\nMy wife and I’ve been married 24 years. Take it from me: she’s no dreamer. Likely the dreamiest action she ever took was to marry me; I don’t imagine her feet have left the ground since.\n<\/p>\n
\nWe’ve been talking about the election. “Diane,” I began a couple of days back, “I’ve encountered the term ‘strategic voting’, which means voting against<\/em> the party you don’t want, rather than for<\/em> the one you like best.”\n<\/p>\n “Sounds like sound strategy,” she assented.<\/p>\n My wife’s French Canadian, from industrial northern Ontario. She represents a prominent Canadian profile: pragmatic and, at best, cautiously optimistic. Her point of view hearkens back to Canada’s virtual two-party system of the 80s and before, when only the Liberals or Conservatives, it seemed, could ever win. Therefore, voting against<\/em> the party you really didn’t want equated to voting for<\/em> your favourite: Canadian common sense. (BTW: the Yanks still seem to live in such a universe.)\n<\/p>\n \nFor me, the 1993 election effectively ended Canada’s two-party system. The Liberals easily won a majority, true. Yet, two new parties, Bloc Quebecois and Reform, won substantial numbers of seats as well, each many times more than the Conservatives. Therefore, the “two-party” model didn’t longer apply. It was an exciting time.<\/p>\n \nChretien’s Liberals, from their big win in ’93, went on to balance the budget and even brought surpluses thereafter. Many people wondered if they were inspired to govern so well because the Bloc and Reform were serious parties who would pose a true challenge next time, if the Liberals didn’t perform.<\/p>\n \nNow, in 2019, if the NDP can win enough votes to cause a minority government, they will likely incite better government from whoever wins. Maybe, this election, the marriage of “dreaming big” and “strategic voting” is a minority government, perhaps that includes a fresh point of view and completes Parliament’s kit of Canadian representation.\n<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n gobalnews.ca<\/a><\/p>\n ubc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n cbc.ca<\/a><\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about politics: the tutor continues about the upcoming vote. My wife and I’ve been married 24 years. Take it from me: she’s no dreamer. Likely the dreamiest action she ever took was to marry me; I don’t imagine her …<\/p>\n