EDITOR,
I would like to offer a polite response to Bruce Kay's letter ("Strategic voting urged," Chief, April 22).
I do not condone Stephen Harper's actions as Prime Minister. On more than a few occasions I have been left shaking my head wondering what exactly I had voted for in the last two elections. I have always found Mr. Harper to be rather petulant and controlling.
However, as a self-employed centrist who would like to spend a bit more time minding my business and a lot less time minding the government's (taxes, etc), I'm not sure where to go. I've suffered through two provincial NDP administrations (one in Ontario, one in B.C.). In both cases we ended up with an economy in shambles while others boomed, mountains of debt and immediately thereafter, the pressing need to make massive cuts to get things back in balance.
The Liberals? Another side of the same coin with the Conservatives. You'd have to be pretty blindly partisan to pine for the days of The Little Napoleon from Shawinigan (Chrétien), or to ignore that the Liberals were by far the biggest beneficiaries of corporate donations (and dispensers of so-called "corporate welfare"). And that's not even getting into Adscam, golf courses in Shawinigan, Chretien's ignorance and/or hatred of the West, or Hedy Fry's moronic comments about cross burning in Prince George.
What I objected to most during the Chrétien years was the underlying belief that the "Liberal" and "Canadian" brands were one and the same, with anyone who offered a whiff of dissent being tarred as out of touch with "Canadian values." Believe it or not, there are millions of perfectly legitimate Canadians who simply do not agree with left-leaning social policy.
I think if you are angry about deficits and other policies originating from Ottawa, in fairness you should be just as angry at the Liberals, NDP and Bloc as you are at the Conservatives. Remember that Conservatives did not have a majority these last five years, and no bill or policy priority has advanced in the absence of support from (or abstention of) the other parties. Specifically on deficits, remember that it was the combined might and endorsement of the three opposition parties that caused the Conservatives to shift gears and embrace deficits and a totally unnecessary "stimulus" spending spree.
I'm not sure if I will vote this time around. I'm angry at all of them. But, perhaps our dysfunctional political system is a reflection of our increasingly dysfunctional society. Maybe instead of casting blame at Harper or Iggy, we should take a look in the "Facebook."
Brad Hodge
Brackendale
