prior to our last federal election in 2004, i took a gander at the political platforms of our major parties (click title link). as we will soon be having another, i thought i'd take a break from essay writing and exam studying to take another gander. now i have two ganders. the liberals don't mind two ganders marrying, but the conservatives do.
the Liberal Party: fronted by the embattled Paul Martin, the federal finance minster who didn't notice 250 million dollars being funnelled into adscams in Quebec.
it's been 12 years of liberal rule and they've been an entertaining bunch. the 2004 election resulted in a minority government for the red team and this most recent term featured much hilarity in caucus.
a) Mississauga-Erindale MP, Carolyn Parrish
this outspoken minister's big mouth against both Bush and Martin led to her firing from the Liberals in november 2004. her anti-Bush sentiments, while echoing the opinions of a lot of informed and uninformed Canadians alike, were out of line. Martin's attempts to beseech more tact in regards to our southern neighbours only resulted in her pretty much telling him and the party to "go to hell." she retained her seat in Parliament as an independent and has since stepped down from politics after the government was voted down a few days ago.
b) Newmarket-Aurora MP Belinda Stronach
on the proverbial eve of a possible government overthrowing in may 2005's federal budget voting, Belinda Stronach, daughter of Magna Corporation founder Frank Stronach and York University drop-out, crossed the floor to join the Liberals, swinging the budget vote narrowly in favour of the minority government. citing irreconcilable differences with party leader Stephen Harper, his bedmate, Le Bloc Quebecois, and certain party policies, Belinda Stronach dumped the Conservative Party two years after helping form the party and a year after vying for its leadership. In doing so, she also dumped her then boyfriend Peter MacKay, deputy leader of the Conservatives. She was immediately promoted to human resources minister by Paul Martin. The Newmarket-Aurora riding is predicted to be one of the hotly contested seats this coming election. Many who voted for Belinda the first time around when she won narrowly by 689 votes are still smarting from her treachery.
like i said: hilarious.
that aside, the Liberal Party hasn't really changed. they remain the safe, and ironically conservative vote as they try to not rock any boats. embroiled in the controversy of the sponsorship scandal, Liberals would love to avoid controversies at all cost, but they just keep popping up.
internally, as a throwback from Martin's finance minister days, the Liberals like to whittle away at the country's huge debt with budget surpluses.
internationally, the Liberals are still safe and conservative, occasionally butting heads with the States on trade issues (softwood lumber, cattle), so they're goody-goody, but not very ambitious in pursuing any particular courses of action. this laissez-faire attitude has perplexed most people, most notably Bono Vox of U2 on the humanitarian front.
their 2006 campaign will probably follow the same winning formula that we've seen for so many years now, tax-cuts and happy promises that will somehow get accidentally swept under the rug. and time permitting, they will probably demonize Stephen Harper, just like the Republicans did to John F. Kerry.
the Conservative Party, formerly known as the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance (formerly known as the Canadian Reform-Alliance (formerly known as the Alliance and Reform parties) Party) Parties: lead by Stephen Harper, who just can't seem to find an identity.
The Conservative Party is was the official opposition party of Canada. Harper, and by extension the whole party, plays this role to the hilt and insists on contradicting everything Liberal and red. i'll bet he hates strawberries. backseat grumblings indicate that if Harper loses this election (that he finally had the cajones to call himself), he will be ousted from party leadership.
where Harper goes, the party follows. the Conservatives have lost a lot of credibility (at least in my opinion) because of Harper's 'leadership'. he leads about as well as i can keep 4-4 time (not very well). he doesn't actually lead, per se, but rather waits for the Liberals to do something, and then tries to contradict it.
they recently offered to cut the GST to 5%. but then they proceeded to explain their math and that was much less appealing.
the New Democratic Party: Jack Layton, puppet of Olivia Chow.
when i first saw Jack Layton with his wife i immediately thought, "Oh no! Yoko Ono!" i have no empirical basis for this opinion, but i've decided to keep it because it makes me laugh. thus, i believe that Olivia Chow is the actual party leader of the NDP. since no one would vote for a woman (let alone a Chinese woman) after Kim Campbell's short-lived tenure as PM, Chow needed a white, male puppet. too bad no one voted for her in her own riding. she certainly is more strong-willed and assertive than Harper.
the NDP was suddenly thrust into the spotlight in the previous government when they held the swingvotes. the Liberals needed the NDP to vote for them on key issues which gave the NDP a substantial amount of sway - the little big man on caucus.
NDP policies are centrist and they try to be a voice for the common wo/man, rather than for the bigshot businesses like the Liberals and Conservatives. but since the businesses are bigshot no one really listens to the NDP unless they really HAVE to.
Le Bloq Quebequois: Gilles "so serious that i can't make fun of him" Duceppe.
the Bloc have followed their gameplan for many decades. hate Canada! separate!
in a vain attempt to garner votes Duceppe vowed to form a Quebec national hockey team (brodeur, luongo, theodore, lecavalier, st. louis, lemieux, gagne, briere, bergeron, briesbois, desjardins). of course IIHF only recognizes actual countries in their tournaments. at least this idea has put the Bloc on people's minds, fruitless as it may be. worth the laugh.
in any case, i stand by my previous stance:
