12.20.2015 11:55 AM

When you’re behind Putin, you know you have work to do

23 Comments

  1. MississaugaPeter says:

    And people wonder why Trump is considered a breathe of fresh air.

    Entitlements and fudging promises will make sure this does not improve in Canada soon. Our system whereby less than 40% of the vote nets you majority rule does not require for the confidence to be above 40% at any time.

    • smelter rat says:

      Did you feel the same way when Harper was PM?

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        No! Harper was different. But the net result was also no trust in our government. Thus the easy victory by Trudeau.

        Harper: Unlike Trudeau, didn’t make promises that he couldn’t keep (other than the Triple E Senate). But he lied and covered up (does anyone really believe that Harper never knew about Wright’s $90K cheque for Duffy) and wasted $B’s on gazebos to action ads (of even programs not available yet) to overpaid, partisan hacks and companies on the public payroll and Senate. Personally, his deficits after Chrétien’s surpluses were almost as disgusting as his treatment of veterans.

        http://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-have-sent-the-most-delegates-to-cop21

        Trudeau is the second coming of Alison Redford. Nannies and atrocious carbon footprint (Canada’s 382 delegates was more than the COMBINED number from the U.S. (124), U.K. (96), Australia (46) and Germany (114)) in Paris to offer Harper’s environmental commitment did it for me.

    • doconnor says:

      Do you think that Trump can fullfill his unconstitutional, incoherent promises or that he will give one second of thought to anything but what will benefit him.

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        Nope.

        Like Trudeau, he is a 1) media star and 2) not the staus quo 3) who will make as many unrealistic and fabricated promises required to get enough people to elect him.

  2. MonteCristo says:

    I would be more concerned that democracies like the US, UK, Australia, Israel, Japan, Italy, France and of all places South Africa are behind Russia….

    Gotta wonder how this poll was conducted when you get results like that.

    • cgh says:

      The results are not terribly surprising. Most of the modern democracies rank below Russia and Putin right now. Being democracies, they have things like civil rights which essentially function as minority veto over things that a majority might wish to impose. Hence, greater dissatisfaction with governments which don’t or can’t do what a majority might prefer. High degrees of public support are often characteristic of charismatic dictatorships.

      What should also be noted is the large rise in support for Russia’s government between 2007 and 2014. It would appear that Russians like and agree with Putin’s policy of confrontation with the West. The Western response re. Ukraine and Crimea has been to institute economic sanctions in the hope of undermining Russian support for the government. It appears from these numbers to be failing miserably.

  3. cynical says:

    After 10 years of Harperism, this does not surprise me. The import of Republican small-government conservatism from the US, the constant reminder that Harper was NOT the prime minister of the majority of Canadians, the Senate mess, the stream of omnibus bills, the lack of transparency, the isolation of the ruling class from the citizenry by a wall of security and party workers, electoral fraud..
    I could go on. I hope the nightmare is over. Let’s see that measure in a few years. I don’t know that Trudeau can restore our faith in our institutions, but I hope he does. I’d like to have a chance to vote for him again for positive reasons.

    • The Doctor says:

      Yes, hopefully under Trudeau, we can become more like Russia — a thriving, healthy democracy if there ever was one.

      • Derek Pearce says:

        Don’t be disingenuous. Harper was more Putin-esque than any PM we’ve ever had and you know it. Note I said “-esque” and not “identical to,” so calm down.

    • Elisabeth Lindsay says:

      Dear Cynical. Can you name ONE Prime Minister that was PM for the majority of Canadians?

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        Yup, two, Jean Chrétien and Lester B. Pearson.

        Both genuinely had the interests of all Canadians (including our children and grandchildren) at heart.

      • doconnor says:

        For Mulrony’s first election he got 50.03% of the vote.

        The Peason minority governments would represented a majority because the support of two parties was needed and thier total votes would have been over 50%. The achievements of those governments are legand.

        I suspose the Harper minorities would also count, but the Liberals hardly even did anything to represent their voters.

