The Ontario Election: My View of Your Choices

Choice 1: The Liberals

They are the likely party to form the government and if they do get elected they are just as likely to do nothing for four years. Which amounts to "breaking more promises" in Conservative lingo. This would not be a good thing for Ontario, however, it seems better than...

Choice 2: The Progressive (Or Regressive?) Conservatives

If by some chance all Ontario voters who actually plan to go out and vote forget John Tory's extremely unpopular election promise to fund faith-based schools (we're not inclusive here in Canada, of course), you will get not the nothing the liberals promise to deliver, but rather, service cuts galore. See previous Ontario Harris government or a number of Alberta provincial governments or for that matter, Stephen Harper making cuts to Status of Women Canada, which resulted in the recent closure of the National Association of Women and the Law. You want a roll back on tuition rates? A hip replacement? Well, in Conservative Ontario those things are harder to get - based on precedence.

Choice 3: The New Democratic Party

Being the socialist and student I am, I cannot help but see many positive things in the NDP plan for Ontario. Raising the minimum wage, rolling back tuition to 2004-2005 rates and guaranteeing 3.5 hours of hands-on care for seniors in long-term care homes all seem like good initiatives. However, this party has little chance of election because Ontario voters remember Bob Rae's fiscal debacle and of course, here in Canada we like money more than we like taking care of people. (Guess which party I support? Guess why? Could it be that my values place people higher than money? Basic human rights above having more "stuff" because I pay less taxes?)

Choice 4: The Green Party

Most people don't think they have a chance and well, neither do most Green Party candidates. They do have a few solid initiatives, but are still too new a party to have a stand on every issue. They would, in fairness, be a rookie government. That being said, the Nepean-Carleton candidate said the party's goal is governmental accountability, which they hope to achieve by winning enough seats to make the government sit up and take notice.

DISCLAIMER: This is a very simplistic view because of course, I still do not like politics (or for that matter many politicians...see the PC candidates who blew me off because I was a student journalist). I still believe there are better ways to help people, but I now recognize our political system MUST acknowledge and actively work towards solving many of our societal problems if we ever hope to triumph over social trauma such as poverty and violence against women.