Posted on 05/05/2003 8:16:19 AM PDT by dont vote 4 liberals
I've never been fond of being in a large crowd so I avoid them when I can. Even after living in Ottawa for over 8 years I have never been to a Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill. I've stuck to the smaller celebrations of my eastern suburb instead.
I have made an exception on two occasions. The first was the memorial service for the victims of the World Trade Center attack. My attendance was demanded by the emotional impact of seeing so many wives and husbands wandering the streets of Manhattan in a futile search for a loved one. The second time was a couple of weeks ago at the Rally for Freedom. Emotions of a different kind motivated me to be there on that wet Saturday even though I knew it would cause me to miss half of my daughter's birthday party.
At that rally, and at many other times, reference was made to 'the silent majority'. Such comments are easily brushed off as pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking from politicians who are sheltered from reality, but in this case I think there is great deal of validity to the claim.
In the past 30 years, no party has managed to get more than 50% of the vote in a General Election except in 1984. That election gave us Brian Mulroney as our PM for the first time. Canadians were highly motivated to remove the Liberals from power after years of pork barrel politics, so 75% of them turned up to vote.
The Liberal party never received more than 42% of the vote In any of the last three elections, and voter turnout plummeted from 71% in 1993 to 61% in 2000. In the last election they received about 39% of the ballots cast, but when you factor in the electors who didn't vote, it goes down to less than 25%. If you then factor in the number of Canadians who could have been listed as electors but were not, it goes even lower. Yet they formed a 'majority' government.
Many Canadians feel discouraged because of this, and the media is happy to promote the view that the Liberals are popular, and headed towards another majority government. This view is false. The Liberals have never had the support of the majority and only the quirks of our first-past-the-post system handed them the reins of power.
The danger is that the media's prophesy about the next election can become self-fulfilling, if we let it.
The actual results of an election are affected by what Canadians expect the results to be. Voter turnout is usually higher when the outcome is in doubt throughout the campaign. When it seems pretty clear who will win from the start, people who would vote for a party that is expected to lose are more likely to stay home since they feel that even if they do vote it won't make any difference. The Liberals have benefited greatly from this and would love to do so again.
The expectation of a fourth Liberal majority government is based on a false idea. People think the vote splitting between the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives makes it impossible for either one beat the Liberals. This assumes that those who voted Liberal before, and those who did not vote, will do the same the next time around. In the next election, no party has to top the Liberal's results of the 2000 election to win; they only have to get more seats than the Liberals in that election.
I'm well aware of what the current polls say, and at a later time I'll write an article on the difference between what the polls actually say and what the media claim they mean. For now I just want to point out that the first-past-the-post system is a double-edged sword that can work against the Liberals as well as it has worked for them.
The first step is to shatter the myth of Liberal popularity so we can create the expectation that the Liberals will not win the next election. Large demonstrations do have some value, but they only last a few hours and are easily ignored or downplayed by both government and the media. Also, taking part in demonstrations of that kind is unappealing to most Canadians even when they support the cause.
Subtle, longer lasting, inoffensive and widely visible expressions of protest (or ridicule) are needed. It might seem like some of the things I suggest in the Take Action section are too small and insignificant to have an impact, but imagine the effect of millions of Canadians doing those things. We can make it plainly visible that the majority of Canadians are opposed to the Liberals and create the expectation that they will lose the next election before it is even called.
No doubt at least some will think I'm dreaming of things that will never be. I don't think so and I'm willing to put something on the line in the hopes of making that dream come true. I hope you are willing to do the same. All of us had better do more than just wait if we want to remove the Liberals from power.
Lots of parts are still under construction, but I can't let what is done wait for the rest.
If you want to do more than just wait for the next election, if you want to actually DO something to turn the tide, then visit the Take Actionpage
Volunteers are desperatly needed for The Memory Hole Project.
Please drop by, have a good look around, and send some feedback to help the site become as good as it can be.
Good project
Thanks for the kind words, but right now it is only something that MIGHT become a good project. If everyone just reads what's there and goes 'Oh, that good, I hope it succeeds' and does nothing to help make it happen then it will FAIL.
America needs to create enough misery in Canada to make voters see that it is in their best interest to turn out to vote these Liberals out of office entirely.
It is true that a poor economy would do a lot to undermine support for the Liberals, but if the economic pain is seen as being an American attempt to force the Liberals out of office, then it will have the opposite effect.
When the USA warns that IF Canada legalizes pot that they will have to enforce stricter boarder controls, then the blame will lie on the Liberals if they go ahead with it and that's fine. If however there is some kind of organized, deliberate attempt to sink our economy to control or effect our elections, then there would be a huge backlash that would help the Liberals.
Some of the things listed on the Take Action page are things that Americans, and Canadians living in the USA, can do to help too.
Submit an editorial on an American's view of why Canadians should choose a new government, encourage others to visit the site, contribute jokes, parodies etc., shop at the store once it's online etc...
Who says? The media. I don't belive that the PC and CA have to unite for the Liberals to be defeated, it would help a great deal, but it is not required. Nor is such a merger anywhere close to being likely. It's a red herring that is perfect for discouraging conservatives and fostering a defeatist attitude once the election is called and there is no longer any time for such a merger. Already there is a great deal of defeatist attitude out there.
There is enough room among the 10 million non-voters for BOTH the CA and PC's to do better than the Liberals in the next election, and I don't think it's realistic to assume the Liberals will still get the 6 million votes they got last time (and I hope to make sure of that).
They got to you way down there, eh? :)
If you can't get likeminded people to vote together, the Liberals and NDP will beat you like a redheaded stepchild.
The NDP are not really a factor, and if they become one, it will be at the Liberal's expense. When Canadians get fed up with arrogant corrupt governemnts, they turn up at the polls in large numbers to deliver the smackdown. It happened in 1984 to the Liberals, and then in 1993 to the PC's. It can happen again in the next election and I want to do what I can to see it does.
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