The Liberal victory ... boring politics here

[fajrdrako]

I just realized I said nothing here about the results of yesterday's Ontario provincial election. The Liberals got into power with a resounding majority - 72%. The PCs (er, that's Progressive Conservatives) got trounced - they were the previous government, now wildly unpopular, with good reason. The NDP (New Democratic Party) got 7 seats, up from what they previously held but still one seat short of being an official party.

My own riding, like so many others, elected a Liberal, Richard Patten. I'm sure he's fine. He's slick and that lends an aura of phoniness, but his policies are pretty much okay, as far as I can tell, and he's the only one of the candidates who came to my door, phoned me, or otherwise showed he was paying attention. I hope this means he will 'pay attention' when constituents have a problem, but I have no reason to doubt it.

I like a Liberal victory. I'm not a huge fan of the Liberals in genearl, but my own views of political parties can be summed up as "the people I like don't get elected anyway so I'm happy with pretty much any government that isn't Conservative."

I voted for another candidate. I knew I liked his policies, and his party's policies, but before voting I carefully looked up the information about him (and the other candidates too) to see if I could find any indication of where he stood on the controversial subject of gay marriages. Though official federal Liberal policy is in favour of it, some Liberals are opposing their own party's stance. It's not a provincial issue, but it's a subject everyone has a strong opinion on and I don't want to accidentally vote for anyone who might vote the wrong way on gay issues, should any such issues arise. As they probably will - at any level of government. I woudlnt' want to vote for a homophobe.

I needn't have worried. The man I wanted to vote for is gay, and he organized the first Pride Office at one of the local colleges. I could vote for him with a clear conscience. And did.

My riding had people running from quite a few political parties: PC, Liberal, NDP, Green, Communist, Freedom, and a couple of Independents. Cool.

Whatever happened to the Rhino party? Remember them?

Comments

[dargie.livejournal.com]

"the people I like don't get elected anyway so I'm happy with pretty much any government that isn't Conservative."


Boy, that really says it all.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I figure democracy is "the choice that isn't a choice". There's a catch-22: generally speaking, the kinds of people who go into politics are the kinds of people I don't want to vote for.

[blackbyrde.livejournal.com]

My riding was one of the few that elected a PC. I'm not sure why, I don't know much about the guy. Hmmmm.... And we only had four candidates.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's to bad - we'll hope he's good.