It was only a few months ago that Alice Klein inadvertently invited progressives to declare war on her inbox by trotting out the old moonshine of "strategic voting".Toronto's NOW Magazine’s editor in chief called on her readers to align behind Dion's Liberals the next time they headed to the polls. And while the repetition of their key anti-NDP message was heralded by Liberal apparatchiks, NOW's readers were somewhat less impressed.
Fast forward to today to read NOW’s new position on strategic voting in light of the Liberals’ about-face on Afghanistan:
"Can we officially lay to rest the progressive pondering of a strategic voting alliance between Liberals, NDPers and other small-l liberals? ... Because this week the difference between Canada’s social democratic NDP and the old-school Liberals and the Conservatives just got blindingly clearer."
The accompanying illustration (above) shows Dion and Harper brothers in arms, while the article makes the point finer, characterizing the Liberal Party as "sad junkies" for power and "a death-dealing party."
NOW’s message is refreshingly clear and simple: those who say "vote Liberal to stop Harper" are "fear mongering" and deliberately deluding themselves and others:
"I’d rather support a party that doesn’t make excuses for killing. Backing Liberals because they are alleged to be more palatable than the Tories leads to an endless ream of rationalizations, a constant collection of claimed compromise that always ends in broken promises and the postponement of big dreams.
Why should we sell ourselves and our hopes short because of fear-mongers who would claim that Dion’s shape-shifting Liberals are more electable than the NDP?"
Good question.
No comments:
Post a Comment