is voting conservative in the Federal Election on January 23. I weighed in in his comments, and I promised there to make a similar declaration. I’ll be posting that soon.
Michael Boyle's weblog
Michael Boyle's weblog
is voting conservative in the Federal Election on January 23. I weighed in in his comments, and I promised there to make a similar declaration. I’ll be posting that soon.
mtl3p says
concern about lack of context: i’m not a conservative – i’m a liberal (if i have to label myself) but i’m voting conservative because i want the liberals out of office and I want them to be encouraged towards fiscal conservatism. I abhor conservative social policies and I am risking that they will not be able to gain traction with those policies in their 4 years in office.
Michael Boyle says
Fair enough!
Anyhow I think it would be tough for anyone to mistake you for a dyed-in-the-wool “real” conservative – they don’t tend to be nearly as community-minded as you are.
For my US readers, it should also be noted that despite the rantings of some in Canada, the Conservative party is in no way equivalent to the Republican party in your country. And unlike the US, it is still reasonable for a centrist person to vote strategically or to express protest through one’s vote, something that has been removed from US politics as the extremism has ratcheted up.
Paul says
> I want them to be encouraged towards fiscal conservatism.
Why? Is Canada about to go bankrupt or something? There’s nothing good about not spending money. Successful businesses spend money to grow. Why shouldn’t countries?
Anyway, you only have to look at the US Republicans to see fiscal conservatism
in action – NOT! Bush is presiding over the largest budget deficit in US history. And his predecessor, Ronnie Regan was the previous record holder.
—
> I abhor conservative social policies and I am risking that they will not be able to gain traction with those policies in their 4 years in office.
That’s what they said about Maggie and Ronnie – the terrible duo from the 80’s. You risk indeed!
Don’t say you weren’t warned. Conservatives are like Herpes, once you have them, they are damned hard to get rid of!! Canada has come on impressively in the past 10 years or so, emerging from the shadow of it’s puffed-up neighbour. It would be a pity to see it all thrown away.
IMHO!
Michael Boyle says
Maybe, Paul, but although I’m not voting Conservative, I do agree with Mike’s assessment that the risk is reasonable at this point. The fact is that Martin is a complete disaster, and there’s nothing to redeem voting Liberal other than abject fear.
Plus, I think to compare Harper to Reagan or Thatcher is pretty ridiculous – the context is radically different.
Paul says
>Plus, I think to compare Harper to Reagan or Thatcher is pretty ridiculous – the context is radically different.
Well if you’ll excuse another analogy, that is what they said about little Johnny Howard (Australian Prime Minister: I’m a Brit now living in Sydney). Turns out that he makes Machiavelli look like a soft touch and is far more ruthless than anyone ever gave him credit for. The country was ‘over’ Paul Keating and decided it needed a break. Now we can’t get rid of the bugger!
By coincidence, this article was in today’s paper here:
http://smh.com.au/news/world/canadian-sea-change-follows-path-of-howards-way/2006/01/13/1137118970181.html
Here I vote green because the two major parties are so hopeless. Is there a Green Party in Canada? Would you consider them?
Michael Boyle says
There is a Green Party in Canada, but they seem to have been taken over by a libertarian gang and have lost the support of most environmental groups. They don’t seem very relevant to me.