Actually, NDP helped Liberals stay in power
In response to Lonnie Campell’s letter criticizing Green Party voters for, in essence, voting — you should shift your anger and blame for the NDP’s loss onto the shoulders of those that deserve it: the NDP. The NDP did not give a strong enough platform, nor an economic plan that seemed based in reality. They didn’t give people anything to vote for. The NDP is supposed to be pro-worker but their $10/day childcare plan was just another form of corporate welfare — have the working taxpayer subsidize childcare so that companies can continue to pay their workers less and less rather than fight for a living wage.
The Green Party was the only party that banned corporate and union donations. This is not to say corporations or unions are evil, but if a politician takes large sums of money from certain entities they are then beholden to those entities. If they only take small-scale donations from individual voters then they are beholden to the voters. Corporate and union donations are a form of legal bribery which the Green Party spoke against.
The Green Party was also the only party with a plan to at least look into a living wage. A person working full time on minimum wage does not earn enough to support themselves and so requires government assistance, again funded by the taxpayer. Our current minimum wage is corporate welfare — it allows corporations to make billions in profit while the taxpayer and foodbanks support the corporation’s very own employees.
Our elections have become not about who a person is voting FOR, but rather who they are voting AGAINST. A substantial portion of NDP voters voted NDP solely as a protest vote against the Liberals. Same can be said for a large portion of Liberal voters voting against the NDP. Nearly 100 per cent of Green voters voted FOR the Green Party, not against the other two. It’s time people start voting FOR something and to stop blaming others for doing just that.
David Reid
Duncan