More Political Noise
It’s been about a week since my last post, so I figure that gives some breathing space for more politics. It’s one of the few interesting things that’s been happening around here. I mean, we talk about it at school constantly. Unlike the stereotypical adolescent, we actually care about the state of our nation.
Those kids…
Unfortunately, the stereotypical adolescent who is apathetic to affairs of the state and would rather go on blasting gangsta music in the halls and what not holds true to about 90% of our school population. This week was the pretend vote for students. It’ll be interesting to see the results, considering most students have no idea what’s been going on, as my friend who’s been going around to home forms conducting the vote. It’ll be interesting to see how this year’s Grade 10 Civics classes manage to do with an exam coming up in a week or two.
In English, my teacher brought up a discussion about how some politicians want to raise the voting age to 21. Of course, for the impressionable teens that we are, we steadfastedly refused such a proposition. Yes, a lot of people in that age bracket don’t care, but apathy runs across all ages, genders, and races and any other demographic.
Of course, my arguments (which always pop up after we have a discussion) are that (a) prisoners get to vote and (b) 18 and ups are legal adults. Why and how could anyone attempt to void the right of legal adults to vote? I mean, if someone were to seriously try that on the 18-21 year olds, I can promise you that all hell will be raised by those young’uns. Hell, look at what happened when the Liberals got Elections Canada to remove the advance polling stations on the U of T campus. Not a good idea, especially after the York U students fought hard to get a polling station on their campus.
What happen!!
Anyhow, what I really want to do is to play political analyst. No, I’m not going to be impartial. It’s not in my nature. But the campaign has been an interesting one and will continue to be, I’m sure, right to the very last minute. Keep in mind that I am a high school student and I may very well be BSing and not realize it.
First of all, everyone knows the Liberals are screwed. They managed to do every conceivable thing wrong. If they manage to form another government, they are invincible, and we should just welcome our Liberal overlords.
Concerning the Liberals, one riding I am definitely watching is Parkdale–High-Park. This is Sam Bulte’s riding. I’ve talked about this before, but basically, Sam Bulte is having a fundraiser for her campaign
Anyway, enough of the Liberals. Let’s have a look at the Bloc. Most people don’t realise this, but the Bloc and the Conservatives are really polar opposites, about as much as the NDP. From what I understand, since the two major parties in Quebec have always been the Bloc and the Liberals, the Liberals could be seen as the right wing in Quebec. Since the Conservatives don’t really have that much power in Quebec, they’re not seen as an option, kind of like how the NDP is seen as the third man across the country. The best they can hope for is to have some sort of representation in that region.
But yes, the Bloc has Quebec in the bag. And they are really super socialist. I mean, look at their education system and their child care system. I guess that’s one of the reasons why the Conservatives aren’t gaining the support they really wanted there: they’re way too right-wing for them.
The Conservatives and the Bloc do agree on one thing though: provinces. They think the provinces should get more power. It’s easy to see why the Bloc likes this. When the provinces get more power, it means that Quebec gets more power. The problem I have with that is that it seems like it’ll destroy any semblance of national unity we already have. Think of the States. Their federal government does not have the sort of power over a state like ours does over a province. This is pretty much thanks to Trudeau.
Which brings us to the Conservatives. It’s interesting to read things about the history of the Reform party and the Progressive Conservatives and how they got merged. Basically, when the PC and Alliance merged, a lot of PC members jumped ship, most notably Joe Clark, who lead the country for a short while as a Progressive Conservative. Also, the Reform party, formed by Preston Manning, basically got created because a lot of Westerners thought they were getting shafted by Ontario and Quebec. Thus, the birth of the Reform party.
Now, if you lined up the parties in that traditional line, you’ll find that on the very left were the NDP and Bloc. Heading towards the centre were the Liberals. A bit further right and you would find the Progressive Conservatives. At the very right, you have the Reform party.
So not only was the Reform party born out of regional concerns like the Bloc, they were more extreme than the PC. The Reform party is generally considered to be neoconservative. Unlike the former Progressive Conservatives, the Reform party’s policies are very much in line with those of the Republican party.
Which brings us to today. The resulting Conservative party is much more like the Canadian Alliance than the Progressive Conservatives. As a result, a lot of voters that have traditionally gone PC because of their moderate conservativeness, have gone over to the Liberals during the last election.
Having had a Liberal government for a good twelve or so years, Canada is going to get its first jolt of change in a very long time. The funny thing about this election is that no one really wants the Conservatives in power. Most people would have been content with the Liberals if they didn’t go and screw around with taxpayers’ money. The reason the Conservatives are getting voted in is this sense that the Liberals should be punished, at least a bit.
