Birdy

There is one. Have you glanced at the national polls or are you going off of what's happening in Toronto? The Conservatives have been teetering on the border of a majority since week 1 of the campaign.

No, but there's gotta be a step one, right? Sounds lovely! Do you know how they enforce compulsory voting? Do you get a fine in the mail if your name didn't show up on the voting list? Kinda seems costly if you don't know how much actual 'good' it will do. I wonder though, if people were forced to vote, would they start following politics or would they show up and scribble all over the ballot?

Then maybe it would have to be a referendum question in which the people of Canada are polled and we go with the majority's response. I don't think it will do us much good to force everyone to vote though. I assume the majority who don't, don't follow politics and have no idea as to what drives policy, who stands for what, etc. If this much is true, really the only major change to come out of it will be driving the cost of an election up ten fold.

No Does the option to or to not participate in the electoral process not fall under what could be called 'democracy'?

ps, where'd ya get that quote from? I can't find anything on the internet.

lol... "Anything but the Conservatives" - OFFICIAL PARTY!! "Anything to get people to not vote Conservative is a good thing, even creating a culture of fear." - post on jambands.ca!!

And should a Conservative majority be elected?

Um, Mrs. Brush wasn't the only one looking after us. She ran the school. There were numerous staff working there and absolutely nothing about these schools could be considered 'underground', nor would they fear being 'shut down'.

I'm not really talking super-high-quality here, moreso options. Like when I was a kid I went to a preschool put on by a local neighbourhood lady. I don't remember much other than the crafts cupboard (she had more pompoms, construction paper, glitter and glue than I've ever seen in one spot since), naptime (we slept on carpet samples) and 'if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands'. There were about 20 of us who went to this school (or so my pictures tell me) and it was held in the basement of the Masonic Temple in little old Blenheim. It was by no means high-quality, but it was nurturing, cheap and led by a lady who genuinely cared for the education and care of little kids. This is what I'd hope to be available for kids today. I kinda fear that creating a national day care program alongside of privatized versions, will actually drive operations like this out of the market. I'm sure back in the day if there was a federally funded free daycare for children, i'd be there and not at Mrs. Brush's nursery school. These cheap, nurturing daycares will either cease to exist, or become more of a ritzy, private school version.

I think we've already seen a Harper majority. I'd hope if the Cons were dealt another minority the Opposition would start playing their role as the opposition and fighting the government on these key areas of policy they feel so strongly about. The past two years have been nothing short of a joke with Dion talking one way and nodding his head the other. I don't want to see a tough on drug policy in our country and the Opposition and other MPs have the chance to ensure we don't, but will they? The Conservatives haven't been the only ones playing this election and minority government to their own party's interests. On the other hand, I don't want to see universal daycare either, and voting to elect either the NDP and/or the Libs is a risk, as there's more lefty ideologues who would be for it sitting in parliament. These attack ads are nauseating. I only find it ironic how the CPC was sooo condemned for introducing them a few years back and came under heavy fire from the left for it. Look whose taking it up a notch! Reminds me of the opposition to the GST in the days of Mulroney.

Please don't forget that he has cut all public funding for internet use at public libraries. Yet somehow, I can continue to access free internet at both the Blenheim and Chatham libraries.

