Canada's election is in three very long days and I am surprised to find that I have decided to do what I always do: vote against a party that I do not want to govern the country rather than for the one I do want to govern. I apologize to the 75% percent of you who read this regularly who live outside of Canada, but you should know that, despite its moderate reputation, Canada is just like any country and deeply divided along political, ideological, ethnic, regional, and religious lines.The cracks are certainly beginning to show. They had been patched over since the Mulroney years when the regions went on verbal warpaths against each other, culminating with the Quebec Referendum. With talk of firewalls around certain provinces, threats that votes for another party will hasten another vote for Quebec independence (let's start calling a spade a spade; enough of "sovereignty", the Canadian public has a confusing choice between four acrimonious political parties with conflicting views they claim to espouse wholeheartedly. One party apparently wants to bring about the end of the world as we know it with it's alleged views on child pornography, abortion and *gasp* homosexual marriage. Another frolics in the meadows of make-believe with their lovely, utopian view that people truly believe they have a responsibility to society as a whole and not just to themselves. And there are the Conservatives.
Conservative Party supporters forget three very pertinent facts. First, Stephen Harper very publicly stated that Canadian troops should have accompanied our neighbour's to Iraq despite the fact that the majority of Canadians wanted no such involvement. Had he had his way, Canada would have become involved in one of the biggest military lies ever concocted, not to mention the devastating effect it has had on the stability of the Middle East. It would have moved Canada up the list of potential targets and the bombs in Madrid in February could have just as well been on Toronto's GO trains; all because of misused intelligence.
Second, the Conservative Party is quite simply the old Alliance Party with its regional concerns and right wing views in disguise. It is very pertinent to recall that immediately prior to old Progressive Conservative Party vote mandating it's merger with the Alliance to create the new Conservative Party, 20 000 Alliance members bought PC memberships so as to take part. The old PCs may still have voted for the merger, but not with such a stunning majority. This also gives good insight into the types of tactics this party will use to get its way. I feel confident they would not be above the type of scandal that has plagued the Liberals these past months.This brings me to my third point. The Conservatives are a party that has been in its present incarnation a matter of months. They have had no general policy-making meeting and therefore have no coherent policy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the more extreme views of some if its candidates who actually advocate taking rights away for the first time in Canadian history. Supporters of this party may be quite shocked at some the policy decisions made by a Conservative government with no concrete policies except campaign promises. And we all know what those are worth.
And so despite the fact that I want to vote Green or possibly NDP, I will vote Liberal. Until Canadians have proportional representation voting, we will forever be forced to vote the party that who will do the least damage rather than for the one we want to win. I believe that a rural regional party will do vast damage to a country already fracturing along these lines and I do not want them to win. I do not want to take votes away from the Liberals and so I will hold my nose and vote for them, waiting for the day when my vote will actually be worth the opinions I hold.
On a different note, I hope you like my old look that I decided to bring back. The green one was nice, but a little too pretty. Surly may be fun and kinda cute, but he ain't pretty!
And speaking of pretty, I would like to introduce you to my new future husband. Please meet Thai action movie actor and model Kamron Boonteesud. Don't worry about Ajay. He's still my future husband; since he has no idea who I am, I feel perfectly justified in not consulting him on this matter. Please, I think the three of us will look great together.I have two husbands now. This is exactly the sort of thing the Conservatives are worried about.
