I’m blatantly biting this thread, but with Canada’s federal election looming in two days, I think we have more to worry about than Americans at this point. Sorry to everyone in the States for bringing up these obscure names, but I’m going to see if Canadians can take over discussion here. We’ll see if talk can pick up in two days, or if this thread goes unnoticed…
I find myself voting for the lesser of four evils in this election. I’m not ready to give the NDP the power to haphazardly spend all my money, and I’m not going to let the Bloc try and tear our country apart.
Although I do agree with many parts of the Conservative platform such as fixing our relationship with Washington, tightening border security and increased fiscal responsibility, there are just too many things they support which I cannot handle.
Reducing gun controls and privatization of health care are changes that affect fundamental Canadian values in a way I don’t approve of. Adding in the support for an abortion ban, and it becomes pretty clear to me that I cannot in good conscience vote Conservative.
So once again, the Liberal Party of Canada earns my vote by being the “least worst” political party in our nation. Can you hear the excitement in my voice?
I recently (about four days ago) watched a debate between Martin, Harper, Layton, and Duceppe on C-SPAN, and I really gotta say, sometimes, I envy y’all Canadians. Honestly, I don’t know enough about any of the candidates or the issues at hand to say which (if it were even possible) I would vote for, but, uh, good luck. 
Oh yeah, and any country in which metaphors involving hockey are common enough to be used in a nationally televised debate is awesome in my book. One of the moderators, from the CBC, I believe, said that one of the candidates was
“stickhandling around the issue.” Just awesome.
I have personally found Martin’s insane competance with numbers appealing since his time as finance minster. The sponsorship scandal was of course the sole fault of his party, but probably had little to do with him or his caucus, which is why the heat on that issue is dying down. The guy has many good ideas and isn’t wasting money in major areas, except IMO in the gun registry system, and in living up to the laughable Kyoto standards (as Mr. Harper quite correctly points out at every turn).
But, contrast that with getting out of NATO and NAFTA on one side, and getting aircraft carriers on the other? We’re only a middle power (which is a very Canadian concept, by the way); how are we supposed to live with doing either? The answer is that we really can’t. From my perspective, the Liberal platform is just the most sound, and its base in science and the future gets high marks; our aging demographics demand a comprehensive health care plan, and our young people don’t deserve to be dumped on, so the Liberals intend to pay down the debt with the goal of reducing it to 25% of the GDP. It’s just too bad the Liberals squandered their election campaign.
Would Harper make a better leader? Probably. But he places little value on civil liberty and freedom, and holds little regard for some key parts of the Constitition Act, 1982. He has interesting (but not new, mind you) ideas for the Senate, but his animosity toward the Supreme Court, and also for their decisions, gets very bad marks with me. Many good ideas there, but many terrible ones too. In any case, it would seem that this election is less about platforms and more about Prime Ministers.
Karthik, you mention tightening border security. I can see a few things arise from tightening such a huge undefended border. First, everything will slow down, including our economy, and second, people like you and me (you know what I mean) will take two extra hours to get to our favourite American regionals. With regard to tightening our coasts, we do need ships to protect our interests and sovereignty; while the Conservatives have a point there, their overblown defense plan makes up for that wiseness.
And that’s my thinking. If only I were old enough to understand the issues well enough to vote.