Bondhead88
Expert
In Canada, several years ago many true conservatives got sick and tired of the established parties ruling as an elite group that had no responsibility back to the very people that put them in office.
We had the Liberal Party that at one time in history had allowed the US to place nuclear warheads on Canadian missiles but the plan was scrapped after protests (Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth Edition). They had become a party of Elitists who straddled the fence on every issue, had killed our military, eroded the rights of citizens and moved the country to the left.
We also had the Progressive Conservatives (an oxymoron if you every heard one) who were ruled by "Red Tories". In Canada red is liberal or progressive and blue is conservative. (this has taken me a while to get used to in the USA) The PC's had obtained power a few times but it was very difficult to tell the PC's or Liberal's apart. Both were tax & spend. Both parties had the Prime Minister always come from Ontario or Quebec and power was centralized out of these two provinces. Both said campaigned on. "We're not them'" and voter apathy had set in.
Then in the late 80's Western Canadian Conservatives got sick and tired of "the same old, same old" and formed the Reform Party. At first there was no representation voted in Parliament, then there was one voted in.
The other parties laughed and mocked. One person, that doesn't even qualify as a recognized party in the "system". After a few years they sent more to Parliament but still not enough to hold power or become the "Official Opposition" still those in power and media mocked them calling them, racists, a fringe element, a regional party that would never last or take power.
The next election came and they grew some more and became the official opposition, they could not make dent in the east but they were a power in the west. The media and those in power said that the Reform Party would be relegated to a regional group. They would not penetrate the east. Apparently they thought those in the east were too "intelligent & sophisticated" to be conservatives. And for the next 6 years the Liberals reigned. Many of those in the remaining Progressive Conservative Party tried convincing those in the Reform Party to come back.
They said "We're splitting the vote and ensuring continual Liberal victory and we are wasting our votes." To which the Reformers replied. "You are liberals under a different name and voting with your conscience is never a wasted vote."
Many who had been party loyal to the PC Party finally started to see what was really going on and started making an alliance with the Reformers. They renamed the party to "The Canadian Alliance Party" and then finally to "The Conservative Party" Stephen Harper led the new Party and brought the Liberals to a minority government.
In just a few years later "The Conservatives" won a minority government in 2006 and then a larger minority government in 2008 and even though there was the lowest voter turn out in recent history the country started making a turn to the right.
We have made military service once again a place of honour, while we have had economic problems we did not have our financial institutions fail and have the crisis that was experienced in the US.
Several provinces have had economic booms Alberta: oil, natural gas, uranium, coal, potash, diamonds and others natural resources. BC; forestry, Saskatchewan; oil, coal, potash, uranium, Newfoundland off shore drilling. And we have encouraged it. 45% of US oil comes from Alberta where there is the lowest rate of taxation including, no provincial income tax and no provincial sales tax. We have been pushing and moving our health care away from the hybrid single payer system (different than the European socialist system) to create a private system for this who want it and can afford it. Alberta privatized almost all of it's public holdings and allowed the market to dictate costs and wages. before we left Alberta the minimum wage was about $8.50/hour and good luck hiring people at that rate. The economy was so good and strong that they were paying 12 year old kids $10.50 an hour at McDonalds. My daughter first fulltime job was $16/hour at 16 years of age as a receptionist. (we home schooled and she was in grade 12 at the time and she wanted to work so she went to work in the day and home schooled at night) Please don't think this hurt her in any way. She is now a Sophomore in College she will earn a Bachelor in Science. Her course of study is Elementary Education.
My son helped me in a small business we had and I had to pay him $20/hr at 12 because if I would have hired an adult it would have cost me about $35/hour. As well, it didn't hurt my son currently he is enrolled in a private school in Ontario while we are on the road this year. On top of maintaining a 90 % average he is taking trumpet lessons and is learning Mandarin (Chinese).
We have been trying to privatize and decentralize our Government pension program. We have been moving to try and privatize our unemployment Insurance system. Have we been successful in everything?
Nope, not a chance and there are debates going on about these very things but that does not mean we give up.
Now you may ask what this has to do with the United States? In my opinion everything. I would not tell you how to vote. I am not American, I just currently live here. It is not my place. But I wanted to voice my opinion on why I do not agree with the argument that creating a third party is a bad idea, or that it splits the vote, or it allows your opponents to maintain power. To me that is the argument of the elitists.
