Social Progressive's Voting Convservative
The polls are clear. Canada is fixing to elect a Conservative majority government with the Bloc as the official opposition. Sheesh! If this happens, clearly it will be the result of former Liberal voters having moved their votes to the Conservatives.
Everyone has the right to vote, and certainly the Liberal government was (and some will argue still is) drunk with power. They abused our trust, and broke the law. This can't be debated. Yet, the Gomery report exonerated Paul Martin, and none of the 308 Liberal candidates running in this election were named. Yes he was finance minister, but he wasn't involved, period. An independent review pointed the blame on Jean Chretien, Yvon Duhaime, Jean Brault, Chuck Guite, and others - not Paul Martin.
I fear that many Liberal Canadians, which I believe are most Canadians, meaning Canadians who value positive progressive social change (i.e. -> woman's rights, gay rights, strict hand gun control, Charter Rights, Kyoto, Kelowna Accord and most importantly a clear separation of church and state) as well as a strong fiscal responsibility (8 straight balanced budgets, record surplus, lowest unemployment ever recorded, lowest inflation in decades, lowest interest rates, and the new deal for cities) are this time around going to vote Conservative.
Today, the Conservative party isn't coming to the people, people are going to the conservative party, and they are leaving their values behind, to be lost.
Make no mistake about it, Stephen Harper is a George Bush Republican. Tuesday morning, Liberal people around the world, including the majority of people living in Europe, and Urbanites living in New York, Boston, L.A., Seattle and Chicago - Are going to look up to the North and say "What the hell happened up there? I thought they were better than that?" It will be Harper's grin, smiling for the cameras when our country hosts the Winter Olympics in 2010. Is this the political landscape, is this the Prime Minister we want representing Canada!
I warn, that if this group of people, (Liberal Canadians, who this time are voting Conservative) are straying away from their values, collectively and unknowingly they are loading the gun clip with the bullets that will eventually be turned on themselves.
Two scary examples:
Conservative Social Policy Comment: “I think every Christian's under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values."-Conservative Candidate Darrel Reid
Conservative Fiscal Policy: Reduce the GST to 5% over 5 years. This tax cut threatens to bring the country into deficit, and it only stimulates consumption instead of investment. The tax cut saves the rich man $1,700.00 on his $85,000.00 Hummer. I equate that to stealing the tax payers money. Or how about the $1200 year tax break per child under 6 - Great idea, except $1200 doesn't even pay for a month of child care in most major cities - Oh yeah, and if your household income is over $40,000K a year (which pretty much all dual-income families are) then you only get $800. The Conservatives pride themselves on strong fiscal policy, but damn, all their promises are flawed. Stupid tax cuts (GST, Child Care) are just as expensive as social spending.
3 Comments:
great post
I'm somewhat perplexed by the Conservatives rise in the polls. I've been proud of the fact that Canada is a progressive country, standing up to the US on Iraq, having a universal medicare program, etc. and have thus found the rise of the Conservatives disheartening. I suspect it has to do with a larger trust issue between the Canadian people and the Liberals right now, which includes Gomery, but also the many broken promises of the last dozen years. We can only hope that after certain electoral defeat on the 23rd, the Liberals choose a progressive leader that can capture the Canadian public again. I've jokingly thrown my name into the hat on my own blog, but in seriousness do not know who this person who will lead us out of the woods will be.
You've hit quite a few nails on their heads in this and other recent posts. As a red-blooded Canadian, I can't help but cringe at the black-hearted minority "winners" that will be attempting to run the show for the next two to five years.
Harper has little productive to say about his "target issues". Basically, he's a playground bully who's taken advantage of namecalling to usurp the valedictorian crown; whatever my tax cut is, I'll bet it and more that neither he nor his big-C Conservative posse brings anything more than "nyah, nyah" to the table during his reign.
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