Man, I love election time.

It’s funny, the election has become my great source of entertainment. I have become addicted to reading the National Post daily just to find out the latest drama that is going on with the Election campaign. Perhaps because I crave drama, its like a reality series that I can’t get enough of. Let’s take a look shall we? Look at all the drama? Look at how we determine the ‘winner’? We should so do it reality series style!! Who’s in? And week by week, we’ll kill one of the parties and see who prevails! MU HA HA! I like I like!

Conservatives: A frightening platform
All kidding aside, as the election date looms closer and closer, I’m still quite undecided on which way I’ll go. What is certain is that I will not be voting Conservative. Their campaign platform is disgusting. From scrapping the Kyoto Protocol, atrocious military spending, reducing EI premiums, and perhaps introducing two-tier health, I don’t understand what people are thinking, and I don’t believe that people can actually support this, except for greedy-ass capitalists and big corporations. As for cities, they plan to use gax tax to fund municipalities; pretty good, but Liberals promise even more: $3.5 B.

Two-tier health
One thing I wanna say is that I am completely opposed to two-tier health. We should really take pride in our health care system, lets face it: everyone has the right to proper health care and has the right to live healthy lives, not matter how rich or poor you are. Two-tier health will only lead to more expensive health care, and the inevitable further institutional privatization. Healthy living is the benefit of a society, and all Canadians should have the right for parallel accessibility of these services.

Tax cuts mean service cuts:
Surely, $37 billion in income tax cuts may seem great for all Canadians. Hey, I’m sure Harper can deliver it too, perhaps in the same way the Harris administation did with Ontario: drastically cut services and support and place ourselves with a mega-deficit.

Gay marriage: here to stay despite claims
As for gay marriage, what I must say is that, it is here to stay. Despite the threats of the utlization of the notwithstanding clause— WHATEVER— it is here to stay. Bear in mind that a minority government is pretty much almost official. What are the Conservatives going to do? Even if we assume that the majority of the Conservative candidates are just have a strong desire to overturn the court decisions on gay marriage, they will have a barely majority in Parliament at best. The Liberal / NDPs / Bloc have already placed a stronghold on their positions. So surely, the Conservatives are unlikely to have anything larger than a minority. This debate is over and I’m absolutely certain that it is here for good.

For more Conservative devilish work, check out Thomas’ blog entry, however, I caution that it is quite propaganda-ish, and I feel that the language is played too harshly.

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Liberals: Good ideas but leader questionable
The Liberal platform is status quo, which turns me off just a bit. I think that people want the Conservatives in, is because people want a change. But regardless, Paul Martin was excellent in balancing the budgets under the Chretien government as finance minister, and did a great job in reducing the phenomenal national debt. Its platform brings great initatives for the environment, social housing, education. I particularly enjoy the transfer of $2B yearly to municipalities.

However, during the course of the election campaign, Martin has really demonstrated poor leadership. From his poor performance in the leadership debate, from the recent statement (Thanks Tiff) said that a vote for the NDP is a vote for the Conservatives. These statements really implies the Martin’s desperate attempt to lure voters. It really should his character as a leader. Realistically, there is no way a right-winged Alliance-Conservatives can ever agree with leftist NDPs. I don’t see it happening, and if so, the NDPs will mean compromising a lot of its underlying philosophies.

Nevertheless, I still have confidence in the Liberals and I support many of their attractive and realistic platform.

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NDPs: A ‘wow’ platform (actually, too ‘wow’), but great support for minorities
As for the NDPs, they, too have an interesting platform. 50% federal gas tax to municipalities, boosting daycare facilities, green initiatives such as boosting energy efficiency and more wind turbines. And my personal favourite, even though it may not be that significant: declaring two new national holidays! (Hourrah!) Layton has really paid close attention to the Asian community (particularly from Olivia Chow) and has support many Asian Community organizations, Yee Hong, Chinese Cultural Centre of Toronto, not to mention the massive campaign on Fairchild.

I think it will be very interesting to see for once a leader that really understand minorities. It has only been in the past few years have we really seen a rise in visible minority politicians. Yes, Jack Layton is not a visible minority, however, he sees minorities as an important demographic, and that in itself says a lot about his concerns.

However, NDPs platform seems a little too idealistic, and to glamourous. The question is how can this really be done? Where’s the substance? Although he has great ideas, I am doubtful that Layton can really efficiently deliver these promises without massive tax increases, or some other drastic measures.

What I think:
I think I’ve pretty much made up my mind of voting here in Waterloo as I’m am certain that the Liberals will win back at home in Markham-Unionville without my say. John McCallum (the current Veteran’s affairs minister) has been a big favourite back at home, not to mention that his Conservative opponent, Joe Li, has a horrible reputation calling immigrants “garbage”. Not a good move Conservatives, especially when the “garbage”make up 65% of the people in this riding.

So where do I stand, I am voting here in Waterloo. I’m still uncertain. I’m leaning towards Liberals and vote for Andrew Telegdi, despite Martin’s poor during his performance election campaign . I think that I will give him a chance these four years to see what he can really do. But I’m still quite undecided; just like everything else in my life, but that’s another story.