Hora, in blog format

This post is a little late, but it’s here at last, as promised. I’m going to break down the “three” main parties and their general stances and promises to date. I bunny-eared three because all the latest polls make this really a one-sided election, and not all parties running actually have a chance. In no particular order, here they are:

The Conservative Party of Canada

Founded: 2003

Views: Conservative, Canadian neoconservative

Leader: Stephen Harper

The Conservatives have been the Parliament leaders since 2006, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They were a minority government, meaning they were the party with the most MPs in the house, but not enough to have a majority. Therefore it was difficult for Harper to have bills passed, and although he claims he called this election before it was due citing economic reasons, I believe he did it to gain control of the House by winning a majority in these upcoming elections.

During his short tenure as prime Minister, which is actually the second longest time a minority government led the House of Commons, he accomplished several things. Likely the two most popular were the reduction of the Federal GST from 7% to 5% and the passing of the Federal Accountability Act. The Federal Accountability Act was a direct response to the Liberal Sponsorship scandal that got him elected in the first place, an act that bans corporate, union and large political donations, five-year lobbying on former ministers and their teams, providing protection for whistle blowers and enhancing the power of the Auditor General to manage government spending. All this is in an effort to reduce political influence government money can provide.

Harper’s government has also increased national security spending, focusing particularly on Arctic sovereignty and border patrol. He has also extended the the Canadian mission in Afghanistan (done with Liberal support, only the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP opposed increased military action), created $1200 per child childcare benefits to parents, and hypocritically passed a law making it illegal for a party to call federal elections before their term was up. Clearly there were loopholes, since Harper was able to bring a case legally to the Governor General in dissolving parliament, but his opponents are criticizing him for breaking previous campaign promises.

In these elections the Party has a different approach. It seems their main focus is trying to convince the public that the Liberal leader, Stephane Dion is unfit to be Prime Minister. Recent polls suggest this is working, since public opinion towards the Liberals is at the lowest it’s been in years. Since the Liberals are considered their only real opposition to being elected as a majority government, their plan seems to be working well.

However, they’ve also thrown out many promises if they’re to be elected. To date, these Conservatives are promising:

• Tax rebate of up to $750 per family for first-time home buyers
• EI benefits for the self-employed
• Cutting in half excise tax on diesel fuel
• Easing of foreign ownership restrictions

Some of these are rather hard to understand, so I’ll briefly explain them (if you wan’t more details just click on the link). The tax rebate and EI benefits are fairly straightforward. The reduction of the excise tax on diesel is claimed by Harper to reduce costs in any consumer products that have to travel by truck, plane, ship or train (so almost everything), yet Liberal leader Stephane Dion is calling it just a gimmick, since the tax would only be reduced by two cents. The easing of foreign ownership restrictions is supposed to increase investment in Canadian companies, both here and abroad.

Before I go on to the next Party, I’d like to make sure that the ‘Canadian neoconservative’ doesn’t fool you. While Harper is in love with George W. and did mention a long time ago that Canada should be involved in Iraq, Canadian neo-conservativism is nowhere close to as scary as American neo-conservativism. Their Canadian counterparts are not as adamant about bashing gay marriage and abortion, probably since both are already legal in Canada, nor are they so keen about starting foreign wars. They are however a little more right of the center and they do want to strengthen our military presence world-wide while increasing national security at home. Given these views and Harper’s close ties to Bush, another rumour circulating around is that he wanted to call this election before the US November election, since if Obama wins Harper is believed to have less of a chance, being pro-Bush.

The Liberal Party of Canada

Founded: 1867

Views: Liberal

Leader: Stephane Dion

The Liberals have been steadily losing voter popularity since Jean Chretien retired. The Sponsorship scandal ruined the party and their chances for the 2006 election, yet their election hopes this time around are still looking bleak. Being the official opposition for the past two years meant the liberals didn’t have much power in parliament, but they did however stop a Conservative motion to re-open the talks on same-sex marriage, made legal by the Liberals under Paul Martin which the Conservatives tried to cancel. The Liberals are closer to the center of the political spectrum, but have a lot of left-ist views, such as allowing same-sex marriage, abortion and the legalization of cannabis.

