cnn-interview/
"I'm doing good for the Muslims," Trump told Don Lemon in an interview for "CNN Tonight." "Many Muslim friends of mine are in agreement with me. They say, 'Donald, you brought something up to the fore that is so brilliant and so fantastic.'"

I saw the interview last night and like all great con men he is very convincing.

[DaveP]

I saw the interview last night and like all great con men he is very convincing.

Con man, yes. Ever think he might be going for the 'long con'? Like maybe he never had any intention of winning anything and just wants to completely discredit the Republican party in the minds of normal people (swing voters and even many Republicans). Hey, he's a billionaire and he's bored.

[FallenPixels]

If anything, he made the left and right agree on something. That is no small feat.

[Natalka]

OSLO – The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which helped build democracy in the country after the 2011 revolution, has received the Nobel Peace Prize.



The winners of the 2015 Nobel Prize, Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet members, from left to right, Houcine Abassi, Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, Abdessattar Ben Moussa and Wided Bouchamaoui, holding the award at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday Dec.10. 2015.

This year’s award was collected at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital by members of four organizations, representing unions, industry, trade and human rights.


The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the group for “its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy” after the revolution that overthrew its long-time authoritarian president.


The quartet is made up of four key organizations: the Tunisian General Labor Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2392319/tu...l-peace-prize/

[Natalka]

Entertainment people really need to stay out of the climate change debate...

It's Just Weather, Leo!

CALGARY – Albertans are poking fun of actor Leonardo DiCaprio over comments he made about having seen the effects of climate change firsthand while in Alberta filming his new movie The Revenant.

DiCaprio was quoted in the recent issue of Variety as saying “we would come and there would be eight feet of snow, and then all of a sudden a warm gust of wind would come.”

The problem is, the warm gusts of wind DiCaprio described are a common environmental occurrence in Calgary known as a Chinook.

“It was scary,” said DiCaprio in Variety. “I’ve never experienced something so firsthand that was so dramatic.”

“You cannot make a statement on climate change based on a weather event,” added (Meteorologist Jordan) Witzel. “Weather is what’s happening now; climate is what we would expect to happen into the future.”http://globalnews.ca/news/2392298/al..._campaign=2014