Raise the Hammer

Whether this politican is red, blue, or orange -- the flipping between federal seat and municipal seat isn't a dealbreaker to me. As long as enough somethings good can get done, the politican can get my vote -- even if they want to be back in a city seat later.

Let's look carefully at what's proposed, including transit improvements, and in some cases we may need to vote strategically -- very important this election cycle because of the near-equal-split of three major parties. Was that particular politician more effective (than others) at getting specific goals (that you like) done in the past?

Even if it means voting for Olivia Chow.

Or even if it means NOT voting for Olivia Chow.

A choice. This may mean setting aside some dislike of something they did in the past (like a particular flip flop), if they successfully did other things that was even more important. Look at the transit planning disruption Rob Ford did, when not enough votes went to Chow at the time -- do you want a Ford to come into power just because you didn't like Chow? (Side note -- one survey interestingly showed that 9% of Canada are orange-versus-blue "anything-but-Liberals" flippers -- and this could apply to Chow-vs-Ford flippers. In retrospect, many regretted not voting for Chow instead of Ford). Even if the success is simply preventing something worse being done by a different party.

Since we don't have a proportional voting system, Sometimes we have to swallow a bitter pill strategically because our vote has more power than usual (near even splits like this upcoming Federal election). On the other hand -- maybe the competing person has a great platform and you should vote for them instead of Chow. Support what's important in the coming years.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to seeing more various warmer colors (reds and oranges, rather than blues) in the parliament seat layout during this cycle. I do have some concern about financials, given Ontario's financial situation (albiet we're more flexible at bouncing back far faster than debt-plagued nations such as Greece with its 80% tax evasion culture even widespread among the Greek middle class -- in that light, Ontario is well off compared to them). I'm also additionally fully aware that even scandal-plagued Liberals have managed the books light-years better than Conservatives did lately -- their brands of government waste is simply labelled, packaged and marketted very differently. So we need to look at overall government efficiency too. I'm also even fully aware some socialist-minded democratic governments (i.e. Norway) run extremely massive surpluses that they now essentially have a trillon-dollar wealth fund for the whole population. So it's not so clear cut when pundits say "hello bankruptcy" if NDP or Liberals comes to power.

...incidentially, it looks like a minority government, no matter what color -- and minority Canadian governments have been historically good at "getting things done". The sitting government has multiple alternate choices of different parties to agree to various legislation with. None may have a majority, but any pair, red+orange, blue+orange, and red+blue would be a majority - and that's why more legislation gets passed during minority Canadian governments! At least until one party gets so steamed they collapse the government and a new election occurs...

(I wonder if it's time for Canadian coalition governments in this new era where we've slowly become a 3-party system instead of a 2-party system.)

In comment boards of other forums, blanket statements thrown about about each other being the most wasteful government color ever, is silly. Some people think cars are a waste. Others think bikes are a waste. Others go, "Look! A squirrel!" All of our government choices in history in humankind have a waste factor, and we can be mad about elements of that, but we can take solace in that Canada is relatively efficient compared to a lot of the 200-ish of the world countries -- even Ontario looks efficient. We need to look deeper than that. So, let's analyze our choices carefully and how they impact our future.

We're lucky to be Canada.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-07-31 04:56:07