Hopefully all the Canadian women on this site recognize how important their votes are and use them today. Not voting is.. well just silly. Now's your chance, so get out there and vote (Liberal and stop Stephen Harper).
Hopefully all the Canadian women on this site recognize how important their votes are and use them today. Not voting is.. well just silly. Now's your chance, so get out there and vote (Liberal and stop Stephen Harper).
god i'm so nervous about this election. the conservative majority seems so fucking likely, and if it is, i'll be screwed. there goes my daycare subsidy, there go my grants for school, there goes my life. i've tried educating people HERE about it and the most frustrating reactions are "why do we need a childcare policy, its not like, say, health care." i can't believe how selfish CON voters are, how fucking individualistic and capitalism based they are. i mean if you want that there is a fairly active govt with just those goals not too far south. go there!
i can't believe more americans aren't taking interest in this election (could the stereotypes about being self absorbed as a country be true? heh). if there is a conservative govt up here, that will only pad and encourage the regime of bush in the states. the last time there was a conservative super power in the world, with conservatives as the leaders of the country in canada, the us, and britain, they fucked up our world so bad that we are STILL trying to fix it (think: social policies, all the discrimination that is still rampant, areas where the govt needs to support and empower where instead CON govts just ignored and took funding from).
i'm one of those super geeks who hopes to work in social policy and research someday, and learning about what actually makes up a country, ours and others, is so enlightening, but also very very scary. everything feels so unsure right now. i DO think it will be the end of the world if harper gets a majority govt. we will lose so many essential services, so many things that make our country fucking rock, and its sad and scary to think that so many people are willing to let that slide just so they can be more like the regime forced on the country that we always used to pat ourselves on the back and say "well at least we're not like _______!!!" what is going on???
i haven't voted yet, i'm going after i work out this afternoon so that i can take noah with me and show him how it all works. i dont know if he'll understand much, but hey, if we get our funding cut and i have to go on welfare (which i will have no choice but to do since there is no way i can afford to live on the budget harper set out for me) at least i can reinforce whatever messages he learns standing in the voters line today while we're standing in the food bank line in the future.
I read an article a few days ago by Licia Corbella describing why even if the Conservatives win this election, they wouldn't win with a majority, they would form a Conservative minority government as they'd be short I think it was approximately 68 seats based on current trending.
I'm a lot nervous as well. I hope that the past polling and trends prove to be wrong and the outcome a lot different than what's expected.
I'm going on my way after work to go vote. I keep trying to bribe SO to vote Liberal too, but he's going NDP. Fortunately it seems like my area (NE Calgary) seems to be mostly Liberal.[/list][/code]
Great reminder. I'm nervous about the Conservative lead too. Although, their would be another election soon after on account of minority and the lack of seats in the House.
Ha, I have a huge sign on my lawn that reads
"A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for theocracy.
Just say no Stephen Harper and his American ways."
Apparently, in BC there are many areas that could go either way, NDP or conservative. If enough of them go NDP, it could ensure that the conservatives get only a minority. I'm definately going NDP this time.
I am nervous too.
I'm just on my way to go vote now, im crossing my fingers for us!
ya in my riding, according to the current polls (well the ones that my geektastic friend dug up last night), it is best to vote NDP to keep the CONs out. it would only take 170 votes for the NDPs to win, whereas with the LIBs and their total lack of support in my province, it would take many many more votes than that. we are currently almost an entirely blue province, with just one riding being (currently) liberal. gross.
while i understand strategic voting overall, i know it differs per area and which parties are doing better in which areas. i am glad NDP is the vote of choice in my riding since thats who i was going to vote for anyways. IMO the LIBs have had a horrible election campaign. i mean did they even campaign at all or was it just "nuh UH, we are so NOT that bad stephen harper you meaniehead!" heh ok i stole that bit from CBC but its true. they haven't been promoting their policies or their party altogether at all here and all i've seen is them say "we're not THAT bad."
i think anything to do with ad scam and the corruption of the liberal govt is MINOR compared to the money that will be stolen from taxpayers that usually goes into social programs but now will be given to corporations and rich people in the form of tax breaks and to our "military defense" program (oh yes that IS on the CON agenda!), i still don't think liberals are worse than conservatives. but i do think they've been in power for too long, and have gotten too comfortable. i'd like to see our govt shaken up a bit. i'd like to see the liberals humbled for what they did and make them rethink how they can regain our trust (because it doesn't seem like they're trying, at all).
I am so nervous too. I am voting NDP because my riding is going LIberal. I miss my old city where NDP candidates actually won elections.
Oh great, I get to drop out of school if the tories win. When I drop out of school, I won't have any money because my E.I is almost over and you can't be on welfare unless you're in school. What is $1200 a year supposed to do for us? Her daycare is $1360 a month! :roll:
I hope it all turns better then the US's election last year... I am hoping for you! Get out the vote! :)
I voted! It was my first time, and I got really excited about it.
