The Orange/Blue affair

What the Green Party and the Liberal Party have that the NDP and Conservatives do not, is a easily downloadable pdf file version of their policy platform. I'm sure I could discuss the pros and cons of this, but instead I will just say that for someone who downloads their information quickly and quietly at work during the day to read at night in the comfort of her own home, I find the NDP and Conservatives a little more work than I appreciate.

In order to have some sort of review of their campaigns I chose some random interesting categories to read over. For the NDP - Children, Immigration, Poverty and Health Care and for the Conservatives - Sovereignty, Health Care, Taxes and Crime. Even a newbie to Canadian politics could figure out which was the right and which was the left based on those topics, but I did choose the ones that stood out for me on each campaign.

The NDP website was welcoming (despite the no pdf) and filled with lovely orange, like my voter envelope and Jack Layton smiling at me like he knows I want to be a better person and he will show me how. The Conservative website was bold, with Canadian flags, photos of money, and someone in handcuffs, I wont even go into the creepy dude at the top of the page with the fake looking hair sitting with his cookie cutter family, (oops sorry, is that our Prime Minister?).

Just a friendly reminder, this is my blog and freedom of speech is reciprocated with freedom of "click that little red X in the corner if you don’t like what I'm saying".

Ah ha! The NDP Platform:

First impression - Europe sounds nice! The NDP are great at pointing out how well they have done at creating affordable child care to improve the lives of millions while we have failed our children and left 800,000 children living in 3rd world conditions. Ok, I'm sucked in, keep reading. Harper is evil, Dion is useless…I'm getting the message here….I wasn't aware that the Tories created a tax incentive for employers to create child care spaces, I think that was part of our policy plan last year in Policy class…hmmm…maybe the employers weren't made aware of this "program" either?

The NDPs were able to pass a second reading of the Early Learning and Child Care Act, passed a motion to ensure health care for Native children, banned exploitive advertising and created the Children's Health and Nutrition Initiative…sounds to me like the NDPs have accomplished quite a bit without even winning an election. Would voting for them decrease their effectiveness? Something to think about.

Immigration. Well again Harper has screwed up and Dion is useless, why do they focus so much energy on what the others haven't done? Layton would like to be the Prime Minister with more focus on family reunification which is impressive. Not the act itself but that the NDP were smart enough to bring this as an issue to the forefront. Families should definitely have an easier time to come to Canada, and to save myself from a long explanation, one of the many reasons I believe this is true is because of the evident mental health problems that New Canadians face. Social support is incredibly important and being forced to be away from your family for years must be hard. The NDP also would like the fact based appeals for Refugees. Which has already been passed in parliament but nothing was done, since 2002.
I'm not sure how I personally feel about their wish to grant refuge to American soldiers who want to avoid going to Iraq. I can see this being a huge relationship issue between Canada and the US and think we could lobby the US government to work on their own issues, but then again, I don’t think anyone should be forced to go to war, but refuge? Hmmm need to do some thinking on that one. Ooops sorry that motion was already passed.

Playing the Keifer's grandfather card (that’s Tommy Douglas to those who are unfamiliar), Layton compares our health care system to the US (probably using stats from Sicko) and makes me shudder at hearing how many people are suffering because they can't afford the prescription drugs they need. Harper is an idiot, Dion is useless…Layton to the rescue! Sorry the tone of the policies are like reading a comic strip. Ok the NDP promises to give more money, pay for prescriptions and make us all healthy and happy. But what is he talking about when he says he tabled a breast implant registry? Not to glaze over health care, I think it is an incredibly important issue, but I find the NDP have just regurgitated information they feel the public wants to hear. Typical politics, they aren't going to do what you don't want them to. Although, in a way this might mean I agree with them more than the other parties because I think what they are saying is sort of common sense.

Wow, 3.4 million Canadians "have fallen into poverty". That is almost 10% of our population. However, what does "fallen into poverty" mean? I think they could have expanded this a little by talking about job cuts and rising costs of living but just sort of falling into poverty? Ooops I tripped and now I am living in poverty? Harper is a lowdown dirty jerk-face who doesn't even realize there are people that don't make enough money to buy fake hair, and Dion is useless. This is where I start to be unsure of the party. They propose to do many awesome things: get rid of horrendous ATM fees, prescription prices, introduce affordable childcare, reduce student debt, lower tuition fees, address the housing problem - and the list goes on. But one thing that kept me from this party in the last provincial election is their insistence that the minimum wage should jump to $10. Hear me out.

First of all, the cost of living in one part of the country is far different than other parts of the country. I do not have information to back this up, but, I assume it is much cheaper to live in New Brunswick than it is to live in BC or Ontario. Correct me if I’m wrong. So, why should the federal government implement a minimum wage when the provincial governments are able to do so to reflect the standards of living within their own province? (yes I could totally counter argue the cost of living in Orillia versus Toronto, but I'm not even sure if anyone is reading this anymore its so long).

Second, many of the minimum wage earners work for small businesses. Small businesses cannot afford to increase their staff wages by $2 (in Ontario) overnight. This would put them out of business, or they would have to hike up their prices so that the cost of living would increase and then a $10 minimum wage would not be sufficient. I know small business owners, I've worked in small business. Layton means well but this has not been researched well enough. This one campaign promise may cost him many votes. We shall see.

