Let's get ready to rumble!
Oh, fuck yeah. Last night, this was the news of the evening.
We're having an election January 23rd, baby! Now, for many, this is a time of trepidation as we wonder who is going to form the next government. Canadians have lost faith in the Liberals, this is clear.
So who is going to form the next government? Everyone knows the Conservatives are no better - they may not have the scandals, but their views on health care, education, child care et cetera do not fall in line with the values of Canadians. Quite simply, we don't love everything they stand for.
I know there are some that love their platform, particularly in Alberta and maybe Saskatchewan. But overall, they're not representative of the sort of country we want in Canada. We don't want to privatise health care and send women back to the kitchens, do we? We don't want immigrants to be left out in the cold when it comes to job opportunities and contributing to the very culture of Canada. We don't want more corporate tax cuts and for our country to be even more of the US's puppet.
We want sovereignty. A strong military. Good health care and social services. Universal child care. Strong cities that are able to deliver the goods: In short, we want the NDP. Now, now, I know what you are going to say next: The NDP is a dreamer's party. They can't balance a budget. Jack Layton doesn't look like a Prime Minister. If I vote NDP, my vote will be wasted. They can't win.
I've heard all of these excuses and more.
But here's the rub: If all the people who said they'd like to vote for the NDP, but were afraid of the Conservatives just did it rather than trying to strategically vote, we'd have something. If you look at the last election's numbers you'll see that in many ridings, the NDP lost by less than 1000 votes - and in some ridings, it was even closer. This says something; this says that people are voting for the NDP across Canada, but unlike the Liberals and Conservatives who have lots of support in specific regions, the NDP is popular across many ridings - which can be a disadvantage, as we don't have concentrations of NDPers in certain ridings with enough numbers to secure the seats.
But with your help, we CAN!
Another point to ponder about elections: Our system is not fair. It favours cadre parties that have these concentrated pockets of supporters in ridings rather than parties that have widespread support across the country. It's not based at all on popular vote, just who gets the most votes in a riding. In the last election, the NDP got 15.7 percent of the popular vote - and 19 seats (18 now, as one left the party and is now sitting as an independent). Sound good? Well, the Liberals got 36.7% of the popular vote - and 134 seats!!
Now imagine a Paliament based on popular vote with 37 percent of the seats being Liberals, 3o percent Conservatives, 13 percent Bloc Quebecois and 16 percent NDP. Think things would be different? I do.
Also, how many people would vote differently under a proportional representation system where they didn't have to worry about strategically voting to win in their riding; instead, they could merely vote for whom they wanted and that would be reflected in the popular vote, thus helping their party win? The end of strategic voting? *Gasp!* Perish the thought!
Okay, kids, what have we learned today?
1) That the Liberals are corrupt bastards who don't deserve to win - not even another minority.
2) The Conservatives are USer wannabes who need to stop taking money from the NRA and start paying attention to Canada - and Canadian values. Seriously. Check out their website. After you get beyond the nightmares of Stephen Harper's face at night, look at their issues, what they want for Canada - it's some scary shit.
3) That maybe, just maybe we should give the NDP a chance. Remember! Tommy Douglas, the Greatest Canadian was an NDPer. Yeah, we've had some bad NDP governments in BC and Ontario, but we've had loads more bad Conservative and Liberal governments (*coughRalphKleinDaltonMcGuintyPaulMartinBrianMulroneycough*) so that isn't really a good excuse. And if you take 5 minutes to just read the NDP platform, you'll see they don't really live in some magic land where money grows on trees. Their ideas are fiscally sound, and this has even been acknowledged by economists and business people.
So let's give them a chance this go around, can't we?
We're having an election January 23rd, baby! Now, for many, this is a time of trepidation as we wonder who is going to form the next government. Canadians have lost faith in the Liberals, this is clear.
So who is going to form the next government? Everyone knows the Conservatives are no better - they may not have the scandals, but their views on health care, education, child care et cetera do not fall in line with the values of Canadians. Quite simply, we don't love everything they stand for.
I know there are some that love their platform, particularly in Alberta and maybe Saskatchewan. But overall, they're not representative of the sort of country we want in Canada. We don't want to privatise health care and send women back to the kitchens, do we? We don't want immigrants to be left out in the cold when it comes to job opportunities and contributing to the very culture of Canada. We don't want more corporate tax cuts and for our country to be even more of the US's puppet.
We want sovereignty. A strong military. Good health care and social services. Universal child care. Strong cities that are able to deliver the goods: In short, we want the NDP. Now, now, I know what you are going to say next: The NDP is a dreamer's party. They can't balance a budget. Jack Layton doesn't look like a Prime Minister. If I vote NDP, my vote will be wasted. They can't win.
I've heard all of these excuses and more.
But here's the rub: If all the people who said they'd like to vote for the NDP, but were afraid of the Conservatives just did it rather than trying to strategically vote, we'd have something. If you look at the last election's numbers you'll see that in many ridings, the NDP lost by less than 1000 votes - and in some ridings, it was even closer. This says something; this says that people are voting for the NDP across Canada, but unlike the Liberals and Conservatives who have lots of support in specific regions, the NDP is popular across many ridings - which can be a disadvantage, as we don't have concentrations of NDPers in certain ridings with enough numbers to secure the seats.
But with your help, we CAN!
