Following up on this post, in which I asked “progressive” voters whose main motivation is unseating Prime Minister Stephen Harper if they will line up behind “Michael or Jack” (Ignatieff or Layton), let me muddy the waters for those weighing that choice a bit more.
Comparing the results of the 2000 general election to the 2008 general election we might note that:
– The Liberal Party of Canada won 172 seats in 2000 mostly because the party got 5.25 millionvotes. Eight years later, the party won just 77 seats and only 3.6 million Canadians voted Liberal.
– The NDP in 2000 won just 13 seats because only 1.093 million Canadians voted NDP. In 2008, 2.515 million Canadians voted NDP and 37 NDP MPs took their seats in Parliament.
Net-net? In the last decade, the Liberals have lost nearly 100 seats in Parliament and half of those who once voted Liberal — more than 1.5 million people — are no longer voting for the red team.
By contrast, the NDP has more than doubled its seat total in the decade, adding 24, and has more than doubled the number of Canadians who are signing up for the orange team. There are 1.5 million more NDP voters now than there were in 2000.
1.5 million more NDP voters in a decade versus 1.5 million fewer Liberal voters. Hmm.
So I ask again: If you want to get rid of Stephen Harper, who do you vote for in the next general election?
To replace the CPC in gov't need to vote for the coalition.
And the coalition will be upfront about it, right?
I also want to vote ABC, but who that is varies riding by riding. Probably NDP in Ottawa Centre.
I thought Harper was spending like a Liberal. So why not vote for him and you will get more of the same. So the question is incomplete. The Conservatives should be part of the progressives etc. Afterall even the Libs didn't expand government by 14% a year.
The important thing is to deny seats to conservatives. If one lives in a riding where the ndp has the best chance of winning, then vote ndp. And the same for the liberals.
If you live in 'real' toronto, like I do, vote for whoever you want because there is no chance of conservatives winning a riding here.
personally I believe that the NDP will win the next federial election and that the Brant riding chapter will be welcoming A new candidate who will be the second youngest member of parliament Marc Laferiarer