Heh. It's a site by Green Party supporters, but the information can be used apart from that.
The problem with Canadian politics at the moment is that there's one party for stupid people and four or five parties for smarter people, and what this often means is that the stupid people win because the smart people split the vote.
This site gives you all the data you need to know if you're safe to vote your conscience or if you should hold your nose and vote for a different smart-person's party than your preferred one, to keep the stupid people out.
Aye. Thankfully in my riding it seems like a cut and dry win for the Liberals, so I can vote for the NDP guy (most ppl in our immediate area are also NDP supporters).
I don't usually go for the strategic voting thing, but I might actually change my usual vote this year. Not only because I want anyone-but-Harper, but because the Liberal candidate in my riding sent me a fantastic mailout with a very positive message. There was no calling this guy a baby-eater or look-at-what-this-guy-did crap on there (which I hate). The Conservative in my riding sent me a mailout that bashed the Liberals. I haven't heard from the NDP or the Greens around here.
I hear conservatives are ruining it up there. Now that us Americans have any right to say anything, but you Canucks have always been our bastion of liberalness. How bad is it?
The Conservative Party Of Canada are basically the Democrats, except that since we don't have an even further extreme right-wing party, they've got all the white supremacists and immigrant-haters and middle-class white guys whose parents paid for everything who insist that they're self-made and that all taxation is theft.
I wouldn't say they're "ruining" things, since they've got a minority government that requires at least one of the other parties to agree in order to pass any laws. Things aren't as good as they could be, nut the Liberals really did need to go away for a while, and minority CPC is much, much less damaging than majority CPC or any NDP government at all. And when your choices are Liberal, CPC, or NDP, and you can't go Liberal for reasons relating to massive corruption, you aim to let the CPC in but not give them a majority.
I dream of the days when America has the same problem. "It's not that our officials are all asshats, it's that they're all asshats when they have no competition." In the ol' US of A they're ALL asshats NO MATTER WHAT.
In Canada, just like in the US, the choice is always "asshat or less-asshat".
Luckily for the US, the "less-asshat" choice is abundantly clear, this time.
In Canada, there are multiple choices that are different degrees of less-asshat. Which is a problem, given that we're stil using an obsolete first-past-the-post election system.
(PS: The US is NEVER going to get better until your REALLY terribly HORRENDOUSLY obsolete system of elections is abolished. It was new and groundbreaking when it came out, but right now you're MSDos 4.0 in a Windows XP World. The advancements might not be perfect, but NOBODY who's used them is ever going back.)
Really, no matter what your goal is, sites like this are useful. The trick is, they're *most* useful when you're attempting to head off a majority through vote-splitting. If you really love the Reformatory platform and think Gordon O'Connor's giving of public sloppy blowjobs to John Ashcroft *aren't* embarassing, this site doesn't do you much good.
If the Liberals weren't led by someone with all of the personality and integrity of a wet paper bag, they might not have this problem.
Well, the problem is that you have either Dion, Rae (a newcomer to the party who completely fucked up Ontario while a premier for the *NDP*), or Ignatieff (An openly pro-Republican American.)
Basically, they've got Dion or nobody.
If the NDP could get over themselves and develop a realistic platform, people might vote for them in larger numbers.
Everything the NDP touch turns to complete shit. I never, ever, ever want to see them get the ability to make legislation that doesn't have to at least pass through the Liberal or CPC or even Bloc for filtering first.
The CPC are crazy and hate you personally because you're not a large corporation.[1] The NDP are crazy and hate economists. The BQ are crazy and hate anyone who isn't from Quebec. This leaves the Liberals.
The Liberals are the only sane choice capable of making a competent government. And that's really, really sad.
[1]: Unless they hate you because you're non-white or non-Christian or non-male. But that's mostly secondary to their hatred of individuals for not being corporations.
PS: The French Language debate resulted in a *20%* increase in Dion's numbers. Among French speakers, he now leads in prospective voters.
I'm just sayin'!
I hope he can keep it up in the English debates, because, while I don't agree with all the Liberal positions, Harper and LAyton are both *dangerously insane*, and both their platforms are *objectively batshit crazy*. Which, unfortunately, leaves only one sane platform to actually vote for.
And the fact that De-Elect Gordon O'Connor is my goal means voting for ANYONE who might unseat him, and Justin MacKinnon is the best bet, means my vote is clear.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 02:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 03:06 pm (UTC)The problem with Canadian politics at the moment is that there's one party for stupid people and four or five parties for smarter people, and what this often means is that the stupid people win because the smart people split the vote.
This site gives you all the data you need to know if you're safe to vote your conscience or if you should hold your nose and vote for a different smart-person's party than your preferred one, to keep the stupid people out.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 02:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 04:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 05:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 05:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 06:50 pm (UTC)I wouldn't say they're "ruining" things, since they've got a minority government that requires at least one of the other parties to agree in order to pass any laws. Things aren't as good as they could be, nut the Liberals really did need to go away for a while, and minority CPC is much, much less damaging than majority CPC or any NDP government at all. And when your choices are Liberal, CPC, or NDP, and you can't go Liberal for reasons relating to massive corruption, you aim to let the CPC in but not give them a majority.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-02 09:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 12:01 am (UTC)Luckily for the US, the "less-asshat" choice is abundantly clear, this time.
In Canada, there are multiple choices that are different degrees of less-asshat. Which is a problem, given that we're stil using an obsolete first-past-the-post election system.
(PS: The US is NEVER going to get better until your REALLY terribly HORRENDOUSLY obsolete system of elections is abolished. It was new and groundbreaking when it came out, but right now you're MSDos 4.0 in a Windows XP World. The advancements might not be perfect, but NOBODY who's used them is ever going back.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-27 07:31 pm (UTC)I love it.
I want to set up a UK version.
Shit, that'll take some work.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-28 02:29 pm (UTC)If the Liberals weren't led by someone with all of the personality and integrity of a wet paper bag, they might not have this problem.
If the NDP could get over themselves and develop a realistic platform, people might vote for them in larger numbers.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-28 02:48 pm (UTC)If the Liberals weren't led by someone with all of the personality and integrity of a wet paper bag, they might not have this problem.
Well, the problem is that you have either Dion, Rae (a newcomer to the party who completely fucked up Ontario while a premier for the *NDP*), or Ignatieff (An openly pro-Republican American.)
Basically, they've got Dion or nobody.
If the NDP could get over themselves and develop a realistic platform, people might vote for them in larger numbers.
Everything the NDP touch turns to complete shit. I never, ever, ever want to see them get the ability to make legislation that doesn't have to at least pass through the Liberal or CPC or even Bloc for filtering first.
The CPC are crazy and hate you personally because you're not a large corporation.[1]
The NDP are crazy and hate economists.
The BQ are crazy and hate anyone who isn't from Quebec.
This leaves the Liberals.
The Liberals are the only sane choice capable of making a competent government. And that's really, really sad.
[1]: Unless they hate you because you're non-white or non-Christian or non-male. But that's mostly secondary to their hatred of individuals for not being corporations.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 12:04 am (UTC)I'm just sayin'!
I hope he can keep it up in the English debates, because, while I don't agree with all the Liberal positions, Harper and LAyton are both *dangerously insane*, and both their platforms are *objectively batshit crazy*. Which, unfortunately, leaves only one sane platform to actually vote for.
And the fact that De-Elect Gordon O'Connor is my goal means voting for ANYONE who might unseat him, and Justin MacKinnon is the best bet, means my vote is clear.