Should we move on to the Conservatives? Sure why not! (Tories beware)

"Canada’s Arctic is central to our national identity as a northern nation", it is? Ok I know we are The True North Strong and Free, but central to our identity? Like if the world were flipped on its side and we became an equatorial nation we would have an identity crisis? Fair enough, the country probably is in adolescence.
Sovereignty is a word I have immense trouble spelling. Its too long and complicated to mean what it means: dominion, independence, autonomy, self-government, power. However, it is a big and complicated enough word to be used in the Conservative campaign. So they have put a lot of money up north, included the people that live there in their decisions, looked into climate change and protected us from the scary countries that want to take our ice and snow. Brilliant, all this they say, has made us a stronger, safer and better Canada. Don't forget COOLER, Mr. Harper, we are also a Cool country. Sorry I just pictured Harper in a Danny from Grease leather jacket fixing his hair with a comb. Need new image. Now.

Harper knocks the Liberals for not sending a single ship into the arctic between 1993 and 2002. But then again they might not have driven an army vehicle down every road in the Yukon either, or Manitoba for that matter. And those darn NDPers did not even mention the Arctic in their campaign in 2006. Ok someone really had to dig hard to find that one. Turns out its 2008 and no one cares!

On to Health Care, where according to the Conservative website, they have done quite a great job. Tons of money has been invested, shorter wait times are on their way and money to help fight cancer and find more doctors has been given out. Interestingly, the Conservatives focus on the mainstream middle class health concerns. No mention of prescription costs or the aging population in this topic. They do mention that they gave money to help prevent "cancer of the cervix in women" (HPV vaccines for 9-26 year olds - for those who were confused by Harper's lingo).
The Liberals made a mess of things, the NDP voted against funding and the BLOC, well I think it is interesting that the mention how the BLOC is useless for health care change but they are completely left out of the section on Sovereignty.

I hate to write this, but from what is reported by the Conservatives, their tax record isn't *deep breath*…bad.

They have increased the minimum income before having to pay taxes (although its still painfully low at $10,100), decreased the GST (woo hoo an extra $1 in my pocket) and created tax credits for things that matter to me (text books, public transit etc). Granted all our social programs are suffering and more people live in poverty, but we are talking about taxes here people! Low taxes! Pretty blue check marks beside low numbers!

The Liberals spent all our tax breaks on scamming the country and didn't agree with any tax breaks, the NDP want to create all these programs that will increase taxes! The BLOC, well they might as well be a party made up of Beavers in the eyes of the Conservatives... Oooo pretty blue check marks…..

On to one of my favourites, Crime. Ok I realize how that sounded. I am a crime junkie by education, interest and socialization. I do remember watching Matlock with my Boobie when I was only 5 or 6 years old.

So Tories, what will you do for our fine country in the area of crime? Well, they have put money toward "protecting youth at risk", so are these youth that have guns in their faces? Or how are they targeted as "at risk" perhaps because they live in low income neighbourhoods….maybe what they meant to say was that they were providing social programs to increase the opportunties for education and skills development in low income areas? No…oh….Ok how about this one - minimum sentences for gun crimes. Interesting. So the 16 year old who is pressured into a gang and has to carry a gun now gets to spend time with more experienced criminals 24/7 locked up. Can someone mail Harper a copy of Don Andrew's textbook?

The Conservatives have questioned the Liberals lack of imposing more serious sentence on dangerous offenders. Are the Conservatives aware of the Dangerous Offender legislation? Or were they preoccupied with the taped interview of Bernardo that was aired on CityTV. The NDP don’t want to tackle crime, they just want to provide affordable housing, stable jobs and equal access to health care. The BLOC are very good at talking. No one is listening.

I think to summarize the Conservative's platform I would say: Would you be ok with someone punching you in the face repeatedly if they paid you to do it?

The NDP would come along and say: wow you must be in a lot of pain, you have been through a lot and are very strong for making it through that terrible time, lets work together to find medical attention! No, I couldn't accept money for helping you, but how about you donate some of your next pay cheque to help other people who have also been beat up by the bully in the blue shirt?

Here are the NDP and Conservative candidates for my riding:

Richard Banigan
Party: New Democratic Party of Canada
Age: 66
Birthplace: Toronto
Education: BA from York University, master's in education from the University of Toronto. Doctorate candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Profession: Teacher
Marital Status: Married
Name of Spouse: Janice
Children: Four
Career Background: Served in the Royal Canadian Air Force; founding partner in Studio High Techniques, a desktop publishing and computer graphics firm; taught at Humber College; addictions counsellor at St. Joseph’s Health Centre; former chairman at Sheridan College; information officer at St. Clair College; and teaching master at St. Clair College.
Community Activities: Chair of Learning Experience in Addictions Development; co-founder and first director of Toronto Aerospace Museum; vp communications, Ontario Fibromyalgia Association; board of directors, The Oakville Centre for Performing Arts; vice-president of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County; president and founder, Windsor Community Theatre Inc., among others.


Bruce Stanton

Party: Conservative Party of Canada
Age: 51
Birthplace: Orillia, Ont.
Education: Graduated from the business school of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto.
Profession: Businessman
Marital Status: Married
Name of Spouse: Heather
Children: Four: Valerie, Lauren, Stephanie and Jason
Career Background: Owns and operates a family tourism business on Sparrow Lake that was founded in 1884. Has served as a board member and chair of several tourism organizations including: Resorts Ontario, the former Tourism Ontario, and Huronia Tourist Association. Served on the board of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
Community Activities: Has been an active member of the Orillia Rotary Club and has served on the board of directors and acted as chair of the Ontario Workplace Health and Safety Agency. Served the board of the Orillia area Community Futures organization between 1997 and 2001 and chaired its Community Opportunities Development committee.
Electoral History
Committee: Member of the committees on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, the Library of Parliament, and the Status of Women.
Caucus: Member of the Conservative Caucus.