The count down to election day is on. Have you decided who you will be voting for?
Probably not, if you are like most people I meet.
Talk about an uninspiring campaign. One party is as bad as the other and none of them make you want to run out and vote for them.
Most political campaigns have a degree of BS to them. Every Canadian knows that. If you have worked in politics on the Hill or in the civil service, you know that not a single political party will ever be able to carry out all of its campaign promises in the first 4 years of their mandate.
Most parties agree some form of pharmacare is necessary, few would disagree (especially if you are a senior or a low income Canadian). You decide whether or not you agree with the estimates provided by the political parties or the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). I spent decades working on Parliament hill and I will believe the PBO every time over politicians.
The Conservatives haven’t inspired me yet. I know Andrew Scheer as a very decent guy, but their policies this time haven’t left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s hard to have a realistic climate plan when you are pledging to support pipelines and therefore big oil.
The NDP, well they are the NDP and I still have vivid memories of Bob Rae’s Ontario. If millennial voters who are now supposed to be the largest voting block move from Trudeau to the NDP, they can become a force- but will they show up to vote?
Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada- well let’s not go there. I know Max and best I can say is get some new advisors and smarten up.
I like a lot of the Green Party platform as well, but know one can answer these questions for me- if we all go electric- cars, public transportation, housing etc.- what happens when hit with a hurricane, ice storm, blizzard and all power is knocked out? Who is going to pay for the necessary infrastructure- IE power dams, solar panels, windmills or whatever? How much will that cost?
And the Liberals- sadly they are not the old Liberal Party, they are more of a personality cult now. They will say and do whatever they think some voters will buy- just don’t expect them to actually carry out their promises.
John Diefenbaker summed up the Liberals pretty accurately and while he was speaking about the Liberals of decades ago, his words fit the Trudeau Liberals quite nicely
“The Liberals are the flying saucers of politics. No one can make head nor tail of them and they never are seen twice in the same place.”