Canadian Political Extremes and In Betweens

How one votes seems to me, is based primarily on their social ideology.

The left as they are known:

In general the left, think that everyone, with enough prodding, guidance and funding from the government, are fundamentally good. By being a Nanny state and holding everyone’s hands as they go through life, giving them adequate and equal treatment and or government funded programs, everyone is an equal. Or as equal as they can get without everyone tossing their wages in a pot and dividing it up amonst everyone equally.

Those who choose to support the Green Party are more concerned about the environment than any other issue. I would suspect that they would be more inclined to also support such groups as Green Peace, World Wildlife Foundation, and the likes there of. They are extremists compared to the so-called, average member of society. They go above and beyond, to protect our environment.

Those who choose to support the NDP are very collective minded. They tend to be more in favor of unions and a large government that will take care of all people’s needs rather than relying on the individual to provide for them selves.

Up until more recently in our countries history, the Liberal party was close to centre. I attribute that to their overall success as being the party that has run this country for more years than any other. They supported business, they took care of the poor. They did just enough for each part of society to be a middle of the road party without getting too extreme on any particular issue. They represented most Canadian’s beliefs. They have more recently moved further to the left as years went by. They began introducing more and more social programs to help those, as they saw it, in need. Supplied funding of special interest groups more and more with taxpayer dollars. In short, trying to be everything and to appease everyone to the parties demise.

The right as they are known:

Geared to those individuals that are more independent in thinking. Conservatives believe in very little government interference aka: small government. The less money government takes from their pockets the better, as conservatives think they can invest it to help the country prosper better than any government could. Basically “leave me alone, I will make it or break it on my own” mentality.

The Conservatives, like the Liberals of old were also close to centre at one time. Like the Liberals they too have spent a good chunk of time running this country. The biggest difference between the two was the way each looked at business and how evasive the government should be with social programs. The Conservatives were much more favorable to business and much less likely to support social programs to the extent of the Liberals. They have, in recent years moved further right away from centre, again to their own peril. Although they may be in power now with a minority government, they would have done better had they not moved further to the right.

As I see it, the majority of Canadians vote for the party during any particular election that comes closest to the centre approach. This would explain why we have seen the two major parties go back and forth in power in this country. As one moves to far away to either side, the majority of Canadians will switch their voting to the other party that remains closest to the centre. It is a simple balancing act that the citizens of our great county perform to keep things in check.

Mainstream Canadian’s are, for all intensive purposes, centered in their thinking. Any party that wanders too far to one side or the other will see the results at election time. The closer they can keep to being centrist the better for them. We are not a country of extremists for the most part. Yes there are those who are extreme on both sides of the political spectrum, but overall they do not represent the majority of Canadian’s. The majority of Canadian’s simply want a strong federal government to represent us abroad. We want a government who sees to the needs of the needy, not everyone. We want a government that takes crime seriously. We want a government that will make sure that our health is looked after including healthcare and via the environment. We want a government that does not over tax us to pay for the wastes that always seem to go on in government. We want a government that can deliver a strong economy. We want a government that is fair across the board to all its citizens. Finally, we want a government that stays out of our day to day lives and lets us go on doing what we need to do to make ourselves and our families happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

If someone should ever manage to form a political party in Canada that managed to stay centrist, uncorrupted and not influenced by special interest groups, I am sure they could and would become the ruling party of this country forever.

I am such a dreamer and a centrist, who currently supports the Conservatives, as I feel they are closer to centre than any other party is.... for the moment.