I don't. I don't think the NDP has addressed the issue yet, and I haven't looked at the Greens at all.

Fact is, I wanna vote for the old NDP, which doesn't exist anymore. I'll be watching Layton to see what he does have to say, and it is a fact that I do like a lot of the candidates that run for the NDP - they are usually earnest and well meaning people, and just as informed about the workings of government as any other party.

Dion hasn't said anything yet that I could really object to, and he also seems like a well-meaning and intelligent person. He has the unfortunate anchor of a lot of old cynical Liberal, rum-bottle-for-a-vote incumbents, which doesn't bother me as much as it should, probably.

Harper hasn't been near as bad as I expected, but despite his claims, he has not been a good budgeter, or those big surpluses wouldn't be falling so fast, even given the global economy. He's proved himself to be secretive, unable to keep even his promise of when to have an election, and some of his party's prominent members are ideologically as far from me as it's possible and still be in a free country.

When some of your party's influential members think men walked with dinosaurs, and too many of them do, you can laugh and think it's funny, but you have to be aware of the unspoken rightwing religious ideology that goes with that. That includes women being subject to their husbands, some borderline Biblical racism, and a strong anti-social safety net message - you're only poor if you aren't right with God, and since we're Christians, we'll certainly help ya - as long as you're willing to go beg for it at the church.

Harper, with a minority government and a more practical take on governing, spent a lot of effort muzzling that segment of the party in the first months after coming to power. Harper with a majority might let them off-leash, with possibly dire consequences to some of the rights and privileges Canadians, which would impact most seriously on the poor, women, and the ill.

I also think, with no more good reason than my gut, that health care in this country is being undermined by the Harper government on purpose, in order to try to offset health care costs by introducing a two tier system, possibly including means testing. I don't trust Harper with the future of my Canadian neices and nephews. My neices and nephews in the US have suffered and are suffering, and I am not exaggerating, from similar political thinking in the US.