And they already have power.
"... the trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan
We had the Liberal Party that at one time in history had allowed the US to place nuclear warheads on Canadian missiles but the plan was scrapped after protests (Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth Edition). They had become a party of Elitists who straddled the fence on every issue, had killed our military, eroded the rights of citizens and moved the country to the left.
We also had the Progressive Conservatives (an oxymoron if you every heard one) who were ruled by "Red Tories". In Canada red is liberal or progressive and blue is conservative. (this has taken me a while to get used to in the USA) The PC's had obtained power a few times but it was very difficult to tell the PC's or Liberal's apart. Both were tax & spend. Both parties had the Prime Minister always come from Ontario or Quebec and power was centralized out of these two provinces. Both said campaigned on. "We're not them'" and voter apathy had set in.
Then in the late 80's Western Canadian Conservatives got sick and tired of "the same old, same old" and formed the Reform Party. At first there was no representation voted in Parliament, then there was one voted in.
The other parties laughed and mocked. One person, that doesn't even qualify as a recognized party in the "system". After a few years they sent more to Parliament but still not enough to hold power or become the "Official Opposition" still those in power and media mocked them calling them, racists, a fringe element, a regional party that would never last or take power.
The next election came and they grew some more and became the official opposition, they could not make dent in the east but they were a power in the west. The media and those in power said that the Reform Party would be relegated to a regional group. They would not penetrate the east. Apparently they thought those in the east were too "intelligent & sophisticated" to be conservatives. And for the next 6 years the Liberals reigned. Many of those in the remaining Progressive Conservative Party tried convincing those in the Reform Party to come back.
They said "We're splitting the vote and ensuring continual Liberal victory and we are wasting our votes." To which the Reformers replied. "You are liberals under a different name and voting with your conscience is never a wasted vote."
Many who had been party loyal to the PC Party finally started to see what was really going on and started making an alliance with the Reformers. They renamed the party to "The Canadian Alliance Party" and then finally to "The Conservative Party" Stephen Harper led the new Party and brought the Liberals to a minority government.
In just a few years later "The Conservatives" won a minority government in 2006 and then a larger minority government in 2008 and even though there was the lowest voter turn out in recent history the country started making a turn to the right.
We have made military service once again a place of honour, while we have had economic problems we did not have our financial institutions fail and have the crisis that was experienced in the US.
Several provinces have had economic booms Alberta: oil, natural gas, uranium, coal, potash, diamonds and others natural resources. BC; forestry, Saskatchewan; oil, coal, potash, uranium, Newfoundland off shore drilling. And we have encouraged it. 45% of US oil comes from Alberta where there is the lowest rate of taxation including, no provincial income tax and no provincial sales tax. We have been pushing and moving our health care away from the hybrid single payer system (different than the European socialist system) to create a private system for this who want it and can afford it. Alberta privatized almost all of it's public holdings and allowed the market to dictate costs and wages. before we left Alberta the minimum wage was about $8.50/hour and good luck hiring people at that rate. The economy was so good and strong that they were paying 12 year old kids $10.50 an hour at McDonalds. My daughter first fulltime job was $16/hour at 16 years of age as a receptionist. (we home schooled and she was in grade 12 at the time and she wanted to work so she went to work in the day and home schooled at night) Please don't think this hurt her in any way. She is now a Sophomore in College she will earn a Bachelor in Science. Her course of study is Elementary Education.
My son helped me in a small business we had and I had to pay him $20/hr at 12 because if I would have hired an adult it would have cost me about $35/hour. As well, it didn't hurt my son currently he is enrolled in a private school in Ontario while we are on the road this year. On top of maintaining a 90 % average he is taking trumpet lessons and is learning Mandarin (Chinese).
We have been trying to privatize and decentralize our Government pension program. We have been moving to try and privatize our unemployment Insurance system. Have we been successful in everything?
Nope, not a chance and there are debates going on about these very things but that does not mean we give up.
Now you may ask what this has to do with the United States? In my opinion everything. I would not tell you how to vote. I am not American, I just currently live here. It is not my place. But I wanted to voice my opinion on why I do not agree with the argument that creating a third party is a bad idea, or that it splits the vote, or it allows your opponents to maintain power. To me that is the argument of the elitists.
And they already have power.
"... the trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Ronald Reagan
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