The following is a copy of an email I sent out, collected here for ease of reading. For your reference, Here is the original email that this is in response to. And in case you are interested, here is my cousin's response to that email. Please feel free to comment in the Message Boards if you like.
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My biggest fear right now is a Conservative win. First of all, I have never voted. I have never really cared about it. Call it irresponsible and I will agree, but the issues have never really struck home for most young people. Now it seems like some issues affect me more. And it also seems that some parties are actually attempting to focus their platforms at people my age. So now I am interested, and here is my opinion.
It is very very easy to create a list of shortcomings of the government that is in control at the moment. Their mistakes are clearest in everyone's heads. But let's agree that ALL parties will screw up at some point, and that they can never please everyone all the time. I feel that the entire Conservative platform is based on two things:
1. Bashing the Liberals' mistakes
2. Taking advantage of the assumption made by all canadians that the only other choice is Conservative
Now, I don't follow politics at all, but I am quite certain that for all the mistakes made by the Liberals, there have been many good things as well. The things that don't get media coverage, and the things that everyone forgets. One major one that I can think of is our recent stance against the americans and their ridiculous war on terror. My proudest canadian moment was when it was announced that we would NOT be supporting the US in the war on terror. I was beaming. I could not even put it into words. I was so proud that we were going to stand up and be our own country with our own ideas. Now look at these three paragraphs from the conservatives' website (http://www.conservative.ca/english/issues2.asp):
Support for our Canadian Forces
The Conservative Party will fight for our armed forces. We will ensure our armed forces are properly funded and equipped to do the difficult and dangerous work we ask of them.
Canada’s Place in the World
The Conservative Party will fight for Canada’s national interest. We will stand with our allies and international bodies against terrorism and for the basic values of freedom and democracy.
Canada – US Relations
The Conservative Party will fight for our primary producers in trade disputes. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with the US when we can so that we can sit eyeball to eyeball when we must.
That's three "issues" listed out of fifteen. TWENTY PERCENT of the space on their "issues" page is used to basically talk about what appears to be an attitude of "let's fight whatever wars are necessary to keep the USA happy". The last thing I want in a Prime Minister is a man whose main purpose in life is to be a yes-man to George W.
Another point is our basic freedoms. I am a huge proponent of leaving people alone if they are not hurting anyone. I do not think the conservatives agree with me. I feel that social issues are going to be placed on the back burner while money and defense get all of the attention.
The Conservatives may in fact be a lot better than the Liberals at managing money. But we can only GUESS about that right now. In my opinion there are a lot of things that are much much more important than money.
Anyway, I'm getting on to quite a rant here. My main point is that you may want to vote against the Liberals.. but that does not mean that you have to vote for the Conservatives. Look at this quote from the email below:
Do I like the Conservatives?
Not particularly......I don't really like Politics.
Is this guy serious? So he is going to vote for a party that he does not particulary like, simply to keep the other guy down? What grade is he in? If you are going to take a stand against the Liberals, at least pick a party that you want to SUPPORT.
Choosing between the Conservatives or Liberals is like choosing between 2 devils. Neither is going to do anything new. I propose that we start looking for real alternatives and that we start now. If we don't start at some point, then it's always going to be a coin-toss vote. Parties like Green and NDP have some great ideas, as do the smaller parties and independents. The only way we are going to see real change is to get out of this "one or the other" situation. And the only way to start down that path is to start voting for your true beliefs now.
Placing a conservative vote as a strategy against the liberals, to me, is more a waste of a vote than spoiling your ballot. At least by spoiling your ballot you are not lying about your beliefs.
So please forward this response back to the person who sent you the email below and forward both emails along to your friends. Tell them to go ahead and think about who they want to vote for rather than blindly choosing one party in order to shut out another.
Sean
I will close with a quote from theconservative leader's new best friend:
"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/multimedia/foolbush.mov