Canadian Political Rant

So, I was talking with a friend about the Canadian election, and thought I’d post some of my thoughts (and raise the awareness of the Green party to the 6 or so of you who are still reading this blog. Don’t worry, this will probably be my last political post. It’s not one of my favourite topics.

As for Canadian politics, I did peek in on the Green party. 4.5% of the vote nationwide, but no seats yet. I predicted before the election that they would have seats within the next 3 elections. I remain hopeful that they will replace the NDP as the nation’s conscience party. They line up well with what I believe. Fiscally conservative (in fact, they are led by a former conservative) but concerned with environmental issues. I read about some of the problems they’ve had with people defecting to the NDP because they aren’t as into left wing issues as they may sound. I’m actually amazed at how much support they’re getting, because they seem to be stuck in the middle. The name Green party insinuates a left wing group of hippies, who are either tree huggers or pot smokers. So most right wing conservatives ignore them without digging. And the left wingers who have stopped to look at their platform realize that they are too conservative for them, and go for something more moderate like the Liberals or NDP. I would like to see them overcome both misperceptions, and then I would like to see how much it would help their popularity. I actually don’t mind a conservative minority for two reasons: 1) it gets the Liberals out, and it was time for a change, and 2) I agree with about 80% of the conservative platform, but about 20% of it scares me. With a minority government, they are unlikely to be able to accomplish any of that 20%. That’s my two cents on Canadian politics.