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Erection Day monday

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by jaqui

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to Erect the next Federal Government in Canada.

so lets review the options:
1) Conservatives - Government for big business
2) Liberals - Government for big business
3) New Democrat Party [ NDP ] - Government for Unions [ aka big business ]
4) Libertarian - civil law only government? sounds like anarchists really.
5) Communist Party of Canada - government for big government.
6) Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada - more government for big government.
7) Green Party - hippies taking over?

check who is running in your riding, I get to pick from 5 bad choices :/
numbers 4 and 6 no candidate for me.

The green Party's idea of sustainable technologies with incentive for using them, carbon tax credits type of incentives are definitely intriguing, but they lack something.

not going to really say much about the M-L and Commies, nothing much needed to be said. ;)

The 3 main parties, all really boil down to big business, though the NDP tends to have a better track record of trying to do something for the people.

the 8th party, the one that shouldn't be in a FEDERAL election, the Block Quebecois - TREASON.
their mandate is the destruction of Canada as a nation. since they only ever put Candidates forward in Quebec, they should be banned from running in a Federal Election. a FEDERAL party needs to be represented in ALL electoral ridings, or it is NOT a federal party.

26 replies

by jaqui

but they at least do try to make things better for the people not just for business.

of all the parties, the Greens actually have the best platform in their focus on sustainable technologies and legislation to promote it concepts.
I just don't see them getting in.
it's not presented well enough.

by ansugisalas

Never vote for someone just because they might win - they won't know it was you, and won't give a cluck, either.

Vote for someone who's got an idea for improving things.

by nicknielsen

That's a rather unique concept, one I've not seen in American politics in many decades. The current objective seems more to me to be to do something [u]to[/u] the people.

by jaqui

but the libertarians aren't out to destroy the country, only have minimal government.
law suits for personal disputes
everything else is gone in their vision.

don't see it ever becoming a popular vote option. :D

by slayer_

They all suck...
I guess I'll go conservative, just to help give them a majority and stop these stupid elections.

by jaqui

bad options.
we need some way to really tell the politicians that they aren't making any real headway in public trust. check my response to James below, I put my own opinion on a simple voting change that would do that.

by jamesrl

We probably don't see eye to eye Jackie, and thats ok. But I would encourage you to not give up, make a choice and vote.

I do see a difference in the big three parties. Its true there is much overlap between the Liberals and Conservatives. Perhaps thats why the NDP are gaining on the Liberals.

The NDP want to raise corporate taxes to pay for new social programs. If our corporate taxes were lower than those in the US, I might be ok with that, but when the US corporate taxes are lower, its an incentive for Canadian companies to pack up and move south, taking their jobs with them. That hurts our employment and our economy, and reduces the amount of personal income tax collected. I don't equate big unions with big business.

The Green Party has had a track record of being fiscally conservative, which I like, but they won't get elected.

The Libertarians sadly won't ever come to power, as our society is addicted to government sponsored programs.

The Bloc Quebecois is probably watching its own demise as we speak. Not that the sovereignty issue is over, just it isn't that important right now, and the Bloc's raison d'etre doesn't exist if no one wants a referendum in the next 5 years. They were very much like a Quebec version of the NDP on other issues, but since the NDP is making gains in Quebec, they may be wiped out.

As for me, I will as usual vote conservative. I'm not 100% thrilled with the party and how its run, and how they have governed, but overall I see them as the best fit especially given our economic times. In my riding, the conservative candidate doesn't really have a hope, but I will vote for him anyway.

by jaqui

said I wasn't going to vote.
only that all the choices are bad.

and I agree, the Greens have the best platform, their problems lie in 2 areas:
no real proven track record in office.
Julian May.
She is likely a good leader, but last election her lack of French killed the green's chances of being elected in francophone ridings.

I also think the green's platform needs to get far more specific, not a numbers specific but literally details of their proposed changes to legislation and taxation systems.