During the campaign, the oft-criticized Dion has made many promises. The Liberals are promising:

• $70 billion for infrastructure
• Increased funding for universities and students
• $1.25 billion for child-care, creating over 150,000 new daycare spaces
• $1.32 billion in health care
• Fairer, faster immigration system
• $1.2 billion for farms
• $80 million towards fighting organized crime
• Over $500 million towards the arts

Stephane Dion is making the most promises out of all the candidates, and while all the promises sound really amazing I’m curious where the money is all going to come from. That has been the major Conservative criticism towards these plans, and while they’re bashing Dion for being a geek and terrible at English, his ideas are pretty visionary.

The $70 billion boost towards infrastructure would be focused on new, ‘green’ plans and would not cancel any existing infrastructure agreements made with Ottawa under the Conservatives. The increased funding towards post-secondary education would come in the form of a 60% increase in funding for university research, $5000 government loans for all applying students regardless of their parents’ income, decreased penalties for student loan payments, and a $1000 education grant to students instead of complicated tax reductions.

The health care spending would also see $900 million for covering patient drug costs and $420 million for more doctors and nurses. I want to add here that the Conservatives have put forward a plan to privatize Health Care and make it similar to the way Health Care works in the US… This is really scary, and the Liberals definitely have the best (and most Canadian!) Health Care plan. This alone is making me want to vote for them…

The new immigration system would see $800 million go to immigration services, and $200 million for new programs to help immigrants learn English and/or French and to upgrade their existing credentials to Canadian standards. This seems like a good idea, since it would make it easier for immigrants to continue their professions, likely being a boost to the economy. It would be better for everyone if we find less doctors from India forced to drive taxi cabs…

The farming plan would see a $400 million tax credit for farms that reduce greenhouse emissions, a $250 million Green Farms Fund for investing in green technology, a $564 million Regional Flexibility Fund to help farmers pay for environmental solutions, and $30 million to promote local farmers’ markets and homegrown foods, increasing sustainability. The money towards fighting organized crime would go to the RCMP who would use it to implement their own plans. Finally, Dion is promising to double the budget for the Canada Council for the Arts, increase the film production tax credit, and reverse the Conservatives’ $45 million cuts to various arts groups. Dion also mentioned that the Conservatives are anti-CBC and therefore detrimental to maintaining a Canadian identity which is under threat from US media.

While all these promises are great, there still is the issue of funding them, and the Liberals would also need a majority in parliament to be able to pass many of these proposals.

New Democratic Party

Founded: 1961

Views: Social democratic

Leader: Jack Layton

The NDP was founded less than fifty years ago, and its first leader was Tommy Douglas (hailed as the Father of the Canadian Health Care system, the “Greatest Canadian” ever, and grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland). They’ve never won an election, but generally have had enough seats in parliament to be able to swing votes inside the House. This election the NPD are promising:

• $1.4 billion towards child-care, creating over 150,000 daycare spots
• to get tough on hidden fees from banks, gas, tele-comm and credit card companies
• $8 billion for retraining a “green collar” workers
• to tackle gun crime

Layton’s child-care promises are very similar to Dion’s, his other plans are unique and do require further explanation. By training a “green collar” work force, Layton wants to spend $2 billion a year over four years to retrain laid-off manufacturig workers, as well as creating new jobs and help companies retool manufacturing facilities for low-emission vehicle production. The NDP also wants to hire 2,500 new police officers, allow provinces or cities to ban handguns, target internet gun sales, and make sure first-degree murder charges stick to gang-related homicides.

Of course, there are a lot of parties on the ballots. Depending on where you live, you might see the Green Party, the Bloc Quebecois or even the Canadian Communist Party. But realistically, none of these parties have a chance to win. Yes, the Bloc could have a significant amount of seats but they definitely won’t be in my riding, so I don’t need to worry about them. Anyway, hope you have a better idea of who to vote for now!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Canada, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.