I’ll be honest; I didn’t really pay much attention to the British Columbian election, but like Dan at CalgaryGrit, I’m somewhat conflicted over the outcome. I’m usually more towards the political left, even in discussions among other Liberals – as such, and given the fact that I’ve voted ND in the past on at least one occasion, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that had I found myself in BC, I might be tempted to vote NDP.
However, given their campaign against the Carbon Tax, I can’t imagine I would have brought myself to vote for them this time around. CG makes a great point about them being more “politicians” than “statespersons” by abandoning what Dippers of a variety of stripes have claimed to be one of their core principles, especially given the support of people like David Suzuki towards the concept. I also found it somewhat ironic to see their supporters berating Green Party supporters on the CBC comments about “splitting the vote” and “handing Campbell another win”. Hmmm. That sounds familiar.
As for STV, while it’s not my preferred method of electoral reform, I was sad to see it go down in flames, which will likely be a disincentive for governments to “Waste time” on the issue in the near future. While MMP remains my preferred method, the take away message from this will likely be that any new system has to be simple to explain, which means something like instant runoff, while not PR, might be the best we can achieve in the short run.
Meanwhile on the Atlantic cost, while we’re still waiting on cohesive policy documents from the Liberals, PCs, and Greens, the Liberals did release a policy surrounding rural physicians, promising to cover the tuition of medical students who agreed to practice in rural Nova Scotia upon graduation. While it’s not sufficient on it’s own as a comprehensive PSE policy, I like it for improving access to doctors. I’ve wanted to see something similar our west for a while now, so I’m interested to see what becomes of this.
max cleland: the forever war of the mind
2 hours ago
1 comments:
Anyone who still thinks the BC Liberals are dominated by Conservative types, the very existence of the carbon tax out there disproves that theory once and for all.
As for the NS Liberals, I don't expect much from them. The best they could probably do is Official Opposition, because I think the NDP has a good shot at a minority government. Here's hoping the NS Tories are neglected to 3rd place.
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