I do have an issue with the green's statement that the voting system needs to change, it sounds to me like they want the transferable vote implemented. I do not agree with that, specially with elections canada reporting to parliament, that is to easily abused by elections canada to pick their bosses.

in all seriousness, the simplest change would be enough to get more of a voter turnout, add a none of the above box to every single ballot, give those who really don't like the options a single box to count as a happy with or unhappy with the current system / parties. That gives them a solid number that tells the politicians how badly they are doing.

I agree, the libertarians will never get a seat in government.

Most union workplaces are big business workplaces, and the unions themselves are each a big business. that's why I do equate unions and big business.

by jamesrl

As someone who has counted thousands of ballots, I do see spoiled ballots as fullfilling the "none of the above" role. Some small number of ballots are accidentally spoiled, but most are deliberate.

I've met Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader. She needs to get a seat. her voice needs to be heard.

Did you hear about some of the NDP candidates in Quebec? There were some nominated where they didn't expect to get more than a handful of votes, who haven't campaigned at all. They were nominated so that the NDP could say they compete in every riding in the country. One of them works at a pub at my old university Carleton (which is in Ottawa, and hundreds of miles from the riding she is running in). She has a french last name, but doesn't speak french very well. One of the local radio stations tried to interview in french and they couldn't make it work. It could make for some very interesting new members if the NDP do as well in Quebec as it looks like. And it could be the end of the Bloc.

by jaqui

just not fluently.
and in the last election was in an official all candidate nationally broadcast debate.
they run 2 of them, one in English, one in French.
a lack of fluency in the other "official" language would hurt her in all french speaking areas of Canada.
There is more than just Quebec, there are a few towns in each province that are french speaking primarily, and a significant portion of the maritime provinces on the atlantic coast are french speaking.

I love tweaking the quebec population, since they are insistent on being MORE french than those in France, and in ramming their own heritage down everyone else throats, often at the expense of the other people's heritages.

by jamesrl

The Conservatives won their first majority since they were trounced in 1993.

The NDP (Socialists) made a huge breakthrough in Quebec, where they went from one seat to sixty seven. They are for the first time in history, the official opposition. The Liberals, for the first time in history, are in third place, their leader will resign. The Bloc Quebecois went from 43 seats to 4.

So it is a massive change.

by seanferd

ewwww, Harper.

Thanks for the rundown, though. I don't believe I've seen a good "big picture" assessment of the results like that. Gives me some perspective which was lacking in what I've read.

by hal 9000

You are seriously deprived.

Here in Au we have the Australian Sex Party.

Not really sure what they stand for but some of their candidates [i]eh policies[/i] make them the only ones worth looking at. ;)

Col

by jamesrl

The maximum is 5 years.

Realistically, they start looking at 3.5 years, to see whether condtions are right for an election at the 4 year mark. If things are looking good, they might have one at 4. If they aren't, they hold on till 5.

by jaqui

got elected.
so the Green Party has at least 1 seat.

but since she was running for the home of the remnant hippies ;) it's not a big surprise.

The Gulf Islands has always been a strong green movement socially, they really started the environmental awareness that is so strong in most of B.C.

by jamesrl

So she did pretty well. I think the decision to concentrate on her seat instead of touring the country paid off. She had a huge army of volunteers.

by jamesrl

I watched the results for hours last night, and it was 3 at one point, when I went to bed it was 4.

Maybe there was some late recount, but most of the news sites show 4.

by jamesrl

In a parliamentary system, we vote for a local rep. So one name on the ballot, along with the name of the party (or independant). Party with the most seats usually forms the government (special circumstances yadda yadda).

In a afootnote, remember the waitress who was running for the NDP in Quebec?
Turns out, she never went to the riding, never campaigned, no lawn signs. She won.

And now someone has come forward about her nomination papers. Part of the process is that you have to get 100 eligible voters to sign your papers before you become an "official" candidate and get your name on the ballot. Well turns out some of the names on her nomination papers didn't actually sign themselves and don't support the candidate. There may be a challenge.

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