Community Profile

This community is dedicated to the discussion of Canadian politics, including federal, provincial and even municipal politics. More generalised political issues will be permitted, as long as the original poster demonstrates how the issue is relevant to Canada.

General Posting Guidelines:

If you are starting a topic, please do not assume that everyone else will be fully "up" on the issue in question. Provide a few background links to newspaper articles, or other sources. Include a brief summary of the issue in your post. This is particularly true if you are posting about an issue that is more regional than national.

Copyright: VERY IMPORTANT

Do not cut and paste entire newspaper or other articles into your post. This is a copyright violation and the post will be deleted. Provide a brief summary of the article and a link to the article. If the article is restricted to subscribers only, provide a fuller summary of the main points. Ideally, try to find a similar article from a more accessible source online.

You can post in English ou en français, but don't expect that all users will be able to understand the other language. If you are linking to an article from a French language paper (La Presse, Le Devoir, etc.), please provide a brief summary in English for those who aren't as fluent in French.

Please do not embed videos from YouTube or any other source. Links to videos are fine. If, for whatever reason, you want to include a photo in your post, it should be behind a cut - unless it's a very small one. If your post is very long, again, please put the bulk of it behind a cut.

General discussion guidelines:

This is an internet community. If you have any experience with internet forums, you know that inevitably, things get ugly. The following points will hopefully help to mitigate such situations.

Remember that sarcasm does not translate well online. If you are prone to making flip, sarcastic comments, you may want to indicate in brackets that you are being sarcastic in order to minimise the odds of someone going ballistic because they took you seriously.

Flaming will not be tolerated. Politics is subject which enflames passions, but dissenting opinion isn't a reason for personal attacks. If your arguments are sound, you should be able to convince someone without resorting to personal attacks. This being the internet, there will be other users here whom you probably cannot stand. Unfortunately, this is not a proper discussion forum format, so you don't have the option of physically putting them on ignore. Your only alternative it to mentally ignore them. If that is simply too difficult, you may have to reconsider posting here (or start asking the coders to develop an "ignore poster" function for communities).

We hope to keep moderation to a minimum, but in the event of someone being a total jerk, they will be warned ONCE to stop. If they persist, they will be booted from the community.

On Self-promotion:

You can self-promote your heart out in your personal journal. Let's not overdo it.

On Trolls:

Don't feed them. Just don't.

On discussion of American issues:

Discretion is the key here. Obviously, there is little the US does that does not impact Canada in some way, but some issues are more relevant than others. Use your better judgement.

For non-Canadians:

Non Canadians are welcome to participate, but be informed, please. Sweeping generalizations about a system you don't understand are annoying to those of us who deal with these issues on a daily basis. If you are simply curious, it might be best to observe the forum for a while before actively jumping in.