Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Who Do I Vote For? (Got a Penny?)

If it weren't for the fact that I continue to like Justin Trudeau as Canada's prime minister, my vote scheduled for the 21st of this month (or earlier in the advance polls) would be an almost torturous affair. As far as I'm concerned, Andrew Scheer, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is a write-off; he and his boys are a joke. That leaves the Greens and the NDP. I like both Elizabeth May (Green Party of Canada) and Jagmeet Singh (New Democratic Party), but it's the old dilemma. As one of my teachers said back in high school, nobody wants to waste a vote on the low-polling.

And. The reality is, my riding of "University-Rosedale" is heavily Liberal. I'll toss a penny into a barrel of pennies.


2 comments:

Jon said...

I believe this is why the 2015 Liberal promise of proportional representation was quickly squelched ("Our own surveys show Canadians don't want it after all!"). The current FPTP system largely relieves the ruling party of accountability come election time. "If you're thinking of voting for another, lesser party because you're dissatisfied with us, that would mean either your vote is wasted, or the Conservatives would form the next government because we lose. You don't want *that*, do you? So you must vote Liberal." Cynical but effective.

Simon St. Laurent said...

The PM got a lot of pushback on his proposed reforms, absolutely. The Conservatives benefit from the first-past-the-post system. They'd be voting against themselves by voting for any reforms.