Urban Vancouver

Welcome to the Election 2004 Discussion Forum

By Richard Eriksson on May 24, 2004 - 1:39pm

Paul Martin has called this election on of the most important in Canada's history, and it will be one of the most competitive in recent memory, with many pundits predicting a Liberals minority government (that is the Liberal Party holding the largest number of seats in the House of Commons but less than 50%). I for one would welcome a minority government, since it would make the "natural governing party" a little more sensitive to public opinion and might be a step forward towards a socially liberal, economically conservative government that many Canadians (like myself) would like to see.

What is the biggest issue for you? For me, it's the electoral system. I favour a system like Germany's which gives people two representatives: one at the local level, and another at the regional (although effectively party) level.

I'm not so much undecided as to what party to vote for as I am undecided as to whether I'm going to vote. It's not that I don't think my vote matters (I think it does), but there is no candidate or party that speaks to me. There is little incentive for me to be politically active, since like most (relatively) young people, I'm too busy being young. Thomas Geoghegan has some great ideas to make voting fun again, saying that we need to put the party back in political party.