Went to a local debate (Ontario Election) last night...

[Sephirstein]

Having an opportunity to meet some of the candidates (luckily for me, the 3 I was most intersted in meeting were NDP, Green, and indie...So it wasn't hard to talk for a few minutes) and talked for a while about electoral systems with the NDP candidate. (Great guy...He represented both himself and his party proudly, and I feel terrible for making Bob Rae cheapshots at the NDP and for my bizarre conspiracy theory that they were got the CBC to keep the Green leader out of the province wide debate out of fear that they'd lost to the Greens in popular vote...)

Sadly, the Liberal and Tory candidate were PATHETIC during the debate and spent half the time randomly spewing out party slogans (If I hear Jim Brownell say "Excellence for All" one more time or Todd Lalonde recite Ernie Eves' platform intro again, I'll go insane...lol..BTW, Brownell flip-flopped on same-sex marriage...He used to support it, but said he's against it because 3/4 of the people where I live are socially conservative bumfuck nowhere types...All we ever elect are blue liberals...We might as well be voting en masse for the Canadian Alliance so that we'll actually know exactly what we're getting, like it or not...) and the other half using their personal experience to justify their party platforms as opposed to bringing up any real ideas for the community.

The Green candidate was the most articulate of the bunch, and the only one who was fluently bilingual in English and French. His party's ideas go beyond left and right, and I'm not sure I can vote Green because while they are generally excellent ideas, even with a majority government (they won't win a single seat, realistically) they'll have a miserable time implementing them.

The independent candidate was also fairly well spoken and emphasised that he would be reprsenting us as opposed to a political party. His ideas would be good for the region, but he shows no real coherent ideology and spent a lot of time attacking the other candidates for having to answer to political parties, and he could have spent more time explaining how he would be able to keep his promises to us.

It was an interesting spectacle, and I have a feeling I'll be voting NDP, even though I was originally deciding between Green and (now no way..HELLLLLLLLLLLLZ No!) Liberal.

[alexwcovington]

1. Good for you

I'm not sure where I'd stack up in the Canadian political arena. I've a little bit of knowledge of the major parties in Canada-- more than can be said for the vast majority of Americans.

But being a liberal (not to be confused with Liberal as in the party :P) who backs gun rights is kind of a curveball when I try to peg myself on the Canadian political landscape.

edit to add:

I'm going to check out the party websites and get a clearer view. Though I'm sure I won't spend too much time at the Alliance site...

[BurtWorm]

2. Where does the NDP go on the spectrum?

Is it between Liberal and Conservative? Have they evolved into something more like the LDP in Britain?

[alexwcovington]

5. Left... very left

More left than the Liberals, at least.

[BurtWorm]

6. Interesting.

I'm such an ignormus about Canadian politics. I could have sworn NDP was created in the same spirit the LDP was, as a sort of protest by centrists to fill the gap between the two main parties. So what separates NDPs from Greens?

[Minstrel Boy]

10. If you want to learn more about the NDP

here's the website for the federal party:

http://www.ndp.ca/index.php3?language=english

I'm a lifelong supporter and member, and I'm quite excited about our opportunities in the next federal election, likely held in 2004. We have a tremendous new leader, Jack Layton, who's very media savvy, fluently bilingual and has a great grasp of policy.

Liberals, it has been said, traditionally campaign like New Democrats and govern like Conservatives. Paul Martin, who's to soon replace Chretien, will be the most conservative Liberal leader in memory. It's going to make for an interesting and - I believe for NDPers - a rewarding election.

The forerunner of the NDP, the CCF, formed North America's first socialist government when it won Saskatchewan in the '40s. It's thanks to the CCF and the NDP that Canadians have public healthcare and many of our social programs.

[TrogL]

3. Where are you?

I grew up in Southern Ontario

[Sephirstein]

8. Cornwall...

It's not Barrie-Simcoe (BS..haha), but we have our fair shares of reactionaries (I call them Blue Liberals or Red-neck socialists).

Speaking of BS, here's a couple of colourful descriptions...

"Barrie will stay conservative. Its like someone took a chunk out of Mississippi and plopped down off highway 400. In Deliverance-North, Tascona should keep his banjo ready, as the celebration is already beginning."

"The far-right wing Barrie will go tory again. The Barrie area is unlike most ridings. Its as if someone picked up a chunk of Mississippi and plopped it off the highway 400"

"I was once driving through the Barrie area and I saw bumper stickers being sold at a gas station that read, "Proud to be a Red Neck". If that doesn't conjure up images of good ol boys driving to the polling stations in an old pick up truck and voting for the most right-wing candidate on the ballot, then i don't know will. Just look at the election results from last time and see just how well the Liberals or NDP did..."

[Lisa]

4. so there were no "kitten-eater" cheap shots from the Tories?

As soon as people out here in BC find out I'm from Ontario, they tease me about that -- "Our province is supposed to be the one with the irrational candidates!"

p.s. I'm from Hamilton originally ... 905 country!

[Sephirstein]

7. Yes but...

Hamilton votes far more like Windsor than like the rest of 905.

I think the area of 905 next to and West of Toronto could go Liberal (with some Hamilton ridings potentially going NDP), Oshawa has a sliver of a chance of going NDP, and the rest of 905 is going Tory.

[Lisa]

11. well, good ...

Because in the two decades I lived on Hamilton Mountain, it swung all over the spectrum, from Tory to NDP to Liberal. At the time I left, I had noticed it going to the right ... and with the explosive growth in suburbia (thousands of massive houses going up in former farmland!) I had been fearing it would be overrun by Burlington-type neo-cons. (As it turned out, my own neighbourhood got lumped in with the part of town where the university is, even though we had nowhere near Westdale income status ... that area generally is more leftist anyway ... so I was pretty sure we'd have Liberal or even NDP representation.)

Well, it'll be nice if the Golden Horseshoe goes red/orange (Liberal/NDP). I'm sure Ed Broadbent, who led the federal NDP way back, would be pleased ... what with him being an Oshawan. And for the federal election, if they repeat the near-shutout of the Alliance (which only got a couple of eastern rural ridings last time) I will be quite happy.

[Sephirstein]

9. BTW...

There was a debate held in Finch (in the North Stormont part of the riding) on rural/farming issues, and the Green candidate -- according to the Standard-Freeholder -- decimated his opponents. As he is currently an organic farmer in the tradition of his family (although he's been everything from an army officer to the project leader for Bell Sympatico, Canada's largest ISP).

The Tories are poised to pull of a huge upset in Cornwall, but Todd Lalonde won't win the rural votes as easily as Noble Villeneuve (and his predecessor and distance cousin Ossie Villeneuve) did.