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Please Save Canada!
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View this Thread in Original format
| DJ_RRebel |
Please note that the following is at http://www.pleasesavecanada.com ... I feel that it is in the best interest of the majority of Canadians (the ~65% who are not voting conservative on Monday) who care about maintaining current Canadian priorities like education, Medicare and the environment!
It scares me that Canada could have a right-wing government when only about 35% of Canadians will be voting for a conservative right-wing agenda! Whats worse is that of that 35%, almost half are blindly voting for "change" against the Liberals while they don't fully understand what that change will mean and how it will drastically affect Canada's future in a very negative way financially and in terms of our Values!
Anyhow .. very important perspective below .. those in favour should forward the URL (and/or e-mail the txt version) to all their contacts to try to make a difference in the final 24 hours!
http://www.pleasesavecanada.com
http://www.pleasesavecanada.com/savecanada.txt
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Please Save Canada! [2006Jan20]
http://www.pleasesavecanada.com
Please read this to save our economy, our environment, our Medicare, our social programs, our ethical standards and our Canadian values!
Save Canada! Don't let the socially progressive vote get split! You must do the following to save Canadian social values from the conservatives (read below to know why):
- If Liberals won your riding in the last election: Vote Liberal in 2006! http://www.liberal.ca
- If the NDP won your riding in the last election: Vote NDP in 2006! http://www.ndp.ca
- If you live in Quebec: Vote Liberal!
- If the Conservatives won your riding in the last election: Vote for the 2nd place party (between Liberal and NDP) from the last election.
Go here to see who won your district in 2004:
http://www.elections.ca/scripts/OVR2004/23/table11.html
To see who finished 2nd in your riding if the conservatives won go here:
http://www.elections.ca/scripts/OVR2004/23/table12.html
- If you vote for NDP or Liberal: This isn't enough, please be sure you support the party that has the best chance of beating the conservatives in your voting district by reading above!
- If you vote for the Green party: unfortunately you are only realistically helping the conservatives. I understand and appreciate the Green's values, but at this point, the dangers of a conservative win far outweigh the need for the Green Party to make a statement (because they really don't have any hope of getting seats in parliament anyways), at this point, they are simply taking votes away from NDP and Liberals and lowering the votes that conservatives need to win the seat in your district.
- If you vote for the Conservative party: you will put Canada down a dark path in which Medicare, social programs, the environment, education and other important Canadian values are chipped away at slowly with a conservative government.
The future of our true north strong and free is in crisis!
Why? Because voting in Canada is not based on a majority voting system*, it’s not truly a representative voting system. Based on recent polls, we face the very grave danger of a right-wing conservative majority government even if almost two thirds of Canadians are against it!
* Majority voting would mean there is a first round of voting, and then if the winning candidate does not get 50%, they do not yet win. A 2nd round vote would then take place with the candidate(s) with the lowest vote from the first round being removed as a possible choice. This prevents a candidate from winning with only 30% of the votes (because there may have been 3 other candidates with 25%, 25% and 20%).
Because we don't have majority voting, the right-wing conservatives might unfortunately win, because the more socially progressive votes are divided between several parties (Liberal, NDP, Green and even the Bloc on most non-separation issues like Medicare, the environment and social programs and services).
If you care at all about our environment and how Canada fits into the global community, you should know that a conservative government will do its best to get Canada out of the Kyoto international environment protocols. They claim they would replace it with something better. But if that were true, why not keep Kyoto and then improve upon that. The fact of the matter is, the base of conservative power is in oil-rich and pollution heavy Alberta, which "coincidentally" is the province that has the most to gain from less environmental restrictions! The growth in Canada's energy sector is making it difficult enough for Canada to keep its environmental obligations already... But it's a fact that a conservative government would be significantly worse than any of the left-of-center parties (Liberal, NDP and Green) when it comes to the environment.
I feel extremely concerned that the average Canadian (who doesn't take excessive time to carefully analyze all the issues you need to know about when judging the different parties) is being scared, coerced and influenced into voting for the conservatives, when they are not even aware that a conservative government would mean a significant turn in a direction away from what most Canadians would consider "Canadian values" (meaning that we value our social programs and our Medicare and our environment and the fact that we do not want a country where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer).
