Let me just start off with a disclaimer. I am adamant about voting. As an adult, it's my responsibility as a citizen of my community, city, province, country to vote. It is irresponsible to not vote in a democratic nation and I have no respect for someone who says, "It doesn't matter if I vote. All the parties are the same." That is a privileged view and it is those people who have screwed up Canada. You don't vote if you are legally able to, you don't deserve to take advantage of the services and perks of living in Canada. Simple as that, no middle ground. Whew, off the soapbox.
I've been looking at the candidates in my riding to make my final decision on who most closely reflects my beliefs. So far only the current MP (NDP) has left information for the election. He has answered questions I've forwarded to him over his term and feel as though he's acknowledged my concerns. (As an aside, I've also forwarded questions and concerns to the PM's office and have heard nothing back. Ever. The last time I heard back from a PM was when Chretien was PM.) I'm still comparing the information he provided with the other candidates in my riding. The other candidates require a bit of searching out, since they've not done any promotion in my riding that I've seen. This isn't that big a deal since I assume they will have information about their platform somewhere online, as that must be their way of presenting their stance.
This is the wrong assumption.
The Conservative candidate in my riding has her own website, but the only mention of her platform is the Conservative one. I have no idea what this woman stands for in her life, other than she believes in the Conservatives. So, fine, whatever. Let's look at the Conservative platform. One point in their platform immediately stands out:
"A belief that good and responsible government is attentive to the people it represents and has representatives who at all times conduct themselves in an ethical manner and display integrity, honesty and concern for the best interest of all."
OK, I gotta cry foul. The Conservative Party wants to act like an entity, so I'm going to paint the whole party with the same brush. The ethical thing is kind of a major thing with me. The whole contempt-of-parliament thing might not seem like a big deal to the leader of the Tories, but it's a big deal to me. Huge thing, actually. A deal-breaker. You lie to the representatives of ridings in Canada, you're lying to Canadians. You lie to me. I don't like people lying to me about most things, but money is a touchy subject. You tell me you're going to use my money to pay some bills, but you buy a midlife-crisis-type vehicle, I'm going to get pissed. And that's what's happened.
The label could be any party. If you rip me off, I'm not going to vote for you. If you tell me I don't need to know something, let me be the judge of that and fricking be honest about it. Day by day, I like the Tories less and less. The whole Auditor General report and subsequent media mess makes me livid at this point; the mis-quoting thing, using a statement to the CBC about the Liberals after 9/11 as a pro-Tory quote about the G8/G20 spending.....
So, really, as far as I'm concerned, there are only three parties running in my riding. The Conservatives, by their own platform, are not able to run in the federal election. Didn't Nixon resign for essentially the same thing?
And I don't even like talking about politics. Imagine if I did.
