I agree that Anything But Conservative isn’t a value. I do think that someone who votes for Elizabeth May, Tom Mulcair or (probably) Justin Trudeau, has a very similar set of values. The differences between them are magnified and exaggerated by the tribalism that the First-Past-The-Post engenders. These values – hopes and dreams for the country (as opposed to being a cat or dog people) are much different from the ones promoted by a pro-military, prison, and corporation government that has also shown a shocking willingness to disregard data and science.

The PR thing – it is real and growing and politicians that think they can use it to get elected and then never enact it will find out quickly what it’s like to be a one-term whatever. Once we’re finished with that bit of anachronistic nonsense we can move on to the GD monarchy.

I’d argue that 2/3 of the country don’t share core values. 2/3 of the country shares the sentiment ” I prefer someone else to a Conservative”. That’s not really a value. As for getting anyone to commit to proportional representation once in power… it’s at this point I feel like yer cynical grandpa, looking at you sadly and just shaking my head. Not in my lifetime. It’s hard enough to acquire power, no one will every willingly dilute it once they have it.

2. I would have loved few more years of Paul Martin as PM, because he embodied fiscal conservative/social progressive. He made the biggest cuts to federal spending you will ever see while he was finance minister, and during the 15 minutes he had as pm, as he was drowning with his head in the toilet (held there by Harper and the Gomrey commission), he managed to make gay marriage legal across the land. I believe he would have actually done something on the first nations file, too. I miss that guy.

But I agree with you that progressives everywhere have mysteriously ceded the image of fiscal responsibility to their right wing counterparts, who are no more blessed with the ability to use money well than they are.

2 points of contention:

1 We (people who believe in civil rights, democracy, food inspectors, transit, public health care, other hallmarks of a civilized modern society as opposed to debt to GDP ratio) are going to win the 2015 election. They say a week is a lifetime in politics. So there is still more than 100 lifetimes to solve this. I don’t agree that this involves shortcuts. When 2/3 of a population already shares a core set of values they should and can be reflected in their government. Agree a binary political system would be a disaster, which is why I won’t support any candidates that won’t commit to proportional representation.

2 I put forward the Fiscal Conservative/Socially Progressive question on Facebook because I don’t believe it is actually possible and this misnomer has infected our politics. Another way of saying it is “I am against making money but for spending it.” Being socially progressive means spending money on social programs. This doesn’t mean poor stewardship of the economy. It means ensuring that all our revenue sources to run the society we would like to have can be accessed.