January 6th, 2004

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Politics
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While We’re on the Subject

I was thinking about politics and criticism today, and happened upon this notion:

Online and in the real world, we have lots of President Bush bashers and supporters. Additionally, we have lots of Prime Minister Martin bashers. However, where are the Martin supporters (besides in the Liberal caucus)?

I think this equation (Presiden bashers = President supporters, Prime Minister bashers = x) is true of any president and prime minister, not just Bush and Martin. Presumably this is down to American patriotism. In the States, it’s generally seen as a good thing to “support the President”. In Canada, we’re not quite so forthright.

Maybe it’s because the Liberals are so middle-of-the-road in Canada. Because of this, and their dominance, you don’t get the outspoken polarized elements that the US two-party system seems to foster. These days, Martin seems to get assailed on both sides, from the NDP on the left and the Reform/Alliance/Whatever-the-heck-they’re-called-this-week on the right.

If anybody could point me to an independent pro-Liberal site or two, I’d appreciate it.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Arjun Singh
January 6th, 2004
1:13 pm

Hello Darren, you pose an interesting question here and I took it as a 5 minute challenge. Poked around a bit and was unable to find anything. I was involved with party politics (liberal)for a while about 10 years ago. I will continue to keep an eye out, but a lot of Libs are working in government now and probably don’t want to do anything as public as blogging.

Really enjoy your site.

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Darren
January 6th, 2004
3:23 pm

Well, uh, Chunky, thanks for trying. DB.

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Peter Tupper
January 9th, 2004
10:35 am

Americans vote for their Presidents. Therefore, they feel a personal relationship with the head of state. They think either “This is the guy I voted for, and I still support him” or “My guy lost”.

Canadians vote for their MPs. Who becomes PM is so divorced from the voting process that Canadian citizens, even the ones who voted for the PM’s party, feel no connection or relationship with the person. That’s why there are no Paul Martin supporters, but plenty of critics. Nobody chose him, so nobody will defend him.

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