rhizome17;2477892 said:
And when it comes to actually voting, I tend to vote tactically - basically whatever it takes to keep the right out of government suits me. I like where Australia ended up at the last election. At least our trans-tasman cousins no longer have to suffer the indignity of being the only country on earth to have a fully-fledged card-carrying muppet as their leader.
Yeah, sadly I'm forced to vote like that too these days.. even worse is that the choices here in Canada are getting worse with every election. Admittedly the right here isn't as extreme as it is south of the border, but still, any party with some actual progressive ideas has no chance of ever getting into office.
We basically have:
The Conservatives (classic right, if in the US, they'd fall somewhere between the Dems and Republicans on the political scale)
The Liberal Party (campaign on the left but govern on the center-right)
NDP (left, socialist, the only decent party in Canada right now but always finishes a distant third in elections. Although they have a strong presence in BC where people tend to be a little more enlightened)
Green Party (good in principle, but every wealthy right-winger with a composter seems to be turning to them.)
I'm considering not voting at the next national election for the first time since I've been old enough to do so. ...and for the record, we have a muppet too