I'm not fond of parties, quite frankly. But, if we must operate within a party system, then I'd say we have a serious party vacuum in two areas:
Social corporatists to the left of center, and liberal-conservatives on the right.
To the left for instance, where is the Swedish Social Democratic Party (Swedish Social Democratic Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) in Canada, a social-corporatist party that applies basic economic principles to its policy decisions, that has shown itself willing to revise its policies and reach out to the right as needed, and to form coalitions? for instance, it has accepted school voucher programmes for private schools among other market-oriented programmes.
To the right, where is the Margareta Handzlik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C5%82gorzata_Handzlik) of the Citizens Platform (a liberal-conservative party in Poland) in Canada? The Citizens Platform itself is economically liberal yet socially conservative (e.g. it supports privatization of industry, and opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, civil union, and gambling of all kinds). In spite of this, Handzlik herself has taken a leadership role in the European Union in the promotion of equal linguistic and cultural rights (within a liberal-conservative framework as one would expect) for all Europeans, yet with many left-leaning MPs supporting her stance! Imagine that, a liberal-conservative MEP not just taking a leadership role in social justice issues and doing so based on a fiscally conservative platform, but also gaining a following among progressives in doing so.
In Canada, where is that Dipper imaginative enough to fuse right and left ideas together to win more support from the right like the Swedish social democrats have managed to do? And where is that Conservative capable of gaining support from the left on the social justice front all the while taking the lead in a fiscally conservative manner?
We need more Handzliks in the Conservative Party, and more Swedish social democrats in the NDP.
Social corporatists to the left of center, and liberal-conservatives on the right.
To the left for instance, where is the Swedish Social Democratic Party (Swedish Social Democratic Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) in Canada, a social-corporatist party that applies basic economic principles to its policy decisions, that has shown itself willing to revise its policies and reach out to the right as needed, and to form coalitions? for instance, it has accepted school voucher programmes for private schools among other market-oriented programmes.
To the right, where is the Margareta Handzlik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C5%82gorzata_Handzlik) of the Citizens Platform (a liberal-conservative party in Poland) in Canada? The Citizens Platform itself is economically liberal yet socially conservative (e.g. it supports privatization of industry, and opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, civil union, and gambling of all kinds). In spite of this, Handzlik herself has taken a leadership role in the European Union in the promotion of equal linguistic and cultural rights (within a liberal-conservative framework as one would expect) for all Europeans, yet with many left-leaning MPs supporting her stance! Imagine that, a liberal-conservative MEP not just taking a leadership role in social justice issues and doing so based on a fiscally conservative platform, but also gaining a following among progressives in doing so.
In Canada, where is that Dipper imaginative enough to fuse right and left ideas together to win more support from the right like the Swedish social democrats have managed to do? And where is that Conservative capable of gaining support from the left on the social justice front all the while taking the lead in a fiscally conservative manner?
We need more Handzliks in the Conservative Party, and more Swedish social democrats in the NDP.
