RSSCanada: who to vote for?
Dec 13
Over the next few weeks I’ll need to decide who to vote for here in Canada. The first thing I’ll note is that it’s a nice change from the US 2-party system. As an Ontarian I have 3 “official” choices, not counting smaller parties, which does make a big difference in the choice.
After zero real research I’ll outline my thoughts, and then update as I go with better data.
Conservatives
The conservative position in Canada has historically been against public health care, against gay marriage and in favour of following the US around on their sometimes violent attempts at new-age imperialism. I’m interested to see how they’ve tried to moderate their message now, since most Canadians are not in favour of any of those things.
Example: In todays CBC headline story Tories would bring back airborne troops the quote is “A Conservative government would boost Canada’s ability to project its values around the world with more military aircraft and a new airborne battalion, Leader Stephen Harper said on Tuesday.”
I firmly believe that it’s neither Canadas job nor moral right to “project our values.” This speaks to things much different than peacekeeping and sounds like rhetoric from the mouth of Bush.
Summary: if you could sum up the exact opposite of my political views, this would be it.
Liberals
The Liberals seem decently close to my political leanings on the major issues. Obviously I’m put off by the ad scandal, but haven’t seen good evidence anyone major was involved. I don’t like Martin (I did like Chretien), but I think it’s better to vote for a party and not one person, except in extreme cases.
NDP
I’m looking forward to digging into their platform. They may be the closest to me of the major 3 parties, I don’t know yet. But, I’ve also always had this impression that the NDPs platform was “social programs at the expense of fiscal responsibility” (don’t know why I have that, it may be completely wrong). I did hear that Laytons position does include fiscal responsibility, so that’s encouraging.
At this point my decision seems like “Do I vote for the Liberals, even if I prefer another, to stop the Conservatives from getting into power?” I don’t like having to think that way, but we’ll see how my answer develops.
Dec 15, 2005 @ 11:40:06
How lucky you Canadians are to have a choice. It appears to me that the US has two parties in name only. The outcomes are the same; if it makes money for the corporations, it gets approved, and to heck with the average joe.
Dec 15, 2005 @ 16:33:42
It’s definitely an advantage for a democracy to support more than two political parties. It allows Canadians to elect minority governments, which arguably must try harder to please the people than a majority with a mandate and a partisan agenda.
The US has attempted repeatedly to form a third party. Remember Perot? Nader? They sought to make their mark, establish a foothold for their fledgling party. All they did was split the vote and secure the election of their opponent. Remember the Republicans secretly promoting Nader in order to neutralize a few Democrat voters?
The problem was that Perot and Nader were outsiders to the political process. Neither had much political experience and yet both advocated drastic changes and extreme political views. That kind of talk makes average voters nervous.
If a bipartisan group of experienced, centrist politicians banded together, they would have much more credibility. McCain is a great centrist Republican with a history of bipartisan support (a la torture ban). Team him with a centrist Democrat like Lieberman or Clinton(Mrs) and you might have a shot.
May 01, 2011 @ 13:55:52
I think what you said what the best and nicest way of saying.
” who do I pick that would *^%$ me up the #@$$ the least! but your right anybody but the “harper government”