Canada Votes 2004

[Xelebes]

On May 21st, 2004 the Governor-General dissolved Parliament and an election will be held on June 28th. Finally.

This is probably important to Americans because who we choose might affect what the Americans will choose or who the Americans are leaning towards will affect what the Canadians choose. It is a close relationship the two nations have and the politics intertwine. If John Kerry's support remains this strong or stronger, Canada will have to take a tougher economic and nationalist stance and the Convservative party will fall out of the favour. But if the Republicans win with George Bush, the Conservatives might very well get a stronger tally in the polls. It will also affect the other parties and what numbers they get. A stronger NDP will mean that there will be a lot more socialist sway in Parliament and if the Bloc Quebecois get more power, it's going to raise Quebec separatist issues once more into the Parliament.

We have five main parties in which I am going to give my biased stance on them.

Liberals led by Paul Martin - Corruption and integrity seem to be the biggest problem they are facing as the ruling party of Canada. It is purported they squandered around 2 billion dollars with a B while they were in power. Paul Martin is acting as if he didn't know.

Conservatives led by Stephen Harper - They lead the campaign against the corruption and all that but there are a few things that are bugging me. Their "bed-buddy" with the US stance and support for the war in Iraq. And their alternative way of handling Medicare - though I am not too concerned about that.

New Democrats (NDP) led by Jack Layton supports more money to Medicare and other social programs and lessening the corporate tax-breaks that are in place. Biggest problem they face is the uncertainty of their fiscal responsibility.

Bloc Quebecois led by Gilles Duceppe - Yeah, I would vote for them but they only vie for the seats in Quebec - and I don't live in Quebec. Basically, they support Quebec's nationalism and separatism and basically the only option against the Liberals in the province of Quebec.

Green Party... uh... I dunno who leads this party. However I have kind of grown to their platform. They are like the Bloc Quebecois where environmentalism and efficiency is their main issue as opposed to the Bloc's issue of separatism. I'm probably going to vote for them, if I were to vote even though I am not interested in environmental issues.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Sorry, but I don't understand how who the Americans are leaning towards will affect the Canadian election.

---dr.M.

 

[rgraham666]

Good analysis, Xelebes.

No way am I voting for the "Conservatives". Since they ain't.

They are, as one of my favourite authours points out, Marxist revolutionaries.

That is, they agree with Marx that in a capitalist society the marketplace rules and cannot and should not be controlled in anyway. They agree that the marketplace acts as a battlefield between those who have power and those who don't. And that this will result in a class war, which they will win.

The only difference is that the "Conservatives" think the rich will win while standard Marxists think the poor will be the victors. Big difference.

And after the last decade Ontario went through under the ideological compatriots of the "Conservatives", why anyone would vote for them is beyond me.

 

[Xelebes]

Sorry, but I don't understand how who the Americans are leaning towards will affect the Canadian election.

---dr.M.

The election of JFK was known to have John Diefenbaker voted out of office.

Canada-US relations is a big issue for us Canadians because we export a lot if not most of resources to the US to be processed, refined and developed into goods that the US exports back. Canada does not have the mills to process all of the wheat that is produced in Canada - it is shipped to Chicago where the General Mills factories process them. Same goes for our beef, our poultry, our oil, our wood and all our other minerals.

My stance is that we rely too much on the US, to the point that the outcome of American politics bitterly affects the Canadian economy through NATO and Auto Pact and all the other economic agreements. Personally, I'd love to see Canada have more slaughterhouses, mills, factories and the sort except that there are laws that prohibit any acts to raise capital to do that. There is no way a Canadian can start an auto company in a Canadian land and produce cars and buses and trains. It's against the law. The only exception is Bombardier which makes snowmobiles and airplanes - no cars are made. There is too many laws made by American lobby groups to have our economy stunted and basically leave us with out resources being exploited.