Canada isn't perfect, nor is the current Liberal government, but the fact we live in the greatest nation on the planet is something we should not forget. We have almost always been considered one of the best nations in the world when it comes quality of life, but now thanks to the virtually miraculous work of the Liberals over the last decade, Canada has turned from an economic joke after the conservatives left power in the early 1990’s, on the verge bankruptcy, into an economic powerhouse despite massive global economic problems like the tech bubble burst and the economic aftershocks of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
There is a reason the world envies and looks to Canada as an economic role model. It's rather shocking how Canadians seem to be the last to see it. Yes the current fantastic state of the economy has meant serious sacrifices from all Canadians over the last decade, but it was crucially important that we got the annual deficit under control and pay off some of our overall debt before the inevitable economic crisis most of the world will face in the early-mid 2010's when the baby-boomer generation starts to retire which will increase demand on social spending while the actual tax-paying workforce decreases in numbers putting a heavy strain on the economy.
The conservatives say the government should not have surpluses, but at his point in time, it is CRUCIAL that we do in order to save the future! The ironic part of it all is, that it's actually because of the successful Liberal fight against the annual deficit and a decrease in our overall debt (instead of a dangerously large increase) that we are only now starting to see the beginnings of the return of spending back towards our social programs like education and Medicare. I will totally agree there is a long way to go, but it could have been much worse, and a conservative government would give some people less taxes, which is good ... BUT NOT at the sacrifice of our social programs, and even more dangerously, at the sacrifice of our future. (Despite the grand illusions of the conservatives non-substantial promises, they would mean steps backwards with regards to most social programs with the most obvious being Medicare and education and many other things when you carefully look at conservative ideology in general).
Did you know that the Conservative government left us with a 42 BILLION dollar a year deficit? If the Liberals had not started cutting back at things, Canada would be on pace to a TRILLION dollar debt by now instead of a debt that has actually shrunk over 10% to under 500 billion thanks to the Liberals. The difference between the two scenarios means that with today’s lower debt, Canada has an extra 15 to 20 BILLION dollars a year that it can return to social programs and education and Medicare that otherwise would have been lost money going towards paying interest on the debt if the Liberals hadn't been as serious about Canada's finances!
The conservatives are unfortunately successfully using smoke and mirror tactics to convince Canadians that we need a change even if we are successfully progressing strongly in the right direction already at the dawn of one of the most important economic and social turning points in our history. The most obvious example is the lowering of the GST. Yes... it would be great if we didn't need any taxes, but only a selfish idiot can realistically expect a nation to function without taxes. That being said, given the choice of lowering the GST or increasing the base amount income tax starts at, lowering the GST is the wrong choice! Note that over the years, the Liberals HAVE increased that amount where low-income people start paying taxes at a rate higher than standard of living, and they will continue to do so. The Liberals have also lowered the federal tax rate and have still managed to maintain surpluses to pay down our massive debt! Again, for lowering the GST, when you think about it, lowering the GST helps the rich more than the poor. Why? It's so simple... Because rich people spend more!
The overall conservative ideology is based on scaling back government, which negatively affects our Medicare, defense, the environment, education, and many other social programs Canadians have always valued! A conservative government is geared more towards the individuals when compared to most of the other progressive parties, who see Canada as a 21st century community of people whose sum is greater than our parts!
People and the media like to concentrate on shock-value scancal... and repeatedly blame the Liberals for scandals. YES... it is TRUE that the sponsorship scandal was bad! BUT the Gomery commission clearly states that NONE of the current Liberals have anything to do with that. The Martin Liberals have ousted the few remaining individuals involved from the Chretien Liberals. Yes you can say they are somewhat to blame, but only in the same way that the CEO of a multi-million dollar company is to blame for someone stealing a company stapler. The media likes to shock you with multi-million dollar claims, but the fact is the amounts in question represent less than 1/10,000th of Canada's overall expenses (0.001%). Yes... it IS still bad ... but is it bad enough that we should vote for the conservatives who policies already openly put fiscal priorities in areas most Canadians don't want?