My response to the Chameleon's post was directed towards him asking about the needs of our three major urban centres who historically don't vote tory. Other smaller urban centres do have conservative support. I think (NDP excluded) the childcare packages put forth by both the Liberals and the Conservatives would aim for the same outcome, but with a different means of getting there, aside from the Conservatives putting an end to the pledge made by the previous Liberals to work with the provinces in creating provincial daycare programmes. Jack Layton proposes a federal universal daycare program with an initial budget of $1.45 billion for the first year. Quebec's daycare program alone costs $1.7 billion a year. The numbers don't seem to add up. The NDP cannot project what the total cost of such an initiative would cost. Quebec's daycare system experiences problems with access for children, long waiting lists, competitiveness for spots, etc. The same problems we experience with universal health care. In the US, those states with universal daycare rank amongst the worst in terms of child performance and education. I'm not in favour of universal daycare, as noble as the proposal is. The quality of universal healthcare in Canada is substandard in comparison to the privatized system in the USA. I would prefer that Canadian children not be subjected to a substandard, state-oriented education and rather have options for great care. I think the Greens are onto something with income tax shifting and hopefully the Conservatives (who've toyed with the idea in the past) will consider it as well. Any incentives for a parent to stay at home is a good one in my books. The Conservatives are pledging to help small businesses (you cited ECE grads opening up shops) by raising the tax rate to $500,000 in income. I suppose it's all in how you look at it. I wouldn't say that most supporters of the Conservatives don't clearly evaluate. a LOT of them feel the same of those who vote NDP or Liberal. It's just differences of opinion. Where one views tax credits as the answer, the other views spending.

What about the oil sands and refineries, manufacturing and agriculture? What about Quebec's renewable resources? I'd venture to say the lion's share of the money running the rest of the country is generated outside of our major cities. 2.5 million Ontarians live in the GTA, 10 million don't. 1.5 million Quebecors live in Montreal, 6 million don't. 575,000 British Columbians live in Vancouver, 3.7 million don't. Then there's the other i don't know, 7 or 8 million Canadians outside of our major urban centres. I don't know what to say. Seems to me you'd only be happy if the voting system were tipped more in favour of major urban centres to choose our future governments.

Zing! A whole country exists outside of the city Chameleon... eh?

I find the people's politics there nothing short of utterly repulsive.

wow

Not so much when you don't believe it, Booche. What i find more shocking is my continued participation on this board.

Which, by your calculation, could very well be the majority of Canadians.

What is "like that"?

OK. That's cool. I do, whereas I don't for say... Jack Layton. Differences of opinion shouldn't imply moronacy (not a word, but you know what I mean). It's a tad bit insulting and gets noone anywhere fast.

Dudes, have you been watching the billion here, billion there spending promises coming out of Layton and Dion's mouths this campaign? Anyone and everyone is going to spend right now. Paul Martin did it in his last budget, Stephen Harper is doing it, and I can outright guarantee you Stephane Dion and as ridiculous as this notion seems, Jack Layton would too. Friggin' George Bush is doing it. The days of government bail-outs are upon us. You can't compare spending levels of governments in prosperous times to those in recessions.

Fact: Anyone who makes claims such as those who vote for Harper/Conservatives are fucking morons but cannot give reasoning, is a fucking moron. Smooches!

lol good one.

Saying 'the majority of those who do support the big C party don't listen up and learn for real' is a pretty gross generalization. Maybe you don't agree with them, but I'm sure they could take a swing at your political view and say the same. There is no right and no wrong, just a different means of getting to what a lot of the time is the same end-point. I'm really tired of politicians and pundits alike who claim other political views are wrong. How unfucking progressive is that? Sorry for being bitchy... it's still in the 7 o'clock hour and I just gave it to some telemarketer calling me with a 'business proposal'. Anyway, I like the Green Party and have considered swinging them my vote during this election. I won't though as I can't bring myself to fall alongside the likes of the carbon tax (I don't think we've given enough to industry to facilitate the change required; the carbon tax just starts out punishing), forcing the sale of Canadian content (sounds waaaaay too elitist for my likes), and infrastructure money that mostly supports public transit (why, oh why can we not start constructing round-abouts??). I think the Green platform may work really, really well, say if we were a progressive European country who already had the bulk of their industry in place to go green. But we're not. The bulk of our economy is in manufacturing and oil. Sure Quebec's renewable resources would be AOK, but what about the rest of the country? I'd really, really like to vote Green and may down the road. Right now, I'm going to stay floating my vote to a party who grants money to research green initiatives and set up the back bone first.

Riiiight.