Link To All Canadian Parties

Still undecided on how you're going to vote October 14?

Take a look at this page from Elections Canada listing the current 19 parties seeking your vote.

For those of you old enough to remember, the Rhinoceros party is alive and well - sorta. They go by the name of neorhino.

The Communist Party certainly has it all figured out. Easily the best website in terms of content.

As for the rest, most of the parties exist as a backlash to the 2 1/2 party system (Conservative, Liberal and the NDP) and speak of bringing "power back to the people."

Democracy and capitalism are indeed under duress these days for a number of a reasons. In this way, I do agree with fringe parties and their calls to fix it. I don't see the Conservatives or Liberals ever making any meaningful changes to, for example, weaken the power of the PM and to make democracy in Canada more transparent. Nor do I see our economy becoming less monopolistic moving forward.

It seems to me the best way to empower people is not through government intervention. On the contrary, you bludgeon the human spirit with one big useless bureaucracy. It turns people into intellectual sloths.

The truth is that life will always have winners and losers; smarties and dummies. There's no way around this. Communism seeks to "equalize" what cannot be equalized. Even within its structures by virtue of human nature it will face this reality - unless they engage in old fashioned social engineering.

If this contradiction is present then the flow of communist thought is flawed and will fail the people. Socialism is another form of organized thuggery under the guise of progress. It starts out noble and ends up being run by gangs who form other gangs all seeking to steal money from the people (check out the endless unions that run Quebec) but it ends up realizing it can't solve the human conditions that inhabit us all. So it shrugs its shoulders and tells people they are regressive if they don't think of the collective good however inefficient the bureaucracy is.

After a while, as the good intentions of socialism fail, resourceful people seek for other outlets. They begin to question and wonder. In other words, they begin to dream. They will seek solutions not from the government but from with the sovereign individual. That's true self-reliance and responsibility. Isn't that real grass roots mobilization if its voluntary?

If we're truly enlightened and progressive then all care for fellow citizens would and should be voluntary. There's something unholy and immoral in forcing a productive person to pay out of his or her pocket - through the dubious collection of personal income taxes - to take care of other people they don't know. Indeed, people that may very well simply seek to take advantage of the system - and we all know this is a massive problem here in Canada.

Socialism and communism, while interesting concepts that deserve attention, are (to me anyway) corruptible, dead-end ideas that simply lead to black markets. In this case, stick with capitalism. At least, I know in theory I have a shot at personal success.

Thus, the destiny with an individual should not be tied into a political party.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, I recommend people read the platforms of each party and decide for themselves.