I’m a big supporter of the NDP. I voted for the NDP in the last federal
election. I’ve considered becoming a member of the federal NDP. I agree with a
lot of the NDP’s policies.
But I won’t be voting for them in the 2013 BC election.
I really like what they’re doing around electoral reform, specifically their
promise to ban union and corporate political donations.
I really like that they’re opposed to the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan
pipelines.
I really like that they’ll increase the corporate income tax rate to 12%.
I really like that they’re going to expand the carbon tax to oil and gas
operations, and use a portion of the carbon tax revenues to fund transit and
green programs.
Judy Darcy, the NDP candidate for New Westminster, called me to talk about their
plans for better community healthcare centres, improving families’ access to
health professionals. That nearly won me over.
But I’m still not going to vote for them. They’re a very close second choice,
though.
I’m not voting for them for two reasons:
One, they’re going to win in my riding of New Westminster). In the 16 elections since 1953, the CCF/NDP has won 15 times and the BC Liberal party once. New Westminster is a safe NDP seat. Even the unofficial burger poll has the NDP well ahead. Me not voting for the NDP isn’t going to make a lick of difference in New Westminster.
Two, they don’t go far enough on electoral reform. They’re entrenched as one of
two major parties in BC, and they don’t want to give that up. I would love it if
they revisited some form of proportional representation, but there’s no mention of
that in their platform.
Those two reasons are why I won’t be voting NDP on Tuesday.