How do you vote: candidate, party or leader?

[antaeus]

How do you know who to vote for? As per thread title I assume? Or hatred of ___?

All parties and leaders sincerely disappoint me. I have no allegiance to any party so I went to my ridings' all-candidates meeting. This is what I learned:

Liberal:
Minister seeking re-election, sounded like Paul Martin - flustered, ducked questions citing past accomplishments and on-going activities (which are, to be fair, good and impressive). Mild attack on Conservatives. Great with the audience, I was happy whenever she stopped talking.

Green:
University student, said what people wanted to hear but unsure if it was Green party platform.

Conservative:
"Star" candidate didn't know party platform well, average-poor public speaker so he's difficult to judge. Introduced "post-Kyoto targets" with no explanation. Strong attack on Liberals. He stated convincingly Conservatives won't tamper with abortion issue. Slightly promising, overall unimpressive.

NDP:
Knew party platform and answered every question clearly with actual policy, costs and timetable. When someone pointed out a cross-party campaign problem he acknowledged and apologized while L and C candidates ducked and denied.


Candidate, party or leader? Quite the conundrum. Also interested in American opinions, probably have similar sentiments.

 

[Asterix]

Only a pea brain votes the party line. There are those on "the other side" I have great respect for, just as there are some who's politics I generally agree with, that personally, I don't trust.

 

[antaeus]

Well so far, reading the voluminous threads, I see:

"I'm voting Harper" - I assume from alot of people not in Calgary Centre.

Note, no one has said "I'm voting Martin".

"I'm voting Conservative" - most as a protest, anti-corruption, time for change statement.

"I'm voting Liberal" - most as an economy doing good statement.

"I'm sitting this one out" - several after assessing local candidates

"Vote with your head" - one learned comment only

and one racist anti-vote.

 

[Don]

"I'm voting Conservative" - most as a protest, anti-corruption, time for change statement.

I don't get that logic. If you want to cast a protest vote more than any real desire to vote Conservative, why not vote NDP?

 

[rembrandt100]

I don't get that logic. If you want to cast a protest vote more than any real desire to vote Conservative, why not vote NDP?

The last time I heard that logic, Bob Rae, became the primier in Ontario, and said "So Now what do we do."

Dave

 

[loveamassage]

vote

I'll vote conservative and hope for a cleansing. The same kind of cleansing that left the PC's with two seats back just after Mulroney. The PC party has fresh faces and better ideas. The Liberals need to be sent a message!

Let's rally with logic

 

[rembrandt100]

I am sorry to say that me voting Conservitive is a dead vote. The riding that I am in has be fiberal since 1958. We had a good dude when I moved here but since then this has become a drop-in center for favored fiberals. We got art eggelton and now a has been hockey player who is never around. The ethnic majority here is still paying the fuddle-duddle dude for the family reunifacation program.

Dave

 

[johnhenrygalt]

"I'm voting Harper" - I assume from alot of people not in Calgary Centre.

Just to be a pedant I'll remind you that Harper is standing in Calgary South-West, not Calgary Centre.

 

[someone]

Only a pea brain votes the party line. There are those on "the other side" I have great respect for, just as there are some who's politics I generally agree with, that personally, I don't trust.

I assume that you're speaking from the prospective of the American system where every vote is more or less a free vote. Things are different in Canada where MPs usually have to vote the party line. Thus, if you don’t take the party line into account, you are really not voting for anything (well, there are some free votes and an MP is free to break from his party and seat as an independent but those are exceptions to the rule). An MP will have some influences in his party's positions but in general, not a lot. It would make even less sense to vote for candidates in countries with pure proportional representation as in those countries you are only voting for lists of candidates put forth by political parties. Thus, you might want to make sure you understand the electorial systems involved before you call people pea brains.

 

[Mcluhan]

Canucks vote in the negative, according to the expected losses

Only a pea brain votes the party line. There are those on "the other side" I have great respect for, just as there are some who's politics I generally agree with, that personally, I don't trust.

Someone commented perfectly on this Asterix. In the US you have local politicians that are often corrupt. This goes for the sheriff’s office, Judges, Congress, and all the way up. So by your system, you pick from the least corrupt-most-hopefully-good at the local level. Here it's the entire party that gets corrupted. So we Pea-heads tend to vote for the party (on what ever basis one can hopefully muster). Some would argue that they vote according to the way the system is supposed to work, equal representation by district, and to some extent, it's probably true (3%?)

Here in Canada we are threatened by Government. They steal our money, they mismanage everything they touch; its a case of voting for the least damage possible. It goes by platform, and the leader is a mouthpiece for the platform, (and his bunch of entrenched personal cronies standing in the background with their hands deep in our unprotected pockets), the next bunch to officially, legally, by our hand of consent, rip us off. It's always a matter of damage control, when voting in Canada.

I am Canadian
I know which spiecies of Salmon have the extra gill raker and why they have it.

 

[Asterix]

My apologies. I was speaking of the system in the US, and though I'm aware Canada's was different, you have both clarified that well for me. Any reference to pea brains was meant in regards to the system here.

 

[Dawgger]

I think normally you vote for the candidate,if it is a tough choice you factor in the party then the leader.
I usually find that in this area I tend to support the liberal candidate
This election the liberals have done nothing to deserve my vote.
We have not had one piece of campaign literature from the local liberal candidate.
I still don't trust Harper and his Reform/ alliance/conservative party.
That leaves me a choice of NDP or Green, neither of which stand a snowballs chance of beating the consrvative incumbent.
I will vote,probably NDP.

 

[ottawasub]

All three play a role, but for me the order of importance is:

Party
Leader
Candidate

The party that wins is the party that runs the country, that`s the biggest factor by a wide margin and usually makes the decision easy either way.

The leader has substantial influence, but it`s not a one-man show. Besides, you never know how long he`ll be there. Whether you like or dislike Martin, I wouldn`t let that play too much influence because at his age (67) I doubt he`ll stick around more than one or two years win or lose. Having said all that, I will admit that I never voted Liberal when Chretien was leader because I intensely detested him.

The local candidate? Most of the time they end up in the backbenches doing little of anything. My riding is currently Conservative, was Liberal before that and Conservative a couple of elections before that but nothing really ever changes much. The local candidate does play a small role in my decision.

You`ll hear lots of people say "ALL Conservatives are decent while ALL Liberals are corrupt." or "ALL Liberals are intelligent while ALL Conservatives are inbreds." Those people are drinking too much Kool-Aid. The fact is that all the parties have some good and bad candidates under their banner.

I`m probably voting Liberal, but there`s some Conservatives (and even a few NDPs) I respect and might vote for in another riding. By the same token, there`s absolutely no way I`d vote Liberal if I was in Tom Wappel`s riding.