What you need to know while I am away

Political Attack Ads

"In political campaigns, an attack ad is an advertisement whose message is meant as a personal attack against another candidate or political party. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning or smear campaigns, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media.

An attack ad will generally unfairly criticize an opponent's political platform, usually by pointing out its faults. Often the ad will simply make use of innuendo, based on opposition research. Televised attack ads rose to prominence in the United States in the 1960s, and their use has gradually spread to other democratic countries since then, notably in Canada (see below)."

Wikipedia

Like or not Political Attack ads are very common in today's politics. While often informative they can be very petty, circumstantial, ridiculous, based mostly in half truths and honestly quite funny.

Spend some time looking at the Ads below. Find some other ones and post them as comments. What do you like or not like about them? What makes them interesting to you? Or just tell us what you think about them.

Anti-Harper


Anti-Ignatieff


Anti-Layton


Green Party Ad


Harper Breaks the Law??..


Look here to find a bunch
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/03/01/gerry-nicholls-political-ads-that-work-and-dont/

NDP Video gallery
http://www.ndp.ca/video/all/mPcCdsZz0kI

Liberal Youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/liberalvideo#p/u/1/o6hDv6gCe1I

Conservative Youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/cpcpcc

Green Party Youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/user/canadiangreenparty

Government and Politics

Welcome back form the break and I hope you are all ready for the stretch run as we head towards the Provincial Exam. Alot has happened in Canadian Politics since we left for break so what a fitting time for us to be starting our Government and Politics unit. During our first class we will be focusing on ideologies and the political spectrum. In order to get a better understanding of those ideologies and where you might stand I want you to take a look at the assignment below.

Homework Assignment #1 of term 3 - this is instead of the first quiz

Go to http://www.politicalcompass.org/ and 'take the test'. It will take a bit of time to complete, so please allow yourself to be busy for some time. If you get stuck on any of the questions or the vocabulary, use http://www.dictionary.com/ or just give it your best guess. There are alot of questions, so your results shouldn't be affected too much.

Post your results, or if you don't feel comfortable letting others know what your results are post your thoughts.

Challenge Activity: Read over the website explanation on ideology as it is quite thorough. We will be discussing this next day in class.

*****If this is completed before next class you get bonus marks*****

Canada and the 1980's

This week in class we will be returning to a lecture style format for a couple of classes (boooooooo). We will begin by talking about the 1980's and what is going on in the world and how this had an effect on Canada. Later we will also discuss how Canada's immigration policies changed and the beginnings of aboriginal land treaties.

The '80's were a crazy decade and many important and crazy things happened in Canada. Follow this LINK that gives a brief summary of the events that occured in the 1980's in Canada. After reading and researching these events comment on which event you beleive is the most improtant to Canadian history. Don't forget to tell me why.....

Issues part deux....

So far this term we have been examining how Canada had emerged from the 2nd World War and the burgeoning Counter Culture movement that has provided many with a stage to promote their previously unheard views. As we move out of the 1960's and into the '70's and '80's we see the beginnings (or perhaps more precisely the continuation) of rising tensions between French and English Canada that will continue to dramatically change how we look at ourselves as a nation. As well we will also examine the proliferation of tensions between the Canadian West and its big brother in the East.

As you begin to prepare for the next Issues seminar please use the STUDY GUIDE that I will provide in class and post on the blog.

If you have time please read this ARTICLE that speaks to both Western Alienation and Separatism. After you finish please comment on the questions at the end of the article.

Well done on the first of our four Issues essays. Next class we will be picking up where we left off after the presentations before the holidays. We continue to discuss the 1960's and into the '70's as we examine issues surrounding Immigration, the beginnings of the Environmental Movement and questions about our developing relationship with the Untied States.

During class we will open the floor for discussion about many of these issues, but for now please consider the following:

The American model of immigration is one called the “melting pot,” while Canada has an
official policy of multiculturalism. A brief summary of the theories:

• The melting pot – encourages assimilation of minority groups; they are supposed to
embrace the language, values, and history of the dominant group.
• Multiculturalism – acknowledges that minority groups generally have less power,
and are more likely to be discriminated against. This policy attempts to embrace
diversity and difference between cultures, and protects freedoms such as religion,
holidays, etc.

While there is debate over the multicultural policy both qualitative (anecdotal) and
quantitative (statistics) do show that there tends to be lower levels of racism, hate crimes,
and discrimination in countries that promote multiculturalism.

What is your opinion of Canada’s multiculturalism policy? To what extent do you believe it should be protected and upheld?

Welcome Back and Issues

Welcome back from your holiday. I hope you have all returned rested and eager to jump back into term two. We begin the year with the first of four installments in our Issues Program. If you missed the original handout for the program it is linked on the side bar. Each of the four installments takes place over three days with a research, seminar and in-class essay day.

On the first day back you will be given research time in class to prep for the first seminar in the program. Remember that you will need one or two outside sources (that is other than your textbook) for the essay and thus you will want to find those during this period. For further details about what is required of you in the Issues Program please refer to the handout (again, linked on the sidebar).

You will need to brush up on your APA style formatting. If you need help please check the link on the sidebar.

During the first seminar we are going to be debating issues surrounding these topics:

Seminar 1:
- Canadian Politics to 1960
- Hobbes vs Locke
- Social Safety Net vs individualism
Out of your textbook
• The Welfare State pp. 168-9
• The CCF in Power pp.174-5
• The Canadian Bill of Rights pp.212-3

This handout right here will be the basis for the seminar discussion and you will have to take sides for each question. Please come prepared.