Canadian elections: Strategic voting; right this time

I think the main-stream media in Canada has decided to go for the Conservatives in the upcoming January 23rd elections in Canada. For example, and this is only one of many examples, the other day I noticed this photo in the front page of the Toronto Star and also the Globe and Mail showing two little black girls with the Conservative Party's flag logo in their hands while presumably listening to Stephen Harper, the milder but smarter (call it more crook) version of George Bush in Canada, in the background. I am sure there were tens, if not hundreds, of other photos from the same speech event, but both papers had decided to show that particular picture. It is a known fact that Stephen Harper and his party is the most racist and anti-immigrant party (amongst the main parties) in Canada and is the party most concerned about the interests of the big corporations and rich people and attempts like showing that particular picture are not just coincidents. They are designed to portray Harper as a kind and caring man who is a friends of the immigrants; something that is absolutely untrue.

Having said this, I believe that in a critical time like this that there are significant systematic efforts to hand the power to "Canada's Republicans", the New Democratic Party (the NDP) has lost its priorities. I am fed up with the fact that Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP is still focusing on and attacking Paul Martin (the current Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Party). If Layton had his attention focused on Martin until two weeks ago, which was the case, it was in my opinion, a right and sound policy because Martin's Liberals were well ahead of the Conservatives and then the NDP should have tried to attract many left leaning Liberal voters who share many of the values of the NDP. But things have significantly changed during the last two weeks; Conservatives are now well-ahead of the Liberals and there is an increased possibility of the Conservatives taking the majority of the seats in the parliament and thus, forming the majority government in which case no party will be able to stop them from implementing their far-right wing agendas. Although I respect and admire Layton and the NDP as my first natural choice (in normal conditions), we cannot afford listening to Layton at this time. While he is right, he is wrong! He is right when he claims and brings so many reasons that the Liberals are no good, but he is wrong when he misses and leaves out the worse enemy of the ordinary people, the Conservatives. As I wrote to a paper recently (which was never published), in short this is what I am suggesting:

As a traditional NDP supporter, I have to disagree with NDP's leader Jack Layton that the Liberals and the Conservatives are the same; They are not. While, Liberals are far, very far from ideal, they have major differences with the Conservatives; at least in terms of social and especially foreign policies.

A simple comparison would reveal this difference: As is the case with the US now, Canada would have been receiving death Canadian soldiers in body bags from Iraq if Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister when US invasion of Iraq began. We would have been part of US's so-called missile defense system if Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister. We would not have been part of the much needed Kyoto environmental accord if Harper was the Prime Minister. We would have been part of the efforts; lead by the US, to weaken the UN if Harper was the Prime Minister. We would have been losing our hard-earned liberties;one by one as has been happening to the Americans under George Bush, if Harper was the Prime Minister. We would have been losing the respect we are enjoying now in the international stage if Harper was the Prime Minister. In short, we would haven been practically adapting all the neo-conservative policies of George Bush's America if Harper was the Prime Minister.

Americans have the first hand experience of what conservatism can do to a country and now are increasingly speaking out against it and denouncing it. The question for us, Canadians is that "do we want to go through the same path of failure?"

I urge my fellow NDPiers to look at the previous 2004 election results in their ridings; If the fight was clearly between the NDP and the Liberal candidates, definitely vote for the NDP as it obviously stands for the better and if the fight was between the Liberal and the conservative candidate with NDP candidate running distanced third, unless there has been a major development since then in favour of the NDP candidate, do not waste your vote; vote for the Liberal candidate . Meantime, I strongly urge the Liberal voters to vote for the NDP candidate in the ridings where the 2004 race was close between the NDP and the Conservative candidates and the Liberal running distanced third.

Remember, a minority liberal government with the balance of power in the hands of the NDP is the best possible scenario out of the current urgent situation in which Canada is at the edge of becoming another US in the north. Even a minority conservative government can be handled and prevented from imposing its rightwing agenda's, but a majority conservative will be devastating to Canada and what it stands for. The threat is serious and immediate; let us prevent this from happening otherwise we will regret as now are the Americans with Bush's gang in power.

I also urge my American friends who have experienced the devastation George Bush and his right wing party has brought to the United States to write to the editors of the Canadian papers, such as the above, to tell them of their experience. Conservative victory in Canada will embolden and rejuvenate the ground losing neo-conservatives of the US. Vast majority of Canadians do not want Canada to be transformed to something similar to Bush's America; but they are badly angry at the Liberals for their so many mistakes, especially in last couple of years. But Canadians just need to be reminded that The Conservatives in Canada are not much better than the Liberals and in fact if Liberals sometime have some good policies for the real people and not just the rich people, Conservatives are like the dedicated servants of the rich and that they are not much different than the Republicans in the US. If this massage gets out well, the Conservatives will have no chance of winning in this election.

Update: This site is basically providing a similar picture to what I have discussed in the post about Strategic voting. However even more specifically, it provides a guide based on the previous election results. Although Starategic voting will not work in where I live, I believe the guide in the above site will provide a good picture of where it might work. Take a look at it and please pass it on.