This entry was posted by stageleft on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 and is filed under Canada, Canadian Politics.
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I don’t talk about my personal voting decisions publicly, but:
a) I have eliminated two candidates in my riding from my options based on their ideologies.
b) I have made my selection based on a combination of party platform and candidate. I’m not interested in seeing any specific party in power; I am interested in certain specific social, legislative or program changes, and I’ll vote for whoever seems most likely to promote those specific changes.
A combination of party platform and candidate? These are inseparable elements b, and when there is a difference party always trumps candidate.
Let me speculate a bit…… the FCP and the CPoO are the eliminated based on ideology candidates, the Greens social policy is, shall we say, less than progressive, so I’m gonna guess you’re voting for Cronieism.
“A combination of party platform and candidate? These are inseparable elements b, and when there is a difference party always trumps candidate.”
More inseparable in some parties, and for some candidates, than others. Some politicians will simply follow the party line, and some party leaders will insist that they do so. But the right member can influence the party line, or tell you how to get around it. I’ve even known a couple of Conservative members who’d sit down and say…”Look, I understand what you want to happen, and I personally agree with it. Here’s what you should do. “
A vote for change wouldn’t be a Liberal vote Throbbin, that’s a vote for the status quo…. besides, when was the last time you say real change anywhere on a ballot?
Whooee! I toyed with the idea of votin’ PC. It was all on accounta my local PC MPP who’s talkin’ some sense about them smokestacks in my backyard here in Nanticoke. When his bossman, Johnny Tory, sed he wants to go full blast on nuke expansion and damn the environmental assessments, ol’ Toby Barrett MPP lost my vote.
I’ll be votin’ Green. I reckon that’s “Partisanship” on yer list, since the Greens is a party. Like all the rest o’ the GPO candidate, my local candidate ain’t got a hope in hell. Still, I’ll wander up to the Legion Hall an’ cast my meaningless vote. It’ll be worthwhile on accounta the referendum, at least. Greens are the onliest ones pushin’ fer a single public school system. Greens is pushin’ fer MMP, too.
I heard tell there was alotta PC supporters shiftin’ to GPO on accounta the school fundin’ thing. Maybe Tory’s flippety-floppin’ll bring them sheep back into his fold.
I have no idea who I will vote for at this point except to say that neither the PC’s nor the Liberals will get it.
I will be in the voting booth solely to cast my vote on MMP, in the faint hope that next time, my choices will not be so futile. My party vote will go to whomever has the best fashion sense of the remaining non-Lib/PC candidates, because in my riding, it does not matter what I do if I don’t vote Liberal or PC.
I do wish I had a Rhino candidate to mark an X for. Or a particularly articulate baboon.
I have decided against voting PC, balbulican. It just so happens that my PC candidate is a mannikin and I’m fundamentally opposed to voting for anything without nipples.
I am finding the whole thing more and more amusing the longer it goes on.
Ontario will wake up on October 11th governed, once again, by a government made up of the greatest minority.
Then, depending on how things go with the referendum, Ontario may well begin morphing into a system where a significant portion of the MPP’s have no identifiable electorate and are accountable only to the party that put them on “the list” as a reward for one good party deed or another, to vote, exactly has they vote now, as, and when, they are told to vote by their party masters.
– and the winners will be congratulating themselves on a job well done, while the majority shrug and talk about how they at least took part in the great democratic exercise we call the choosing of a government.
That’s the thing, stageleft – under any sort of parliamentary democracy, I expect MPs or MPPs to vote as they vote now, however they got there. I expect McGuinty to get a bare majority on October 10th, and I expect that for the next four years McGuinty’s MPPs will do McGuinty’s bidding, unimpeded. I also expect that it will enrage the probable sixty percent of voters who did not vote Liberal, and who have no power to change anything McGuinty decides to do.
I expect that, even if I don’t want it.
Nevertheless, I will vote in this election and hope that “Ontario … begin[s] morphing into a system where a significant portion of the MPP’s have no identifiable electorate and are accountable only to the party that put them on “the list†as a reward for one good party deed or another, to vote, exactly has they vote now, as, and when, they are told to vote by their party masters.”
The only significant difference between the existing system and the proposed system that I can see is that at least the drone ratio might actually roughly reflect what the majority of voters want as far as parties go, which indirectly reflects the policies we want to see implemented. Not quite direct democracy, but a step in that direction.
What is the alternative, honestly? More of the same until the voters become so apathetic about everything that they stay home in swarms while the uber partisans make all the decisions for them? At that point, why not hand over the election to technorati, where blog hits determine the next premier?
It strikes me that if MMP is voted down, our political overlords will take it as a mandate to shelve any democratic reform for the foreseeable future. I don’t see MMP as an electoral panacea, more as a signal to the Powers-that-Be that the status quo is unacceptable and that there is an appetite for reform.
The only thing I am sure of is that I won’t vote Liberal.
Even if I agreed with all of their current platform positions.
Whenever I complain about accountability for election promises made and broken I am told I get a chance every 4 years or so to hold the liars accountable – and Dalton and Co are such big f—ing liars – this is my chance and yours to send a message to politicians of all stripes. Probably the most important issue of the election. Don’t vote Liberal.
Disclaimer: The writings, musing, comments, thoughts, and ideas, put forward within the stageleft.info domain belong solely to their individual authors who hold ultimate responsibility for them. While here be mindful of the words of Buddha: Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.