It’s simply stupid to knowingly and deliberately go from any situation (even if it’s not perfect) into a new situation which is worse! It’s as if the current Liberal government was a 8/10 (not great, but not bad) … of course we should strive for 10/10, but “changing” the 8/10 doesn’t automatically give us 10/10 government (which is unrealistic if you ask me as there are always outside/uncontrollable factors that negatively affect any government). I totally admit a “change” to a conservative government will change us from the 8/10. But what most Canadians don’t realize is that the change will be from an 8/10 to a 6/10! Note that I’m not saying the conservatives are a 0/10. They aren’t deliberately evil, and I know that they mean well and believe in their minds that their policies/ideology is best for Canada … but they are not! They aren’t totally different from what the majority of Canadians value, they are simply a few steps to the right (a few too many if you ask me). My point is, why vote conservative and deliberately move in a direction away from what we value?
The only reason the conservatives might win, is actually because Canada is so socially progressive and non-conservative that we have several parties that unfortunate split the social vote (Liberal, NDP, Green, even the Bloc and a few other special interest parties take more votes away from progressive voters than conservative), while the conservative parties (the old Conservatives and the Reform party) have merged to combine their votes in each riding (voting district).
Why do you think the opposition so badly wanted to rush an election before the second Gomery report? It's because it will also clear the current Liberals of any significant wrongdoing (like the first Gomery report which everyone seems to forget)! The fact is, corruption has always been in the government, and ironically enough, the Liberals have actually taken several steps over the years to improve transparency! It's far from becoming perfect ... but it's much better than the ancient days where a party in power wouldn't develop roads or infrastructure in your riding if it didn't vote for them! Corruption IS a serious issue ... but before some of you repeatedly blame the Liberals because it's what you see on TV and what the conservatives tell you, please do some research of your own to see much of the progress the Liberals have done in the last decade to make things better! Martin had already committed to calling an election 30 days after the 2nd Gomery report (due in a couple of weeks) ... if you want to talk about a scandal... maybe you should think about how the Conservatives wanted to rush an election before Canadians have access to all the facts!? And how he is masking his campaign in a slogan of "It's time to change", knowing full well that most Canadians don't have the time or interest to research all the party's platforms and values, because if they did, they would know that a Conservative change indeed IS a change (they aren't lying) … but THE CONSERVATIVES ARE A CHANGE FOR THE WORSE!
If you really want to talk ethics... let's talk about gay marriage! People say Paul Martin is a ditherer, but try to get a clear answer from Harper and the Conservatives on this issue! They want to re-open the matter in parliament! The majority of Canadians feel strongly that same-sex marriage (in the eyes of the law) is a matter of basic human rights! Human rights should not be something that is votable... it must be something protected by our basic charter of human rights! To me, the current Conservative stance on same-sex marriage is not only a million times more scandalous than any of the claimed corruption by some past members of the Liberals... but it is outright despicable and unacceptable in the inclusive 21st century society most Canadians are proud to live in today!
Many conservative members are also strongly anti-pro-choice and against a woman's right to choose! I'll admit that the Canadian public would never let the conservatives truly return us to an archaic church-state (there would be riots before that), but that is the general direction the conservatives would take Canada if you compared it to the direction of the Liberals, NDP or Green parties. I'm not against freedom of religion in ANY way... but I am very much in favor of keeping church and state separate, and am very concerned when some conservatives talk on religious issues they feel should be imposed on the general population!
In conclusion, I'm begging you to be smart with your vote in order to keep the conservatives from forming a majority government. Yes I prefer the progressive ideals NDP more than the Liberals and MUCH MUCH more than the conservatives, but I also think the Liberals bring in the best balance by far between what we want and what we can actually afford, all while keeping a watchful eye towards the future! Regardless, both Liberal and NDP are far better choices for Canada and our future than a conservative government.
If any of this text confuses you, I highly encourage you to do some research of your own as everyone who votes should be responsible and inform themselves of all the issues before voting!
REMEMBER: You should not be voting for the party that promises you the most ... instead, you should be voting for the party that you think will be able to deliver the most and adjust best to the uncertainties of the future while never losing focus of the values you hold as important. After doing much research, to me, the choice is clear! But again, please take the time to inform yourself on as many issues as posible before deciding on how to vote!
REMEMBER: If you vote for NDP or Liberals: This isn't enough, please be sure you support the party that has the best chance of beating the conservatives by reading above!
- If you vote for the Conservative party: you will put Canada down a dark path in which Medicare, social programs, the environment, education and other important Canadian values are chipped away at slowly with a conservative government.
- If the Liberals won your riding in 2004, but after reading and researching all the facts, you still truly cannot bring yourself to vote Liberal, then please vote for the next best party with the NDP, as it would be better to abstain from voting than to vote conservative.
