GreenDude

I’ve been labeled a lot of things in my life, tree-hugger, know-it-all, imposing, but the one thing I’ve never been called is “Right wing”. In fact, I’ve often been VERY critical of so called “right-wing” thinking. However, I’ve only really been referred to as “left-wing” by one person, in a response to my previous post on Poppy Irony, (actually he called me an anti-intellectual leftard, to be more precise.) It got me to thinking… where do I actually fit on the traditional Left/Right political spectrum.

For this experiment I decided to list my thoughts on various issues and see whether they were Left or Right.

• Pro Social Safety Net: Left
• Think Social Safety Net should be the last option: Right
• Pro Gun Control: Left
• Think gun crimes should carry very stiff criminal sentences: Right
• Big Business can’t be trusted to do the right thing for Society as a whole: Left
• Government can’t be trusted to do the right thing for Society as a whole: Right (but at least I get a say in who the government is!)
• Believe in the Canadian Mosaic schema of multiculturalism: Left
• Think that schools still have the right to have Christmas Assemblies that actually mention Christ: Right
• The environment matters and should be a key factor in all public policy decisions: Left (apparently)
• The economy matters and should be a key factor in all public policy decisions: Right
• That Stephane Dion may not be well suited to be PM: Right
• That Stephen Harper is definitely NOT well suited to be PM: Left
• That Jack Layton should never be PM: Normal

Basically I find myself pretty much in the centre of the political spectrum, although I suspect that my “progressive” feelings on social issues would take me over to the Left in the eyes of today’s Republican/Conservatives. (Gay marriage, fine; Legalise marijuana, good idea; Promote bilingualism, bien sûr)

I think that this blending of perspectives within myself is what led me to the Green Party in the first place. A party that looks at all ideas objectively and promotes the ones that fit with its fundamental ideologies. Good ideas are good ideas, no matter who first proposed them. Quite a break from the political system we currently have I think.

For fun I took the Political Compass quiz to see where I fit on it’s spectrum. Apparently I am a bit to the left, but comfortably near Gandhi. I can live with that.

Hmm, looks like Tory MP Wajid Kahn is in a bit of trouble, but not for the reasons I would have thought.

A few weeks back I complained that Mr. Kahn was still doing ads for his Toronto car dealership while he was a sitting MP. Well the Ethics Commissioner set me straight on that point. However, pencil throwing NDP MP Pat Martin has discovered something even worse about the floor-crossing Member for Mississauga-Streetsville.

According to CBC.ca:

Ontario Conservative MP Wajid Khan has been charged with violating the Elections Canada Act.

Khan, who crossed the floor from the Liberals to the Conservatives in January of this year, is charged with exceeding his campaign expense limit by $30,000 and paying for some campaign expenses he wasn’t allowed to personally cover.

The charges stem from the 2004 election campaign, when Khan ran as a Liberal.

His former riding president and his car dealership, Dufferin Mazda, are also charged with paying for campaign expenses they weren’t supposed to cover.

“Some people treat the election financing rules [as] voluntary guidelines,” said NDP MP Pat Martin, who filed a complaint last January when he heard there were questions about how Khan financed his election campaign. “They’re not. They’re hard fast laws and there should be consequences. If not, it’s not fair to any of us.”

This revelation probably won’t do any real damage to the Harper Conservatives, since the incident occurred while Mr. Kahn was running for the Liberals 2 elections ago. It makes me wonder though why it has taken so long for this to come to light. Mr. Martin apparently learned of the questions about Mr. Kahn’s campaign financing in January ’07, right around the time that Mr. Kahn made his jump to the Tories.

Could it be that the Liberals knew about this situation all along and were keeping it quiet, only letting it out when Mr. Kahn stepped (way) out of line. Political backstabbing? Maybe. But a serious problem nonetheless. My guess is that while Harper will take a bit of a hit for not doing some due diligence on his new MP, the Liberals will take the bigger hit for not doing something about the situation before allowing Mr. Kahn to run in a second election for them.

The big winner… the NDP who now have a second scandal which, like the Shreiber/Mulroney affair, has the potential to do damage to both of their main political rivals in the House.

Although I rarely agree with anything written by Werner Patel, I do enjoy reading his blog. One of his latest posts caught my eye.

Has control over MPs and caucuses gone too far? While a certain degree of party discipline is certainly appreciated, the fact that each MP has a mind of his or her own should not be ignored.

Voters elect MPs to represent them and their ridings. No political party is a uniform block of just one line of thought, ideology or policy. The reason for having MPs is to have a diversity of opinion — including within the same party. The alternative would be to have only the four party leaders meet for regular coffee klatsches where the policies and laws for the country at large are hammered out.

Agreed. We, the voters, entrust 308 men and women with the responsibility of representing our interests in the House of Commons. Each MP has the duty to represent ALL of his/her constituents, not just the minority (usually) that elected them. While the party needs to have a focused strategy, that’s what caucus meetings are for. MPs should not be punished, à la Bill Casey, for voting in accordance with the best interests of their constituents.

Strangely, I seem to remember one party stating that they were all for making more votes free of the whip. Oh, yes, that would be these guys:

A Conservative government will:

• Make all votes in Parliament, except the budget and main estimates, “free votes” for ordinary Members of Parliament.

from Stand up for Canada: p.23

I guess Mr. Harper forgot about that one too.

(BTW I am aware that Mr. Casey voted against a budget bill, however he may have been relying on the word of his colleague Peter MacKay who said prior to the vote: “We will not throw a member out of caucus for voting his conscience. There will be no whipping, flipping, hiring or firing on budget votes as we saw with the Liberal government.” Ooops.)