Two Party System

For anyone who doesn't know, I live in Canada. I live in the so called bible belt capital, the most conservative province-Alberta. Canada for the last decade has had a liberal fedral government which I attribute to many current failures. However, lately politics is choosing the lesser of the two evils. In the States for example, you have the Democrats and the Republicans. I think anyone is well aware that President Trump is failing his people. He has a cult following and while his first term may have had some promise, he has turned a corner and seems to be acting on impulse and polarizing the country.

Back to Canada, we have two major parties-Liberals and Conservatives. We had an election last April and I knew the results before the election was done. The Liberals have cause sky rocketing inflation, and tend to care about other countries far more than Canadians. One thing on their platform was to reconcile with the Indigenous. Yet something they did was bring in so many immigrants and temporary workers and students. This has polarized Canada. Every few weeks you hear about-Canada pledges 2 billion to Ukraine or Canada to bring in more asylum seekers. As such the opposing party attacks the immigration system.

The new Liberal leader has scaled back some on immigration, and while I feel the economy has not caught up to the new levels, immigrants and asylum seekers should not be targeted for seeking a better life. The Conservative leader up until now has refused to speak of Trump as a threat to us. I feel this is largely why people did not vote him. On top of that, while I myself don't see him as being much like Trump, he tends to want to cut too many sectors and services. I understand that Canada has overspent, but services and supports should not be at risk. This is where I have to say, the two party system does not work.

I have been immersed in politics since the age of 8 when Jean Cretien-liberal leader, secured a huge majority government. About 12 years later, the Conservatives held power for about a decade. This shift has to do with complacency of voters. The current voters are upset with the government, so they vote the opposing party. It may not necessarily be a positive change, but it happens. In Alberta it seems to be a different spiel altogether.

In Alberta, only once has the alternate party held office. From 2015-2019, the New Democratic Party held office. Many current failures were blamed on them due to mass spending. I understand this is where the saying comes-you need to spend money to make money. As this government held office only four years, I do not put too much blame on them. However, due to failures under said government, in 2019 the conservative government was unstoppable. The new leader of the United Conservative Party-Danielle Smith, like Trump has a cult-like following. She tends to focus much on cutting services and building up the oil sector. Probably something worth noting is the polarization of the Alberta Sovereignty movement.

While Alberta has talked about sovereignty since the 1970s, I feel Alberta would not be prosperous enough to be its own nation. We do have tourism and oil, and do give transfer payments to Ottawa, however we have been on Canadian soil since 1905. To boot, we have indigenous treaties to uphold. Peronally I feel the referendum for sovereignty is just smoke and mirrors to gain votes and distract from other scandals in the government. Wile I do not like the New Democratic Party, this two party system does not work. Places like Scandinavia I feel do it best. They have a coalition government which prevents too much corruption from happening.

Summing up, I do hope somehow the democratic process changes, and more voters are given more appealing options, rather than having to choose lesser of the two evils.