wait what

[sabotabby]

In case you're wondering how the flaming trash fire that is my country's federal election is going, the Tories just offered 50% off Swiss Chalet* if elected.

And no, I'm not linking to it. You can Google it if you don't believe me. There's a concerted dark arts campaign to drum up publicity through outrage and lulz. Like they deliberately made typos in their doorknockers and their campaign slogan is a reference to the Fourteen Words. The guy running the campaign did the same for BoJo and whoever that Australian asshole was.


* A chain restaurant known for its rotisserie chicken. Its fries are good though.

Comments

[dagibbs]

I guess they're just completely giving up on Quebec, since they chose Swiss Chalet over St Hubert.

[sabotabby]

Unpopular opinion that no one cares about and also I'm vegan anyway, St. Hubert > Swiss Chalet.

(St. Hubert's gravy is vegan, oddly enough.)

[grimjim]

The same company owns both now.

[grimjim]

What an odd partnership? This is the Canadian company behind Swiss Chalet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recipe_Unlimited

[sabotabby]

Huh. Well, they profit from prisons. They'll do well if the Tories get in.

[zombie_cupcake]

Fucking hell. Nice try Erin. My sister Julie says that the Tories are desperate.. and I agree.

[sabotabby]

Well, they're leading. It's not desperation.

[zombie_cupcake]

Oh god no. 😮😤

[flamingsword]

What the fucking Hell is all this Nazi bullshit?!

[sabotabby]

Chuds and chud-enablers abound.

[naomikritzer]

I have this vague recollection of ads for Swiss Chalet in the 1980s and having checked their Wiki page, I'm now uncertain whether I remember this because they had a restaurant in Wisconsin at the time, or if I'm remembering ads from our trips to Canada (my family went to Canada a bunch of times).

I do not think I've ever eaten there.

[sabotabby]

I mean it's quite good (I was shocked to find vegan things on the menu last time I went) but I'm disinclined to eat there now.

[contrarywise]

They could've followed Vermin Supreme's lead and promised everyone a pony.

[sabotabby]

I've already cast my vote, so it's good they didn't.

[sara]

How do the Swiss Chalet people feel about this?

[sabotabby]

The company that owns them apparently have a contract to provide "food" in prisons, so they'd do well if the Tories won.

[china_shop]

The guy running the campaign did the same for BoJo and whoever that Australian asshole was.

Just reading this sentence makes me want to bleach my brain and disinfect my surroundings. Wow.

[sabotabby]

It's pretty gross.

[lynnenne]

So, they're bribing voters now. That's gotta end well.

[sabotabby]

It has worked every time I've seen them do it.

[rdi]

"Let them eat bird."

[sabotabby]

I should be grateful it's not the homophobic chicken place, but fuck all of them anyway.

[smhwpf]

Oh, OK, Googled, and so it's not actually just Swiss Chalet, it's dining in generally Mon-Wed. I was actually quite prepared to believe that the Tories were literally promising a discount at just one restaurant chain, supposing the owner to be a big donor or something.

Dine and Discover sounds like pretty much a carbon copy of Eat Out to Help Out, which Boris Johnson and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak brought in in August 2020. 50% off dine-in, Monday-Wednesday, alcohol not included. It was those exact terms. Because the pandemic was Over, everything was getting back to normal, "Our long national hibernation is coming to an end", said the liar in chief. EOTHO is reckoned to have been a significant factor in getting the second wave going in September.

[sabotabby]

Pretty sure one of The Tool's PR guys worked for Boris. It's the same playbook in most respects.

I think he announced it at a Swiss Chalet? But I wonder how they'd organize such a thing. Like, if I want to go to a nice local restaurant, how is that nice local restaurant getting subsidized?

But yeah I'm pretty sure that this is going to be as much a thing as Buck A Beer.

[lilysea]

Do you mean the Australian arsehole who is currently Prime Minister [Scott Morrison]

or the Australian arsehole who went around paying for glossy anti-vaxx leaflets [Clive Palmer] ?

[sabotabby]

I think Scott Morrison but I'm possibly wrong on that and it might have been the one before.

