Someone made a quiz about Canadian politics?

[onefixedstar]

According to the PoliticsWatch.com quiz, I can feel equally comfortable voting for the Bloc Quebecois or the National Democratic Party in the upcoming federal election. As it's highly unlikely that the BQ will be fielding candidates in the heart of Toronto, bastion of English Canada, (and I have a few issues with elements of their platform not addressed in this quiz, like the whole "let's break up Canada" thing), it looks like I'm destined to vote NDP. I still have three more years to vote socialist*, so I think I'm okay, but the Liberals had better get their act together before the next election. Either that, or the Red Tories need to infiltrate and wrest back control of the Conservative party so that I can vote for them.

It's interesting to note that, once again, the Green Party has been excluded. This despite the fact that it's polling at 5% and has candidates running in many more ridings than the Bloc. And speaking of minority parties, what ever happened to the Rhinoceros Party? No wonder people aren't voting any more--all the fun's gone out of it.

And now I'd better go prepare for semiotic_trader's and a_just_society's arrival from Montreal.


* The three year limit is based on a favourite political saying of my father's: "If you haven't supported the NDP by the time you're twenty, people wonder about your heart. If you're still supporting the NDP by the time you're thirty, people wonder about your head."

Comments

*cough*

[sunir.livejournal.com]

New Democratic Party

Jack Layton isn't exactly a socialist. He's not about the redistribution of wealth, but rather the reflection of views of non-powerholding Canadians. A socialist would try to redistribute wealth to the non-powerholding Canadians (the poor, mostly) in order to reorder the power structure in society, but there are other alternatives such as adding social conditions and shifting priorities in how government spends money (i.e. do not fund environmentally unsound industry from taxpayer's money), which is more about steering the country... rather than cutting it off at the knees when it goes in the wrong direction.

The reason why this NDP is more fiscally prudent than the Conservatives in many ways, I think, is that they look at the full system of public sector responsibilities and seek to optimize them. So, if you decentralize the spending of money to lower echelons of government, then as Harper points out, you don't get bocce ball courts instead of highways. And if you kill corporate welfare, then you equalize the marketplace, which is healthier in the long term. If you reduce environmental damage now and the number of sick taxpaying workers, the costs and revenues of the government improve in the future.

I was really pissed off though that he opted to tax the richest Canadians. I also don't like how the NDP fails to separate themselves from the old socialist forms of redistribution of wealth and focus more on full cost accounting.

I am actually scratching my head at this campaign where we see the the Liberals poaching from the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois, the NDP from the Liberals, and (weirdest of all) Conservatives poaching from the NDP platform.

(Um, vote Liberal.)

You're probably in Jack Layton's riding, actually, so do vote for Jack.

And finally, the Green party has no elected member of any parliament anywhere in Canada; when that changes, they should get a microphone. We might as well put the Canadian Action Party or the National Heritage Party on the podium. The Reform Party didn't get a voice until they had elected Deborah Grey. Let's face it, the only poll that counts is the election.

;)

[onefixedstar.livejournal.com]

I was joking about the socialist bit. I realize that the NDP are not socialist. And although I don't think the Green party should necessarily have a voice at the debate, I do think the quiz might have been improved by including a few more parties. Then again, anyone who actually bases their vote on the results of an online quiz will get what they deserve.

I'm not in Layton's riding--my NDP candidate is Michael Shapcott. So explain to me why you think I should vote Liberal.

Re: ;)

[sunir.livejournal.com]

Only because I'm a member of the Liberal party and I would be shilling for them in other, better circumstances.

After I get back from Berlin on the 14th, I might actually shill for them in Liberal/Conservative ridings.

Re: ;)

[onefixedstar.livejournal.com]

But my brother and brother-in-law are shilling for the NDP, so that cancels things out (if I'm generous) or shifts the balance to the NDP (if I'm not).

I think I need actual arguments. Though, of course, you're under no obligation to provide them.