Election time is here!
And having read all five party platforms (NDP, Tory, Liberal, Green, Freedom, those that I feel might be relevant to me), I’m so very divided between voting Green and voting Freedom.
The Green Party’s focus on transferring taxes to environmentally costly areas, for instance, is quite attractive. On the other hand, the Freedom Party is, for me, a strong idealogical fit. What I like most about both parties, though, is that they simple stand for something. Greens are unabashedly Green, and don’t fear saying that the populace must pay for what the populace does, and in fact they should pay for that instead of paying for other things. The Freedom Party is unabashedly libertarian. Read it: their platform is like nothing else you will read in Canadian politics. These are not parties pandering to get votes; they exist so I can vote my conscience, to raise awareness, and perhaps even wait for their time to come.
(As a side note, I used to believe in the “throwing away your vote” view, that if you vote for a party no-one thinks can possibly win, you’re basically burning your vote. Which is, of course, a fallacy: if everyone does that, no wonder these parties don’t get much of the vote, even when people may find their platforms extremely attractive. Now, I think that voting according to your conscience is much, much more important than voting for the Tories or the Liberals — who are essentially the same party! — regardless of your party’s chances of winning. Do I go to the ballot box as an arbiter of the lesser evil? No. I go as a contributor to the greater good.)
The NDP are a bunch of left-wing nutbags, which to their credit is something of an impressive feat in Canadian politics. The Conservatives and Liberals are essentially the same party with different faces. (If you want evidence of this, note that the issues both campaigns are focusing on and consider whether these are anything more than niggling variations on each other. The Tories are Red, and the Liberals are Redder. They’re pretty much interchangeable.)
If there’s anyone out there who wants to help sway me to an alternative perspective, by all means, do so! In the meantime, read the parties’ platforms here:
The Freedom Party Platform
The Green Party Platform
![[caedmonscall.net]](http://rmfo-blogs.com/images/ccneticon.jpg "The quasi-official fan site of Caedmon’s Call.")
![[derekwebb.net]](http://rmfo-blogs.com/images/dwneticon.jpg "The official fan site of Derek Webb.")
![[rmfo-blogs.com]](http://rmfo-blogs.com/images/rmfoblog.png "About the [rmfo-blogs] service.")
Hey,
I’m someone who isn’t bullied into “making my vote count”, and I’ve eschewed voting in two federal elections in a row, and when I lived in Alberta, voted for a minor party (the Alberta Alliance) in a provincial election, but now, back in my Ontario home, I’m voting Tory this time, because I like that John Tory is willing to consider possibly extending provincial funding to non-Roman-Catholic religious schools. Yes, he’s pandering to the ethnic minority vote, and certainly not going after the Reformed vote, and yes, it might mean, if implemented, that the gov’t might demand a say in what we teach, but still, it’s worth a shot, and it’s nice to see someone pander after the non-secularist vote; I’m willing to give him a chance.
I like the Freedom Party and Family Coalition, FWIW; if MMP goes thru, I’ll be voting for one or the other, each time, in the list candidates.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 am(Note: as can be expected, I’m voting for MMP in the referendum.)
September 29th, 2007 at 1:40 amEven thought MMP virtually ensures that we always have a minority government?
September 29th, 2007 at 7:49 amI’m not sure that it necessarily will, since I don’t see any of the minor parties getting that many of the list seats at first, and what’s more, if the major parties form coalitions with the minor parties, they may be able to cobble together majorities, albeit ones less stable than if they alone had majorities. But it will break the stranglehold the main three have on power, and force them to have to come to terms with parties which can afford to be more uncompromising in their principles, unlike the big parties, which I think is all to the good.
September 29th, 2007 at 3:35 pm