Designed by Gabfire slightly modified by stageleft
None of the above.
I don’t talk about my personal voting decisions publicly, but:
a) I have eliminated two candidates in my riding from my options based on their ideologies.
b) I have made my selection based on a combination of party platform and candidate. I’m not interested in seeing any specific party in power; I am interested in certain specific social, legislative or program changes, and I’ll vote for whoever seems most likely to promote those specific changes.
A combination of party platform and candidate? These are inseparable elements b, and when there is a difference party always trumps candidate.
Let me speculate a bit…… the FCP and the CPoO are the eliminated based on ideology candidates, the Greens social policy is, shall we say, less than progressive, so I’m gonna guess you’re voting for Cronieism.
The colour is my guess
Im still planning to vote for “change”…
Seriously though, McGuinty is cool, and my local Lib candidate seems pretty straightforward.
“A combination of party platform and candidate? These are inseparable elements b, and when there is a difference party always trumps candidate.”
More inseparable in some parties, and for some candidates, than others. Some politicians will simply follow the party line, and some party leaders will insist that they do so. But the right member can influence the party line, or tell you how to get around it. I’ve even known a couple of Conservative members who’d sit down and say…”Look, I understand what you want to happen, and I personally agree with it. Here’s what you should do. “
A vote for change wouldn’t be a Liberal vote Throbbin, that’s a vote for the status quo…. besides, when was the last time you say real change anywhere on a ballot?
Whooee! I toyed with the idea of votin’ PC. It was all on accounta my local PC MPP who’s talkin’ some sense about them smokestacks in my backyard here in Nanticoke. When his bossman, Johnny Tory, sed he wants to go full blast on nuke expansion and damn the environmental assessments, ol’ Toby Barrett MPP lost my vote.
I’ll be votin’ Green. I reckon that’s “Partisanship” on yer list, since the Greens is a party. Like all the rest o’ the GPO candidate, my local candidate ain’t got a hope in hell. Still, I’ll wander up to the Legion Hall an’ cast my meaningless vote. It’ll be worthwhile on accounta the referendum, at least. Greens are the onliest ones pushin’ fer a single public school system. Greens is pushin’ fer MMP, too.
I heard tell there was alotta PC supporters shiftin’ to GPO on accounta the school fundin’ thing. Maybe Tory’s flippety-floppin’ll bring them sheep back into his fold.
JB
I have no idea who I will vote for at this point except to say that neither the PC’s nor the Liberals will get it.
I will be in the voting booth solely to cast my vote on MMP, in the faint hope that next time, my choices will not be so futile. My party vote will go to whomever has the best fashion sense of the remaining non-Lib/PC candidates, because in my riding, it does not matter what I do if I don’t vote Liberal or PC.
I do wish I had a Rhino candidate to mark an X for. Or a particularly articulate baboon.
“Or a particularly articulate baboon.”
My dear, I thought you had decided AGAINST voting PC?
I have decided against voting PC, balbulican. It just so happens that my PC candidate is a mannikin and I’m fundamentally opposed to voting for anything without nipples.
I am finding the whole thing more and more amusing the longer it goes on.
Ontario will wake up on October 11th governed, once again, by a government made up of the greatest minority.
Then, depending on how things go with the referendum, Ontario may well begin morphing into a system where a significant portion of the MPP’s have no identifiable electorate and are accountable only to the party that put them on “the list” as a reward for one good party deed or another, to vote, exactly has they vote now, as, and when, they are told to vote by their party masters.
– and the winners will be congratulating themselves on a job well done, while the majority shrug and talk about how they at least took part in the great democratic exercise we call the choosing of a government.
That’s the thing, stageleft – under any sort of parliamentary democracy, I expect MPs or MPPs to vote as they vote now, however they got there. I expect McGuinty to get a bare majority on October 10th, and I expect that for the next four years McGuinty’s MPPs will do McGuinty’s bidding, unimpeded. I also expect that it will enrage the probable sixty percent of voters who did not vote Liberal, and who have no power to change anything McGuinty decides to do.
I expect that, even if I don’t want it.
Nevertheless, I will vote in this election and hope that “Ontario … begin[s] morphing into a system where a significant portion of the MPP’s have no identifiable electorate and are accountable only to the party that put them on “the list†as a reward for one good party deed or another, to vote, exactly has they vote now, as, and when, they are told to vote by their party masters.”
The only significant difference between the existing system and the proposed system that I can see is that at least the drone ratio might actually roughly reflect what the majority of voters want as far as parties go, which indirectly reflects the policies we want to see implemented. Not quite direct democracy, but a step in that direction.
What is the alternative, honestly? More of the same until the voters become so apathetic about everything that they stay home in swarms while the uber partisans make all the decisions for them? At that point, why not hand over the election to technorati, where blog hits determine the next premier?
It strikes me that if MMP is voted down, our political overlords will take it as a mandate to shelve any democratic reform for the foreseeable future. I don’t see MMP as an electoral panacea, more as a signal to the Powers-that-Be that the status quo is unacceptable and that there is an appetite for reform.
The only thing I am sure of is that I won’t vote Liberal.
Even if I agreed with all of their current platform positions.
Whenever I complain about accountability for election promises made and broken I am told I get a chance every 4 years or so to hold the liars accountable – and Dalton and Co are such big f—ing liars – this is my chance and yours to send a message to politicians of all stripes. Probably the most important issue of the election. Don’t vote Liberal.