As folk may or may not know, the Canadian Elections are on right now. Canadian Elections are odd, for reasons which I don’t want to get into right now.
As of this moment, I’m trying to figure out first and foremost which party I am most closely aligned with in terms of my views and priorities. Obviously that’s only one part of the equation. It’s all well and good that the Liberals are firmly Canadian-minded (which is good), anti-debt (which is good), pro-small business (which is good) and a bunch of other things.
But, over the last number of years, I’m not sure how well they’ve actually managed to do what their priorities say they should be doing.
And, really, I’m not convinced that the last 10-15 years of liberalism has been good for the country. My other options seem to be the Conservatives, which would be okay (enough) if Harper wasn’t effectively an American on his policies, and an idiot when it comes to how to pay for his promises.
NDP? Well, I’m not really a Union kind of guy. Plus, I have very little confidence in Jack Layton to actually do what he says, considering how many of *his* promises he’s relented on.
So I’m left with no clear winner. Which means that, along with about 25 million other Canadians, I’m decidedly undecided.
I’ll watch the debates, watch the news nearly every night to see what new promises are coming up and generally try and keep an open mind.
That said, while I don’t know what I *do* want, I’m very sure of what I *don’t* want. I don’t want a Liberal majority government. They’ve proven too many times that things go wrong when they have a majority government. Hell, I’m not sure any government should ever ideally hold a majority position. Abuse is simply too easy.
But knowing what I don’t want doesn’t help me much.
Y’know what’d be really nice? If Duceppe wasn’t a separatist and wasn’t just concerned with Quebec’s issues. Because he’s actually a smart, well spoken, common sense kind of guy.
Bah.
December 13th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
Green! Vote Green! Here’s why I did in the last election.
December 14th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
I am in the same boat as you – decidedly undecided.
However, I think there needs to be a majority government. Without one, nothing gets done, and the country will stagnate, which is bad for everybody. With a majority, at least party who wins will have an opportunity to implement their election promises without waiting for the political games to play out to determine whether or not their proposals will fail and we will be heading back to the polls yet again.
Whether or not any of the parties can be trusted to actually follow up on their campaign promises is a whole other story…
I really wish there were a better way to hold these people who talk out of their asses responsible when they don’t follow through. I do not want to wait for another election to vote them out. If they break promises (major ones at least), maybe they ought to be fired immediately, or taken out and flogged, or left penniless and unable to get social assistance, or maybe they shouldn’t be paid until after their term is up, and that payment should be based on the promises they kept.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Sounds like the American 2004 election.
January 10th, 2006 at 12:04 am
After tonight’s debates I hope voters remember a vote for Mr Harper is a vote for George Bush the III. I guess I have to vote liberal. Thanks PC’s! Keep the faith NDP and BLOC .. a party that prints it’s own money should at least be able to remain solvent!