Federal Election 2011 – Some Thoughts and Prognostications

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who is well connected and knowledgeable about Federal politics. The thoughts immediately turned to election prognostications. This election has a strange feel  to it – kind  of like  people  feel  that they should be interested in it – even if they aren’t. Welcome to my series  of  thoughts on Federal  Election 2011.

Why are we having this election at all? The answer is simple:

This election is  NOT about the well being of the country. This  election IS about the well being of the parties and the party leaders.  To put it simply we are having this  election because:

– Harper wants  a Conservative  majority government
– Ignatieff wants to be Prime  Minister
– Layton wants  to matter to something beyond the NDP

Political  parties  are private organizations whose activities  are  largely funded by Canadian taxpayers. Consider this:

– the election of 2011 is an activity orchestrated by The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP which will  cost Canadian taxpayers in excess of 300 million dollars (Query Mr. Layton – should  this 300 million not have gone to the poor instead?)
– political parties  receive $1.95 from the taxpayers for  each vote their party receives

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Independent candidates run against voter apathy

On Friday evening May 28 I spent an interesting evening attending an “open house” run by Redmond Wissenberger – Candidate for City Council – Ward 13, Parkdale-High Park. Redmond is running against a long-time incumbent, Bill Saundercook.

Redmond delivered an interesting, motivating presentation, which was followed by a Q and A session.  He is energetic, knowledgeable, eager to learn more, and above all else – Redmond wants to do a good job for the residents of Ward 13. Redmond is neither an incumbent nor backed by a political party.

There are three categories of candidates in Toronto elections:

1. Incumbents – which have the advantage of campaigning every day at the taxpayers expense

2. Party backed candidates – Political parties are not allowed to run candidates in municipal elections. That said, some parties have been known to throw their organizational resources behind candidates.

3. Independent Candidates – which are at a severe disadvantage because they neither the advantage of incumbency nor political weight of a political party behind them.

Furthermore, these three kinds of candidates are either:

– creations of the media (whose support is first invented by the media followed by actual support from voters); or

– candidates who have or are trying to generate actual support from voters.