“Because people voted NDP (and CCF) in large enough numbers, minority Liberal and Conservative governments launched medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans, federal support for higher education, the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, regional development and the watershed Mackenzie River pipeline inquiry that opened up a new era in aboriginal rights.”
– Rabble.ca
With the National Post backing Harper and the Globe and Mail putting their print behind Marten, I was left wondering who would back Jack.
Without a decent mainstream printed paper in this country, those of us who feel a different Canada is possible are forced to turn to the Internet for media endorsement, specifically the great Canadian news site: rabble.ca . As their tag puts it, rabble.ca is “News for the rest of us.”
While some view internet endorsement as a bit pathetic, I see it as just another sign that many of the traditional media outlets are rudderless in a sea of technology and changing ideas. The rules of communication are changing and they are starting to counter some of the prevailing falsehoods being kicked around right now. Privatization and free market dominance of everything is not inevitable. And neither is a Conservative government.
This is an election and that means it’s time to back the candidate you want not vote against the one you don’t. Strategic voting is voluntarily silencing your voice. “Holding your nose and voting” is not voting – it’s admiting that you put more stock in privately funded polls and other people’s opinions than the feeling that is kicking in your gut.
On Tuesday, if we wake to either a Liberal or Conservative government, then I want to be damn sure that I did everything possible to get the strongest NDP voice in Ottawa as possible. At worst, by voting NDP you’ll be helping build a strong Left and it’ll be those MPs that won’t let Canada bail on Kyoto, join a missile defence program or stop people from marrying the person they love. At best, you’ll be moving Jack and Oliva (and Oliva’s mother) to 24 Sussex Drive.
As auntie.com from rabble says: “Strategic Voting Sucks” and here’s why:
“People tried it in Ontario two elections ago and Mike Harris got in anyway with a shadow of an NDP in opposition. People voted Liberal in 1993 to get rid of Mulroney, his GST and NAFTA and the Liberals came in and embraced that neo-liberal agenda with a passion that made Margaret Thatcher proud. Only by rejecting the crap about voting for the worse or the worser we will build any kind of alternative.”
Right on auntie.
