So Rod has corrupted me since I have joined Political Jesus…or something. In light of Rod’s post, I thought I would take a minute to introduce my American friends to the Canadian political system.
* Canada is gearing up for a Federal Election this May (Federal = national). It is our seventh million election in five years, because we keep electing minority governments. So every couple of days, a new election is called, we spend $300 million on election costs, go to the polls and basically vote in the same minority government all over again.
* Our elections are yawn-fests. Compared to the media hoopla that the American elections get, Canadians collectively yawn, do our collective duty, and go home. The media tries to drum up scandals, but overall we ignore them.
* We do not vote directly for our Prime Minister. We vote for a representative for our riding. The party with the most representatives has their leader be the Head Cheese. This can cause anxiety for voters, who may really like their local representative, but finds the leader of that party to be the world’s biggest bore.
* Canadians do have their priorities straight. When given a choice between a leaders’ debate and a hockey game, hockey takes priority. That’s right, the leaders’ debate was rescheduled because Montreal made the playoffs.
* Despite what you might hear, the Conservative party does not equal the US Republican party. If we were to compare parties it would looks more like this:
Conservative Party = conservative Democrats
Liberal Party = Democrats
NDP = liberal Democrats
Bloc Quebecois = French speaking Democrats of all stripes – centre, conservative, liberal
Hope that helps you understand our system. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
The Conservative Party is still far too conservative for me, but then so are the American Democrats. Then again, the NDP are barely liberal enough for me.
Amanda,
What about the libertarians in Canada? Are they faring well?
Canada has libertarians?!
Well, technically there is a Libertarian Party, but it’s at about the same level as the Rhinoceros Party, the Pirate Party and the Marijuana Party.
Michael Ignatieff (leader of the Liberal party) actually gave the Gifford lectures in 2003. I didn’t like them, but you can find them here:
http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPEVIL&Cover=TRUE
This is a good primer for Americans (and others) re. the political system in B.N.A.. I would like to add that there is a Christian Party that some of your readers might be interested in knowing about: the Christian Heritage Party ( http://www.chp.ca ). I believe it’s the only explicitly Christian Party in North America (similar to the European Christian Democrats and Dutch Reformed parties). En Agape,
B.N.A. Freedom
Matt. 6:33
There is still the Constitution Party in the US. They are openly Christian.
Thanks for informing me about the Constitution Party, U.S.. God bless them too! Maybe if the U.S. and Canada adopt the Australian system (as is being debated in the U.K. today) these political parties will have a chance of getting elected. As it is now, the “Big Boys” (Establishment Parties) control the electoral system (ballot access and other procedures to exclude smaller groups from being able to compete on “a level playing field”). Christians should support those Parties that most represent their views.
I would actually be quite careful in mixing the business of the Church with one or two political parties. Really, I would prefer all political parties to have the gospel influence them. But I do agree, I am sick of the 2 party system, that is why I wrote a series on it:
http://politicaljesus.com/tag/two-party-system/
It’s in 4 parts, plus a response to a blogger who commented on it.
“Really, I would prefer all political parties to have the gospel influence them.”
Interestingly, the Liberal party was, in eons past, very influenced by Catholic thought. And the NDP (which is our ‘left-wing’/'socialist’ party) has a long history of social gospel Christianity (eg. Tommy Douglas was a Baptist preacher who would be the Father of universal healthcare in Canada. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas)
Amanda,
Ages ago, in a land far away, while the “conservative” GOP was letting people die of starvation, getting their arms chopped off in factories, and pushing for monopolies, there was a good man, a Democrat by the name of William Jennings Bryan (he has gotten a bad rep though for the Scopes monkey trial). But he was a pacifist, a politician– even becoming Secretary of State under the worst president in history, Woodrow Wilson, and he fought for the rights of poor people. He remains one of my heroes for some odd reason.
And Amanda,
Not to go all Glenn Beck, but the wiki article mentions that Douglas believed in eugenics, something that is HIGHLY HIGHLY problematic for me in any way, shape or form. And lots of libertarian/conservative thinkers do link single-payer healthcare to eugenics and euthanasia. The story of this man would only make the polemic that much stronger.
If you can point me to one politician who has all the ‘right’ ideas, I’d happily vote for that person. (I mean even the Libertarian guy Bob Barr from the 2008 US election had in the past participated in a less than *ahem* ‘proper’ fundraising event in the 90′s).
Saying that because Douglas believed in eugenics is an argument against universal healthcare in general, is like saying that reading Rod’s blog posts are automatically an endorsement of Bettman’s horrible southern US hockey expansion plan.
@Amanda
I am not making the argument, I am just making you aware of the arguments in the U.S. about the cases against nationalized healthcare. And eugenics/euthanasia is one of them, just go on youtube and see the townhalls of teapartiers talking about the government offing Granny.
I oppose nationalized heatlhcare in the U.S. for a variety reasons, so I have no need to go into polemics.
As far as Bob Barr is concerned, I voted for McCain, and Bob Barr has not one libertarian hair on his head. Especially given his voting record in the 1990s.
And I’ll just ignore your anti-U.s. hockey bias.
Not anti-US hockey bias. Just anti-anywhere where it’s not winter hockey bias.
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Thanks for your response to my earlier comment. I too like Wm. J. Bryan. I once visited the statue of him at the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee where the Scopes trial was held. A Christian college there is named in his honour. Blessings,
Ecce, quam bonum! (Psalm 133)
see: http://www.revelife.com/744422736/psalms-133-an-exhortation-for-unity/