  4. Russia is a democracy and the vast majority of Russians supports Putin. I have a cousin who immigrated to Russia from France. He loves Putin. I know it’s hard for many of you to swallow this, but the People of Russia trust Putin. Maybe because he says what he does and does what he says. Maybe because he appeals to all six moral foundations: care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity and not only to the two first like many politicians in the western world. Maybe, also, because he genuinely loves Russia and the Russian people, not in the shallow superficial way that many Canadians politicians, and in particular our current PM, love Canada.

  5. Jack D says:

    More shocking is that India is ranked number two on this list. I find it hard to believe that a country with systemic government corruption, abuse of power and growing wealth disparity would be one full of citizens with such confidence in its government. In fact I know this isn’t the case. So perhaps the OECD could expand on its methodology a little more.

    Also telling is how pathetically low the US ranks on this list for a country viewed as a major world power. If there is a reason to believe these numbers it would have to be how poor these results are for the USA. In fact, this is a visual manifestation of the Trump-Effect; growing mistrust towards the echelons of power is apparently a pandemic and there exists a real resentment towards government.

    • cgh says:

      No, the strong ranking of India’s public support for its government is not surprising. India for the first time ever is going through strong economic growth over the past decade. Like China, far more Indians are experiencing prosperity than has ever been the case before. India has always had systematic corruption, so there’s nothing new there. What is new is that Indians are experiencing some of the benefits of governance, corrupt or otherwise, flowing to them over the course of the past 10 years or so.

      • Jack D says:

        Either you’re not familiar with the current realities of Indian life or you’re intentionally taking a rosier view to the situation in India.

        Yes, corruption has been systemic in India for a very long time –but that doesn’t mean the people are willing to accept it. The prosperity you refer to is undeniable, that nation is seeing some serious wealth growth and luxuries competing the ones we enjoy in some cases. However, the gorge between the rich and poor is widening and deepening profoundly. Large swaths of India’s population has restricted access to even the basic necessities of life and I hardly think these people would view the government as “working for us”.

        But back to the corruption, which is a huge determinate in a population’s confidence in its government. The corruption in India is such an issue that its largely seen that if you ever want to get anything done, you’ve got to work the system or know someone. The possibility of the police arbitrarily arresting you or placing false charges against you is quite high for a nation on the precipice of modernization. While I think India is undergoing a cultural renaissance of sorts, the problem of political prisoners is to large to ignore. If India is indeed the world’s largest democracy, then its implantation of that democracy is highly suspect.

        • cgh says:

          It seems you feel the need to impute to people things they didn’t say. Where did I say I was taking a rosy view of things in India? Of course India is still a very poor nation with extensive endemic corruption. I stated that in my first post.

          The point I’m making is that the appearance of progress is sufficient for large numbers of Indians to have some confidence that their government is moving in the right direction.

          A cultural renaissance? No. Principally an economic one only now that India has been freed to a degree from the family compact of the Ghandis and their state socialism.

  6. Merrill Smith says:

    Note: It says 2014. Canada’s showing is all on Harper.

    • cgh says:

      Yes indeed it is. Note that Canada ranks second of all the G8 nations, surpassed only by Germany. Confirmation bias is such a wonderful and obvious thing when the numbers are right out there for everyone to see.

  7. Aongasha says:

    Prepare to see us even further behind. Now the Trudites have decided Band Councils will no longer have to be public and accountable for their spending and today announced they will kill the legislation that forced union leadership to account for their spending, salaries etc. to their membership.
    This is looking out for the middle class? Looking out for their friends I’d say and willing to let those stealing from their own continue to do so, for their own political gain. Typical Liberal policy, get into the trough with the crooks.

  8. monkey says:

    When all you hear is government propaganda it’s not surprising. When you have a free press and free speech where people can speak out against the government you are bound to get more disagreement. I am sure if they asked North Koreans it would be close to 100 percent as all they hear is one side propaganda and off course everything is monitored so you tell a pollster you disapprove, it means going to a hard labour camp.

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