Election Day: Personal Plead to all voting Canadians

Hello fellow Canadians. I am here to write about my thoughts and feelings about the upcoming election. I think it's important with what happens in this election as the world right now is in a very unstable state. Canada should not fall prey to it. I myself do not really like any of the parties right now but we have to make a decision on choosing the best of the bad crop (in my case, NOT choosing the worst of them). With all the political spins we are witnessing in the media, it is very hard to decipher what the truth is. Hopefully you will take some of the points I bring up as something to seriously consider.



So what wing does each party belong to?



Let's look at the parties (pre-Conservatives Party merger):



PC: right-centre; Canadian Alliance (CA): ultra-right; NDP: left; Liberals: centre; BQ: right-centre-sovereign



Since Mulroney's departure as PM, the federal PC party have been decimated to a level where maintaining official party status was always a challenge. During this time, the Canadian Alliance (then the Reform Party) gained strength in representing the conservative view. The Canadian Alliance had strongly pushed for uniting the "right" with the PCs to overcome the Liberals. There was major opposition to this proposal by many PC caucus members and the unification has led to members resigning or joining other parties. My point in bringing this up is that this new "Conservative Party" is in actuality a representation of the Canadian Alliance and not of the PCs. This means that moderate and progressive policies may be overwhelmed by policies desired by the CA.



Now let me bring up some points here for you to think about:



1) The Conservative Party has not held a policy convention yet. The reason for this is that they do not want to expose deep divisions that are evident within the party. Are we ready to have a party take over Canada but not have policies with multilateral agreement even within its own party? We as Canadians need to know right now if this new Conservative party is one that adopts the ideals and policies of the ultra-right or the moderate-right.



2) Stephen Harper continues to use the Liberal sponsorship scandal as his means to attack but yet he is not fully clean himself. He created an unfair advantage in his bid for leadership of the Conservative Party with a fundraising loophole that allowed him to get tax-subsidized funds for his campaign in the previous year. Leadership rivals in the party did not know about it until Harper started raising cash. Is this a leader we want to run and represent Canada? One that can't even be fair with his own caucus?



3) Stephen Harper has proposed increased spending on the military. Why do we need this? We are known as peacekeepers, not invading forces. Our tax dollars can be better spent elsewhere. Also we know of Harper's position on the Iraq War. When Chretien made the decision not to support the US led war, Harper and the Alliance were adamant that it was a mistake for Canada. In the House of Commons during this period, he heckled then defence minister John McCallum calling him an "idiot" and "a clown". On April 2, 2003 Harper went on Fox News to say Canadians outside of Quebec supported the US led war. He also ran a statement in the Wall Street Journal speaking on behalf of Canadians and their support of the war. Now we have over 800 US soldiers killed and innocent Iraqi citizens dead. Don't forget participating countries in the war like Spain who was bombed by terrorists the past year. What would happen to Canada if Harper and the Conservatives were in power then and in the future?



4) The Canadian Alliance has a history of bigotry.



John Cummins, the Delta-South Richmond MP said in public that "Native people should compensate Canadians of European descent for their work to civilize us."



Harper in 2002 referred to gay MP Svend Robinson on how homosexuals' "mug shots" might be found in police stations across the country. Some Alliance party members found that too much and communicated their regrets to Robinson.



Also in 2002, Alliance MP Cheryl Gallant heckled Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham with a reference to his sexual orientation telling him to "Ask your boyfriend"



Former Alliance MP Larry Spencer suggested that "homosexuality should be recriminalized"



Former Manitoba Alliance candidate Betty Granger on November 16, 2000 spoke at a seminar at the University of Manitoba. She said that "The Asian students that have come over to Canada have pressured the university system… Our own Canadian students actually could not even get into some of our university programs in Vancouver and Victoria" She also said Tamil immigrants in Toronto cause problems by supporting terrorist groups, while Asian "boat people" have caused various problems. Then Alliance leader Stockwell Day did not condemn the remarks but yet said she was misquoted and not an "experienced enough politician". When he found out the truth, he regretted his defence of her.



Alliance MP Leonce Roy in Nov 6, 2000 said that the reason why the Alliance has not attracted more women as candidates was "…because not all women can ask their husbands to lend them the money to run a campaign."



In the Vancouver Sun in April 29, 1996 when the Alliance was the Reform Party, MP Bob Ringma mentioned that he would send gay or black people to the back of the shop if customers didn't approve of them.



The list goes on. Please do the research and see if what I have stated is baseless or truth. This history of bigotry runs deep in this party under camouflaged names from the Reform Party to the Canadian Alliance and now the new Conservative Party. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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So please my fellow Canadian, I ask you to make an educated decision on what type of party and leader you want to represent YOU and Canada. Let's not move in a direction that makes us much worse off.



Sincerely,



Anonymous Canadian