Oh yeah, it’s Election Day in Canada. How’d that slip my mind? Haven’t seen it on the TV news yet...
we are having all kinds of anxiety about Stephen Harper - bad bad right wing scary bastard. Because the Liberals are (rightly) out of favour, the Conservatives have a damn good chance. So the whole strategic voting thing has raised is ugly head. I'm voting NDP cause A: I don't believe in strategic voting...did it once, never again and B: the candidate in my riding is Olivia Chow who I've known for years, she's the best urban advocate I've ever seen in politics, and happens to be the wife of the fedral leader of the NDP, Jack Layton, who is a loose cannon and needs her for ballast. If Stephen Harper wins we are f**ked. Ontario (my province) is just coming off a Conservative regime. They wiped out the social programs in their first month or so of office, and now we've grown accustomed to the sad state of affairs and won't get them back. If that happens on the federal level we stand to lose the things that make Michael Moore love us.
well that turned out pretty well. Liberal minority means same same old crew in power, but more answerable to NDP. The sad news is that Olivia Chow lost in my riding to Tony Ianno . Too much so-called strategic voting. Ianno campaigners were telling people on their doorsteps that if they voted for Chow, Stephen Harper would win. nasty tactics. And not true. We need the NDP to have a strong presence, and hold back the drift toward privitization, handguns and golf courses (lowering taxes, limiting civil liberties, going to war, etc). Olivia's loss is sad locally, but overall the big results are pretty darn good in this regard. There is also one "other" seat that must be a Green Party member. Fun!
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- alex 6-29-2004 1:04 am
we are having all kinds of anxiety about Stephen Harper - bad bad right wing scary bastard. Because the Liberals are (rightly) out of favour, the Conservatives have a damn good chance. So the whole strategic voting thing has raised is ugly head. I'm voting NDP cause A: I don't believe in strategic voting...did it once, never again and B: the candidate in my riding is Olivia Chow who I've known for years, she's the best urban advocate I've ever seen in politics, and happens to be the wife of the fedral leader of the NDP, Jack Layton, who is a loose cannon and needs her for ballast. If Stephen Harper wins we are f**ked. Ontario (my province) is just coming off a Conservative regime. They wiped out the social programs in their first month or so of office, and now we've grown accustomed to the sad state of affairs and won't get them back. If that happens on the federal level we stand to lose the things that make Michael Moore love us.
- sally mckay 6-29-2004 1:52 am [add a comment]
well that turned out pretty well. Liberal minority means same same old crew in power, but more answerable to NDP. The sad news is that Olivia Chow lost in my riding to Tony Ianno . Too much so-called strategic voting. Ianno campaigners were telling people on their doorsteps that if they voted for Chow, Stephen Harper would win. nasty tactics. And not true. We need the NDP to have a strong presence, and hold back the drift toward privitization, handguns and golf courses (lowering taxes, limiting civil liberties, going to war, etc). Olivia's loss is sad locally, but overall the big results are pretty darn good in this regard. There is also one "other" seat that must be a Green Party member. Fun!
- sally mckay 6-29-2004 8:11 am [add a comment]