i don't trust internet polls. the sampling simply isn't random. worse, there's an age bias that directly contradicts known voting patterns (older people are far more likely to vote).

i'm not expecting significantly different results than the last election - liberals and conservatives around 35 (+/-) and the ndp in the low 20s. it's going to be about turnout.

i'm not voting. i don't know the riding well enough. but it's probably clear that i'm supporting the liberals over the ndp.

most politicians are a little loopy, but i'm strongly convinced that horwath is a clinical psychopath.

hey, i'm in dwight duncan's old seat.

it's a liberal-ndp race, here, which just stresses the need to understand local issues, which i don't. well, in most circumstances, that's how i'd look at it, anyways.

see, i'm not happy about an ndp candidate attacking the green energy act. yes, electricity has gone up, and people are upset, but it's a boneheaded analysis to blame it on the decision to shut down coal plants, rather than these off the wall market-based electricity policies. i expect the ndp to present an articulate solution that argues for public ownership of utilities (and explicitly against running utilities for private profit), not some hamfisted, cursory nonsense. for the armchair accountants in the audience, how about an argument that improving air quality offsets health costs? if there's no longer any idea of sharing social burdens in the ndp's outlook, if it's just self interest and lowering costs, what's their purpose in the existing political spectrum?

....and i like the idea of high speed rail heading out to toronto. it would make it feasible to spend the day there to catch a festival show.

i don't really care about what they say about jobs, because i understand that the existing political reality is that the government cannot create jobs. it's a neat trick they've pulled off to put the responsibility in the hands of the private sector (we're knee deep in the neo-liberal era, folks), thereby eliminating any control they have over the issue, then run election platforms on it, as though they didn't relinquish control. just once i'd like to see a current politician take the podium and state:

"the era where government policy could create jobs ended in the 90s. we campaigned on it. you voted us in to cut the links. we did it. now, you're on your own. sorry. "

beyond that, the structural realities of mass job creation not just here but in a thousand mile radius are just not feasible. the idea that we can create all these jobs for all these people isn't realistic, so we need to adjust how we think; voters need to get it through their heads that the choice is between having some people on welfare and some people working full time and having everybody working part time and also living on welfare. which is actually what socialism is *really* all about. so, it's socialism or welfare and we have to deal with it. a thousand sun readers just had their brain explode. i'm ok with that being a choice, too, so long as the income differential is meaningful. well, it's a choice, right? better than being sent to the walmart under threat of starvation. the choice is simple: do you want more money than you have time or do you want more time than you have money? and, knowing full well that demanding employment is going to hurt somebody else that needs the money more than me, i'll happily choose time over money.

so, it's mostly meh. the ndp will support the rail plan. and the liberals are simply better on the environment right now.

it's a shame. the province needs to reclaim it's resources. it's going to happen sooner or later. the ndp is really missing the boat on articulating a vision of social democracy at precisely the time that it's needed, and at precisely the time it may actually be embraced.

because people really *are* pissed about rising costs, they're just being misled about the causes, and the ndp are not helping them understand them.

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/4548567-mudslinging-dominates-windsor-tecumseh-candidates-debate/4546298

also, it's a shame the liberals couldn't find a mccoy.