If you’ve read my election ponderings, you’ll know I’m hoping for the NDP to make a breakthrough and have some real influence in the Canadian government. I think we need it.
At the same time, I was a Green Party candidate when Elizabeth May was the leader, and we have our differences on how things should be, and I’m no longer a Green Party of Canada member.
So you might not expect me to suggest that if Elizabeth May does not win her seat, the future Prime Minister should appoint her to the Senate. (There are three open seats.) While I disagree with Ms. May on some things, she is exactly the kind of person who should be a Senator: encyclopaedic, big picture knowledge, knows what works because she’s seen it being done somewhere, passionate, sometimes truthful to a fault.
And that would also give some voice to the hundreds of thousands of Green voters – almost one million in the last election – who will otherwise get completely shut out on election day.
It’s the honourable thing to do, and the right thing to do. Good when those collide. Just do it, Stephen/Jack/Ignatieff.
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By the way, my picks for the other two open seats would be Ed Broadbent and Peter Lougheed.
UPDATE: This riding poll says that Elizabeth May is leading in the riding and is projected to win.
That quote was from Don Newman, it is blatant shilling, and here’s why:
- If your riding is overwhelmingly Conservative or Liberal or NDP no matter which way you vote, voting NDP does nothing toward a Harper majority.
- If your riding is a toss-up, then a vote for the NDP:
- If the riding goes NDP, then your vote helped stop a majority.
- If it goes Liberal, then your vote didn’t matter.
- Only if it goes Conservative and the Liberal candidate lost by a smallish margin, can you say what Newman did.
So only in a few ridings will an NDP vote potentially help the dreaded majority. (And even there, you can get around holding your nose and voting for someone from a party that you don’t like by pairing your vote.)
Don Newman is a veteran broadcaster according to the Globe & Mail, and should know better – he does know better. So he’s using misinformation to scare people into voting Liberal.
NOTE:
The Bloc has also done this, but I don’t think Don Newman is a big Bloc supporter.
UPDATE: And for those of you in Saanich-Gulf Islands, it looks like the best chance to unseat Conservative Gary Lunn is Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, currently projected to win the riding.
Do you realize your power? Stephen Harper and his Conservatives do. That’s why they squashed on-campus polling stations. This young woman gets it:
“Youth can almost change the political landscape,” said Cooke, who’s excited to vote in her first election. “They have such different views than the people who do vote, it would be completely changed and more representative of the population.”
It would not take much to change the politics in this country, and you can do it.
15,000 swapped votes can change which party becomes government
Rick Mercer gets it. (He’s between a ‘young person’ and an ‘old fart,’ but not yet middle-aged, so not sure who he is. He’s hip but not a hipster.) But he completely understands how important it is for young folks to vote, both for the country and for themselves. His now-famous rant inspired vote mobs across Canada.
This is your election; you get to decide the direction this country takes. I hope you have seen that Stephen Harper’s anti-science, anti-environment, pro-US leaning policies are not what’s best for Canada – and I hope you get out there and tell him so with your vote.
Personally, I think it is time to give the NDP a shot. They’ll move us toward a more European society and economy, and look at how well Germany, Norway, Denmark, and other countries are doing compared to us in many ways.
But the choice is yours. This old fart humbly suggests you give the NDP a look – but regardless of your choice, take a hand in your future. Don’t let your parents pick your government.
Regular readers will know that I ran for the Green Party of Canada in the last election, and you will also know that, despite that, I am independent. (The best description I’ve come up with for myself is a Green Independent Conservative: GIC.) I am not running in the current election.
So, like millions of other independently-minded Canadians, I must decide whom to trust with my vote. (I don’t think that rejecting my ballot is a mature or useful thing to do in this election; there is enough differentiation among the parties and platforms, and they’re not all so hopelessly corrupt that I would take this last resort.)
Who then? If you’ve been reading me, you’ll know I’m leaning strongly toward the NDP, not because I’m a raving socialist – and neither is the NDP – but because they seem most likely to move Canada in a more German/Nordic direction, and we need that. Some claim that we must slavishly follow the United States, but I reject this. Look at Norway as an example of a successful economy and society (you need both); it is right next to the Russian bear, but Norway is no Russian stooge. They have a strong and stable economy, and they have very successfully embraced the new green economy.
Germany has also done exceptionally well, and consider that the reunification imposed enormous costs on the country; essentially, everything built by the Soviet regime was crap in comparison to what had been accomplished under social democracy in the free half of Germany, and had to be scrapped and rebuilt.
I watched Peter Mansbridge interview Jack Layton, leader of the NDP, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives, and I have to say that Layton came out as the more mature, wiser leader. Harper came across as such a…politician. He had a couple of decent points, but on the whole was one slippery character. It didn’t seem to matter the question; Harper’s response was either “OMG! Coalition!” or “I must have a majority.” Every time Mansbridge would pursue a non-answer or a contradiction, well, it was like trying to catch a greased pig.
Layton, on the other hand, seemed like a reasonable guy, willing to – expecting to – work with others to govern the country. Harper comes across as a petulant boy, wanting it all his way or not at all.
But the economy!
Harper constantly fearmongers that anyone else will wreck the economy, but is that really true? He was pushed into a ‘stimulus’ after the recession hit by the other parties, which he then directed a disproportionate share to Conservative-held ridings; that’s porkbarrel politics, plain-and-simple, and it ain’t conservative.
But even worse, the Conservative stimulus was misdirected in a more fundamental way. The Harper Government™ absolutely refused to direct the stimulus in a way that moved the Canadian economy forward. It paid for people to repave their driveway or build a new deck, but is that really a productive use of taxpayer money? If you’re going to dole out the largesse, shouldn’t it at least be productive?
And here’s an important reason why I favour Layton: Had Layton and the NDP been running the government, they would also have done the stimulus, but without being forced by the other parties and with more sensible direction. The NDP would have looked at things like rebuilding our rail system, or perhaps invested in electric cars, or in wind and solar energy, or helped people insulate their houses so they would need less energy, thus saving money permanently.
Harper’s stimulus was not as wasteful as the Bush/Obama U.S. version, where people paid down credit cards or bought big screen TVs made in China, but really most of what it did was create temporary construction jobs. Layton’s NDP would also have spent money, but on things that move Canada toward the economy that is rapidly developing in Europe and China, and that we are equally rapidly falling behind.
On the whole, I’d rather taxpayer dollars be spent, if they must be, on productive, forward-looking projects, not simply make-work-vote-buying gimmicks.
Is the NDP perfect? Is any party? In politics you must choose among what is available, and I believe it is time to give the NDP a chance.
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By the way, why not the Liberals? Let me sum it up like this: Jean Chretien signed the Kyoto Accord – then did utterly and absolutely nothing to make it real. Imagine if Chretien had redirected tar mining subsidies to wind and solar manufacturing and generation – as Germany and Norway and many other countries are doing? That would have created many thousands of secure, well-paying, clean manufacturing jobs in the Prairies. Chretien did not, and Ignatieff will not, either. Status quo, yo.
And why not the Greens? Simple pragmatism; they are not going to get elected (with the possible exception of Elizabeth May). It is not only our first-past-the-post system to blame, either; the reality is that other parties have arisen and captures seats under this system.