i’m voting conservative
that’s it. Listening to the last 30 min of the candidates debate made up my mind. obviously i hate the social values of the conservatives. really i am a liberal, but I want to send the liberals out of power for 4 years. they’ve gotten too fat and arrogant and they need some time in the penalty box to “feel shame”.
I love the social values of the ndp, but i can’t vote for a party who’s priorities were just expressed as 1) respect (and money) for seniors, 2)early child education, and 3) working class families.
The reason for that is not that those things aren’t important, but that I am *very* worried about Canada’s ability to compete in the global economy, and I think that they only way to make sure that Canadians have great health care and amazing affordable education, is for Canada to claw it’s way as close as possible to the top of the heap. I want someone to make sure that Canada’s economy is going to be as strong as possible in 10, 20, and 30 years. Not because I want the rich to get richer, but because I think it’s the only way that we will properly be able to take care of the less fortunate.
Now, possibly we can afford to worry less about our economy because of chindia’s need for resources and the increase in oil prices which makes extracting oil from our tar fields lucrative, but I’m not certain about that. I am worried about things like our stagnant productivities levels, our rates of entrepreneurship, and our innovation in key sectors of the “new” economy.
I don’t care about stephen harpers beady little eyes and passionless face. I care about someone making tough unpopular decisions because he believes that it’s in the best long-term interests of the country. I think the conservatives are the best people to do that. Well, actually I disagree with the social values of the cons so much that i guess that I don’t think that the conservatives are the best people to do that, but I think that the liberals inching farther towards fiscal conservatism (which is what hopefully will happen in the next election after this one after the conservatives win) is the best possible solution.
I don’t think that the conservatives are going to roll back the right to abortion, and I pray to god that they won’t hurt progress on gay rights (that’s one thing I’m really worried about and by itself it’s almost enough to make me vote green). I am also worried about national unity if the conservatives are in power, and possibly i’m doing more harm than good because of quebecers reaction.
I’m really pissed off by the liberal’s continued budget surplus that is not being written in to the budget and is being looked upon as their gift money to hand out. I don’t think that “it’s our money and it should be given back to us” but i do think that budgets should be written with respect to what is the actual situation. I don’t love things like flat tax or giving tax breaks to corporations, but I really get the idea that they are being done to create a better enconomy in Canada, not mainly to give treats to rich/powerful friends.
I hate that the NDP and Liberals have prevented a real discussion about the reality of health care. It’s getting more and more expensive because of expensive treatments, drugs, and people living longer, and those fools have never let the *huge* difference between privately managed health care and two-tier solutions be explained to the public. I think that’s so wrong. Similarly with education - I don’ t think it’s realistic to think that we can keep the current tuition rates and expect world-class univesties. We don’t want to talk about the subject so our universities are sinking in the global rankings (yes - i realize that education is provincial jurisdiction, but here i’m talking about attitudes of my peers most of whom appear to be leaning towards ndp).
I’ve already taken a lot of heat for bringing up the spector of voting for the Conservatives with my friends. And I know that many people think i’m crazy for even considering it. But I don’t want to lie by omission about my thoughts regarding this.
January 10th, 2006 at 12:42 am
i’m honestly really surprised you wrote this. it takes a lot for someone to ‘come out’ and say openly that they’ll vote conservative in a liberal (the adjective, not the party) province. i understand where you’re coming from on a lot of these issues, but i have no interest in having western canada’s priorities imposed upon me - that unfortunately includes putting less of a priority on gay rights and social class issues.
anyway, this is more to say ‘wow! you actually admitted it!’ than to discuss politics, because i can’t think of any comfortable way that i would bring something like that up with my friends, so blogging it is kind of huge.
January 10th, 2006 at 8:59 am
yeah - i was pretty nervous last night in bed after i wrote this.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:09 am
I don’t think you’re crazy for considering this. I would point out, however, that voters did the same thing in the last provincial election in Quebec and the second to last election in British Columbia.
In both cases they may have sent a “message” to the governing parties but it has proven to be a message that neither province has been especially happy to live with since. I can’t say I have much sympathy for the voters, either.
The provincial Liberals in BC and Quebec were perfectly clear about what they planned to do. The voters were so blinded by their hate for the then government that they seem to have rationalized everything else away with the idea that everyone sucks and it can’t be worse than it is now.
