We are approaching yet another election, mostly because people like me can’t make up our minds on what we want.  For the last few years, we’ve been operating under a minority government which basically means that whoever is "in power" is holding onto it by merely a thread and can be turfed out at any time.

I can’t recall an election where I’ve been so much on the fence about where my vote is headed.  I’m torn between the Liberal party (they inhabit the political center) and the Conservatives (as the name would imply, on the political right).  I honestly believe that either party will lead the country in a direction that I’m happy with, so that leaves me to evaluate how each party’s platform would impact my family.

Let’s start with the Liberals…
They seem to be hanging their hat on a new tax plan called the "green shift".  I’ve read the green shift plan, and I actually think that it is a very well thought out and potentially beneficial approach to shifting our tax revenues in a way that encourages people to live in a more environmentally friendly way.  Basically, I would pay less income tax and pay more consumption tax, with consumption taxes weighted towards things that cause harm to the environment.  It’s not the plan that bothers me, but there is something about the Liberals this year that bothers me.  Probably on the top of my annoyances list is that while the environment is something that we should pay attention to, I’m leery of a party and a leader who consider that the top priority (and to listen to him perhaps even Stephane Dion’s only priority). 
I also have no reason to trust this Liberal party.  I got burned in Ontario after becoming accustomed to years of governments who said what they would do, and once elected they did what they said.  The Ontario Liberal party put forth a plan that I thought was a good one, that I voted for, and then they failed to deliver on almost every single point that was important to me.  So while the Green Shift looks good to me, I don’t know Dion and I don’t know anyone in power in the Liberal party enough to really trust that they will follow through on key promises like lowering the income tax to offset the new carbon tax.  They may very well be worthy of my trust, but at this point I just don’t have any proof that they are; so I default to the pessimistic.  As for the rest of their platform, very little of the changes that they’re discussing affect me.

And next the Conservatives…
I’m still angry about what happened in my local riding a few years ago.  Garth Turner was my locally elected representative, and I really enjoyed his transparent approach to representation using forums like his blog and town-hall meetings in person with the electorate.  The Conservative Party turfed him out of the party ostensibly because he was too transparent.  He spoke his views, tried to represent his region over the party line where it made sense, and was quite open with all of us voters.  The modus operandi of the Stephen Harper Conservatives was and is very much about tightly controlled messages and top-down policies, a direct conflict with Garth’s style, so they kicked him out of the party and made him an independent.  I took that as a slight against the will of the voters (ie me) and a concerning statement about the way that Stephen Harper’s government runs.  Add to that a local candidate who was inserted by party brass against the will of the local Conservative riding association and it is clear to me that the Harper Conservatives are actively working against the concept of local representation.
On the topic of trust, the Conservative government did keep all of the promises that were important to me even while operating under a minority government.  I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the massive flip-flop they made on income trusts, but as noted at the beginning of this post I’m focusing on issues that affect my family and at this point in time income trusts are not an issue for me.  When they say that they will for example maintain the $100 a month daycare benefit that I get for each of my kids, I believe them.  For the most part I’m okay with the Conservative platform and I believe that they will work very hard to keep promises for fear of the repercussions.

So if I look at my choices (eliminating the NDP and Green party up front), for me it’s between the following come election day:

• Strong local representation from a politician whose style I generally like, but with a national presence that is focused on what I believe to be the wrong issues, and an uncertainty as to whether I can trust the promises made at that national level (Liberal).
• Strong national leadership, a platform that I’m generally okay with and can trust will get delivered, with basically no local representation (Conservative).

Writing this all down has certainly helped me make sense of it all, but I still have no idea how I’ll be voting this year.