Is anyone here following the Canadian election? I have to say that this is the first time that I am considering not voting, because absolutely nobody appeals to me. I don't trust Paul Martin at all. There are just too many shady dealings surrounding him (sponsorship scandal, diverting funds to his shipping company, etc..) so I know with 100% certainty that I won't be voting Liberal. The new Conservatives are no better, with their corporate tax cuts and artfully vague health care plan. Harper strikes me as a crackpot. That leaves the NDP, which seems to be the best option, even though I don't really agree with their stance on various issues. Plus, the thing about voting NDP is that you just know they aren't going to win, so it's pretty much a wasted vote. Nevertheless, they will likely get my vote this time around. FWIW, the most important issues to me are: - Education: teachers are underpaid for the amount of work they do. They need a raise. - Tuition/Student Loan reform: tuition costs are sky high and the student loan system is horrible. I know people who owe $30-50,000 in student loans. - Health Care: it takes way too long to see specialists.
I'm following it....but not liking what i see. The problem with tossing out one corrupt bunch, is that you leave the gate open for the other guys. (I'm sure our neighbours in the Excited States relate well to this!). Not sure if i'll cast my protest vote to the Greens -- (They're nuts on most issues, but do push environmental responsibility which is a huge issue to me), or maybe I should vote for Andy Moon's Party -- Campaign slogan -- "Let's Roll"
Here’s an interesting aspect of our election that our American friends may be interested in. In Canada there are strict limits on how much a candidate or a third party, can spend on election advertising. The rationale is very simple. If there were no limit on what a person could spend then a wealthy person would have an unfair advantage. They could flood the media with ads and gain an advantage simply because they are wealthy. This, obviously, would be a threat to the very pillars of democracy. In a worst case scenario you could end up with a governing body composed of mostly wealthy people. This would not be representative of the population and ordinary citizens couldn’t/wouldn't trust that their “democratically elected” representatives would be looking out for their interests and not just the interests of the moneyed class. If this were to happen, ordinary people may well become detached from the process, not believing that their interests could be represented in such a system, and they may just stop voting. And if a populous doesn’t believe in a system enough to even vote, can it fairly be called a democracy? At what point does a “democracy” have to admit that it’s not a real democracy? At less than 50% turnout, perhaps? So, to preserve our free and democratic heritage, we have imposed spending limits, so that people will be assured that votes have been earned on the merits of the candidate and the party, and not by the thickness of someone’s wallet. There are some variables depending on how big a constituency is and what the travel expenses are likely to be, etc. but in general no candidate can spend more than $100,000 (I think I’ve got that number right), and no third party can spend more than $3,000 in any one constituency and no more than $150,000 total nationally. To translate this into the American context consider that the US has about 10 times the population of Canada. So if this were the law in the US an organisation like the NRA couldn’t spend more than $1.5 million on advertising during an election campaign. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/05/18/canada/scoc_election040518
Grizz: You're in Calgary, aren't you? Pretty Tory Blue I would think. What do you do if your riding's not in play?? Stay home? Protest vote? Vote anyways to boost the popular vote stats? My riding' pretty much NDP all the way. My votes not really going to change anything -- so i tend to vote for the fringe party that appeals to me most. (for our American cousins -- we vote for our Member of Parliament -- and the leader of the party with the most seats gets to be Prime Minister).
Yeah, it’s oppressively Tory (can we call them that anymore?) blue here. Remember that this time some of the funding is based on the overall percentage of the vote that a party gets, so voting NDP or for a fringe party is not a lost vote anymore. I have some huge issues with the NDP so I may hold my nose and strategically vote Liberal. I’m in Rob Anders seat and there is a move afoot to oust him because of his comment about Nelson Mandela, so if I think that has any chance of succeeding I’ll vote Liberal. You couldn’t hold a gun to my head and make me vote for Harper. I think Joe Clark is right. Harper is a dangerous guy. When a former leader of the Progressive Conservative party makes a statement like that it really catches your attention.
