Politics Class is Hard!
Nov. 1st, 2005 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
c9Conservatives: Very specific about being honest and incorruptible, but no actual government experience to prove this. Policies include repealing equal marriage, more tax cuts, less Kyoto support, more business-friendly decisions, and less social-welfare-friendly decisions. I disagree with the platform in numerous ways. Very likely to form government soon.
New Democrats: Very specific about being honest and incorruptible, but no actual government experience to prove this. Policies include abolishing the Senate, less tax cuts, more Kyoto support, less business-friendly decisions, and more social-welfare-friendly decisions. I agree with their platform in some ways, and disagree in some other ways. Not likely to form government any time soon.
Liberals: Demonstrably corrupt. Making bad decisions on the unity file. But generally speaking, their policy ideals are pretty reasonable. I agree with their platform in numerous ways. Very likely to form government soon. (The Liberal election machine can get out of any jam.)
It's very hard to support the government when their apparatus dearly requires a lesson. But it's also hard to support a party that I think has bad ideas, or a party that has only some bad ideas but will not actually get anywhere*.
In essence, this is the story of a large chunk of the Canadian populace, for those curious about how Canadian politics works.
* Full disclosure: I am a member of the NDP at the moment, but more as a way of trying to nudge federal policies to the left, not because I actually think they'd do well as (or should form) the next government.
New Democrats: Very specific about being honest and incorruptible, but no actual government experience to prove this. Policies include abolishing the Senate, less tax cuts, more Kyoto support, less business-friendly decisions, and more social-welfare-friendly decisions. I agree with their platform in some ways, and disagree in some other ways. Not likely to form government any time soon.
Liberals: Demonstrably corrupt. Making bad decisions on the unity file. But generally speaking, their policy ideals are pretty reasonable. I agree with their platform in numerous ways. Very likely to form government soon. (The Liberal election machine can get out of any jam.)
It's very hard to support the government when their apparatus dearly requires a lesson. But it's also hard to support a party that I think has bad ideas, or a party that has only some bad ideas but will not actually get anywhere*.
In essence, this is the story of a large chunk of the Canadian populace, for those curious about how Canadian politics works.
* Full disclosure: I am a member of the NDP at the moment, but more as a way of trying to nudge federal policies to the left, not because I actually think they'd do well as (or should form) the next government.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 07:44 pm (UTC)Should Harper leave, the Tories go back to being progressive, and drop their Reformness (most of it's gone already, actually) I could even consider supporting them. But no way right now.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-02 06:17 am (UTC)My own views aside, I agree with Jamie. Stephen Harper is unlikely to ever be PM. He is too unappealing to a large segment of the population. For the Conservatives to ever win a majority, they need some new blood.
As for the issues, I doubt same-sex marriage will be a big issue for the Conservatives in the next election. If they ever win, they'll have bigger fish to fry. They might make noises about it, to keep the so-cons happy, but it would be such a quagmire for them that I believe that they'll avoid it. Despite their public pronouncements, I have to think they've gotten SOME legal advice and are aware that they'd need to use the notwithstanding clause to reverse same-sex marriage. And I don't think the party generally is prepared to entertain that course of action (although some of its yahoo MPs might be willing to go down that road).
Every once in awhile I visit the forums on "Free Dominion", the home of red-meat (borderline psychopathic) conservatism. They were all full of piss and vinegar over same-sex marriage the last couple of years, but since it passed there's a lot less mention of it, and when it does come up a lot of them are resigned to it. Many of them seem to have moved on to other issues.