Political parties may play fast and loose with promises but it is unwise to think that they treat all their priorities so lightly. (The federal Liberals, of course, being the classic exception that makes the rule.) Economic policy aside, if you are confident that the Conservatives are just mouthing platitudes, on social issues, to satisfy a particular base then by all means you should vote for them. I remain unconvinced.
January 10th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
that’s it. our friendship over!
though over at dose, I think I wrote last week: “maybe a conservative minority wouldn’t be so bad?” but then, I also though, when Bush got into power in 2000, who knows, maybe they really will do something about climate change (since capping GHG was one of their campaign promisses).
but again, maybe conservatives in minority is not so horrendous. The dammage they can do will be limited; they’ll need to build consensus in parliament, which gives some hope. If you look at parliament, it,s a pretty lefty place (bloc & NDP); and maybe the Cs really will push for some badly-needed democratic reforms in the canadian electoral system.
I didn’t watch the debates, but heard some this morn on raido. curious: what do you think of NDP’s health approach, ie bottom up rather than top down? PS Layton makes me want to smash my TV, which is one of the reasons I didn,t watch.
January 10th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
ps. the only reason we can still be friends is that the conservatives will likely win a minority.
if they were going to win a majority, we’d have some serious talking to do.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
dammit - that’s what i was afraid of (loosing friends)
maybe their idea about health care (home / satellite care centers to free up hospital bed) is a really good one.
the problem is their decision making process. they are starting off with the idea that health care is a right, therefore we have to find some way to provide it. that way will just lead to mediocre health care for everyone. which is exactly what is happening. democratic, but shitty.
I want someone in govt who is going to say “health care is getting friggin expensive, but I want to live in a country where everyone gets high-quality health care. dammit, we better make sure that we got the bucks. and we better experiment with a bunch of different ways to deliver that health care, from having nurses take over a lot of doctors functions, to privately managed clinics and hospitals, to actual private (citizens pay) services like we already do for radiology and lots of dental stuff. what’s important is what is the end result. are all canadians getting better health care with door 1 or door 2? Because equal access to health care as a principal is something i would gladly through out the window if it results in all of us (rich and poor) getting *better* health care.
obviously completely free world-class health care is the ideal. same thing for education. but I would rather have someone in power who deals with the cold, hard economic reality of that then have someone who is solely informed by their own idealism.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
my wife is an emerg doc, and one thing that I find stunning: there is not a definitive study (that everyon knows about) on healthcare delivery around the world.
canada pretends that health care is our most important issue, yet none of us can say anything intelligent about it.
why not:
1. make some objective criteria (they can even be conflicting … ie best high-end care; % population coverage; waiting times-serious; waiting times-less-serious; family doc access; health cost per capita; health cost-private $; health cost public $; drug costs etc.)
2. get 10 canadian universities (one in each prov) to work together to do a study/rating of how various health care schemes work in other countries (eg. UK, USA, France, Germany, Canada, Singapore) and see who is doing the best job of meeting various criteria.
4. figure out how & why the best-performing countries are successful
5. put some price tags on them.
6. have a public debate/election on which criteria are most important to canadians
7. implement policy to meet these demands.
it drives me fucking crazy that this has not been done, or if it has, that no-one knows about it (not even politically active doctors), or people who waste their time on the internet all day.
In fact, if you hired 10 internet hackers to do this, open source, you’d have your answers in 6months.
fucking governments.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
That’s it, you’re uninvited from my big gay wedding….which I suppose is of little consequence as it will be cancelled as soon as the conservatives get in…..grumble, grumble…
January 10th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
i actually feel really bad about that - that in some way the risks that im taking with this vote are not risks to me (more of a risk to people that are gay, single moms, etc).
January 10th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Blogging your blues in public.
I can’t decide what you have more of; balls or masochism.
No cd of awesome music for you…
You’ll be happy to hear that the Globe and Mail reports that *men* of affluence are all voting conservative - Why this merits reporting I am not sure, but I thought you’d wanna know who your cohorts are.
I think it’s telling that during the opening address of the debate Harper used the first person
singular; “I intend to lead the country” or something. That’s not how Canadian politics usually works, it’s a party not a person. As a political culture Canadians have historically favored collectives, which is why we are kinder and gentler than Americans.
