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The NDP leadership race is a nail-biter. But is anyone paying attention? (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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The NDP leadership race could be turning into a nail-biter with no clear winner in sight. But it's unclear if Canadians are tuning in.

But according to party insiders, three are likely bets to become leader: Heather McPherson, Avi Lewis and Rob Ashton.

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[–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The gun thing is the least important part. I’m focusing on that because you put it first, and because many people who put guns at the front will often use that as an excuse to not vote for the better thing.

What we need, right now, is for the people of Canada to start voting for their interests. No more “strategic” voting and no more fighting against postive, evidence-backed change. The people you want exist and are out there yelling but we tell ourselves “they couldn’t win” and throw them aside. After a 36% turnout, Montréal elected an obviously corrupt landlord to be the mayor when Craig Sauvé was right there saying the things you say will fix things.

It’s not flashy, it’s not dramatic, but the reality is that Canadians don’t seem to want better for themselves. We have to vote to show others that we do, and that’s scary right now but what, do we want someone to hold our hands and call us special babies in order to do our one fucking job?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    i agree that guns are not on the top of the list of important things for most canadians. however you are not going to flip conservative, rural/indigenous hunters without some kind of roll back, as an indigenous hunter myself, who hunts to sustain myself and my family. its annoying that we would rather spend money on a buy back programs instead of using that money to secure the border and dedicate more law enforcment to addressing illegally imported firearms and ghost guns.

    if we want a presence from the NDP, and to gain official status back, this is just one issue that would flip a massive sum of voters from the conservative and im sure the liberal party as well.

    everything else the NDP wants starts to make sense when you allow canadians to have their privacy and some autonomy back in their lives. everything else sweetens the pot. unfortunately there are a lot of single issue voters when it comes to gun rights. if we undermine the conservative parties policies, like the liberals did, and quite successfully, specifically around gun rights. it would be a slam dunk return for the NDP.

    ive spoken to a quite a few people who decided to vote conservative on this policy alone. the rest of their platform doesnt work for them (obviously) otherwise. we need to strengthen individual rights, and workers rights, and we need a better armed population. because none of our wanted policies will matter if we are annexed by the states without a fight.

    we unfortunately do not have the luxury of living in a safe world anymore. and we need numbers to ensure that we get the policies that serve all canadians. even the ones traditionally on the other side of the isle.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Do you…not understand how little autonomy you have under Liberals and Conservatives? Not only are their laws actually pretty shitty, but by quietly soft-locking the working class put of having enough money to genuinely participate in the market you also have very little power there, too. There also won’t be much of a place left to hunt for your food after those two are done selling off and exploiting all that land.

    If people do not see how obviously bad the Liberals and Conservatives are, and if they are stupid enough to vote single-issue on the dumbest fucking thing imaginable compared to everything else going on, then there’s no way they’re going to flip parties because of any concessions. Single-issue voters very often use their pet issue as their excuse, not their reason, and will vote away all their rights and power for the love of the game.

    You vote Liberal and Conservative and you get precisely what you deserve. You can vote to turtle up and being afraid of everything, allowing the wealthy to take everything from you and your community, or you can grow a backbone and try to help shift the culture. They don’t give a fuck about you, and the best you can do to work against that is make excuses for them?

    You can’t fight the wildfire that will claim your hunting grounds with a fucking gun, genius.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    You can’t fight the wildfire that will claim your hunting grounds with a fucking gun, genius.

    correct. but we can dissuade the people who hold the match from lighting it.

    fascism doesnt bow to democracy, authoritarians dont fear pies to the face, oligarchs dont care about your hunger strike. and monopolies dont give a fuck about a grass roots start up trying to save the environement, making them look bad in comparison. if anything they are a slight, but managable annoyance.

    but every single one of those systems, individuals, all of them are scared of people with the ability to stop them from getting what they want. whether through spoken word, or physical resistance.

    we live in a world where guns exist, we also live in a world where government representatives like the military, and police have guns. and so, we are at their mercy. they decide the laws, and unless we want to be shot or arrested and imprisoned, we must follow those laws. even if they ultimately lead to a postponed death through something like climate change.

    i wish you could snap your fingers and make guns, and other weapons of violence and war no longer exist.

    but they do, and those without them will forever be at the mercy of those who wield them.

    excuse me while i butcher this quote.

    "if i have a gun, and you have a gun, then we can have a conversation, if you have a gun, and i do not, then thats not a conversation, thats coercion"

    guns are not integral to my beliefs, in fact i hate guns, when used as a tool for violence against human beings, but i will not be so naive as to think that uprooting an entire political system will not come without some degree of violent resistance. sooner, or later.

    dreams are free, manifesting them requires sacrifice.

    and id prefer they be on the altar, in our place.

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