The Rants of Issachar
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Canadian Election 2008
I haven't posted anything about this election on my blog and I think I've posted very few comments about it on other people's blogs compared with previous elections. But I think I'll do at least one... Now that Raphael's not allowing comments on his blog due to an excess of nasty comments, I might actually have to go back to writing on my own blog for a change.
The election is in two days and I'll be voting for Stockwell Day, (Conservative). We've got a secret ballot, and while no one should ever feel obligated to reveal their choice of candidate, I don't have a problem with doing it myself. I also find it useful to me to write down my own thoughts, and I don't do a diary.
My reasons not to vote Conservative:
The election is in two days and I'll be voting for Stockwell Day, (Conservative). We've got a secret ballot, and while no one should ever feel obligated to reveal their choice of candidate, I don't have a problem with doing it myself. I also find it useful to me to write down my own thoughts, and I don't do a diary.
My reasons not to vote Conservative:
- I didn't want this election to happen at all. I was quite happy with the minority parliament we had and I thought the Conservatives were running it well. There's also that minor detail about violating the spirit of the fixed election dates law.
- The Conservatives plan on copyright law. It was a bad law and a disquieting sign of incompetence. One hopes they won't be so stupid as to reintroduce it.
- For the most part, (copyright law being an exception), I'm happy with the Conservatives performance in government. They've actually succeeded in getting things accomplished in a minority government despite being not particularly well liked by the opposition. Their economic record has been good and has continued the good economic performance of the previous Liberal government.
- Stockwell Day is my local candidate. I was not impressed with him when he was leader of the party. I think it was a mistake when he replaced Preston Manning. But to his credit, Stockwell Day accepted a demotion from party leader and proceeded to do his job acceptably well. I think that shows a humility and a willingness to simply do his job without being top dog that is sorely lacking in most members of parliament. Certainly I can't think of another party leader who has done the same thing.
- The Conservatives under Harper have become a party of incremental changes. One might actually say small-c conservative. This is in marked contrast to the so-called "conservatives" running the Republican party in the US. This article in the Atlantic drove home to me the difference between the faux conservatism of the Republican party and true Burkean conservatism. (Although I wonder if what the author would make of John McCain's more recent actions).
- The Liberal party has managed to completely throw away any chance I had of voting for them. That almost merits a whole section of it's own actually. I'm not a dyed in the wool, guaranteed Conservative voter, but the Liberals have thrown away any chance of my voting for them, while the NDP and the Greens have yet to give me a single reason to vote for them.
- I think it's pathetic that they're still relying, (even to a diminished degree) on the "Harper = Bush, he's a neo-con, he's got a hidden agenda" baloney. It's demonstrably false and it's a sad statement on Canadians that a large number of them still buy it. If you want to fight an election against Bush, go back in time and run for the US Presidency. As long as you're doing this, I have a strong reason not to vote for you.
- The Green Shift is a plan of massive scope and plans of massive scope. As such it's likely to contain serious problems. All plans of massive scope do. That's why you develop & implement them slowly to catch the errors, but what I've seen from Dion is that he thinks it's a good idea to start now and worry about the details later. Not that it's that good a comparison, but the last time someone decided to act immediately and worry about the details later the US invaded Iraq. I don't think that acting on climate change is a bad thing. But it IS a complicated thing.
- Most of what I hear in this election from the Liberals is about how bad Stephen Harper is. I hear more about that than I do about the Green Shift by a hefty margin. But most of the reasons I hear from them about Harper being bad are a false. Leaving aside the aforementioned ridiculous Bush comparison we can look at the Harper hates the arts claim. The cuts were minor, but to hear the Liberals talking you'd think that Harper was going around burning art galleries. And then there was Margaret Atwood's ridiculous claim that "The Arts" generates $87 billion for the economy, and that this is imperiled by the Conservatives cuts. This is apparently true if by "The Arts" you mean anything to do with advertising or the people collecting your ticket when you go see the next Bond movie. Sorry, but I don't think of the people who come up with the latest Tim Horton's ads to be "artists", nor do I think that they're in any danger from the Conservative cuts. I know that the Liberal platform is not based ridiculous claims like Atwood's, but when that's most of what I'm hearing from a party and it's supporters I have no reason to vote for them.
