New Year's Election Present

[c9]

I have a present for you!

As long as you = Canadian citizen (or interested in Canadian politics).

Cam's Pretty Clearly Left-Leaning Riding Write-ups!

I am planning to do a write-up of several different ridings, showing the candidates, the predictions, maybe a suggestion, and the previous results. And I'll do it for your riding! My goal is to provide information that everyone will find useful, not just people who agree with my politics. All I ask is that you post something you want to know about your riding that will help you decide how to vote. Alternately, tell me your goal for this election. Please be sure to tell me your riding too. Go here to find out.

Example: "I want to know if the Green Party has any chance at all in my riding, because I'd kinda like to support them if it will get them a seat."

Another example: "I think Stephen Harper will actually come into my home and steal my baby and force my child to work in a sweatshop with the homosexuals. I want to stop that."

The final example: "I want the Liberals out out out out out. Also, out."

Etc.

The riding profiles start tomorrow! For those of you uninterested, sorry in advance. I will try to post non-election programming for your benefit too.

Comments

[skeezix1000.livejournal.com]

"Paul Martin himself committed to calling an election in April(ish). So, while I wasn't that keen on having an election either, I'm hard-pressed to see why a couple of months difference is really pissing people off that much."

Exactly. An election was promised in April, after the final Gomery report, so that's why I am so pissed off; Layton, Harper and Duceppe wasted the six months before the dropping of the writ with confidence antics, when we had an election coming anyway. Instead of talking policy or issues, Layton spent 100% of his time dreaming up unnecessary schemes to bring down the government.

[c9.livejournal.com]

I disagree 100% that Jack Layton "spent 100% of his time dreaming up unnecessary schemes to bring down the government." Yes, he did eventually decide to help bring down the government, but even three weeks beforehand he was considering propping up the Liberals again, in return for changes in healthcare legislation.
link

[c9.livejournal.com]

And come to think of it, I disagree 100% with "instead of talking policy or issues," too. That's basically the only thing Jack Layton ever *does*. You can disagree with his opinions, and you can disagree with his tactics, but you can't claim he doesn't talk policies and issues.

[skeezix1000.livejournal.com]

We're going to have to disagree on this one. He did float a healthcare deal, but it was largely a ploy -- a deal he knew the Liberals would refuse because past history shows that voters are not kind to the NDP when it props up Liberal governments. All part of his confidence games.

In any event, why a healthcare "deal" was even necessary is beyond me, since a spring election had already been promised.

And while I agree that Layton is one of the biggest policy wonks in Parliament, I can't think of one strong policy position he has taken in the last 6 months. I can think of all the Liberal-bashing he has done (to be expected), not to mention that lovely (unconstitutional) scheme of his to force a February election, but no real talk about the issues. That is perhaps why I am so disappointed. I expected so much more from him.

[c9.livejournal.com]

While I could make a list of strong policy positions the NDP took, that's almost irrelevant because your point is that none stuck in your mind, and that's OK. Well, it's bad from their perspective, but not a debatable position. So I'll leave that. :)

Why a deal? He wasn't bargaining for the sake of bargaining, in my opinion. The NDP are NOT going to form government any time soon. The NDP bargains because that's how it gets its priorities dealt with. Look at when Ed Broadbent almost joined the Liberal cabinet in the 70s. Look at the $4.6B on social priorities last April. Look at health care, itself an NDP bargain with the governing party. They believe stronger protections are needed for public health care, so they tried to sell that to the Liberals (who were looking for a way to survive despite the lack of confidence of the House). That's how it works, as annoying as it may be.

Unconstitutional? While it was not traditional, I don't know that it was strictly unconstitutional. It avoided the Christmas election problem and allowed the Prime Minister to still set the date of the election. Because the government no longer had the confidence of the House, I saw this as an OK compromise position. Paul Martin believed he had a better shot at an earlier election, and *chose* it.

[jamincan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was impressed that with only twenty or so seats in parliament, the NDP were essentially the only opposition party that was able to directly influence the content of legislation precisely because Jack Layton was willing to cooperate with Paul Martin and prop him up during the votes on the budget. You may recall that was a role that Stephen Harper passed up.