[War_ooc] Canada 2008-2014

[Dylan de Valk]

This is what I've come up with for Canuck-land with the collaboration of
John, hope you like it.

Canada 2008-2014


Politics:

The year 2008 was a down year for Canadian politicians, struggling to deal
with a slowing economy affected by a recession south of the border in
America.  Although the minority Conservative government was able to stem the
tide, their popular ratings in the polls continued to decline as did Prime
Minister Stephen Harper's personal ratings.  Continuing media coverage of
Harper's extreme centralization of power within the Prime Minister's Office
[PMO] coincided with public distrust of Conservative motives.

While the Conservatives struggled to deal with these issues, the Liberal
Party hobbled on, wracked with internal debates, rivalries, and vendettas.
Stephane Dion was not able to cement his control of the party and the
Liberals continued to prop up the ruling Conservative minority government to
give themselves more time to get their act together.

By 2009, federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion resigned amid allegations that
he was working behind the scenes with the Green Party to share Liberal Party
funding with the Greens.  The Conservatives introduced legislation in 2009
curtailing immigration and restricting newly arrived immigrants already in
the country from receiving citizenship status, which duly passed as the
Liberals were in no shape to oppose it.

2010 was marked by the Liberal leadership convention, which elected James
McColl as the new federal Liberal leader.  He immediately took steps to
reduce the infighting that had plagued the party since Jean Chretien left in
2004 by sacking various powerful party members and replacing them with
friends.  Within 6 months of McColl becoming Liberal leader, the party was
rejuvenated and was taking a stand in the House of Commons, with the support
of the New Democratic Party [NDP] and Bloc Quebecois [BQ], forcing the
Conservatives to the line and respect traditions and customs that had been
established throughout the years.   2010 also saw the decision by the
federal Conservatives to stay in Afghanistan to help Hamid Karzai's
government continue to modernize and train its military and police resources
and help with economic projects until 2015, which was extremely unpopular
with the general population.

2011 saw wins in several by-elections by the Liberals at the expense of the
Conservatives and BQ in Quebec, strengthening their position.  2011 was also
a federal election year, as governments may not serve for more than a 5 year
term at a time.  Although the Liberals, which were much stronger than
previously, did not win the election, it soon became clear that no one
really had.  The Conservatives claimed 115 seats, the Liberals 113, the BQ
45, and the NPD 35.  The election was very much about the status of Quebec,
for which the Conservatives promised to open up constitutional talks to
revise Quebec's status.  At this time though, not much attention was given
to the Afghanistan issue, where Canadian troops continued to serve in the
line of fire and casualties mounted even as the Taliban insurgency had
declined since 2009 and the Afghan National Army [ANA] was able to pick up
the slack of the foreign troops leaving.

Nothing much except squabbling between the parties and a few minor pieces of
legislation passed happened in 2012.  But by late May 2013, Canadians were
sick of the Conservatives, and the Opposition Liberals decided enough was
enough, and with the help of the NDP and BQ toppled the government over the
spring budget.  The Governor-General [GG] called a federal election for
November. 8th of that year.  The election saw the formerly impressive
Conservative election machine falter and the Liberals swept to power in a
dramatic victory.  The Conservatives were reduced to 68 seats while the
Liberals had a massive majority of 171 seats out of 308 in the House of
Commons, and a majority in the Senate as well; elsewhere, left-wing parties
like the Green Party and NDP had some excellent showing, picking up 46 and 3
seats respectively, while the BQ declined with the issue of Quebec
sovereigty declining at the same time.  With so many seats, and Liberal
leader James McColl coming to power on December.12, 2013, it looked like the
Grits were once again set to dominate Canadian politics for years to come.
McColl had run on a platform of nationalist, protectionist, and centre-left
policies which the Canadian populace found enticing.  His policies included
such things as agricultural tariffs on products Canadians produced
themselves, as well as the forestry and manufacturing sectors, along with
promises to build the military, increase post-secondary education and health
care spending, were all well received.  2013 was also an important year for
the Green Party, which had won 3 seats, its first in any election in Canada,
federal or provincial.

All in all, a dramatic several years at times.

