On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, Jaimie Vernon wrote:

> Neil Young, at the end of the day, is still a product of a Canadian
> upbringing. A fundamental difference between Canadian politics and US
> politics is how we choose our leaders -- not the party they represent. Our
> system is set up so that to put the person in office we believe in we have
> to vote for the party they represent. And sometimes that causes one to vote
> Conservative having possibly voted Liberal one's entire life or vice versa.
> The American system has the advantage of allowing citizens to vote for the
> PERSON rather than the party -- though in both the US and Canadian system
> many chose their voting strategies based ONLY on party ideology -- no matter
> who's running the show.

This may be true for the presidency but unfortunately it's not true for
the legislature--not until we institute proportional representation or
instant runoff voting. I voted, for example, for Maria Cantwell in the
Washington state Senate reace, not because I liked her, but because I
wanted to make sure the Democrats held her seat. (My preferred *candidate*
was the Libertarian, Bruce Guthrie). I voted for an independent in the
Washington House race because I knew that representative-for-life Jim
McDermott, also a Democrat, had no chance of losing--if it looked like it
was going to be close, I would have voted for him, even though, again, he
wasn't my preferred candidate.

And still I had to make the choice between the Republicans, whom I
dislike, and the Democrats, whom I dislike less--but still dislike.