God Ceph,

Canadians have it rough this election too. I cannot choose who to vote for this time around. BTW, we still have our summer cabin at Pike Lake ( I spend 4 months a year there because I cant stand southern heat and humidity), so my vote will be in Saskatchewan.

I tend to vote more on the conservative side, mostly because I am sick of the unfair tax laws for families in Canada. Income taxes in the USA are about the same as in Canada for singles, but once you are in a married situation, income taxes in the USA are considerably lower.The only families who benefit tax wise in Canada are single parents and their children. That bothers me to no end.

But...

This time around, there are no good choices. Harper makes my stomach churn because, even though he has done a good job in a minority government, I am afraid for him to have a majority. I believe he has a secret agenda , kept under wraps, because Canadians wont accept social conservatism.

The NDP, I would never vote for. Sorry, but their policies are out of whack with the real world. They have a role to play, since they dont have much chance of winning, they can spotlight the plight of the poor, or the low income worker, etc, but I cannot vote for their policies. For example, this latest election promise of Laytons to give 400 dollars a month per child tax free to low income or welfare families. That would be welcomed on 22nd street, but would it solve anything? The unemployment rate in Saskatoon is ridiculously low, and jobs are everywhere. Why encourage people further not to work, since the benefits of work are far beyond monetary.

The Green party has no chance of even electing a member and they are not prepared to govern, since all of their attention is focused on environmental issues. They, also, are good for raising public awareness but cannot realistically defend their policy, since they have no grasp of the rest of the issues out there.

That leaves the Liberals, with DIon at the helm. I have to ask, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? I cannot imagine a more inept, uninteresting, uninspiring, pacifist leader at the helm. The liberals SHOULD be able to win this time and they would, if someone like Ignatieff were leading, but Dion has taken meek to a whole new level. His carbon tax would be a huge mistake at the moment, with the economic uncertainty out there.

I dont trust the conservatives with Flaherty as finance minister. I lived in Ontario during the Mike Harris days when flaherty was finance minister there. Yes, taxes went down. But user fees for everything went up. Car insurance went nuts.Utilities skyrocketed. And all Flaherty did was to download the cost of the programs he cut, onto municipalites, thus user fees and property taxes went way up to pay for things in your town. To top it all off, when the conservatives finally left office, it was discovered that there was a huge deficit, not the surplus that they had claimed. They lied.

Gee, a politician who lies. Who woulda thunk it?

I am voting Conservative and not thinking twice about it. And all the rest of it.