[Mr_Canada]

“The English people believe itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken;
it is free only during the election of members of parliament; as soon as
the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the
brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use
of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.”
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

[CommanderSock]

Harper would've had my vote on lock down if he didn't try and ram the minimum sentencing bill down our throats.

Minimum sentencing has proved an utter failure, and will as always affect the poor and destitute at our expense. We have to pay increasing prison fees.

Therefore, it's now a toss up between the NDP and Liberals. I'm Toronto-Danforth so Olivia Chow might get my vote, who knows.

If Canada has proportional rep, I would've voted for the Greens.

I guess there's no party for fiscally the conservative, socially liberal types such as myself.

[hurley_108]

Winnipegger wrote:

So what would you vote for? What do you want to see? What would make you passionate about politics?

I will not vote Conservative while Harper is their leader. He is pure poison. The politicization of every last issue, the introduction of attack ads between elections, the run to Rideau Hall every time he gets in a tough spot are not the qualities of someone deserving of the PM's office.

Ignatieff is little better. So far, the only thing positive one can say about him is that he hasn't screwed anything up, and that's only by virtue fo teh fact that he hasn't been in a position to. He's invisible most of the time, and when he's seen, he's aimless. Unless he comes up with a solid platform, he won't get my vote either.

Layton completely screwed the pooch when it came to that coalition. Trying to form a coalition government that would not have had even a plurality of seats let alone a majority that could get by on its own without the Bloc with such a hyper-partisan Conservative party so willing to whip the country into a hate-filled frenzy about the idea has seriously soured the discussion about a legitimate way to govern. The NDP won't get my vote while he's their leader.

The Green party had their shot and came up empty handed. They lost their floor-crossing MP, and didn't elect their leader even though she managed to get into the debate because she chose oh so poorly when deciding which riding to go for. What does that say about her decision making abilities? The Greens won't get my vote again unless they fix those issues.

So where does that leave me? Spoiling my ballot, probably, for the first time.

Iggy's not completely gone. If he can put something together (and that's a pretty big if), he'll get my vote. If a miracle happens and Harper gets turfed after the next election and is replaced by someone reasonable like Clement, they might just get my vote whenever the election comes after that.

[ShepherdsDog]

Mr_Canada wrote:

“The English people believe itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken;
it is free only during the election of members of parliament; as soon as
the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the
brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use
of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.”
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Which was still leaps and bounds beyond anything that existed in Europe, or much of the world, at that time.