Alright well i was with my parents eating dinner today and the topic of the election came up. I know what you are all thinking but this thread isn’t about who to vote for and etc. My intentions of this is to educate those eligible to vote but don’t know each campaign’s viewpoints so i’m going to start a little info thread about the standpoints of each party that i know (anyone can add to this, which will hopefully help the people who are unsure who to vote for)
These are the MAIN points that differ each party from one another
Liberal: Paul Martin
-for same sex marriage
-for sex age to be 14yrs old
-for legalization of prostitution
-weed is not a drug (legalization?)
PC: Steven Haper
-against same sex marriage
-for keeping sex age at 16
-against legalization of prostitution
-against legalization of weed
-increase in taxes? this one im not sure about
NDP: ?
-this campaign actually has a theme and it is mainly about treating workers fairly and pretty much about an equal society sort of thing? i think
-pretty much same viewpoints as liberal.
-neutral on the topic of keeping the sex age at 16 or to lower it to 14
I would like more info because this info that i know is a bit bias and doesn’t show the good points of each party. I think Liberals are cutting taxes and PC wants to increase them?
Most people know the race is pretty much between PC and Liberal so i’m not putting much emphasis on NDP and BLOC because i do not have enough knowledge to say for sure. I’m only posting these FACTS and you as a citizen use these facts to make your judgement call in what type of government you want. Lets keep it clean guys and mods…lets not lock it? Lets use this as an information thread and i am also curious to what the SON members views are so i’m going to add a poll for you to choose. Let’s not argue whos right and wrong. pure informational!!
could you please include an “other” option on your poll (since the current three don’t cover the entire spectrum of parties running for the election)? thanks in advance.
if these guys, or any ‘other’ party begin to get more votes it should send a message to the liberals and conservatives that people dont trust either of them.
i’d like to see the Bloc, the green and maybe the NDP all eat into the liberals and conservatives. maybe then when no one can dominate there will have to be consensus.
oh ya i forgot about the green. i guess my parents were only concerned with the 2 big dogs fighting at it and didn’t tell me much about the smaller parties. if someone could give some info i’ll add it. thanks
i’m still debating whom i’m going to vote for, simply because i don’t really like any of the running parties. it basically comes down to choosing the better of a bunch of evils. they try to convince some poeple to vote for them simply based on their “ad hominem” (personal argumental attacks) strategy against their opponents via their campaign’s marketing and advertising. i’ve been to most of the parties’ sites, and they don’t really do much. some bash the others, others make a bunch of promises, and the rest list a bunch of issues and say there’s a lot of work to do, implying that if they’re elected all of these will go away. it’s a bunch of bullshit, since (once again, i stress) some people don’t make an educated vote, but are rather coersed into making a decision.
i understand that running a town/city/province/country is no simple task, and that not every target can be accomplished. but i, personally, would prefer these parties to list REALISTIC goals, and label them so to separate them from the other “would like to accomplish if we have time/money” goals, along with their plans to follow through. that’s much more convincing than hearing “this year, give the liberals the boot” and a bunch of useless crap like that.
this kind of stuff makes it hard to make a good decision towards who’s going to be running the country that i live in such that it’s the best it can be. then again, i could be alone on this one…
</rant>
in the end, like bingo, i might go green. they seem to be the most straightforward out of the bunch, and have the right general idea.
I’d really like to finally see the Liberals out of power. What a trail of destruction (mostly Chretien) they’ve left behind.
While i’m not really a huge fan of any of the options (as mentioned above by big byrd), i’ll be voting for Conservative because of their viewpoints on issues, for some change, for a higher trust level in Harper, and to hopefully see the Liberals out, at least for now with all the AdScam and potential corruption looming.
BTW, I think it was the Conservatives that were actually FOR the tax cut, 2% GST reduction for everyone I believe. That would be kinda cool too.
didnt the conservatives also say htey were going to pay for half of peoples tuition to mobilize young voters…
like that will actually happen = thumbs down for lying
its not necessarily the lesser of two evils that people have to choose between. by givng your vote to a third party, no pun intended, that really has not chance of winning you succesfully make your point of opting out while still counting in.
if you dont vote, you dont count.
since neither the liberals nor the conservatives are going to do anything right, might as well give the littlest guy a bigger voice.
As far as FACTS are concerned, the “PCs” are not the PCs. They are the Conservative party now (the result of a merger between the old Progressive Conservative (PC) party and the Canadian Alliance/Reform party). It’s basically a total right-wing takeover of the Progressive Conservatives - so much so that a few former hardcore PC members formed their own party, which is fielding about 25 candidates in this election. The party is called the Progressive Canadian party and is more socially progressive than the Conservative party - although they are so small I will be surprised if they get a single seat.
The current ‘sex age’ is already 14. Weed is a drug and there are no plans on paper to legalize it by either party leaders. Prostitution is legal - solicitation for the purposes of is not. Haven’t heard much on this issue.
Harper wants to cut the GST to 6% and then eventually to 5%. Martin would rather cut income taxes for the lowest brackets. The NDP have a more ‘selective’ tax reduction policy whereby they might reduce or eliminate sales tax on certain items such as personal hygene, books for school, hybrid cars, etc. Green party has similar taxation ideas to the NDP although I’m sure they lean more heavily towards enviro-friendly products/services.
Martin is accusing the Conservatives of not being able to do everything they are saying they will do (namely cut taxes and increase govt spending). Harper is asking why Martin and his Liberals should get another chance to govern given the history of scandals. (Although if I wanted to put a Liberal-friendly spin on this I would say that compared to a $6-billion surplus, a $300-million waste of money is nothing).
NDP are maintaining track and trying to get more MPs into the house to balance the next government - they actually have a track record to speak of in the last parliament and were responsible for delivering many of the “Liberal” initatives - including the New Deal for cities.
Green party is all well and good but as car enthusiasts we need to be aware of their plans to increase the sh1t out of gas prices through taxation - something I don’t look forward to. However their support base is ever-increasing and they have a chance to get their first seat in the House of Commons.
As far as my personal preferences are concerned, I don’t condone the Conservative idea of mandatory minimum prison sentences. But at the same time I don’t condone the idea of a Liberal handgun ban either.
The candidates in my riding are all pretty lackluster and I don’t think any of them could truly represent my interests in parliament.
I will prolly vote Liberal or NDP. Still undecided.
Don’t really want to get into a discussion on politics, but I just voted Conservative today. I don’t know if I will always vote for them but I will never vote left of centre.
so your saying if someone at the age of 21 has sex with a 14 yr old cannot be charged? i swear i thought it was 16, but i guess i was wrong so i stand corrected? and i think liberals were trying to make prostitution legal as in considered as a “trait”? his is what i heard so i could be wrong, my apologies for giving false info if i have.