Korean Job Discussion Forums

[freethought]

So once again Canada may be headed to the polls. Things are pretty up in the air right now, but I'm interested in hearing why Canadians on this board would or wouldn't vote for any of the major parties.

[Pink Freud]

green

[On the other hand]

NDP. Lifelong habit.

[mithridates]

Either Conservative, Liberal, NDP or Green.

[freethought]

[freethought]

[AgentM]

Nobody. I've joined the ranks of the apathetic non-voters.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I will believe an election when I see one! Ignatieff seems to trot out this ploy constantly lately to build some buzz. Then the talk goes away when the Liberals realize an election would result in another minority government and an awful lot of people annoyed at them for the costly PR act.

I don't want to provoke people. I just don't think there's a lot of actual ideological difference between Conservatives and Liberals in Canada, and I used to tell people in the states that it was like choosing between a Bill Clinton Democrat party and an Obama Democrat party. I never cared for Layton much, but I did like Ed Broadbent (leader of NDP in 70s), even if I didn't agree with him. Intelligent man.

I have to say that, while my politics fall closer to the Liberals in Canada, I see the parties as geographic parties and not ones of ideology. Because I am from Alberta and still identify with it, I will never, ever, ever vote for the party of Tr*deau. I just cannot do it. To this day I cannot buy gas from a Petro-Canada station, and have nearly run out of gas a few times because of it in my life.

I realize this is a little perverse, but I understand completely people from Jeolla or Gyeongsan who could not force themselves to like presidents Roh or Kim, no matter what they did!

[ManintheMiddle]

Farley Mowat's got my vote, as long as he lives among the Arctic wolves after his election and moves Toronto to the Northwest Territories.

[TheUrbanMyth]

I won't be. I'm disqualified under part 11 subsection D of the Canadian Elections Act.

[fiveeagles]

Thank God for Harper!

[No_hite_pls]

[mises]

I'm not a socialist so the NDP is out. I'm not from Quebec, so no Bloc. I have voted Green, but that was a protest vote.

It is down to the Liberals and Conservatives. I've been thinking about this. What are the differences between how the Libs governed and how the Cons are governing? I can't see too many. My two main beefs with Canada right now are 1) the criminalization of drugs and 2) us being in Afghanistan. Will either party touch these? No. Maybe the Libs will change pot laws, but that isn't enough. I guess it is a protest vote for the Greens again.

Though an election looks unlikely in the near term.

[freethought]

Pot was slated to be decriminalized under Martin; one of the few things my old boss did right. But we were defeated by a confidence motion and that was that.

My position is that legalizing and controlling pot is a policy change that would only have positive benefits. When all is accounted for (taxes, savings etc) it's likely Canada could gross about 5 billion dollars a year in revenue, which would mean a 10% reduction in the debt right now.

I think those who point out that the differences seem to be lacking between the Libs and the CPC have a point but are also overlooking a number of things. The CPC has their hands tied by a minority government, and there's no telling what they might do if there hands were suddenly freed. I say this as one of the people who put together documents on their MPs, and they have a lot of far right nut jobs. But there are issues right now that speak to the differences.

Harper's 'tough on crime' and desire to build private US style prisons is a huge difference. Crime rates are extremely low right now, but the conservative 'fear' factor makes them focus on things that aren't a threat. The American system is not one to emulate, since they have one of, if not the highest incarceration rate in the world. every major study says the tough on crime approach the CPC is advocating is counter productive. But yet they wanted it anyway.

They are a party that isn't sure if climate change is 'real'.

They can't seem to count to save their lives (105 billion dollars off the mark on the deficit???). They used to go ape poop over our ' deliberately underestimating' the SURPLUS by a couple of billion dollars.

My point is simply that despite similarities likely brought about by the need to govern from the centre (there's a reason my party has held power for 75% of the last century), there are very real and important differences between the two parties.

[Kimbop]