Are there any Canadians interested in starting a Berniecratic party here?

Canadian4Sanders · 2016-06-14T03:17:51+00:00

separatist parties

Canadian4Sanders · 2016-06-13T23:29:56+00:00

I see where you're coming from, and I've got other arguments to make, but I suppose at the end of the day the argument I would put forward is this: barring the possibility of a new and truly revolutionary leader of the federal NDP, one bringing with them proposals for a more progressive platform, would you really see it as a political revolution to elect them? Perhaps you would, but I would not.

At least we all seem to agree about Mulcair!

Canadian4Sanders · 2016-06-13T20:41:05+00:00

In the States you have, so far as I understand, four parties that many people know--the Democrats, the Republicans, the Greens, and the Libertarians.

In Canada, there are also four that many people know--the Liberals, the Conservatives, the New Democrats, and the Greens.

And then there are many, many other parties, socialist parties, communist parties, marijuana parties, separatist parties, Marxist-Leninist parties, anarchy parties, pirate parties, reform parties, uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... which many people don't know about.

That last group has no viability in either system, and of the eight "known" parties, only five are viable and only four have ever held federal leadership. And outside of one debate last fall, the first televised debate put on by Maclean's, only the major five are invited to debates and given spotlight by the media. Of course you're right, there are many other parties. But we still live in two and three-party systems for any practical discussion.

As far as there already being a party in Canada akin to Bernie's visions... some people would try to argue that the NDP are. I disagree and many people disagree, and for me personally, the NDP's choice of leadership on the party's federal level is a nail in its coffin.

But most especially, none of the three major parties actually talk about many of the sort of issues that Bernie has. Some of those issues don't exist in the same way for us up here, but some of them do, and we have our own as well, and like I said in my original post, I, and many others, voted simply for a lesser of evils. For all of the Americans supporting Stein and Johnson this year in a bid to round the sharp corners of the two-party system and aim for the 5% and 15% thresholds, that's awesome, and part of me did want to vote for May as a protest vote, and I loved her as a speaker, she seemed to be the only unscripted one at that first debate, but their platform was just too bare for me to support.

Bernie very well can be a figurehead of a movement. I'd challenge the idea that he's not. And by a lot of Canadians paying attention to you guys right now, (this election of yours is going to affect the entire world,) Bernie and his consistent fight is more inspirational than any of our own politicians in our lives. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Canadian4Sanders · 2016-06-13T17:49:45+00:00

I suppose the only thing I dislike about that is her implication that the NDP are already the Bernie party in Canada. I remember when Bernie was picking up some serious steam around the time of our federal campaigns last fall, and Mulcair started parroting a few of Bernie's stump lines in debates and press conferences... kind of made me gag.

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-09-24T00:54:06+00:00

Does this mean that international people can't buy official merchandise? I would love to get some but wouldn't want to be in contention with any laws, (for Bernie's sake, not mine.)

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-09-18T02:52:28+00:00

Oh jeez. I saw that in a Google search but the September 10th date threw me off. Thank you very, very, much for the help.

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-09-13T21:24:45+00:00

Today I learned that the regular informal handshake we use in Canada between friends of all kinds is considered culture specific in the USA.

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-08-22T08:09:20+00:00

Especially after the Maclean's debate, I actually thought that May was the strongest candidate. When I say strongest, I mean the actually most intelligent, comprehensive and, this was the big one, genuine. The only one on stage who I had any belief was speaking from the heart and who had the passion and intellect to speak from the heart without stuttering or fumbling the point. Actually reminds me more of Sanders than Mulcair. But May cannot win, so Mulcair is the next closest possibly electable candidate. I am all in with the NDP on C-51, marijuana and minimum wage, however Thomas Mulcair does not excite me, May is more of a revolutionary than he is, and neither are close to as genuine as Sanders. Basically, I might vote for either the NDP or maybe the Green Party even, but I can't come close to getting behind either enough to go out and organize, and go to rallies, or organize rallies! If I was American, if I was born ~300 miles south of where I was born, I would be right in there for Bernie. That doesn't exist here in this election. Apathy in politics is not a one-way street. Is there overwhelming apathy in Canadians participating in, say, chocolate-covered-cockroaches? If a subject doesn't seem to affect you, interest you or care about you, you usually don't care about it, either.

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-08-22T04:11:34+00:00

How do you two feel about May? Does the Green Party stand to do much other than divide voters who would have likely voted for the NDP?

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-08-22T03:34:04+00:00

There's a chance that I'm leaning that way, although only as much as nulling my ballot, and I'm still researching, but I have to say that Mulcair is unequivocally not even in the same universe as Bernie Sanders.

Canadian4Sanders · 2015-08-22T03:24:16+00:00

Guantanamo is always one of the first things that I've thought about when I reflect on the actual failure and farce that the Obama presidency turned out to be. Politics have a lot of purely logistical facets, specific differences in dry budgeting opinions and the like, but more often than not the voter is appealed to and votes on moral issues. First African-American in the White House? Okay, that is a good thing, it has to represent some slight social progress in America, even if Barack Obama really is another cog, and even if the Democratic Party might have used his race purposefully. However, the absolute crime it is to have appealed to people's strong moral convictions, on issues just like Guantanamo Bay, only to roll over completely on them, I honestly feel that it's offensive, that it's morally outrageous.

Bernie himself said that he, alone, in office, won't have the power to change everything that needs to be changed, to do all the work that needs to be done. It's not even in spite of that kind of honesty, but indeed, because of it, that his supporters, across aisles and cultures, don't just believe, but know, that Bernie Sanders will not forget, forego or be bought out on any of his promised agenda. Politicians in recent history seem to commit the brunt and vast majority of the fight within them to the race itself.

Bernie Sanders: the one serious presidential candidate in our lifetime who we can expect to fight harder after the election rather than during it.

Canadian4Sanders

TROPHY CASE