Why I'm Still Not Voting Conservative

It's been a long-running joke with friends of mine that if the Defense Minster was elected separately from the Prime Minister (and that if we voted people into any office other than Minister of Parliament), I'd elect a conservative DM and a New Democrat or Green PM. My varied interests over the years have produced a political ethos that can't quite be encompassed by anybody's party line. The argument I get from people making the joke is usually something along the lines of "Zac would like to see a strong, draft-enforced military armed with soy-deisel tanks and rifles firing organic bullets".

It's not entirely true, mind you. I do typically tend to favour a well-funded, well-trained military in my discussions of the matter. I think leaning on any one country too firmly for our national defense causes long-term problems, and having the Canadian Armed Forces be able to defend Canada's arctic sovereignty and territorial waters seems to be a small thing to ask for. After we bungled Rwanda and after a full decade of infighting in Afghanistan I don't think it's a tall order to want to see Canada look inward and secure herself for a while. Our troops need the rest and the refit.

However, my views on the military are just about the only thing I share with the Cons, and even then, we only agree on the matter of needing better equipment - they want to fight wars and I want to get out of the ones we're in. When it comes to any of a number of other issues, I'm far more to the left of centre.

"Wow. Umm. They didn’t tell me I’d have to answer questions like that when I took this job. I think that it’s......I don’t know the total answer to that." – Bob Hamilton, Harper's newly appointed boss of Environment Canada when asked what he believes to be the cause of climate change.

Case very much in point.