Election post

So I dreamed up a fantastic post, and now can't seem to remember what I was going to say.

I guess I'm a bit torn about who to vote for this election, though I know it won't be conservative.

It's been interesting watching the campaign and so far no one has really convinced me that they really and truly have anything interesting to say.

I think the problem is that Stephen Harper's success has convinced everyone to run a small campaign, no big ideas, nothing interesting no vision, etc.

Actually Jeffrey Simpson wrote an interesting article about how these techniques have been imported from Australia and the United States.

The idea seems to me to be "death by a thousand cuts" to the public sector. Stupid tax cuts, no real policies and hope for the best. Actually what Stephen Harper touts as tax cuts (like the transit credit, the 705$ to defray my house closing costs) are actually subsidies to people who are already doing these things.

Does anyone really imagine that 750$ is going to make the difference between spending 300,000$ on a house or not. Ridiculous! Same thing with the transit pass, find me one Canadian that actually decided to take transit because he gets 20$ back on his taxes.

To call these things incentives, is quite the stretch, they are really subsidies to the voters that the Conservatives are targeting. Not only that, they increase the difficulty and opaqueness of the tax system. Real Conservatives would call for a simpler fairer tax system or even a flat tax, but the Conservatives we have here, just want to give out money in stupid tax cuts (read subsidies) that have no policy objective and don't really make any sense at all.

I wish we had a party that would provide a bigger vision and treat us like adults, however it seems increasingly unlikely. Maybe after the Liberals have spent some time in the wilderness they can come back with some real ideas..