clynnog

What about not voting at all or going into the booth and spoiling your ballot...it may be a better solution than voting for the BQ....just my thoughts.

However, it you don't vote at all any comments made post election will be taken with a grain of salt.

Souvenir

I shall vote, it's one of my obligations as a Canadian citizen innit? I feel it my duty to do what I can to prevent Harpie from winning an absolute majority in parliament.

gingnut

If you can vote you should. I usually go with the most far left party as a protest vote but this time around may have to vote liberal or as they should rename themselves, THE NOT HARPER PARTY. I cant stand the idea of the country being run by a man that most likely has sex with the lights off.

JET747

Not too appear ignorant, but I don't know much about the Canadian Politics scene, as most of the research is about places, living etc first and foremost. Politics is very much low on the agenda at present.

I judge that most of the opinion on this thread is totally against Mr. Harper. Without callling him an arse, because this don't really give me a proper impression of him, what are the type of things about the guy or his policies that invigorates so much passion from you guys against him ?

My personal choice is to be a Cathoilc for instance and I want my kids brought up in my faith and attend a Catholic school (they can then when they are adult decide themselves) - would I be reading the previous post right in that Harper would want a secular society and schooling ?

I think that what makes us in the west free is the fact that we are free to choose what religion, schooling and way of life we want (although it is starting to be erroded)

Keep the comments coming as there is a lot of learning for some of us here !!

Cheers

JET

Brownstar

Just google Neo-Christian Right Wing politics and you'll see where Harper could head this country.

iaink

As recent Canadian PMs go Harper is not the biggest arse I suppose. Predictions that the sky would fall and the horsemen of the apocalypse would appear if he became PM seem to have been premature. Hes just a bit creepy and the impression is that hes on his best behaviour, keeping his more extreme capitalist oilman tendencies in check for fear of scaring the voters until he has a majority. Im no longer totally convinced thats true, and none of the others fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling either (Dion anyone?...<shudders>)

I would much rather be choosing from the US candidates...there they seem to have a choice between two relatively outstanding candidates, although I cant help the thought that by the end of the 4 year term whichever one is elected, the vice president will be in charge by then. 73 year old cancer survivor or Successful black (sorry, african) american in a country with lots of guns and fanatical racist idiots...

Ultimately it doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.

As far as Catholicism goes, its a non issue. Separate schooling in Ontario at least is bound up in the act of confederation, which no one is going to repeal any time soon. It could be a hot button issue in a provincial election, but it wont be on the agenda in a federal one with the economy and environmental issues a concern, and the war in Afghanistan likely to be a major issue too.


Besides, no one is saying you dont have the freedom to send your kids to a separate school, they are just threatening that you will have to pay for it like every other religious minority does. My kids do / will attend catholic schools, but even I am at a loss to justify why they should get preferential treatment over say a muslim families children...other than looking at it in the historical context of the original reasoning for the separate schools to protect the largely catholic French settlers interests.

Oakvillian

The best commentary I've seen so far on the Canadian election campaign was by Lawrence Martin in the Globe - not normally someone whose opinions I would go out of my way to regurgitate. He sums it up thus:

dbd33

No. An evangelical protestant one for all.

Brownstar

And the teachings of creationism and divine design :curse:

rukario

Put one in for me then, will you? I've been out of Canada too long to vote as an expat; was supposed to be back before the election but Zoom laid those plans to rest. The riding in which I'm still registered (Scarborough Rouge River) is such a Liberal stronghold that it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Quotes from iaink:

That would be Brian Mulroney, hands down.

Hence the reason he's calling an election. He can't exercise any of his extreme capitalist oilman tendencies, as if he tried, he'd be shot down faster than Joe Clark. With a minority government, he needs to appeal to the opposition more than to the voters. With a snap general election, he's trying to appeal to the voters, knowing that the Libs are still in disarray. And surely Stéphane Dion's English can't possibly be worse than Ed Broadbent's French.

iaink

I dont think you need to go back as far as that.

There is no danger of a conservative majority. I dont think there are enough likely conservative swing seats, the liberals pretty much fixed the riding boundaries so that it would take a major swing away from the liberals to achieve that.

Even though the Liberals are as weak as I can remember them being, there are still plenty of old school liberals who would vote for the paraphrased "big dumb yellow dog, as long as it wore a red rosette."

gingnut

Has this election made anyone else nostalgic for the 90s?

Steve_P

I do have to admit I was hoping the Governor General would have said, no go back and prove that parliament is dysfunctional.

Slim chance of that happening but the chance was there.

gingnut

Well they haven't done anything since 2006 if that counts.

montreal mike

I think the only time I ever heard of a GG making a decision was years ago in Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral...crisis_of_1975