Who are you going to vote for, or did...Again.

[V. Kid]

I know Tuvor asked this question before, but a lot of people voted already. And the poll was done near the begging of the campaign, and this campaign seems to have changed dynamics. So I just thought I'd start up another poll of DU'ers who they'd vote for, instead of simply bumping an old one that we've done a lot of already. Unless of course this is completely ignored or closed by the moderators (please don't close it). :-( Unfortunatley I don't know how to choose the colours, so wierd things like the Conservatives being Red, the Liberals being Blue, the NDP being Green and the Greens being Orange can't be avoided.

The first one was mine, hehe.

[iverglas]

1. but

If I were in a riding where the race was between the Liberal and the Conservative, and it looked like the Conservatives were heading for government, I'd vote Liberal. Almost certainly. ;) Lucky for me, I'm not.

I just have to hope that enough Liberals in ridings where the Liberal is plainly the also-ran have the common sense and common decency to do the equivalent and vote NDP.

And I'll hope that where the race is between Liberal and NDP, people will at least made a considered choice, and not just fall for "bogeyman"!

Love that colour scheme. It took me a long time to catch on to that "red state" / "blue state" stuff south of the border. Who ever heard of the right calling itself red?

Well ... I guess we Canadians did ...

[Minstrel Boy]

2. answer here:

[tuvor]

3. I'm glad you started a new poll.

I changed my initial choice. Was going to vote Liberal, but ended up going for NDP. It'll be close between my Conservative incumbent and his NDP challenger. There was only a 400 vote difference last time.

Man, all the parties suck. The Cons just suck the most by a mile.

[Mother Jones]

4. Ok I fess up to being the lone 'Lib' on the poll

Strategic vote all the way.

Luckily, I'm crazy about my Liberal candidate so I didn't have to hold my nose when I cast my ballot.


I met a few other strategic-voting-NDP'rs in Verona's campaign office too. It's been a really wonderful experience for me, personally, despite the grim consequences we are facing on Monday.

[Vote NDP]

16. If your Liberal candidate is so great?

Why is IT willing to be in a party with "people" like Alan Tonks, who oppose the right of women to use birth control?

[arikara]

5. I can't believe that some DU'ers are actually

voting for the conservatives.

Don't be taken in by Harper's new demeanor, people. This was sent by email so I don't have the link but I think its a Globe and Mail update. I snipped out a couple of paragraphs, hopefully thats enough. I'll forward the whole thing to anyone who wants it.

The resemblance between this federal election and the Australian one of 1996 is uncanny. In both cases, a centre-left government has been in office for 13 years - the Liberals in Canada and the Australian Labour Party (ALP) in Australia. And just as a tired ALP headed by Paul Keating faced a resurgent conservative force led by current Australian Prime Minister John Howard a decade ago, Paul Martin is facing a confident Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper today.

But more important for Canadians is the fact that Mr. Harper's party is employing the same campaign tactics that Mr. Howard first used in 1996 for his landslide win and that he has used to great effect in three successive elections.

As The Globe and Mail disclosed on Jan. 7, it's no accident that the Harper campaign feels like it has been ripped straight from the pages of the John Howard campaign manual. Mr. Howard's national campaign director, Brian Loughnane, is advising the Conservatives; last fall, Conservative Party strategists closely watched the tactics used by Mr. Howard to record his fourth election victory.

Mr. Howard's electoral success can be put down to his capacity to capture the support of working-class and lower-middle-class families who used to vote for the ALP; he did this by lining their pockets with tax cuts and middle-class welfare payments, such as cash bonuses for new mothers. And he appealed to their moral conservatism and desire to slow down the pace of social change.
In 1996, Mr. Howard's campaign slogan was "For all of us." <my note... Stand up for Canada strategically displayed everywhere with Harper> Mr. Howard said the ALP was more interested in what he called "elite" issues such as aboriginal reconciliation, Australian republicanism and the arts.


