(no subject)

[electricland]

Scary scary segment on The Current this morning: Link Byfield explaining why the Charter is a bad thing and we should just go back to straight majority-rules. Parliament should be second-guessing all of the Supreme Court's decisions and if anything squicks out the majority of the members, like, say, gay marriage, it should be overturned. I, as a mere female, have the vote because the majority granted it to me and the majority is good and just. GAAAAAAH.

(OK, I may be paraphrasing a little, but not much.)

The woman they had on with him whose name I didn't catch was good, fortunately, although very nervous.

I hope I'm not wrong about my riding being a solidly Liberal safe seat, or I may need to vote Liberal after all. (Well, if I'm wrong, I'm in good company.) What I'm hoping is that the flirtation with the Regressive Conservatives (not my term but I like it so I'm stealing it) was a brief wave, now over.

Comments

[talisker.livejournal.com]

Regressive conservative. I like that :)

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Interesting website. They seem to be thinking that the minority is still up for grabs, as opposed to anyone else. I will be voting Liberal this time. Especially after Jack Layton mused about working with a Regressive Conservative minority -- he really is a power-hungry bastard, isn't he?

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I don't share your loathing for Jack and the NDP, and in my view a minority government of any kind is an opportunity for opposition parties to make their voice heard. What do you want him to do, scream "Anathema! Anathema!"? If one party consistently votes against another party's bills, however innocuous, because We Are Morally Opposed To Everything They Stand For, that seems just as bad for democracy as a majority with perfect party discipline that rams its bills through without consultation and without caring what the other parties have to say. (All this to say that even the RCs have a couple of decent ideas -- not many, but a couple.)

That said, I have yet to check out the NDP and Green platforms in detail, and will do so before I make up my mind. I was considering sending them both cash and voting Liberal, but I think Lucienne's safe enough that I can actually use my vote to send a message...

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

Both platforms are definitely worth a read. There's a lot of surprises in each. People seem to hold onto strong stereotypes of each of these. Especially the Greens, where most assume that they're the same as the US party of the same name. Fiscally, their platforms are VERY different.

Cu,
Andrew

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

What do you want him to do, scream "Anathema! Anathema!"?

Yes.

For Layton to scour the Liberals for being virtually identical to the Regressive Conservatives and then say, "but we wouldn't mind working with the gay-bashing, missile-loving, women-haters if they got into office," strikes me as hypocritical at the very least.

You either stand by your values or you're just another power-lusting political wanker who is happy to say anything to get elected. The attitude of moral superiority that the NDP exudes, as demonstrated by Mr. Layton's obnoxiously sanctimonious performance in the debate, is insulting and deeply deceptive as the party has proved, whenever it has gotten the slightest wiff of power, to favour political expedience just as much as the next guy.

If you want to get my vote, don't sell me fertilizer and tell me it's roses.

Either the NDP stands for moral and societal values that are fundamentally irreconcilable with joining the RCs under Mr. Harper in a coalition or they don't -- which is it?

Because I find Mr. Layton's attempt to have it both ways deeply, deeply offensive.

[pixel12.livejournal.com]

Using and crediting RC...

It's the OC, only stupider! Still fantasyland, though.

Didja check out the Economist?

what to do about the RCs?

[metawidget]

Maybe the answer to the scary right-wing types (who have a good chance of being a government this term) is to elect some old-style Red Tories to keep their caucus and cabinet well-behaved. I had a chance to talk to Robert Gervais yesterday, and I think he might be just the ticket.

Ideological infiltration worked against the Tories with Mc(spit)Kay, maybe it can work against us stranded Clark fans this time 'round.

As a local rep he seems

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Maybe the answer to the scary right-wing types (who have a good chance of being a government this term) is to elect some old-style Red Tories to keep their caucus and cabinet well-behaved. I had a chance to talk to Robert Gervais yesterday, and I think he might be just the ticket.

Ideological infiltration worked against the Tories with Mc(spit)Kay, maybe it can work against us stranded Clark fans this time 'round.

As a local rep he seems <a href="http://www.robertgervais.ca", target="_blank">pretty good</a> in spite of parts of his party, anyway.

Re: what to do about the RCs?

[stilldeepwater.livejournal.com]

Maybe the answer to scary right-wing types (who will always be present in the Conservative party, no matter how much they try to dress themselves up) is not to vote for them AT ALL.

Re: what to do about the RCs?

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I was DISMAYED to read that Robert Gervais is an otherwise pretty moderate guy who was seduced to the Conservatives by Harper.

Seriously, I agree, he seems like a decent guy and I wish him all the best in his personal life -- I just don't want to do ANYTHING that will get the RCs closer to forming a government. (I don't think he has much chance of winning in our riding anyway.)

Did you go to that Concordia thing? I was tempted but there was just too much going on.

Re: what to do about the RCs?

[metawidget]

I missed the Concordia thing -- he was out pounding the pavement, handing out flyers near Guy-Concordia metro.

I tend to think whatever happens this election, a majority government is kinda unlikely. Putting a Quebec red Tory in there is preferable to letting the Libs off the hook for the colossal fire sale of land (a few hundred feet from my front door) in our riding by Gagliano, the dubious UI accounting and the "defecit cutting" that amounts to defecit transfer to provinces and municipalities (who wind up paying more of my tax money as interest due to higher rates on their bonds than on national ones). So... I'm leaning towards supporting a guy who fully intends to vote sane in those issues-of-conscience votes and be a fiscal conservative (which I'm fine with and which we get badly implemented from the Libs) and has a marginally better chance of taking the riding than the NDP candidate.