This is reflected in the polls. At the beginning, the Liberals were enjoying a moderate amount of support. As the campaign dragged on, one thing after another kept on slamming the Liberals and the result is the Conservative minority that the country is headed towards. Now, if you look closely, you’ll notice that Conservative support peaked at about 40%. Soon after, their numbers dropped. Why? Because people don’t really want a Conservative government, and they sure as heck don’t want a Conservative majority. With 40% of the popular vote, a parliamentary majority is a very realistic outcome in Canada.
The thing is that people don’t really want to be more like the States. We don’t want Star Wars. We don’t mind Kyoto. We like services. We don’t want more tax cuts for the rich. We want more education funding. We don’t like private health care.
And lastly, there’s the NDP. The NDP are in a really bad position. Those who don’t want the Liberals to win aren’t going NDP. Those who don’t want the Conservatives are also not going NDP. This is particularly bad, especially because they caused this entire thing to happen. Yes, they are getting a few more seats, but with the Conservatives in power, I don’t think there’s much they can do short of bringing down the government again. I really like a lot of the NDP’s policies, especially on education and copyright. They’re a party that really should have more influence on the country but don’t for whatever reason.
An Opinion
Now then, what do I think?
Contrary to what most of my peers think, Liberal is not the way to go this election. They’ve screwed up way, way too many times to be forgiven. I’m not referring to their last term, which has been quite acceptable, but their campaign. They’ve bungled it too much and have pretty much destroyed the hope that they could lead an effective government.
Contrary to the flow, I am vehemently against the Conservatives. That largely has to do with my personal beliefs and political leanings. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea to vote for the next big party simply to punish your party, especially if you don’t want them to be creating policies for you. This seems to be the mindset of a large number of adults who’ve voted Liberal by default.
This is also the mindset of younger people (younger than myself). It’s always seemed like they’re Liberal supporters because that’s the default. So if the current sweeps towards the Conservatives, they’ll follow because they don’t know who to vote for. The default is the easiest route.
The other reason to vote Conservative has to do with religious affiliation. A lot of people are voting Conservative simply because of moral and ethical issues. That, I think is one of the biggest problems for the church, especially in America, where the Republican party is so closely associated with evangelical Christians.
I’m going to diverge a bit with this. It’s been noted many, many times that when the church gets too close to power, it strays away from God and becomes more worldly, relying on things like political power rather than on God.
Take America, for example. I’m sure we are all aware that the current President is George W. Bush. It’s a fact that many people voted for Bush simply because he is a Christian. Generally, if you are a Christian, you are pretty much in the Republican camp. This, I’m sure has had dire ramifications on the nation.
The inverse effect is that if you’re a liberal, you’re not considered a Christian. I’m not talking about the hurray for gay marriage liberal. They mean liberal as in ‘not conservative.’ And it’s not just the morals thing. Apparently, privatization is a very Christian ideal and publicly owned institutions are not. Tax cuts are Christian but medicare is not.
Let’s have a look at what Conservative policies generally encompass. Generally, they defend tradition, such as ethics and morals and the sort. They’re also usually very hands off. They’re big into privatization and tax cuts. Those sorts of things generally benefit the rich.
The big issue for Christians in Canada is gay marriage. There are lobby groups that are calling for all decent people to vote Conservative so they can bring in a free vote in the House of Commons. The question I would like to ask is how we can expect a government that is held accountable by the people and ultimately governed by the people to refuse something like gay marriage in a society that prides itself for protecting the rights of minorities? What happens when the free vote produces the same outcome?
The problem I have with this kind of voting is that most people who do so do it at the expense of all the other issues. Public health care, education, national unity, and economics all goes down the drain when faced with moral issues. Screw the poor people, I’m not going to let them gay people get married! And people wonder why Christians get labeled as crazy right-wing fundamentalists.
Finally there’s the NDP. Personally, there’s always been a sense of embarassment around sympathizing with the NDP. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they never win. But during this election, things have worked out such that the NDP remains my only choice. Again, their policies resonate with me. Also, their effectiveness during a minority government has encouraged a few more would-be NDPers to actually vote for them this time around.
This post was really a result of all the thoughts I’ve had on the election but haven’t had a chance to write down because they’d all form a bunch of tiny posts. Put together, they are a collosus of opinion. I’ll be back with another post soon after the election to talk about the results and maybe what we can expect.