My area is an NDP/Conservative area too, so I placed a vote for the NDP.
I have lots of thoughts on it, but can't articulate right now because I just did my relaxing yoga.
Well, the Tories won (minority)...now let's wait and see how bad they fuck us over.
i have too many thoughts on it as well but can't articulate due to intense rage, disgust for canadian people and society, and huge huge HUGE disappointment. heh i'm jealous of you.
stupid election. i want to barf every time they "announce" our new PM.
there goes the world.
i should stop writing. i'm too mad. fucking fuck fuck.
I miss living in Hamilton. 3 out of their 4 seats went NDP!
[sarcasm] oh lissa you don't know how PROUD i was of my province when they announced saskatchewan has SHUT OUT the ndp!! what a bunch of intelligent, modern, thoughtful, conscientious citizens we are here!! you can tell we aren't self centered rich homophobic assholes who care only about ourselves at ALL, just by looking at how we vote!![/end sarcasm]
you know its bad when your kid, who is watching the results just as closely as you are, pats you on your arm and tells you at least you tried, and you voted, and your voice was heard even if it was "just a teeny little bit this time." i'm really glad i involved him in every step of this, as he's learned SO much in the process, but i'm really disappointed that the end lesson couldn't be that canadians understood and agreed with all the lessons i taught him about life as a canadian, and social policy, and what it means to be a citizen of a country like canada used to be. fucking bummer.
Scott couldn't believe that Sask was all blue when we were looking ath the national map.
What I don't get about out west is that it swings from the NDP to the Conservative. One extreme to the other.
we did have one red, with ralph goodale, but hes famous here so thats no surprise. if i lived 2 blocks east i'd be in his riding again but now i'm in the blue. gross :(
i'm not sure why we swing so much here, but the pop'n HERE anyways is comprised of a lot of native people, farmers, and elderly. so looking at their voting patterns might give you some clues. also, there are like NO young ppl here. bah.
our premier of the prov is ndp though.
Well, I'm disappointed.
My city was one of the last to report their numbers. My constituency went Conservative. So did the Gulf Islands. What a waste.
At least the rest of the Island and most of Van went NDP or Liberal.
Now Harper gets his "free vote" on homosexual marriage. And can destroy our social support nets. I was informed by my friend's dad, who is a private lawyer, that Canada is the only first world country that has no formal legislation regarding abortion rights. So if that's true, I guess he can fuck with our rights as women too. Down with the gay, lesbian, youth, elderly, and female popultion!!
I'm really disgusted by all this. Even my riding went Conservative, which is weird, because almost every house has a Liberal sign on the lawn. I only saw Liberal support in my area, so I'm incredibly surprised that the Tories won my riding with 64%. Now my head's all in conspiracy theories about fraudulent voting. But eh.
My own SO voted Conservative. I think that pissed me off even more, because he knows how passionate I was about it, but he said he wanted to be "on the winning team", or some shit like that.
I don't see how they won. Especially since in the weeks before the election they started backpedalling on their election platform. I mean, "A vote on gay marriage is something we will consider if we can do it, but it's not one of our top 5 priorities", after the majority of their campaigning was about rescinding gay marriage. Even the homophobic con supporters should have seen that as a reason to change their vote. He's completely untrustworthy, and can't even keep election promises before he's even won the election.
I think my main deal is that the Con's are so bloody racist against Native Americans, always have been. I can't find it now, but there was a quote from one of the tory leaders a while ago about how they'd probably work towards doing away with the Indian Act. Under the Liberals there was still racism (ie - the Kaschewan incident), but they had devoted 4B towards compensation of residential school victims, and had planned on improving life on the rez for NA's, so at least it was something and it was acknowledging the fact that it's an area long due for consideration.
My friend said it best last night, that we can now all say good bye to abortion rights, gay marriage, social security, improved daycares, and maybe after they get super involved in the war and the men come home, the women can be forced to stay at home and out of the workplace, and it'll be like the 50s all over again.
Thankfully, they've only gotten a minority gov't. Maybe in a few months some Conservative scandal will appear and we can have another election. *crosses over optimistic fingers*
Kaya - at least it's a gateway to discussing societal oppression and selfish capitalistic bigots and why it's important to never be like them!
Well, my riding was won by a liberal with a landslide - but I went NDP. Mine is one of those liberals who voted against same-sex marriage, so for that and other reasons to dislike him personally, plus not liking the whole 'strategic voting' thing (we need proportional representation!), I couldn't vote for him. Much as I am angry at the conservative win, but the silver lining is that there is no majority. I really don't think there is any risk to same-sex marriage and abortion though, none of the other three parties would side with them on that. It will be interesting (and terrifying) to see how things go... :?
What was interesting about this election for me was that I was hired to be a deputy returning officer (ie, the person who folds the ballots and gives them to you) so that was an interesting insight to how the votes are actually kept track of and counted. Long day though, leaving at 8:15 and not getting home until 11:30.