Another point to ponder about elections: Our system is not fair. It favours cadre parties that have these concentrated pockets of supporters in ridings rather than parties that have widespread support across the country. It's not based at all on popular vote, just who gets the most votes in a riding. In the last election, the NDP got 15.7 percent of the popular vote - and 19 seats (18 now, as one left the party and is now sitting as an independent). Sound good? Well, the Liberals got 36.7% of the popular vote - and 134 seats!!
Now imagine a Paliament based on popular vote with 37 percent of the seats being Liberals, 3o percent Conservatives, 13 percent Bloc Quebecois and 16 percent NDP. Think things would be different? I do.
Also, how many people would vote differently under a proportional representation system where they didn't have to worry about strategically voting to win in their riding; instead, they could merely vote for whom they wanted and that would be reflected in the popular vote, thus helping their party win? The end of strategic voting? *Gasp!* Perish the thought!
Okay, kids, what have we learned today?
1) That the Liberals are corrupt bastards who don't deserve to win - not even another minority.
2) The Conservatives are USer wannabes who need to stop taking money from the NRA and start paying attention to Canada - and Canadian values. Seriously. Check out their website. After you get beyond the nightmares of Stephen Harper's face at night, look at their issues, what they want for Canada - it's some scary shit.
3) That maybe, just maybe we should give the NDP a chance. Remember! Tommy Douglas, the Greatest Canadian was an NDPer. Yeah, we've had some bad NDP governments in BC and Ontario, but we've had loads more bad Conservative and Liberal governments (*coughRalphKleinDaltonMcGuintyPaulMartinBrianMulroneycough*) so that isn't really a good excuse. And if you take 5 minutes to just read the NDP platform, you'll see they don't really live in some magic land where money grows on trees. Their ideas are fiscally sound, and this has even been acknowledged by economists and business people.
So let's give them a chance this go around, can't we?
posted by Justine at 10:04 a.m.
2 Comments:
Yes, but all the goodness aside, I don't think the canadian people are ready and willing to put their faith in an untested party. hell, we didn't even want the bloody election in the first place. I have a feeling that this is going to be the most bullshit campaign ever, and will probably end up exactly the same as it is now. As for the liberals, and why we keep going back? They live in the middle, and they're kinda like that ex you go back to, cause even though they fucked you over, its a nice familiar fuck that we're all used to. And besides, the idea of getting fucked by harper is just scary, and something about Jack Layton doesn't seem right either... they're all a bunch of fuckers who care more about themselves than what actual canadians want...its sad when the morning show on EDGE102 makes the very valid point that if this government of canada would spend more fucking time actually governing and dealing with issues instead of posturing amongst themselves, we'd be kicking some fucking global ass. but no, they just fuck around. fucking pricks, wonder why I don't bother to vote anymore, there's no one worth voting for.
a better question is how many times can i say fuck before the website calls me on it....haha, aparently I've become very bitter about the state of canadian politics
Well, I'd hardly call the NDP untested. Maybe Jack Layton is untested - in federal politics - but he was a City Councillor for YEARS and in his riding, shit got done.
Then you can look back in the past: Tommy Douglas did a pile of things. Not just health care, but he was responsible for getting a lot of the roads built in Saskatchewan, public amenities - this may seem like nothing now but it was a HUGE deal back then. Also, most of Pierre Trudeau's good ideas about the Charter and the Constitution came from the NDP - he was a member afterall, who took their ideals to the Liberal Party. Actually, it's funny because Trudeau basically stole the Charter idea from Tommy Douglas.
More recently, a lot of people have a lot of flak for Bob Rae - but while Rae days sucked, it was better than the alternative which would have been laying a bunch of people off.
I'm not sure if a lot of people realise it, but the last budget which was balanced, fair and included lots of important spending was put forth by the NDP. Yes, the last budget was an NDP budget.
So it isn't really that the party is untested as much as people fear change - which is ironic, because if you look at Canadian values against NDP values, there is no change. You can't say the same for the Liberals and the Conservatives.
As for all the party leaders being all for themselves - I really wouldn't say that is true of Jack, and that isn't simply because I like him. He's been doing a lot of good work for a lot of years. And even if you don't like him, look at who is running in our riding: Michael Shapcott. He helped found the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, a project trying to help homelessness. He's been working towards affordable housing and helping the homeless for years. He is certainly not out for himself only.
Also, take a good look at the rest of the party. Alexa McDonaugh, the last leader, is a social worker. Jack Layton used to teach politics at Ryerson. A lot of them are union members, or some sort of social service person. They're not the traditional gaggle of rich snotty lawyers you see in the other parties.
When you put all this stuff together, it looks pretty good. Yeah, the NDP isn't perfect, but nothing is. I mean, it's not left-wing enough for me, but it's good.
I refuse to lose hope that the system still works. But you know what they say: 'Insanity is repeating the same behaviour over and over, expecting different results.' Well, that's what we're doing. We're voting in the same parties over and over and expecting things to change.
Maybe it isn't the parties that need to change. Maybe we do. Maybe we need to stop trying to be 'safe' or whatever - because clearly picking the two 'main' parties isn't safe and give someone else a shot.
Jack isn't even asking to win. He just wants more seats so that the NDP can continue to do what they do best: Be Canada's conscience and keep Parliament aware of what Canadians want.
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