Coming down to the wire

Election Day is quickly approaching. T-7 days.

For whatever reason - perhaps being married to such an intellect and thus discussing politics much more; or because I recently did taxes and have been looking at and learning about finances and such things much more; or simply because I've always wanted to be actually politically informed and nows my chance - I've been much more on top of things this election season. I feel like I'm making an informed decision and I like it.

So I thought I'd share some of my random political knowledge.

Yesterday I spent part of my day off reading through the Conservative platform. Like the actual, full out, hardcore platform. If you're curious, like I am, about what the Conservatives have done so far and plan to do if voted back in, you can find the platform here:

http://www.conservative.ca/media/ConservativePlatform2011_ENs.pdf
(Sorry, I am conservative so this is the only platform I've looked up, though I'm sure you could find the liberal or NDP platform just as easily)

Whether you're right or left wing, it's an interesting read because it tells you what the Conservative gov't has done so far (which if you're like me you're sadly uninformed about, or didn't realize or notice changes), and alongside in a column it lists what the liberals/NDPs supported or didn't and what their plans are (obviously biased, but it IS the conservative platform). Then it also outlines what they propose to do next in actual tangible terms, not just vague "we want to improve this; we want to decrease that". And if you're not quite as hardcore as I decided to be yesterday, you can look through the table of contents and see what topics catch your eye - it's really well laid out.

Want something a little cooler?

Go here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/votecompass/

and you can answer some political questions the way you feel about different topics and issues and then it tells you how your own opinion aligns with Canada's political parties. I mucho liked it. Because it's how you think aligns with how they think. Try it out.

And if you want to take a look at how the polls are going:
http://www.electionalmanac.com/canada/projections.php

In the top right corner you can see all your options, to see projected seats for each party, popularity poll, ridings and candidates, etc.

Then this is just my little soap-box:
http://www.unitednorthamerica.org/naualt.htm

The number of seats per province should be based on population. AB is short 4 seats if you look at seats per population. For the record, Harper says he'll make the change and re-distribute the MP seats based on population. Some provinces will lose, some will gain, and I realize not every seat change may be in my favor or the country's favor. But like I've said before, if you do it proportionally - fair is fair.

PS. Harper's all for low taxes - everyone else wants to jack them back up. Just sayin.