Why I’m voting Green.
OK. Canadian elections are coming up people. I figured I’d give a step by step breakdown of my personal philosophies on each party and why I’m not voting for them, ultimately leading me to the reason I am voting Green. It’s varied a lot over the last few years. I started my voting career as an adult voting Liberal in the heart of their stronghold… rural Ontario. From there, I started to gain my legs and vote Conservative on a provincial level, almost becoming a card carrying one. From there, I became more educated and started to lean towards the NDP, which I voted for at the last Federal election. Now? Now I vote Green.
Conservative:
Long gone are the days of the Progressive Conservative. Although I still agree with their fiscal perogatives in a lot of respects, I’ve lost their social agenda. I do, however, feel they’re pushing some major think pieces. I like their stance on Childcare funds. I also like their stance on rolling back the GST to 5% from 7%. I don’t, however, believe for one second that GST will be rolled back. As much as it pains me the Healthcare does need to be set up with access to private care for those who can afford it. Public Health care needs increased funding too though, which they are not going to provide at a proper level. In typical conservative manners though, fiscally, I can see a return to provinces managing their own funds. The reason I can’t vote for them is simple, as much as I want the fiscal changes I can’t risk the changes to social matters. I don’t want to see gay marriage roled back, I don’t want to see “traditional family values” taking over. Conservatives are more than happy to give you your money and understand that you’re the best responsible person to manage it, but they seem to think that when it comes to social issues and family they want to control you.
Liberals
Fiberals. On the provincial level we have Dalton McGuinty who has rolled back on almost every promise he offered at election (I voted NDP in that one). On the Federal level we have a group of people that just got hammered with giving kickbacks to Liberal endorsing companies. Now Paul Martin was the Finance Minister at the time. He says he wasn’t responsible for the kickbacks. I take that 2 ways.
1. He’s lying.
2. He’s incompetant cause if he wasn’t managing it what kind of Finance Minister is he?
Yes, I know all political parties are cheats, liars and scoundrals but do I really want to vote one in that just got proven without a doubt of being all 3? I’d have to be an idiot to vote Liberal.
NDP
Aaaah, the fuzzy left. I love their dedication to social programs. I love the fact that the actually seem to care about the children, the poor, the elderly and the students. Money does need to be put into all of those, regardless of if we see an increase in tax at all. As anyone who purchases mutual funds or RRSP’s from their paychecks we all know that money we don’t see leave is money we don’t miss. No one, regardless of how honesty they say they are, will put as much money into social causes as the government currently does in their lue. Also, just like with a mutual fund or RRSP, the government is pooling our money to get more profit out of our money. 10$ from one person does nothing, but combined 10$ from everyone does a lot if managed right, and the NDP wants to manage it right, and I’d give them the chance.
They lost me on the gas tax though. Poor people and middle-class people have cars too, why do they suffer? They love healthcare but will they roll it back to fix the damage done by the liberals and conservatives? Will eyecare again be covered by OHIP, along with other things that have been cut or rolled back? Will funding to public transit be increased to 1980’s levels? Toronto has the least funded transit in all of North America when it comes to Federal and Provincial funding. Will the NDP give that money back that was taken away?
I doubt it. It’s bad business sense. You don’t increase someone’s cost, then get more money and lower their cost. It never happens. Prices go up. I don’t like being candycoated. Don’t tell people you’ll do something when we know full well you won’t, Business sense dictates you won’t.
Green
Why? Because their fiscal conservatives that care about the enviroment. From rich to poor we can all agree on 1 thing. This planet is not the planet our parents had, or our grandparents. This planet is messed up. The way business is run, whether you like it or not, is here to stay for a while. There’s nothing we can do about it. What we can do is institute change to make companies be responsible about how they manage themselves in relation to the planet.
You want to make cars? Fine, think about how those cars destroy the enviroment.
Want more nuclear plants? Think about where the radiation is going.
Want more money in healthcare? Address the enviroment first. How many health problems are avoidable and preventable?
Let’s cut to the goods here. For a long time we’re going to have classism. We’re going to have a rich/poor gap. We’re going to have war. We’re going to have corporate agendas. We’re going to have problems, period.
So let’s fix what we can. What point is all those problems I mentioned above if our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids don’t have the strength to fight them?