Wednesday, January 18, 2006

How are you voting?

Our federal election is quickly approaching and if you're still trying to cut through all the fluff and figure out what each party stands for, the Globe & Mail has compiled a chart comparing all of them (and for once, the Green Party is actually included):

2006 Party Platforms

It's worth taking 15 minutes to read this over. Some interesting things in there. Make sure you bring all your skepticism, cynicism and criticalness with you, however; things often sound better on paper than they are in real life.*

If this still doesn't help you, let a short quiz decide your vote for you! The Politics Watch Vote Selector Quiz asks you 18 questions and then based on your answers (Strongly support, etc.), will generate your preferences for each party's platform. I'm not ashamed of my results (and no one who knows me even slightly will be surprised to hear these):
1. New Democratic Party of Canada (100%)
2. Liberal Party of Canada (100%)
3. Bloc Quebecois (77%)
4. Conservative Party of Canada (33%)

Every time I do one of these quizzes, the Conservatives come up with an amount surpassing 0% and I don't understand why! The real surprise for me, though, was that the Bloc Quebecois didn't dominate the results (which is more usual since other than Quebec separatism, I think they have a well-balanced, socially-conscious platform) - here I think it's because the second-to-last question is a very loaded one which (a) shouldn't be part of the quiz, and (b) isn't one to which I could ever agree. ("Do you support a plan for Quebec to send its own hockey team, separate from Team Canada, to international competitions?" Um, no.) I bet they added that because after people finished the quiz from the 2004 elections, they were all shocked to see that their preferences lay with the Bloc.**

* "Spend money on physical activity, including amateur sport"? Sure, that sounds like a great idea! But wait, how are you doing this? Are you providing real monetary support to programs targetting inactivity and obesity, or is this just a thinly-veiled tax credit that will largely benefit the middle- and upper-classes?

**The other problem*** with this quiz is that it links your final results, not to the party as a whole, as I have listed them here, but to the individual leaders. As most people who know me will know, I have an affinity for the NDP but cannot stand Jack Layton. Same for the Liberals but minus the doddering old fool who heads them up (plus many of the current members of Cabinet, I might add). If I had to vote for the leader of the party directly, rather than the party and its policies, my vote would probably go either Green or independent every time.

***The other, other problem with this quiz, of course, is that it does not include the Green party as a voting option.

6 comments:

julie said...

Here's a more in-depth one which I'd recommend - it's better than the Politics Watch one above: Federal Election 2006. How I scored:
LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA
in 5 areas: health care, early childhood, parliamentary reform, national defence, environment.
BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS
in 4 areas: taxes, economy, international aid, gun control.
NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY
in 2 areas: employment insurance, education.
CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA
in 1 area: relations with provinces.

A little surprised to see some of those. But some of the questions are a little tricky and I found the options for each one weren't necessarily equivalent.

(This won't be changing my leanings re: my vote, however.)

Randal also sent me a link to the Political Compass which isn't specific to the Canadian election but helps you situate yourself generally on the left-right/authoritarian-libertarian scale. Takes 10-minutes or so to complete (lots of questions) but very interesting. Who wudda thunk I'm a deep-seated leftie? (Economic Left/Right: -5.88; Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56) ...OK, I admit it: I'm not that shocked.

Anonymous said...

Here's how I scored on the Politics Watch questionnaire:
Jack Layton=100%
Paul Martin=94%
Stephen Harper=76%
Gilles Duceppe=58%
However... then I took the Federal Election 2006 quiz:
Liberals=8
NDP=2
Bloc=1
PC=1
This won't change my intention to vote Liberal, but it was very interesting.

julie said...

waterlily, i am somewhat relieved to see your hard-core Mulroney-loving days are over ... :)

Anonymous said...

I don't recall ever voting for Mulroney (unless he was running against Turner...)

Anonymous said...

I took this survey under duress, here are my results:
Jack Layton=100%
Paul Martin=68%
Gilles Duceppe=63%
Stephen Harper=36%
And the second quiz:
Liberal=8
NDP=4
Bloc and PC=0
I am dumbfounded; must ask my wife what it means.

Anonymous said...

The Rock and I also took the Compass Test (independently) and we are both in the lower left corner with you, although less extremely so. I'm -2/-2.87, and he's -3.38/-6.36.