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Canadian election
shanyin
Novice YoginSault Ontario Veteran
Anyone here from Canada? I'm 20 and I am feeling a bit in the dark about parties policies and such. I am a green party member, and in my town it's going to come down to the New Democrats vs. the Conservatives.
This tempts me to vote NDP as I don't want Conservatives to have power.
What's EVERYONES take on voting this way?
And if you're from Canada, do you have an argument for your party?
This tempts me to vote NDP as I don't want Conservatives to have power.
What's EVERYONES take on voting this way?
And if you're from Canada, do you have an argument for your party?
0
Comments
It's nice to hear from the Canadians, shanyin. Thanks for the thread.
There was a similar problem when the Right vote was split between the Alliance and Conservative parties before the two parties united.
There is talk of a Coalition of the Left Wing parties if no single party gets a majority and I personally prefer this option. My current MP is NDP and he is a very good representative for my community. I also believe he would make a good Environment Minister because he actually cares about the environment but I don't think the NDP will win the election so a coalition of the Left could allow that to happen.
The current Conservative Prime Minister is very good at playing the game of politics and my fear is that he may be re-elected because he is good at the game and good at putting down his opponents - not because he is good for the people of Canada.
I have been a member of the Green party for about 12 years, but I will be voting NDP this time simply because in my riding it is a contest between the NDP and the Conservatives, and my priority is to prevent the conservatives from gaining a majority, and even better, from forming government.
I truly believe in the Green party philosophy more, but a vote for them will not help anything right now. I do deeply hope Elizabeth May wins in her riding though.
The sad thing is that "coalition" has become a dirty word. Actually I think it would be ideal! You would have a government that actually represents the majority of Canadians, and in which they have to work together and cooperate.
Without the possibility of coalitions, multi party systems don't work very well. We would be better off with just two parties. The modern federal NDP and Liberals are so close that it is almost meaningless to have both of them, and as mentioned, it just splits the vote.
As for Trudeau...wait for it. If the Conservatives should win a majority, Ignatieff won't be around long, and I think justin Trudeau could be the next liberal leader. He will do well because he has much the same charisma his father had, and certainly far more than Harper could dream of having.
Yeah I see your point. Also something I thought of is I like the idea of giving the NDP more power than the Liberals... I think it was them who decided to engage in this Afghanistan fiasco which didn't really help much and put millions of people at risk of starvation according to Amnesty International and other organizations. Not sure if Canada helped bombed them which caused that prediction but I don't agree with either bombing them or participating in the sham which according to my friend of a friend who got back from Afghanistan recently 'hasn't made a dent'.
The NDP would pull out, not sure about the Liberals.
An old but big issue IMO.
Guess I have a night to figure it out. :P
So..where would you move to, nature? The States? haha--I doubt it! Sweden, maybe? Oh, you're part of the Commonwealth. That makes it a little easier for you to move around, doesn't it? So what Commonwealth country do you see as an improvement? Just curious.
1. Elizabeth May wins her riding!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! no more will Greens be shut out of debates. I also think that the Conservatives will give her chances to talk because for them, should she further split the left of centre vote, it is a good thing from their perspective.
2. Despite my strategic NDP vote, the Conservative easily won in my riding. I have decided to never again vote negatively, and from now on vote fore what I believe in, which for me really is the Green Party. (as a side note...the Green party philosophy is based on something called "Buddhist economics"...just thought I'd share.
3. NDP as Opposition...I think we need to put this into perspective. The NDP got the Quebec vote. Quebecers abandoned the Bloc and went NDP. As a result half of the NDP's caucus are noobs to Parlament, some are very young, and some are of dubious qualification. I think the NDP will have their hands full for the first year or two keeping the noobs in line and out of controversy. I also think that they could just as quickly go back to third place next election if they cannot keep Quebecers thinking they will benefit from voting NDP.
4. The Liberals. I guess I am something of a closet Liberal. I do like the idea of a strong centrist party, espousing "the middle way" so to speak. I think that with the NDP's union ties, and overzealous desire to spend on any and all social programs, (at least that is how they are widely perceived fairly or not) I cannot believe Canadians will put them in power, and more to the point, I do not want to see our politics up here become as polarized with extremes of the right and left, as it is in the US (admittedly, our right and left are still further to the Left of the US's)
for this reason I am weary of the idea of a Liberal NDP merger. I would prefer the Liberals make a resurgence.
5. The Conservative Majority. I actually think they will not be as scary as some would want us to believe.
If they did all the things they and their followers believe in, they would lose the rallying cry of their supporters, and provide way too much ammunition for the other parties. They won't for example, re-open the abortion issue or ban same sex marriage. It would alienate too many Canadians, give too much ammunition to the other parties, and take away an unspoken rallying cry for a large number of their supporters.
The most damage they will do I think it their insistance upon using fear to promote their tough on crime stance (despite crime stats consistently dropping) and especially their believe in the war on drugs.
Also they will continue to do nothing at all to help the environment and of course will continue to line the pockets of corporations. I think it will be more of the same....just without hope of it ending for another 4 years.
That is the worst part though...they now have a 4 year dictatorship. We Sooooooo need proportional representation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_voting