Canadians! Vote NDP

[Capital Knockers]

Im voting NDP Nickname, because the Liberals/Conservatives are both slowly running this country into the ground anyhow. A new party has to slowly rise, to make changes and gain experience - the NDP is currently that party. Unless your a QuebeceR! :fear:

[Eric is God]

Why do people keep thinking I'm a Conservative supporter?

I read an article somewhere that highly educated, successful people with above average IQ's tend to vote Conservative... course that might have been from a Conservative pamphlet

And if there was a box for it on the ballot I'd check off: "dissolve government and move to socialist European country". But since there isn't, I'm stuck with voting for the Liberals who's slogan should be: "Lesser of 3 Evils!" or "The Evil you Know!". You just have to look at all three platforms for child day care to see not one party has a clue of how to improve this country.

The only way to fix our horrid education and health care systems within the next 20-30 years is to gut them and start over because the bureaucracy has become too bloated and powerful to be brought under control. Yes it's cold and unfeeling, but I have yet to hear a more viable option. If I'm going to pay 47% of my income in taxes 5 years from now, I'd like to know it's actually accomplishing something.

[Eric is God]

for child care that they have promised for 12 years and still not delivered, etc. If the NDP and Liberals both run on a promise to provide child care, and the Liberals need the NDP to prop them up, then maybe this time we will actually get that child care program.

Government subsidized child care is among the WORST ideas that has ever been proposed in this country. It's 4:30 am and I'm tempted to break out my labor and wage economics notes from 2 years ago to prove mathetically and theoretically why government subsidized child care doesn't work. I'm not saying you can't find a way to help single parents take care of their children, but a nation-wide program that will only increase bureaucracy in the government and mostly be used by middle income families is not the answer.

And don't get me started on the amount of money the government spends to protect farmers in your province Spider. The country would save more money in the long run by paying them all a $60,000 salary every year for the rest of their lives than continue to protect the wheat and dairy farmers in central Canada.

[BleakFuture]

If I generally get into politics with my family, like we sometimes do, I'd vote more.
Mostly, what happens is my parents try to get us to make an educated decision for voting, to check everything, etc.
Basically, we read up on all parties and make a decision. But at the moment I'm too busy with work to take time to do anything.

[Nethila]

this is how i see this election.. its a waste of tax payers money. doesnt matter who wins, its goin to be a minority government again. 1 years later, guess wat? another election? heh

liberal = corrupted
conservatives = harper is just an evil evil man
ndp = say bye to canada's economy
bloc = who?

the least screw up is liberal, so neth votes for liberal

[BleakFuture]

hehehe bloc.
I did a paper on Quebec separatism in highschool. It's a funny subject.

[froedrick]

The NDP are too busy with unions to care about the rest of Canada. They are for the blue collar man.

[Spider]

Child care really is important for the people that need. If a child care policy is going to be implemented I think the NDP/Liberal way is better than writing checks directly to people to because I think Scott Reid (Liberal strategist) was correct when he said that money could end up being used for popcorn. That is truth, in many cases it will be.

Regarding the NDP and labour.. I am a member of the party. I vollunteer, sit on their executive in my riding, and attend party conventions. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the party does not listen only to unions. In most cases they aren't around at all. I would suggest the union influence in the NDP is comparable and possible even less significant that the big business influences within the other two parties.

Also, regarding people with above average IQs voting for the Conservatives. On occasion polling is done where people are asked voting preference and then age/sex/income/education. Interestingly enough the NDPs support comes mostly from uneducated people, dips slightly with "high school education, college, some university" but actually rebounds with "university degree". People with higher education acctually support the NDP disproportionately more than other groups. It may be true that more university educated people vote for the Conservatives but that isn't a fair comparison given that 30% of the electorate votes for them while 15% vote for my party.

Regarding farm subsidies. The federal government pays into those programs 40%, our province has to pay 60%. You don't feel the hurt near as bad as urban Saskatchewan, who pays the tax bills in this province. Keep in mind we have a huge debt (thanks to the PC government of Grant Divine), a small tax base, an economy based on farming and resources, we have no "atlantic accord" for our province, and since we're considered a "have" province (makes very little sense, I know) we get no equalization.

