Hacker News Reader

This (quite recent) HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9416549 and the top comment on it explain C-51 quite well.

Current Canadian politics summary: Stephen Harper.

View on HN

What surprised me was the the Liberal party helped pass it.

Politics I believe. The liberals knew it was going to get passed one way or another, and if they voted against it, the Conservatives would use the "supporting terrorism and pedophilia" attack on them in the coming election.

I agree. Presumably they have their talking points lined up, this isn't one of them, and they know if they vote with the Conservatives it's a non-issue. That said, it's still really disappointing.

But it's push left leaning voters to NDP. This cuts into the Liberals base something fierce, so unless Trudeau is trying to split the conservative vote (which seems insane) then they've severely stumbled.

They said they'd back it with modifications, no modifications were made, and they voted Yes anyways. What message he was trying to send to voters backing down so easily?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com