Editor: My wife and I attended an all-candidates meeting in our community on Wednesday, April 20.
Five candidates attended from the Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green and Pirate parties. What struck me is how closely aligned the policies of the four non-Conservative parties are, and how sharply they contrasted with the Conservative platform.
I personally don’t vote Conservative, but I could vote for any of the other parties except for the Pirates. What frustrates me is I know that like-minded voters will spread their votes across these other parties, and the Conservative candidate will be elected again in our riding.
At the national level in our House of Commons, the same applies to our opposition parties. Leaving aside the separatist agenda of the Bloc, the policies of the three opposition parties are very similar.
It is important to note too that the Conservatives, in their five years of minority government, have never had more than 40 per cent of the popular vote.
In the last Parliament, they had 37.7 per cent support. So 60 per cent of Canadians voted for the other parties and their policies.
Perhaps a coalition of the opposition parties would give us a more stable government than we have had, and be more closely aligned with the majority of Canadians. I say let’s give it a go.
Bill Masse,
Langley
