>dominance of the Bloq Quebecois has over Quebec preventing the establishment of any lasting NDP influence

So the social democrats won't play nice with the social democrats who want to secede, to grossly oversimplify? :-)

Here in the states (and sorry to do the thing parent was complaining about), I've seen the same people who used to vilify Ralph Nader for splitting the vote melt down they're getting primaried by "extremists" -- the generation that brought us South Park and the Iraq War has grown up to be fragile as fuck.

> Too often with these kinds of surveillance laws the drive for them doesn’t seem to be originating by from the electorate, and it feels like this kind of stuff has an exogenous source and is meant for a whole different audience or player in the game.

Too often we refuse to listen to victims and pretend there is a technical issue preventing the prosecution of serious violations of the non aggression principle.

For the Americans and others:

Our prime minister pretty much has full and complete control of the legislative and executive branches and even the appointment of judges. If you vote against your party then you can be kicked out. The whip is pretty absolute.

>dominance of the Bloq Quebecois has over Quebec

It's "Bloc". The NDP did well in Québec not long ago, when they had a candidate that the electorate liked.