News - Your election candidates! (if you're me)

If you're a Haligonian-- REAL Halifax not over in Dartmouth-- then these are probably your candidates as well. If you're not certain or you have come to realize that you are not living in Halifax you can check for your candidates here. It's a little confusing: first enter your postal code and click "go" you'll be taken to a second screen, on the right under candidates click "who are the candidates in my electoral district?"

This year the government has created this handy website where you can also find out "how many candidates are men and how many are women?" (2 women, 3 men) I ask: what about the trans people? Where are Ted Larson's rights I ask you? Not that I'm implying Ted is Trans, I'm just asking: are certain he's not? ... He's not. Don't come after me Ted.

LARSEN, Ted (Conservative)
Thankfully he is better than the original candidate the conservatives chose for this riding. You know, the one who was an ex-criminal and was caught stealing from the All Women Empowerment Organization she founded? Because nothing says empowerment like "$84,000 in cheques written to herself."
No, Ted is not half-bad. Halifax has been his home for 37 year and his photos show him as a bit of a sheepish guy. His blog is very succinct in its single entry and he kinda gets the picture that Halifax will not be choosing him in the upcoming election. Void of any information his website is geared more towards the party itself. Ted's issues are the party's issues, if you don't like the party don't vote for him. Thanks Ted, I won't.

LESLIE, Megan (NDP-New Democratic Party)
Megan has only lived in the city for seven years. Coming in the wake of Alexa Mcdonough former queen of the NDP party, she has big shoes to fill. She has a pretty swanky website though including a radio call in show she did on the 23rd and an impressive resume of volunteer and outreach work.
Respect if you vote for her--she's in my consideration. Her biggest issue right now though is her lack of visibility. Having only just won leader of the riding no one really knows who she is. In some ways I wonder if the similarly named Alexis MacDonald had won the candidacy people would have thought it was still headed by the former leader when they saw the ticket.

MEADE, Catherine (Liberal)
In a normal equal world I would be bedazzled by Catherine Meade. Not only is her last name a delicious alcoholic beverage (Honey Mead) which is, in part, the origin to the word "Honeymoon" but she also does such awesome things as show up to the market on Saturday morning to talk to people, she's a lesbian (and those bitches know how to get stuff done), and she is the daughter of a Baptist minister. Mostly I include the last one because I love the concept of raising my hands and shaking in church and not be told "you're making a scene".
My conundrum is the Liberal party campaign with headlines posted on their site reading"Can't Believe Steve": Why Harper Foreign Policy Fails the Test, Harper copied John Howard's speech on Iraq, Liberals launch new social networking website – i.liberal.ca, Statement from the Honourable Stéphane Dion on the challenges in global capital markets, Conservatives in culture damage control mode. Okay that is three attacks on the conservatives, one launch of a social networking site (which will only contain liberals? what are they going to do message eachother on how they all agree?), and a SINGLE article on policy.
I still really like her, I know that a campaign can't run without attacks so we can see how they stack up against eachother, and the NDP are flailing at coming up with practical plans since they've never been in power. But at the end of the day this riding is going to the Liberals or NDP, unless we accidentally split the vote and Madame Larson wins.

SEED, Tony (Marxist-Leninist)
Some students with a sense of irony or humour may vote for this guy but I'm not even going to give him a serious run-down. Lenin was mummified, Marx rocked a beard that would make Shia Leboeuf green with bad teenage beard syndrome envy.

WHETTER, Darryl (Green Party)
He's a creative writing prof at Dal. Seems perfectly nice. I wish him all the best and hope he gets some votes.

And that's it! Now all you have to do is make up your mind and vote October 14th. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me who you vote for just that you do. If you don't live in this riding, look up who is in your riding. Sometimes the NDP candidate is terrible, sometimes they're a friend. Sometimes the liberal candidate is in trouble with the law. Vote for the candidate. They'll be representing you. I argree mostly with voting for the party, but if the candidate is terrible they'll probably 1) not win and 2) be awful at representing you if they do win.

Rock the vote.