<snip>


Mr. Harper's strategy appears to be a carbon copy of that adopted by the Liberal Party in Australia. Just as Mr. Howard uses the phrase "mainstream Australians," Mr. Harper talks about giving "mainstream Canadians" a tax cut and offering tough anti-crime policies.

And just as Mr. Howard accused Mr. Keating's ALP government of pandering to special interests, a key plank of Mr. Harper's campaign rhetoric is to accuse both the Liberals and the NDP of being out of touch with "ordinary" Canadian families. The NDP, Mr. Harper said, is "for high taxes, it's soft on crime, and it puts the demands of special interests ahead of the needs of ordinary working families."

Mr. Harper and Mr. Howard parallel each other in one other key respect. Mr. Howard is the most conservative prime minister in postwar Australia. He is determined to dismantle his country's egalitarian societal values and replace them with a society that is underpinned by concepts such as rewarding self-reliance, small government, tougher welfare policies, and moral conservatism.

What has made Mr. Howard so politically ruthless is his belief that his conservative predecessor, Malcolm Fraser (prime minister from 1975 to 1983), squandered an opportunity to do what Mr. Howard is now doing.

As Globe columnist John Ibbitson has noted, Mr. Harper was disappointed that the Mulroney government had not pursued a harder-edged libertarian agenda. If Mr. Harper wins this election, he will no doubt put that right.

If Canadians are asking themselves what a Harper government would do to their country, they just have to look at John Howard's Australia today.

[iverglas]

6. a link

just in case you should (probably) shorten your excerpts:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060117.wcomment0117/BNStory/National/

Nice piece. Errol in Alberta didn't think so. ;)

[Hand]

7. NDP...

I've got it easy; I'm in Alexa McDonough's riding. Pre-voted on Monday.

[Posteritatis]

10. *waves from across the Harbour*

The race seems closer here, bah.

Though I like Savage enough that I can actually vote for him without feeling like I've got a lesser-of-two-evils thing going on. Seems to be one of those weird people who can (A) keep in touch with his constituents about what he's up to and (B) campaign for election without referencing the other parties. God forbid anybody in this country keep the latter in mind...

[Hand]

13. Is he John Savage's son?

I seem to recall that he is. I always thought Savage got a raw deal when he was premier--didn't agree with him on a lot of things, but he actually made a serious effort to clean up the patronage system that was screwing everybody, and he paid for it with his political life. I don't know a lot about Mike Savage, except that Mancini's now actually trying to get elected this time around.

[Posteritatis]

14. Not sure

I've liked what I've heard both about and from him over the past couple of years, really. We'd get semi-regular fliers from him explaining in some detail what he's been up to in Ottawa or locally, for instance, which I appreciated if just for the two-way contact. That and he's involved in committees and so on in Parliament which I actually agree with (involved with health, education, research, privacy and ethics? Okay!), which is bonus points.

During the campaign, the times he's contacted this place he's also outlined what he was up to with no reference to any other party or candidate - just "this is what I want to do," not "this is what the other guys will do so vote for me" or "I will do this while these guys want to do that." That's a breath of fresh air, to put it lightly.

Like I said, I do miss Wendy Lill, but it's hard to get more stereotypically progressive than she was. ;)

[V. Kid]

8. Mine's a Lib/NDP race...

...so don't worry I'm not helping the evil ones win. But I geuss I should vote Liberal anyways. ;-)

BTW, why aren't you folks voting CHP? They ran an add on the tele-vision!!!

[Monkeybumper]

9. Belinda

Is there anyone here that thinks that voting for her would help anything . The NDP here is about tide with the greens so that wont help .

[yvr girl]

11. I don't know

I don't like Heddy Fry. I don't like Svend Robinson. I don't want to support Harper. What's a yvr girl to do?

[V. Kid]

15. What bothers you the most?

[daleo]

12. I am surprised there is not even one Green supporter here

I guess the "Greens are really disguised Conservatives" idea is operative? Or maybe the sample size is just too small.

[u4ic]

17. Unfortunately, the Cons are a shoo-in

in my riding. :puke:

I'll be voting NDP.