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It's Voting Day!
10-14-2008, 02:44 PM
In Canada, at least. Don't forget to take the postcard that Elections Canada sent you to the poll, along with photo ID and proof of residence (a
bill with your name on it will work for the latter).
And vote for the party you really want in power, because each and every vote a party gets gives them more federal money for the next election. "Strategic
voting" sends that money to some other party - is that really what you want?
Edit: Just got back from voting - a driver's licence counts as both photo-ID and proof of residence.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Unless, of course, you signed up on one of the many sites where people trade their votes, in which case neither party loses out.
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So, exactly what was the point of that election, again?
Sure, a few things changed - the far-left party got someone elected in Québec for the first time ever (other than in a by-election) and the middle-right party got a few more seats in Ontario, to name two - but there's still a minority government, and the same guy is still the Prime Minister, and the Greens (the closest we've got to a centrist party now) still don't have a seat in the Commons.
And every single incumbent in Ottawa-Gatineau was re-elected.
Consider this posting my first "complaining about the government" this parliament...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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I don't think the Greens can be considered Centerist. They're a single platform lefist party. The Liberals are Centerist.
Unfortuneatly, they were also insane this election. Seriously, I have no seen an election run this poorly than the post-Mulroney PCs.
Also, I'm hearing rumors of the NDP and Bloc forming a coalition opposition.
Well, if this election acoomplished one thing, it ended Dion's political future.
--------------------
Epsilon
Which is good, because I never liked the guy.
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Quote:I don't think the Greens can be considered Centerist. They're a single platform lefist party. The Liberals are Centerist.
There was an article in the Ottawa Citizen a couple of days before the polls, giving the parties' positions on fifteen major issues. The replies the Greens gave made them look more "centrist" than the Liberals to me...
Quote:Unfortuneatly, they were also insane this election. Seriously, I have no seen an election run this poorly than the post-Mulroney PCs.
No arguments there (assuming you're talking about the Greens). When the party leader tells people to vote for a different party's candidates, one has to wonder what she's been smoking.
Quote:Well, if this election acoomplished one thing, it ended Dion's political future.
That's the most popular Liberal pastime - knifing the guy in charge if he doesn't win a majority. (One reason why I've never really liked the Liberals...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
...the fact Yuku drops your posts when it decides you've logged out when doing a reply (with no way of retrieving the text once you hit the "log in
again" screen) is incredibly annoying.
Anyway, a condensed version of what I just posted:
The Liberals do not have a history of knifing the guy in charge for not winning majorities. Lester Pearson only won minorities and yet retired a respected
statesman, Pierre Trudeau left (twice) on his own decision, Turner led the party to its biggest electoral defeat in history and still was not turfed out until
he lost again (giving the Tories another majority) four years later, Chretien never did anything but win majorities, and Martin left, of his own accord and in
a speech he made election night which startled everybody, after running two disastrous campaigns in a row after being initially favoured to win both times.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives actually did knife Joe Clark in the back for not being a winning enough leader. The Canadian Alliance turfed Preston
Manning out of the party he created in favour of someone more photogenic, and then dropped Stockwell Day for running one mediocre campaign. So I'd say the
various right-wing parties have significantly more of a history of this behaviour than the Liberals in the last 40 years.
As for the Green Party, if you believe their dedication to environmental issues is genuine (they're hardly a one-issue party, though - in fact, the rest of
their platform is moderately right-wing), then it makes sense for them to suggest voting for Liberals in ridings where only Liberals have a chance to beat the
Conservative candidates, because the Liberals under Dion are obviously an order of magnitude more environmentally friendly than Harper's Conservatives.
However, I think doing it in that way was unwise, since it simply fed the perception that the Liberals were weak and couldn't win on their own; instead,
promoting the Green Shift (with their own advice and critiques) would probably have worked better.
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