The Liberals, the Conservatives, the ndp, the
Greens and even the stray independent, they all have a plan in
place for what they will do for the province should they be
re-elected/elected. Ramdath Jagessar interviewed
premier Dalton McGuinty, John Tory and Howard Hampton
for our Election Special this month. He covers hot button issues
and rates the parties on their performance over the past four
years.
While we sift through all the information out
there, and try to make some sense of the claims and counter
claims, the accusations and counter accusations, many people are
undecided about whom to vote for. As one said, it gets difficult
to choose between two or three parties offering variations on
the theme but saying more or less the same things.
Electoral Insight, published by Elections
Canada, details electoral participation of ethnocultural
communities.
Nearly one-fifth of Canada’s population is
foreign-born and it is widely held that voter turnout among
immigrants is lower than among the Canadian-born electorate.
Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former chief electoral officer of
Canada, writes that participation in the electoral process is
influenced by cultural heritage, ethnic origin, interest in
politics, sources of information, education, income, age, and
length of residence.
As for standing for elections, as the report
points out, though high campaign costs make it more difficult
for those with lower incomes to mobilize the funds to run for
political office, desis have been more successful in entering
the halls of parliament than other visible minorities. Of these,
Sikhs have been the most successful. Moe Sihota was the
first Indo-Canadian elected to a provincial legislature in
Canada when he became an mpp in British Columbia in 1986. Today,
of the 10 mps of South Asian descent in the 39th parliament,
seven are Sikhs. With South Asians growing in numbers, there are
many desis in the fray in the upcoming election. In some
ridings, parties are fielding only desi candidates –
whether that is a good thing or not is something we shall save
for a later debate!
* * *
A joke doing the rounds sheds light on the
different political ideologies:
How many Liberals does it take to change a
light bulb? They never change anything – they just cry over
the broken bulb!
How many Conservatives does it take to change
a light bulb? Nobody knows – they won’t release that
information!
How many ndp members does it take to change a
light bulb? We may never know!
* * *
Eid mubarak! Happy Dusserah!
