Yes, but only after all voters have had a chance to choose among all of the parties. That's a crucial difference (and how democracy works in most of the rest of the democratic world).
OK, I'll bite. I'm always confused by this argument, since Canadians _never_ have a choice among _all_ of the parties. In the last election, my ballot didn't include a Bloc candidate, and prior to 2004, plenty of ridings didn't run a Green candidate (not to mention all the other small parties).
That doesn't make sense to me. We have to have all the choices or none? That is where Cullen's messaging gets really confused (not to say deliberately misleading).
He's signing otherwise idealistic people up to a political party by reaffirming their cynical view the parties don't matter. He wants to move away from the party system, but he wants party members to have more say in the outcome of the election than the electorate. He wants to give the grassroots more say, but his messaging is by neccessity going to put small, grassroots campaigns at a huge disadvantage. He wants to give Canadians something to vote for, but he's asking a lot of them to go back to voting against what they hate, which is why a lot of people stayed away in the past and why so many came to us in 2011,
It's just too monumental a gamble to embark on with very little guaranteed in return. How do we run on a platform knowing that the Liberals are just going to throw the most crucial parts of it out the window and bargain us down on the other ambitious policies? At least if we form a coalition after the election, we'll know we have a mandate and what the lay of the land is. And we'll be in a position to place certain things (like MMP proportional representation) above bargaining. I don't see what's wrong with that approach.
Anyway, that's the last post from me on that.
