In US terms, the Quebecois are purple, and shift around. Currently the government of Quebec is populist right wing, and this weekend is enacting legislation that actively discriminates against minority religions.
French Canadians basically think differently from just about every other population in North America. In some ways they can be very progressive, they pushed harder for native's rights than just about any other non-native population on either side of the border, but they can also be very provincial and even petty.
I was in a restaurant in Victoria, BC and there was an older woman from Quebec who refused to speak English to any of the staff and they had to bring out one of the kitchen help to take her order. When the workers in the restaurant were out of earshot she spoke fluent English with the kid who I think was her grandson sitting with her. A friend of mine was born and raised in Quebec, but lives in Saskatoon. She was exasperated pointing out that women like that one in the restaurant make day to day life more difficult for my friend.
My friend has a thick French accent because she's one of those people who is wired to be monolingual. She gets treated like she's an idiot even though she has a masters degree and is quite intelligent if you look past the accent. Ironically she's not even ethnically French. Her ethnicity is part English and part Italian. Her family ended up in Quebec due to a complex story I forget at the moment.
Historically not true, but currently true. The Canadian Prairies were where the rise of Canadian social democracy came from. Tommy Douglas (Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather) was the first socialist government elected in North America. He was Canada's Father of Medicare.
Unfortunately the NDP abandoned their social democratic roots in the early '90s, and became a right wing party. This pissed off the rural areas of Saskatchewan at least, who became rabidly right wing after the NDP closed 50 rural hospitals. The last federal election the NDP ran as the second-most right wing party in modern Canadian history.
The American prairie states were reliably Democrat during the FDR era, but are now very conservative too. The book
American Nations talks about the forces that crafted the interior west culture on both sides of the border. The interior west couldn't be settled without outside capital building infrastructure. First the railroads, but also other projects played roles. For most of their history, that region has served as an internal resource colony for the rest of their country and the people there resent it.
Over the last 50 years they have embraced a more conservative politics.
The stereotype of the "ugly American" is there for a reason.
Yes it is. My mother was a person who could be that way. The US is not culturally unified, just like Canada and the UK aren't. In the UK there are internal borders that mostly delineate the cultures, but there are also cultural differences between southern and northern England.
In both Canada and the US, the cultural lines don't follow any boundaries drawn on a map. Many US states have 2-3 cultures. The US cultures most of the world dislike the most are Southern and Appalachian both of which have long histories of treating people who are different from them poorly. Nobody's track record on this continent is all that great, but the American South is the only culture that instituted a set of laws that created an apartheid system and by the 20th century vigil ante murder outside the South was rare and actively prosecuted when it happened.
Most of the blue states look at Canada and see a utopia. Most of the red states look at both the blue states and Canada as "other" and are can be jerks about it.
But individuals vary. My mother was born and lived her entire life in California, but was a nightmare around others sometimes. When she started essentially yelling about colored money in a restaurant in Canada I had to walk out.
I also know a number of people who have lived their entire lives in the American South who are genuinely thoughtful people who might stand out in Canada because of their accent, but not because of their behavior.
More liberal areas of the US tend to discourage that type of thinking to a large degree, and more conservative areas often encourage it. That's why you more often hear asinine things come out of the mouth of conservative politicians in the US. A fair number of modern conservatives applaud ugly behavior, though the more classical conservatives are as outraged as everyone else.
Before you say anything else, I'm the only Canadian in my family. The rest are American.
I think you have mentioned something along those lines before.
He doesn't understand politics. Silly, dumb article. Unfortunately it reflects a common misunderstanding of politics.
It is absolutely correct for the DNC to schedule a ton of debates starting very early. And they *will* winnow the field, and *fast*. The debates have a solid chance of knocking out Biden, in fact.
We haven't had this sort of "debating scrum" done at a national level in my lifetime, but it was done back in the 19th century a lot, and it's been done in local elections much more recently, and it works.
I still see a lot of people drawing parallels between the Republicans and Democrats here. Someone was warning that the Republicans had a cast of thousand in 2016 and the most outrageous won and warn that could happen in 2020 to the Democrats, but I don't see that.
Democratic primary voters are polar opposite to Republican primary voters when it comes to picking a candidate. The Democrats who do vote in primaries are much higher information voters than Republicans and while a dynamic, personable candidate will get a lot of traction, they also want someone of substance. An empty shirt spouting slogans gets nowhere among Democrats.
A lot of people are giving Pete Buttigeig a second look because he is one of the most dynamic characters in the race, but he's also been criticized for lack of policy points thus far. If he proves that his depth of policy is on par with the other front runners, he will be in the scrum next year. If he's just and empty suit, he will be forgotten by the end of the summer.
Democrats have sometimes nominated people who were too much policy wonks. People like Dukakis and Hillary were deep on policy, but shallow on personality. The ones who took off were the ones who could do both like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Both could talk in depth about just about any political subject at a moment's notice, but they also knew how to sell themselves too.
Biden is a different flavor of personable. It didn't sell well when he ran before, but it's got some traction this year. Biden is a massive contrast to Trump because except for his tendency to be a bit too touchy, he's a nice guy. He's the only man who has been caught up in any kind of inappropriate touching scandal that few have thought it was anything sexual.
Biden also knows the issues. For younger Democrats his views on the issues are out of date, and maybe he is too conservative for younger generations, but few would say he's an empty suit. He is one of the most experienced politicians to ever run for the presidency. He held elected office from January 1973 to January 2017.
Biden may not get the nomination, but he is pretty much guaranteed to be in the running next year unless his health suddenly fails him or something like that.
There are a lot of candidates at the back of the pack who should be looking for other offices. There are Republican senators up for re-election in Montana, Texas, and Colorado. The presidential candidates from those states would almost certainly get the nomination and have a shot at unseating the incumbent, especially if the Republican brand is in tatters next fall, which is possible. Then aim to be a high profile senator and run next time the presidency is in play.
Buttigeig doesn't have a senate seat to shoot for, but in 2020 the governor's seat is up for election.
The presidency is important, but there are a lot of important down ticket races too. The candidates who are a long shot at the presidency and in a position to flip a seat should take aim at them. Especially the younger candidates, they have time to wait for another opening for the presidency.
