Adderbox76

So what you're saying is that scientist's laziness on the development of flying cars is what is going to lead to the downfall of man.

I always knew it...

Best case scenario...yes. But likely...not very.

The only thing that the bankers and CEOs that keep the Liberal coffer's full, and the Oil & Gas Companies (and now Russia apparently) that keep the Cons coffer's full, is a mutual hatred for the working man and for unions.

It would take a herculean effort, and a charismatic leader that we haven't seen since Layton, to bring the NDP into Official Opposition range, let alone leading it all.

I agree that that would be the best possible version of Canada. But greed will never allow it to happen.

Yeah. Best case scenario I've felt would be that Trudeau resigns, the liberals bring in someone more popular that will effectively block Pierre Poppinfresh and hold onto a minority government.

Keeping PP from power isn't quite as imperative as Trump down south, but it's close. He's more Ron DeSantis than Trump.

In my experience there's never been any such thing as the "silent majority". It's just something desperately unpopular public figures cling to to convince themselves they (or their policies) are popular.

A largely forgotten show from the late 90s called "Seven Days".

Why did the first notes from The Lion King just burst into my head?

Eight decades later, and all those lessons have been forgotten. Self-interested and shortsighted leaders have risen to the tops of many nations, and nationalistic rhetoric is gaining popularity again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

In some ways, I'm a believer in the "80 year cycle, theory". But to me, it's a much simpler cause. 80 years is going to be roughly four generations removed from whatever the last chaos was (in this case, Hitler and Fascism and the Holocaust).

The generation that lived through it is long dead. They taught their children (My parents) to never forget. They in turn taught their children (Me...Gex X) to still remember what was fought for. And then the current generation (my kids if I had any) have a far less fundamental grasp on that history. We're so far removed from that event that it's been forgotten just long enough that it all makes an appearance again for the very same reasons. Because it's an easy trap to fall into; blaming someone else for your problems.

All this has happened before and it will happen again. It's as simple as "those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it".

Plasma:

"Here's literally all the things... You sort it out, if you want. If not...whatever."

Quebec cares. Probably a little too dogmatically in my opinion. But you're right about east coast culture.

Although I would say that it does have it's own somewhat well-documented cultural artifacts in terms of music, food and drink. We certainly hear more on the prairies about Screech, Great Big Sea and kissing the fish (for example) than most other areas with the exception of Quebec.

Because people are dumb. And I don't mean that in some flippant, off-hand, snarky way. I mean that in all dead seriousness. People are dumb.

The truest line ever written was from Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black.

"A person is smart. But people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it." The novelization of the film actually takes it a bit further and adds "A mob is only as smart as it's dumbest member."

Long story short, group-think skews towards the simplistic and instinctual. This election is close for the same reason that one scared cow will turn into a stampede even though the rest of them have no idea what they're running from...because we're wired to see that if other people are running, maybe we should be too...it's a matter of survival.

A smart person can see past that and resist when they're alone. But get them into a crowd of like minded individuals and we aren't smart anymore. And people like Trump take advantage of that.

What is that, about tree-fiddy American?

Reagan and "trickle down economics" ushered in the 80s and poured gasoline onto Wall Street, empowering a thousand Gordon Geckos to abandon the middle class workers in the name of greater profit.