OH BUT WAIT!! Our NDP government is running a surplus while the brilliant Liberals in Ontario (where the ECONOMY IN THIS COUNTRY IS LOCATED) can't seem to balance the books. Maybe it's time to revisit the theory that the NDP would ruin the economy. We do pretty damn good over here all things considered.

Lets talk about "government" intervention in the economy for a second. Take, as an example, SGI. Saskatchewan's car insurance. In Saskatchewan its all state run, the cost to insure your car is the same regardless of age or sex. It goes up if you have accidents and goes down if you drive safe. Makes more sense that the free-market system that rips you off because you are young or male..

Also, because we don't allow people to complain about whiplash and get 2 million dollar settlements for no good reason the cost here is very cheap.

Can you imagine if your automobile insurance in Ontario or Alberta was as cheap as mine? Thats a savings of $500-$1000 annually which could be reinvested in the economy. I think thats probably a good thing. You also have to consider the intangible benefits of ensuring that everyone driving has insurance.

Government involvement with the economy isn't always bad.

[Kolar]

OH BUT WAIT!! Our NDP government is running a surplus while the brilliant Liberals in Ontario (where the ECONOMY IN THIS COUNTRY IS LOCATED) can't seem to balance the books. Maybe it's time to revisit the theory that the NDP would ruin the economy. We do pretty damn good over here all things considered.

Ontario is currently in an illegal debt of a few billion after the Conservatives got voted out. Running a provience is small compared to an entire country. Where as the NDP would have direct control over things like health care and education in any one provience they would not as the rulling federal party.
The two are very different and history has showed us how the NDP run things at that level, they'll have a hard time gaining the trust of the main stream again. The Liberals, the Conservatives and especially the NDP all don't seem to get it really, you can throw billions at a problem but it won't go away.

Edit: Car insurance should be moderated by the Government if it is a legal requirment i'll agree with you on that.

[ZeUs!!]

Political arguments where you pick out the flaws of the other parties are flawed in themselves as the opposition would have done the opposite. So while you may have put x million children through the education system, you may have had to divert funds that would have gone into helping the homeless to put these kids through school. The opposition party has just as valid argument when they say they'll give all these bum's a home but neglect to mention their education policies.

Both parties have pros and cons, and being able to reel off all the things your party is good at while failing to mention what the party has neglected is just a smoke screen for the majority of people who dont have a bank of political statistics in front of them to counter the argument with. Its just a case of outlining your policies and hoping they appeal to the most people.

[froedrick]

The NDP was created and funded by unions. Of course they listen to the blue collar man first. And the Liberals have brought the country as a whole into a surplus so, whatever on that. Paul Martin knows how to deal with money, if he didn't he wouldn't have been such a successful business man.

[Cops]

I think Paul Martin's a good PM, he's done a lot fo Canada and people easy lose sight of that. I'd vote for liberals if it was a close race but I'd like to see NDP in a position to push for more social programs.

[Capital Knockers]

I agree with Cops. No matter what, NDP wont take a really high amount of seats - but they need to take more. This way the can gain the influence over the country as a whole, and gain the experience needed to save our asses once the Liberal/Conservatives dig themselves into an even bigger hole.

[Epinephrine]

OH BUT WAIT!! Our NDP government is running a surplus while the brilliant Liberals in Ontario (where the ECONOMY IN THIS COUNTRY IS LOCATED) can't seem to balance the books. Maybe it's time to revisit the theory that the NDP would ruin the economy. We do pretty damn good over here all things considered.

What does the Ontario government's deficit have anything to do with the overall economy? Anyway, it was the NDP who added a bunch of promises way back in the 90s which they had to do (their promises were admittedly quite crazy as Bob Rae never believed he would win, and he was actually quite shocked that he won because he promised many things which he admitted were unrealistic), and then the Conservatives who slashed all the taxes that got us into the this mess that we have in Ontario.

[Eric is God]

Its just a case of outlining your policies and hoping they appeal to the most people.

Yup, it's an economic theory called the Median Voter Model. The more I've learned about how economies and governments run, the angrier I am at how messed up our country is (and Canada is supposed to be a pretty decent place to live). Apparently that's the downside of getting a higher education; you learn how things can be and realize how far away from that you actually are. The upside is that you become informed on how it all works and don't take policies, polls, or even "facts" on face value. I guess this is why I would be against lowering the voting age to 16. If anything, I'd be in favor of raising it to 21, but that's another topic altogether.