At base that’s what I hate about harpers conservatives. They are going to re-shape the canadian political landscape towards a politics of self-interest, all their election promises have hinged on that very quality.
It’s not a cultural shift I am particularly enamoured with, ya know.
The fact that you have the temerity to write that this vote is a risk to gays single moms,etc.. but not to yourself makes me feel that self-interest is very much what is directing your vote as well, which is dissapointing.
But if self-interest is what makes it feel safe to vote for a party that won’t actively support the people you consider your friends and loved ones, which probably includes the working poor, the gays, et al - then by all means you are not at risk.
Again this is not how a cohesive community or culture functions if one person is at risk, then we are all at risk.
Luckily you still have 13 days to change your mind and destroy your ballot at the very least.
I have just upped the value of the cd to 500 songs
Michael do not make deals with the devil, make deals with your slap-happy ex-girlfriend. For the love of pete.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Wow, just wow… never thought that of you :)
Hugh : the fact is that even with strict criterias there’s always ways to say “our health care is the best/worst”.
To my mind, education and health care is not the same. Some canadian universities are some of the best in the world (for example HEC Montréal). Health care is a big problem now. Even in France, “we” have a public/private service ; so I think it’s not a big deal if something is left for poor people. This solution is not just for Tories, that’s a pity that no other party suggests this…
January 10th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
I want easily consumable data. this is the problem as I see it, and where engaged bloggers etc can help: if you read the newspaper, or listen to the politicos, it’s all, as boris says, “a bunch of pâsty-faced blow-hards yammering away…”
fix some criteria. fix some objective measures. stack em up, and see what’s working.
for instance, after my rant here, I looked up the Romanow Report, which in fact has much of this info. But it’s all hidden in consultant-speak. which is just pasty blowhard yammering.
“we” don’t need the globe and mail to publish this kind of analysis anymore. anyone can do it.
why doesn’t the NDP have NDPhealthproposal.ca that outlines their policy? why don’t the Conservatives. It’s all BS bullet-points with pretty words.
my frustration is that I and 1,000 other interested netizens across canada haven’t built a wiki to keep track of the healthcare issue, to track the effects of various health options in various provinces.
where are universities? are they still publishing all their navel-gazing papers in subscription-only academic journals, and making them available in big pdf files? instead of making their info available on the net?
where are the voices of intellectuals — voices that should help me decide how to vote based on things I care about?
where is the Canadian Political Internet Information Project?
Where is all this stuff and why are we paying uni profs with public funds if they are not making it available to me on the net?
why do I have to meet with Boris and have no g**damn idea what to say? except that bulte is bad news?
aaarrrrrggggg.
January 11th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Mike, I agree with the others that it takes a lot of guts to come out like this in the midst of election.
I won’t be following you, however. I think a party that proposes social policies that stand no chance of uniting the country is playing an old empty power game, and doesn’t distinguish itself from the Liberals one bit. I think it’s proof of deep cynicism, of a desire for power for power’s sake and a complete lack of interest in real leadership. In other words, they’re as empty to me as the Liberal party is.
But - you’ve motivated me to put my thoughts and arguments together and post them on my site. I’ll be doing that shortly (hint: I’ve only ever voted for one party when living in Ontario).
January 11th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Just for the sake of clarifying Hugh’s last rant, I have asked him and Michael and 2 other friends to join me for dinner (in 20 minutes) so as to discuss all this and, in all honesty, try t educate me a bit more on the whole affair cause I am totally clueless when it comes to Kanukistani politics.
Hugh, you may like to speak to Warren who will be sitting with us about some of your wishes… ;)
January 12th, 2006 at 11:57 am
All i’m gonna say: “Foreign Minister Stockwell Day.”
Sleep tight!
January 12th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Mike - perhaps we can still be friends if you vote for Roach.
http://www.roach2006.ca/
PS this would have been uber-poignant as a video blog, and we could have re-edited it to make attack ads.
January 12th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
M-J: i just had a tiny heart attack.
January 13th, 2006 at 9:12 am
Wow :-(
I guess I owe you Kudos for your honesty… but I’m not even sure about that.
Your justifications seem really weak to me but then I don’t have time to elaborate on this… in fact, I shouldn’t even be taking the time to write this… but I just couldn’t help myself from commenting. Anyway, I thought it would take more than that for you to abandon your social values.
I *think* we can still be friends though.