[lilysea]

Our previous Prime Minister was Malcolm Turnbull, who said "I think Australia should reduce its carbon emissions, climate change is a MASSIVE problem for Australia"

and promptly got knifed in the back/thrown under a bus by his party[1] for it...

[1] Liberal Party of Australia, which is equivalent to the Tories/The Republicans - they hate poor people and the environment and refugees; and they love Rupert Murdoch and coal...

[sabotabby]

ahahaha sob.

[lilysea]

I am DESPERATELY hoping they lose the next Federal election...

[sabotabby]

Is there a decent political party in Australia? It seems y'all have been ruled by a steady procession of utter bastards for awhile.

[lilysea]

Is there a decent political party in Australia? It seems y'all have been ruled by a steady procession of utter bastards for awhile.

The problem is the Liberal party [who are terrible] have been in power Federally nonstop since 2013. :(

the Australian Labor Party (ALP) does the right thing sometimes - but not always

they are MUCH better on publicly funded healthcare and higher education than
the Liberal Party

somewhat better on climate change [but still not enough!]

and a tiny bit better on refugees

~

back in the days of Gough Whitlam the Australian Labor Party did some WONDERFUL things

but these days they are moving more and more to the right to try to win votes away from the Liberal Party of Australia

Julia Gillard was a good Prime Minister, and also the Australian Labor Party, but she got knifed in the back for being a woman [our first female PM, a good PM, and we threw her away for being a woman]

One thing the Labor party gave us is Penny Wong, Senator for South Australia since 2002, an Asian woman, an out lesbian, a brilliant, intelligent, funny thoughtful woman. The internet keeps saying she should be Prime Minister one day, but she has firmly said she never wants to be Prime Minister.

The best party in Australia is The Australian Greens, who have good policies on:
climate change
refugees
Disability
unemployed people
tenants rights
LGBT people
and more.

But they're a minority party, so they can never form government on their own, only if they team up with the Australian Labor Party.

Recently the Greens ran and got elected Senator Jordon Steele-John, a manual wheelchair user who is a strong advocate for a range of issues including Disability rights, LGBT issues, climate change, refugee issues and more.

[sabotabby]

If only green types and labour types would team up in general...LE SIGH.

[lilysea]

The Australian Greens are great on labour issues

The Australian Labor Party, is, sadly, not great on environment issues [they're better than the Liberal party, but that's a VERY low bar]

One of the problems in Australia is that The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union is one of Australia's biggest unions

and every time someone says "maybe we should mine less coal - and look at retraining packages and new jobs for current coal miners"

or "maybe we shouldn't destroy ancient Aboriginal sacred sites to mine them"

or "maybe we shouldn't clearfell old growth forests"

the CFMEU throws its weight around :(

I am in favour of most unions, but the CFMEU are seriously bad news - they genuinely don't seem to care about people, society, or the planet.

I miss the days when the Builders Labourers Federation (union) would shut down building sites to protect the environment. They also shut sites to protect heritage buildings[1].

They also shut down construction work at one university to safeguard a women’s studies course;

shut down construction work at another university to ensure reinstatement of a gay activist;

and shut down work for a land developer in Redfern, which resulted in the Redfern Aboriginal Community Housing Scheme.

but the Builders Labourers Federation was disbanded due to a corrupt senior official :(

(BLF federal secretary Norm Gallagher was jailed for corrupt dealings after receiving bribes from building companies that he used to build a beach house.)

[1] "The BLF fought successful campaigns which became known as the green bans against development projects which it viewed as harmful to the built and natural environment of Sydney and Melbourne. These campaigns included blocking plans to redevelop The Rocks area, Kelly's Bush in Hunters Hill, Centennial Park, the City Baths, Flinders Street Station and the Hotel Windsor. The green bans are now commonly recognised as directly responsible for saving areas of Sydney and Melbourne with substantial heritage value. Victoria Hall in Fremantle, Western Australia was also saved from demolition by a green ban, in 1974."

[sabotabby]

Yeah, it's a similar deal here, with the extractive industries being a major part of the economy. It's shortsighted—one just needs to look at Alberta to see how much relying on extractive industries for one's economy is a bad idea—but they fall for it every. Fucking. Time.