For sure, JimLad, it's only politics. ;-)

I think most people acquire a sort of tendency to favor or oppose a specific party from their parents (I'm sure there are some exceptions to that, though...a few probably go directly against their parents instead).

At any rate I know my mother acquired her hatred for the Liberals from her parents....although she IS a social liberal, for gosh sakes! In fact, she's a socialist! My father was essentially apolitical, aside from retaining a deep hatred of fascists and communists both (he acquired those feelings in WWII).

My mother, despite being a socialist, detests the Liberals so much that she will vote either Conservative OR NDP, but not Liberal! Isn't that bizarre? It stems directly, I think, from the fact that her family were upper middle class Protestant Scots, and they figured that the Liberals were allied with...the French...the Quebecois...the Catholics....and various other cultural groups which they did not identify with. Accordingly, their instinct was to support the Conservatives.

But she's a socialist....so she liked the NDP too! I think it's hilarious. ;-)

Me, I'm fairly much a socialist, so I used to like the NDP, but I think they have badly lost their way in the last decade or so, and I think Layton's a loose cannon. I regard the Liberals to be corrupt and often very phony....but...I disagree profoundly with the social and fiscal philosophy of the present Conservatives even more than I disagree with the usual phony baloney of the Liberals.

I'm disappointed in all of them, but I'd rather see anyone else in power right now than the Conservatives...not that I think they're bad people by any means...I just think they're on the wrong track, that's all. I don't agree with their slant on foreign policy, I don't agree with their slant on domestic policy.

Whoever gets elected or takes over, though, I don't envy them, because they've got a very tough situation to deal with now.