Election day

During the federal election I explained to my kids about the major political parties. We discussed who the party leaders were and went through what each party was offering. My son, in particular, was quite interested in the election and made sure to come with me to vote.

Fast forward half a year (give or take) to the provincial election. This time around I pretty much stayed in denial until early this week. Then I went through all the reasons I didn't want to vote for each party until I found the one I disliked the least.

First up was the Progressive-Conservatives. Last time around they took a "punish the poor" stance and pretty much hammered Ontario into the ground. This time around they decided to release flyers claiming OMG the Liberals are going to teach your six year old about cross dressers! Considering I was standing beside a man in an evening gown during the Sunday service at our church's annual conference, I don't think there's anything in the Liberal's (still unused) sexual education program my kids haven't already picked up at church. I really don't appreciate the shock tactics.

Next are the Liberals, our current party in power. The ones who were apparently asleep when The Highland Companies bought up prime farmland claiming to want to operate a large potato farm, then announced they're making a mega quarry deeper than Niagara Falls and twice as wide... pumping out 600 million litres of water a day. Water that is at the source of 5 major rivers along the Niagara Escarpment. It took them months before they, oops, admitted that maybe a pit mine that size *might* have an ecological impact. Note this was after denying there was a potential issue at all and only after realizing that there were a LOT of angry voters. At the beginning they were pretty much telling concerned voters to suck it up and deal with it.

Then comes the Green Party, complete with a green leader. He sounds like he's a great guy but has no real political experience. He claims he's got a fresh new outlook. I would like someone who knows a little bit about what's going on in politics at the helm of our province.

That leaves us with the NDP. They didn't do that great a job running the province the last time but I think they did a better job than the PCs. And, as someone who takes public transit, I like that they are planning on freezing transit fares in Ontario. Congratulations Andrea... you got my X.

Frankly, the options were so weak this time around that I'd have voted for whatever party offered free cookies. Something politicians might want to keep in mind next time around. I'm a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate by the way.