Re:Pesticide 'contaminating' Prairie wetlands: scientist (2014)
by pjkundert on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @12:32PM
(#20636271)
The election is "over" by the time the polls in Ontario are tallied, so it is unlikely that the prairie "rural votes" are a significant issue.
Re:Pesticide 'contaminating' Prairie wetlands: scientist (2014)
by checktheorder on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @12:52PM
(#20636478)
The three prairie provinces have almost 20% of the seats in the HoC, and rural ridings in those provinces have disproportionately more MPs than in urban ridings. Western farming communities are not an insignificant voting bloc on the federal stage. It's not in the DNA of any Canadian federal party, all of which tend towards "big tent" habits, to simply write off any area of the country. Even the Conservatives consistently made serious efforts to court Quebec voters over the past decade despite their leaders' backgrounds in the Quebec-hostile Reform Party.
What's become unexpectedly shameful is the new government under the Liberal Party elected in late 2015. That party keeps claiming to be in favour of science-based policy, but they've dragged their feet on the neonic issue just as much as the Conservatives. The general consensus is that the Liberals are worried about rural votes in the prairie provinces in the general election to be held later this year, so they're trying to avoid any action that could be perceived as "anti farmer".