Quote:
Originally Posted by streak_56
Why western Canada is scared of a Coalition government...
1) For once the prime minister isn't coming from the east. He's a guy we can relate on some level with, calm, collected and looking out for his voters. The power lies with us, we want someone to represent us because there *IS* truth behind western alienation.
2) BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan was huge money makers. Most of our money gets shipped out east to support provinces that don't share back with us. Hard economic times have not hit us as hard out here (yet). And we feel that the during the Chritien/Martin years, they fucked us hard, we think we work hard, earn our money and therefore should keep it.
3) The Bloc. They were built upon separtist ideals and we cannot trust a party like that.
4) Dion as said before, is incompetent. Not only him but his party lost the election. Poor press conferences, lack of organization and his address after Harper made his... no one in western Canada can understand that man. I would much prefer a Layton lead coalition that Dion purely on the fact that Layton can convey messages clearly, understandably and grammatically correct.
5) Why wasn't the coalition formed before the election? What the hell was the point of voting for NDP, Liberal, Conservative if power hungry politicians want to make it all null and void. What else are they willing to do just for power?
Personally....
I'm excited, I love talking politics with people, and I love ruffling peoples feathers. This is all just propaganda from all parties. Conservatives saying that this is slapping democracy in the face, the Coalition saying that Harper doesn't care... its all positioning public opinion. Where do most of the votes come from? Ontario and Quebec, they don't give two shits about anyone else. Its worrying about me, myself and I, then everyone else. Dions trying to save face for a liberal worst showing at the polls, Layton needs a last shot at doing something significant, and I can see the Bloc kicking back, laughing at English Canada because we've given them all the power this election. I personally believe that the west will suffer under a Coalition led government. I think over the past few years, Harper achieved one goal... he didn't fuck the country up, he sat back, let people see that a Conservative led government isn't going to change much and I was willing to give him atleast two more years as Prime Minister. If he doesn't fuck anything up again, then I'll vote conservative again. I think that the liberals are shooting themselves in the foot, the NDP are going in the right direction, trying to "make a difference." And Ignatiff needs to lead the liberals before Dion ruins this coalition for them.
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I agree with you about the coalition... those guys only got together when they smelled blood. But I also would like to offer my perspective on this western 'alienation'.
Actually Joe Clark, Kim Campbell and John Turner are all westerners, so I don't think that there is any geographical bias to who becomes Prime Minister, I just happen to think that it is a numbers game. Where ever there are more people, you are going to get more of lots of things. Doesn't just apply to candidates for prime minister, but also to things as unpleasant as number of people murdered or economies of scale when pricing commodities such as gas or bread.
I have been out to BC many times (it's my second home!) and love the place, but have always been curious as to why there is such a disdain for the east. Especially since the biggest complainers seem to be those who actually relocated from the east. At any rate, you say:
Most of our money gets shipped out east to support provinces that don't share back with us. Hard economic times have not hit us as hard out here (yet). And we feel that the during the Chritien/Martin years, they fucked us hard, we think we work hard, earn our money and therefore should keep it.
Very compelling words, and all you have to do is change the point of reference to
Ontario from BC, Alta, & Sask, and you have the exact same issue. Furthermore, these former PMs (Chretien, Martin, Mulroney) all seemed to want to take their boots to the cities. Yes, Toronto is a big kicking bag,
But it's not just us. I speak for Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax as well. there has been a growing concern and movement to 1) reclaim some of the massive outflow of money out of Ontario to help bolster our infrastructure (as nobody else seems to be concerned about us when times go south) as well as support the needs of cities across the entire country.
As for the Bloc, well, yes, I don't like their Separatist foundation. But a lot of Quebeckers have been driven to support this party as a means of getting local support and representation, knowing full well that the party will never fullfill a separastist mandate. Very similar to the mechanism of voting for the old the Reform party.