Election time

Ahoy hoy everyone!

Hope you all had a great (Easter) weekend :)

So today's post is gonna be a somewhat serious-er post. Federal elections are coming up here on May 2nd. I pretty much know who I don't want to vote for, but I though I; write this post to help me clear up my mind and inform you oh loyal cultists of the state of things here. Of course this is far from an unbiased review as I have a liberal/left leaning slant.

Where all the lying work gets done

So if you can't play nice with politics (I know, I'm just asking for it) then please disregard this post entirely.


Now a quick rundown of our system. It's a Parliamentary system. Basically the country is divided into ridings. Each riding elects an MP to represent them in Parliament. Now the party that has the most MP's elected forms the government, with that party's leader becoming our Prime Minister.  So we don't vote directly for our leader. In fact that is a complaint that comes up, the fact that parliment and in fact government isn't a popular vote. As proof the past ummm 3 governments where formed by the conservatives even though they had somewhere around 35ish% of the votes in total.

I won't get into more detail about majority/minority governments and all that so as to not bog things down.

Anyway, there are arguably 5 parties in the picture for federal elections. At least there are 5 that will get the huge majority of votes anyway.

The pretenders to the throne

Now as I mentioned, I won't be directly voting for any of them since none of them are in my riding. But since I barely know the actual candidates in my riding I go along what their party (and leaders) stand for, as usually they follow the party line anyway.

Now from left to right in the picture we have:

Stephen Harper - Conservative Party

He's been our PM for the past couple of years and I don't like it one bit. Too keep it short he and his party are like the Canadian version of the Republicans. Very religious, "tough on crime", "fiscally conservative" stereotype. Even though the fiscally conservative thing hasn't panned out. apparently he rules his party with an iron fist and likes control. I also think he;s a robot and looks like a used car salesman. I;m probably giving car salesmen a bad rap.... sorry.

Chances of voting conservative:  -100%
Sadly, he might win again....

Micheal Ignatieff - Liberal Party

The Liberal Party has usually been the other party that would win power in elections. Although ever since a financial sponsorship scandal rocked them in the 90's, they've been relegated to official opposition for most of that time. Ever since they've been kind of leaderless and really the only way they win is that people suddenly realise they don't want Harper and vote for the "only" party with a chance of beating him. Iggy is kind of a stiff though. Not robot stiff like Harper, but boring intellectual college professor stiff (as I think he was one in the States for a while).

Chances for voting liberal: 30%

Jack Layton - NDP

The NDP have been surging lately. Usually a dark horse third party, they've been slowly climbing out and are threatening to even overtake the Liberals as #2. they are the most leftist party of the bunch. Pure dirty commies I guess by american standards, but they stand for a lot of things I do to and usually stand for the "ideals" that are usually associated with Canadians (or that's the way they try to spin it anyway. He seems more like the type that you would have fun sharing a beer with at the pub. His rise in Quebec is also somewhat surprising this election too. While there's a possibility they'll be official opposition, it's not certain and being that high would be a first for the party.

Chances for voting NDP: 50%

Elizabeth May - Green Party

Poor Green party, they get 6% of the popular vote, yet they have no elected officials in parliament and no respect. the televised debate this year didn't include her at all. Not much to say as they're still a relatively minor party, but are making some noise. As their party name suggests, they're mostly in for environmental issues as a priority. Not sure if they have a candidate in my riding.

Chances for voting for Green (if I can): 25%

Gilles Duceppes - Bloc Quebecois

Now the Bloc is a special entity. They are a  separatist, sorry sovereignist party that are there solely to push and promote issues involving Quebec. They pretty much don't care about the rest of Canada and obviously only have candidates in Quebec. This will also mean that unless the votes get so splintered among different parties in the rest of Canada they will never win a majority (which isn't they;re goal anyway). Funnily enough, I like their leader the best. Unfortunately the whole separation thing is a big no-no for me so I just can't see me voting for them. Although, if I had to choose between them and the Conservatives, I would votes them in a heart beat!

Chances for voting Bloc: 20%

Now in my particular riding, the votes will usually go between the Bloc and Liberal candidates. This election I'm seriously leaning towards the NDP though. Dunno.... as we get closer I might change my mind, as I've usually gone Liberal before.

Or maybe I should just vote for some fringe party like the Marxiste-Lenininists. I;m sure they need some voting love too...