[Fresh Start]

^ Under a mandatory voting arrangement Harper would have a clear majority. Undecideds tend to vote for the sitting party (why rock the boat when the ship's on a steady course?) lest they can personally assign blame for some misfortune that they've endured during its tenure in office. A lot of small town Canada has Conservative leanings as well.

But voter apathy and disillusionment can occur in any political system, local or national level. And it's not just Canadians who are fed up with the lack of action or the perpetuance of have/have-not class divides that politics encourages and capitalizes on. Just ask Americans, many people whom were once overjoyed when Obama first came into office are now all too anxious to see him leave. And that's after little over a year.

 

[Second_in_pie]

^^ Haha... you're kidding, right? Do realize that a vast majority of the people that aren't voting in this country are the younger generation and new immigrants, right? And if they were forced to vote, do you think they'd be voting for the capitalist, survival of the fittest party; or will they be voting for the party that'll make things easier for them to function, ensure a good future, and try to make people more equal? The majority who vote are the fiscal capitalists, who believe that a more leftist government will rob them of money and opportunity. So they vote right wing to "protect their interests." I think that this coming decade will see a much, much larger turnout of new voters, especially in young people.
Even now, the Conservative government will have to pull a miracle to stay in power, else they'll quickly be ousted by a Liberal-NDP coalition. If that happens, we should be seeing some real results on all fronts.

 

[Fresh Start]

^^ Haha... you're kidding, right? Do realize that a vast majority of the people that aren't voting in this country are the younger generation and new immigrants, right? And if they were forced to vote, do you think they'd be voting for the capitalist, survival of the fittest party; or will they be voting for the party that'll make things easier for them to function, ensure a good future, and try to make people more equal? The majority who vote are the fiscal capitalists, who believe that a more leftist government will rob them of money and opportunity. So they vote right wing to "protect their interests." I think that this coming decade will see a much, much larger turnout of new voters, especially in young people.
Even now, the Conservative government will have to pull a miracle to stay in power, else they'll quickly be ousted by a Liberal-NDP coalition. If that happens, we should be seeing some real results on all fronts.

So just because one is young and is a first/second generation Canadian automatically means that one must turn off their brains and blindly vote a certain way because that's what expected of them? I'd think carefully before assuming one party is more in favor of equal rights and social standing than the other. If you want to live in nanny care-taker state, be my guest, but don't act as though any party is seriously interested in restricting or revoking universally agreed upon human rights for all Canadian citizens. Under 4 years of Harper this country has seen more social progress and economic stimulus than the entire 13 years of Cretien. Pre-fall 2008, the NDP and CPC have worked closely on alot of policies and the Bloc was almost irrelevant for a time because Quebecois were very satisfied with what was happening for them. Oh and Quebec didn't almost absolve itself from the rest of the country under the CPC's watch either. The coalition government bid was just an act of desperation that Ignatieff wanted no part of. He wants to be Prime Minister the legitimate way, voted in by a majority and not skewed polarities. Remember the old adage, too many cooks, spoil the broth. Harper may be secretive and all but I'm still awaiting that smoking gun, inexcusable misdeed that the public cannot forgive, before I look elsewhere.

 

[GenerationW]

And if they were forced to vote, do you think they'd be voting for the capitalist, survival of the fittest party

Who knows, maybe a lot of those people are so busy working their filthy capitalists butts off that they don't bother voting. But no one can test any theory unless we actually went to mandatory voting, which I doubt we'll ever do.

 

[kEiThZ]

I'd argue that immigrants are slowly beginning to support the Conservatives as the Cons shed a lot of their anti-immigrant Reform era baggage. Keep in mind that a lot of immigrants come from more socially conservative societies and they themselves tend to be fiscally conservative in their private lives. There's a lot of common ground to be had. Immigrants more than anybody else care about things like crime (because we tend to live in inner city areas), social values (immigrants tend to hew to very traditional family values) and fiscal conservatism (the small immigrant store owner balances his books every month and can't understand why the government can't do the same).

The days of immigrants blindly voting Liberal ("...because they're the party that let us in.") are slowly coming to an end. There have been programs that the Conservatives have moved on that are popular with immigrants. For example, giving students a path to residency (not perfect yet, but didn't exist under the Liberals). Efforts to better integrate professionals (a whole host of minor initiatives that again never happened under the Liberals). Efforts to pre-qualify professionals. This one is a big one. Previously, people spent thousands to move to Canada only to discover their quals weren't valid here. Now they can find out before they apply and decide whether they should or should not come to Canada. That's considered a fairer policy than what was there before where most immigrants felt lied to, cheated and betrayed on arrival in Canada. That's not to say the Cons haven't had their slip-ups on immigration (the backlog for example). But they have done things that the Liberals didn't do in the decade and a bit they were in power. If the Conservatives keep this up they'll be successful in chipping away at the Liberal immigrant vote bank.

 

[Roy G Biv]

I'd argue that immigrants are slowly beginning to support the Conservatives as the Cons shed a lot of their anti-immigrant Reform era baggage. Keep in mind that a lot of immigrants come from more socially conservative societies and they themselves tend to be fiscally conservative in their private lives. There's a lot of common ground to be had. Immigrants more than anybody else care about things like crime (because we tend to live in inner city areas), social values (immigrants tend to hew to very traditional family values) and fiscal conservatism (the small immigrant store owner balances his books every month and can't understand why the government can't do the same).

Yeah, Jason Kenney has dedicated most of his recent existence to winning over the immigrant vote. He's a troglodyte dirtbag, but he's been pretty effective so far.

 

[spider]

I volunteer as poster boy for the title of this thread.

I am a native born WASP, 74 years of age and have always voted in every election in which I was eligible to do so.
I once voted for Trudeau, OK only once and have since been small "c" conservative in my outlook on most levels. This does not mean that I voted for Mulroney's conservatives, after all I do have some standards.

I have been a card carrying, cheque writing member of the Reform/Alliance/CPC party in the past but no more because I can not for the life of me figure out what the hell these people are doing.

I will hold my nose and vote against the Liberals again and again but I will no longer fund a party I don't understand any more.