For information on where to vote:
1-866-213-4082 (toll free)
http://www.elections.ca
Note that even if you don't think you are registered, you can still vote if you bring ID(s) that have your picture, signature and address.
Liberal website: http://www.liberal.ca
NDP website: http://www.ndp.ca
Thanks you for reading, I encourage you all to discuss and debate the issues I said above and to please vote along the guidelines above!
Regards,
A Very Proud and Concerned Canadian,
NOTE: Here's the first chain mail that is actually true ... if you do not talk about this with all your friends and resend this e-mail to all the Canadians on your contact list, then the prosperous future of your country will be in grave danger!
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL CANADIANS ON YOUR CONTACT LIST!
To get a clean copy/paste version (without all the >> from forwarded messages):
1- Go to: http://www.pleasesavecanada.com/savecanada.txt
2- Click anywhere on the page.
3- Press CTRL-A to highlight the entire page.
4- Press CTRL-C to copy the highlighted text to the clipboard.
5- Start a new e-mail addressed all Canadians on your contact list
6- Press CTRL-V in the message area to paste the text you copied.
Note that the .txt version of the page will look weird because each paragraph is on one long line, but it’s that way so after you paste it into your e-mail program it will not split up the lines in the wrong places. You can also get a .doc version of the file, but I never recommend sharing .doc files because txt files are cleaner and cannot give you viruses if you open them in Notepad or WordPad: http://www.pleasesavecanada.com/savecanada.doc
Webpage version: http://www.pleasesavecanada.com
Thanks on behalf of all concerned Canadians! |
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| Cosmic Fur |
THESE POLITICAL THREADS!
MONDAY, COME ING FASTER! |
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| infinity HiGH |
| spam.lock.delete.permaban! |
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| Fir3start3r |
OMG!
The SCARY CONSERVATIVES!!!!
Canada is going down in flames!!!!!
Are we actually falling for this Martin fear mongering tripe???!!! :whip:
The Conservatives are as much Canadian (if not more so) as anybody else in any other party.
What the hell has gotten into you people??? :mad: |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
THESE POLITICAL THREADS!
MONDAY, COME ING FASTER! |
Amen to that! |
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| DJ_RRebel |
Sigh ... so sad to see how people don't really care about their country!
Anyhow ... seriously .. some of us do care .. if you don't, then don't bother reading or posting replies without even reading the content of the topic?! lol |
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| EvilTree |
Ah yes. More fearmongering.
So entertaining |
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| infinity HiGH |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_RRebel
Sigh ... so sad to see how people don't really care about their country!
Anyhow ... seriously .. some of us do care .. if you don't, then don't bother reading or posting replies without even reading the content of the topic?! lol |
seriously, stfu...you people have yet to come up with a sound argument for the liberals other than your usual fearmongering, disillusioned e.
the fact that you actaully buy into the liberals scare tactics shows how pathetic you are.
FFS PEOPLE...LURN 2 THINK |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_RRebel
Sigh ... so sad to see how people don't really care about their country!
Anyhow ... seriously .. some of us do care .. if you don't, then don't bother reading or posting replies without even reading the content of the topic?! lol |
OH I read it alright.
It's the same garbage Martin has been throwing at us for past two weeks in his campaign.
Conservatives are Canadians too.
Let me make one thing perfectly clear for those that obviously don't understand Canadian politics.
US Conservatives are NOT Canadian Converatives.
A vote for Harper is NOT a vote for Bush or the States as Martin would have you believe.
The US are our best friends and largest trading parnter.
Martin has done a great job of pissing them off and scaring Canadians that we're going to be some annexed State...:rolleyes:
Do us all a favour and get politically educated.
The Conservatives have NO agenda in killing Canadian values; they live here too.
In fact I challenge you read their 'agenda'
http://media.conservative.ca/video/...13-Platform.pdf |
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| ++ EGO ++ |
| can people stop telling others what to vote?? |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_RRebel
Sigh ... so sad to see how people don't really care about their country! |
Actually, we do care, that's why we want to dump the corrupt Liberals and get the Conservatives to start making some real repairs to this country's shattered political and economic system.
Thanks for comin' out - now go back your poli sci courses and welfare cheques and try, if you can find the time, to learn some ing economics during your breaks between those periods of jerking off to the words "status quo". |
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