Economy:

The Canadian economy continues to grow at a slow rate, since recovering from
the hit it took back in 2008/2009/2010.  Averaging just 1.7% over the last 5
years, totalling to a GDP of $1.4 trillion, growth has been sluggish and
unemployment has reached 9% of the workforce.  American mega-corporations
and conglomerates moving in for the kill stroke on weak Canadian competitors
[because of a strong dollar with retarded exports] and a public perception
of the hollowing out of Corporate Canada has become the major economic issue
of the day and was an important factor of the Liberal's election in 2013.
Coinciding with the election of the Liberals' election, tariffs were
expected for industries key to the Canadian economy; long needed in some
people's view, the tariffs were needed to keep the struggling manufacturing
and forestry sectors going, which are major employers in the Canadian
economy.  These industries and others had been hit hard by the rise of the
loonie to slightly above par status with the American greenback, and
takeovers had been rampant in the last several years as the Conservatives
had taken a non-interventionist view of the economy.  The new government is
also expected to start heavily subsidizing green industries as a way of
further increasing economic growth, giving people jobs, and giving
government money back to the economy.

Defense:

The Canadian military is in mediocre shape these days, following the
stewardship of the Conservative minority government for 5 years; although
being a minority government, they could not do as much as they would have
liked.  The Liberals have promised to the continue the policy of Arctic
development of military and transportation infrastructure and have also
promised to get Canadian troops out of Afghanistan ASAP to give the military
time to recuperate and refresh itself.  The Canadian Armed Forces [CAF] is
over-stretched manpower-wise and morale remains low with the troops, who do
not understand why public support of their mission in Afghanistan is so
low.  The new government has promised continued rebuilding efforts for the
armed forces.

Social Issues:

Same-sex marriage remains subject to a low-intensity debate after the
government legalized it back in the early 2000's.   Other than the
Netherlands, Canada is the only nation in the world to allow this, and it
has caused an influx of American same-sex couples eager to be married, and
this has caused a bit of a stir with the populace.  Health-care remains a
major issue as the population ages and the government struggles to keep up
with demand of elective surgeries such as knee and hip replacements.
Immigrants under the conservatives suffered, and many immigrant communities
in major cities like Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver have become
notorious for gangs and high crime rates.  Many people are worried that
these problems, coupled with the decay of inner city infrastructure in large
cities, may lead to an increase in racial discrimination of immigrant
minorities by the dominant French/English majorities of the population.  On
top of these issues, religion has again been on the rise across the country,
with the Catholic church the most dominant Christian sect, especially in
Quebec, where Catholicism has always been strong.  British Columbia on the
Pacific coast remains an anomaly [especially compared to hard-right wing
Alberta], where over a third of the population is not affiliated to any
religion.

Health:

Canadians were once some of the most obese people on the planet.  However,
thanks to the leadership of the province of British Columbia and its
Premier, Gordon Campbell, the federal government and every province except
Alberta instituted various changes in Physical Education [P.E.] classes in
the education systems across the country and the federal government began a
nation-wide campaign of education against obesity and the importance of
exercise and treating your body well.  Since 2012, changes have become to be
noticed as polls began registering dramatic reductions in obesity throughout
the general population, and today Canada now sits in a better position.
Health-care policy is now more focussed on prevention that treatment.

Foreign Relations:

During the years of the Conservative government, Canada snuggled up to the
United States more than many Canadians liked.  This has caused a surge in
the traditional left-wing nationalism of Canada as people have become
outraged with corporate takeovers and the public perception that American
companies continue to plunder Canada of its resources.  Stephen Harper also
distanced Canada from Europe as relations cooled with the United Kingdom and
the Commonwealth of Nations was perceived to be an increasingly unnecessary
organization.  Canada continues to be a member of the UN, but has scaled
back its international peacekeeping and aid commitments because of a lack of
public support [Canadians over the past few years have retrenched, and a
more isolationist foreign policy is gaining momentum among younger Canadians
who don't want to deal with the troubles of the world].  As for the
Asia-Pacific sphere, Canada has signed an FTA with South Korea some time
ago, although this is its only recent Free Trade agreement.  Relations with
China are sour due to Canada's stance on human rights abuses by the
Chinese.  Relations with other east Asian and south Asian nations are
neutral and not noteworthy.  Canada has also seen, with increase of Russian
immigrants, an interest in an FTA with the Russian Federation, which is
opposed by the more isolationist elements of the political class.
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