07-11-2021, 06:55 PM
(07-11-2021, 06:19 PM)jeffster Wrote:(07-11-2021, 05:32 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Up here, we certainly do not have issues to the same scale as the US, but our Conservative (big c) party is starting to head in that direction. I find that very dangerous as well.
Thing is, this won't get them anywhere in this country. Hell, the old Liberal government from 1993-2001 or whatever was more conservative.
If they want to govern ever again, they need to push out most of the hardline right. But that isn't a issue in the USA. Trump hit a nerve with so many people (good or bad), that his brand is going to live for a long time and a huge chunk of the US population loves the guy -- and even with that country so divided, you still don't have a huge turnout (though it was pretty big this year). I think part of the issue is that the left is going to far to the left as well, and centre type politics is dead.
I dunno, look at the long arc of history. Our Conservative party even today is composed of the former Reform party and the remnants of the progressive conservatives.
The conservatives had a good deal of success merging with that party.
Additionally, Plam points out that the CPC resulted in Bernier leaving to form the PPC, but it's worth noting that before that Bernier came second in the leadership race. A slightly different result and our CPC could be spouting the crazy that comes from the PPC right now.
In all things in Canada are not as bad as the US is right now, but we must look at the path that the US took to get where they are and make sure we do not follow it. A major component is media. The US media landscape is downright dystopian. If you watch FOX News (which is a totally mainstream network) you will believe crazy things about the country which are not even remotely true. That's to say nothing of the truly crazy media networks like OAN. And that leaves aside less mainstream media sources like podcasts, talk radio, social media, all of which are well into crazy territory.
In Canada we don't have any mainstream news networks that are full on crazy like Fox. But we have plenty of fringe groups. And we have basically the same social media and talk radio nonsense going on.
We could easily go that direction if we allow ourselves to be complacent.