cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/170859
From BBC News via this RSS feed
Essentially, Conservatives were seeing what topics were hot with that crowd, and campaigning on them… all while having no workable plan to actually address the issues they were railing on the Liberals for doing so poorly with.
So anyone experienced with politics saw it as a smokescreen, but the younger crowd fell for it because it resonated and they could see the actual harm that had been done to them by the Liberals.
To this group I say:
Don’t fall for fascism; it doesn’t work. Why not give the NDP a try? They have actual, workable solutions to the problems you face.
This was me when I was young and stupider. The Conservatives always campaigned on addressing problems and explaining why I should care about them.
It took a few years before I learned to start asking why and how. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that I had to check their work to see if their problems were even real or if they had any idea of a solution to them.
And they did not. But they were awfully good at talking about economics while running higher deficits than any other government.
Why not give the NDP a try?
Because the people they listen to tell them that if they lean left they are “gay” or “beta” or whatever other bullshit ego-destroying insults they project onto these young minds.
If young voters are worried about jobs, housing, healthcare, education, or crime, they need to stop “flocking” to Conservatives, and learn about how their provincial and municipal governments work.
And when they realize that Conservative leaders at the provincial and municipal levels of government are the ones directly affecting their lives, perhaps they will have an “ah ha” moment and vote for anyone but the Conservatives in the next election.
Was just talking to a friend and and mentioned similar.
Most people simply don’t underground the separation of powers and responsibilities between federal and provincial govs, let alone how each function or even the difference between an MP and an MPP/MLA etc.
Sad state of affairs.
Exactly this. I also wasn’t confident cons would handle the southern problem well.
Smokescreen is a good callout, I definitely had no clue when I was younger but now that is all I see when I listen to PP talk.
The sad part for me is, my riding elected a Conservative, and in general he’s a pretty good guy. He’s old school conservative, and does a good job representing his constituency in parliament.
But the party he’s stuck with is not the party it was when Mulroney was PM; people in leadership positions are actively pushing fascist and populist ideology, and feeling it’s fine to actively deceive the Canadian public to gain more power.
That’s not something I can respect. Old school conservatism I often disagreed with, but at least I could respect those who stuck with the party line out of a sense of integrity. I could have good-faith discussions with them about the best way to govern. How do you do that with someone who is only telling you what they think you want to hear, all the while having totally different behaviour where it counts?
Mulroney was Reagan’s lapdog and did a lot of damage to Canada. He signed NAFTA that primarily benefited the US, advanced privatization of Crown corps, cut business taxes, brought in new restrictions to and cut EI benefits, introduced the GST, cut universal healthcare funding, failed to foresee that offering Quebec “distinct society” status - but not to First Nations, Inuit and Metis people - would cause the failure of the Meech Lake accord, and was implicated in the Airbus affair (by accepting bribes/payments).
He was never the face of the ‘good old Conservative party’ because it’s doubtful they ever were “good”.
