I think a majority of Canadians are kind, hardworking, and want what’s best for their families, friends, neighbours, and the country.
What does a brand new political party platform look like to appeal to an overwhelming majority of Canadians?
I think a majority of Canadians are kind, hardworking, and want what’s best for their families, friends, neighbours, and the country.
What does a brand new political party platform look like to appeal to an overwhelming majority of Canadians?
Empty set. The overwhelming majority of Canadians (and voters in general around the world) don’t follow policy that closely, which is why spin, kissing babies and brand loyalty is such a huge part of politics.
Then what’s the spin you want to hear from a politician that would make you vote for them? (That is, spin that isn’t full of racism and rhetoric about the other side.)
So, spin is rephrasing something so it seems more palatable when you don’t have the full context, but if you’re asking for my personal policy wishlist I can certainly give you that!
Basic income would be great, and should probably be about where minimum wage is now. At the other end, a hard wealth cap at 10 million or something is overdue. If you’re a skilled professional and you save heavily you can absolutely save up a few million before you retire, but nobody makes it to 8 digits without being some sort of bigshot, and at that point it becomes self-perpetuating. Not making it gradual should prevent most flight of capital.
I recently learned Norway has a party list electoral system like several other countries, but uniquely doesn’t allow snap elections. If the government loses confidence, they just form a new coalition from the existing parliament. That sounds like it would avoid a lot of the problems we have in both FPTP and proportional systems.
Those are the big two, but there’s other less fundamental issues I have opinions about. We should keep legalising drugs, because they were largely banned for stupid reasons in the first place. Most forms of zoning should probably be thrown out too, because if anything the cities they’ve produced are even more soulless, now with a side of being impractical. I’m glad we have a carbon tax, and I think we should keep raising it.
Edit: Publicly funded elections are up there, too. We don’t have a terrible situation right now in Canada, what with strong donation limits, but it just makes sense to go all the way and leave no ambiguity that could cause problems down the line.