| VOTE NDP! Could | Be More Blatant? 3 Left Overs : ( Iain Reeve, OP Columnist ) ince this will be our last issue S before the provincial election, I thought it would be nice of me to let the cat out of the bag and tell everyone exactly how I’m going to be voting May 17 and why. While you may think you can easily dismiss me as a crazy leftist nut (I know someone around here who does), I do have my reasons. Did the last NDP government make some mistakes? Oh my, yes. Did they deserve to lose the last elec- tions because of it? Probably, though it had as much to do with successful Liberal demonization as it did with actual NDP fault. Was it a good idea to vote them out so sharply as to leave the Liberals all but uncontested in legislature? No. No matter what your particular political beliefs, you NEED an opposition for government to work. My real argument here, however, is that while the NDP did some crappy things when they were last in power, none of them even come close to what the Liberals have done in four years. School and hospital closures, war on unions— even unions representing our most important professions such as health care and education—and the “reform” of wel- fare to gravitate towards a system that seeks to throw hundreds if not thousands on the street. It’s all pretty brutal. And, of course, the most cited grievance our age group is consistently told to care about: >} x Get a Great new bo. look for Summer! 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But if you seriously sit down and think about it, I think you'll realize that the fast ferries debacle was not as bad as making decisions that have caused real damage to the majority of British Columbians. See you at the polls. Left Overs Part Two: Bizzaro Canada! Will Canada Go Conservative? GEEEZUS! The newspaper goes on a break for a few weeks and the whole damned country gets flipped upside down. We go from the safe, familiar Liberal domination of all things political, to people talking very seriously about the Conservatives forming government. This is all, of course, related to sets of declas- sified testimony from the Gomery Commission into the sponsorship scan- dal. These documents revealed some rather damning testimony about Liberal party members reimbursing businessmen who paid into the parties with contracts for various media programs. One thing I agree with everyone on, is that this is fraud of the highest order, and the people responsible should be jailed not just for committing these crimes, but also for giv- ing a swift kick to the nuts of public trust. People don’t exactly love government nowadays; never mind all these shenani- gans. But does this debacle warrant voting Conservative? There are three points I want to make. Point one: corruption crosses party lines. All this jabbering that you’re hearing from Stephen Harper and other Conservative MPs about how despicable the Liberal party is, how they do not have the moral authority to rule, and how they eat babies, is probably true, but are the Conservatives any better? Most of us are too young, but those of us familiar with recent Canadian history may remember a man named Brian Mulroney, Canada’s last conserva- tive Prime Minister. This man wrote the book on kickbacks and patronage, so much so that actual books have been writ- ten about extortion and fraud in the Mulroney administration. Stevie Cameron’s On the Take is a good one, if you're interested. If you think the Conservative party would be any less cor- rupt with their tighter links to business, and generally dismissive nature towards most Canadians, you're flat-out wrong. Point two: while I’m no fan of the Liberals in general, they are the only ones doing something about the scandal. They are seeking those responsible and will bring them to justice; the Conservatives are just treating this as an opportunity for political gain by forcing an election most Canadians do not want. Point three: Conservatives suck. I may be crazy, but I'll take corruption over increased military spending, senseless lowering of taxes, the limiting of minori- ty rights, and the raping of social programs any day. My solution? Vote NDP. Jack Layton has emerged in the past couple weeks as a confident leader who is trying to make parliament work for Canadians. Why resort to more corruption as a solution to corruption? I say it’s time to give a new party a chance. Then, when they get cor- rupt, we can go back to loving the Liberals again. May 11/2005