January 13th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Michael, you might want to check out this story on Radio-Canada before you make your final decision:
http://www.radio-canada.ca/arts-spectacles/PlusArts/2006/01/13/002-elex-conservateurs.asp
“Le mandat de CBC-Radio-Canada serait lui aussi revu sous un gouvernement conservateur, pour « être ajusté à la réalité d’aujourd’hui et aux attentes des Canadiens ». Madame Oda s’interroge par exemple sur la pertinence pour la télévision publique d’entretenir certains services comme les nouveaux médias […]”
Basically, the Conservatives are wondering how relevant it is for public broadcasters to offer services in the new media area.
Yikes.
January 14th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Michael, I too applaud your courage in coming forward with this. It is hard for me to admit, but I’ve almost gone there too. I’m fed up with the Liberals, and the NDP make a wonderful opposition (but that’s all), so I found myself thinking that a single term of a Conservative minority couldn’t be all that bad. And in fact, it probably wouldn’t be.
Half that stuff that Harper says would never come to pass. Gay marriage is safe, as are most of the other things they’re against.
However, if they had a majority, then those things might not be so safe. And then there is always the risk of a two-term majority, which could be disasterous.
On the other hand, Harper says he’ll make my bus passes tax deductable. Tempting…
;-)
January 14th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
I’m not sure what would happen with a majority, but I know that the *only* way that conservatives would win 2 terms in a row is if they really left all the “traditional values” stuff behind them. I’m convinced that most canadians have progressive values and they wouldn’t re-elect a government that tampered with that.
and too bad your comment didn’t come earlier. you could have shared some of the heat with me ;-)
January 15th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
“really i am a liberal, but I want to send the liberals out of power for 4 years”
No, you’re a Liberal. A supporter of the party. A liberal would not vote for these hopped up jackasses.
January 15th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Of course we should not vote. No one who wants change should vote in this election. It is better for everyone to get together and form another political party. One that is really dedicated to changing the system. Just catalogue the complaints of peole and a political platform will follow.
All the parties in this election are misdirecting the Canadian people.
They are all rest are power elites that have allied themselves with corporate power. The government serves the multinational corporations and the multinationals serve themselves.
If there is any doubt about this just check out which political party is now promising to change the sytem. None of them are. In fact they carry on with distracting issues only promising to manipulate the existing system. That is because they all want to take a share for themselves. They don’t want to change. The weird and frightening thing is how they carry on as if the Corporate World did not even exist!
Check out even that none of the parties promises to investigate the Liberals corruption. By investigate, I mean a legal seizure of all bank records and individual financial records by the police. This would be done for any common criminals such as drug dealers. If they did that we would recover all the money and many politicanas would be in the slammer. But no party wants to promise this because they are all dirty and they don’t want the same standard of honesty applied to themselves. They think of themselves as an untouchable ruling class and they all can hardly wait to get their own turn at the bank.
..
The corporations own the law, and the politicans and the media. Of their ownership I could and probably will cite case after case, most inmpotantly is how the Justices gave the corporations ownership of life itself, how the coporations exploit the third world and how whistleblowers are persecuted and discouraged by the justice system.
But the media is the critical point, they own all the newspapers and TV and Radio. Freedom of speech is rather meaningless when all the reporters work for corporate power. An individual citizen might get a letter to the editor published on page 7 once a year. The last recourse of possible freedom is here on the internet.
Ownership of media means “socialization” which means that people have learned to think against themselves. The solutions to our society’s prolems are obvious but everyone has been trained to psychologically defend the very people and processes that repress them.
So this is the social environment of the modern first world. A population under the control of lies, deception, dishonesty, repression, expolitation and manipulation.
The people are given the impression in the media that they have a free and unrepresssed life, but the experience of all individuals in the system is the complete opposite of this.
Everything in the public consciousness is misdirected.
Free yourselves people!!! Tell the established parties that you don’t want them! Build a new party free that will make the corporations work for Canadians instead of ruling us!!!
January 15th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
last post by max:
http://hagakureblade.blogspot.com/
January 22nd, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Qu’est-ce qu’il se passe ?
January 22nd, 2006 at 10:17 pm
you mean with the election? it hasn’t happened yet. It’s still tomorrow for us.
If that’s what your asking about.
January 24th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Thanks for proving once again that I should have read your blog more often.