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After nine years, it’s time for a change

We are within days of electing a new federal government in this great country of ours. Like you, we’ve been thinking about our vote very seriously for a considerable period of time.
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In the end, we could happily vote for many of our local candidates if it were a race of independents. It is not. It is a race for a political party to lead our nation. We think this country is at a crossroads. Supplied photo.
We are within days of electing a new federal government in this great country of ours.

Like you, we’ve been thinking about our vote very seriously for a considerable period of time. We’ve listened, we’ve questioned, we’ve held leaders debates, we’ve written stories, shot videos and interviewed our main local contestants at length.

In fact, if you want to know your local candidates better, we recommend you come to NorthernLife.ca and our watch our candidates speak candidly for up to an hour with our editor, Mark Gentili, and political affairs reporter, Darren MacDonald. We have left very few stones unturned.

The caliber of our local candidates is excellent. We thank them for their courage, their ambition and their beliefs. It restores our faith in democracy to have such fine people seek to represent our interests in Ottawa.

In the end, we could happily vote for many of our local candidates if it were a race of independents. It is not. It is a race for a political party to lead our nation.

We think this country is at a crossroads.

We have a choice. We stick with the Conservative approach to tax breaks, environmental deregulation, aggressive foreign policy positions, the tough-on-crime suite of statutes, the scapegoating of minority practices, the silencing of federal scientists, the balance-the-budget mantra (notwithstanding the lack of them), the questionable storylines around the bribery of Mike Duffy, and, not unimportantly, some odd choices for the Supreme Court.

If not the Tories, then who?

Thomas Mulcair has been a superb leader of the opposition. He has held the government’s feet to the fire in question period and generally run a principled campaign — if, dare we say, a conservative one. 

Oddly, he has been less effective outside of the House, where his legal experience and sentiment served him well. As his poll numbers went down, he lurched to the more traditional perch of the NDP by declaring categorically he will not support the Trans Pacific Trade partnership, which is arbitrary and unwise.

The Liberals have performed well. They have been bold on the matter of infrastructure investment, legalizing marijuana, revamping our electoral system, recalibrating our Middle East footprint, taking a nuanced position on environmental action (working with the provinces collaboratively), avoiding falling into the cesspool of turning Canadians against Canadians, and have promised to rebalance some of the most extreme cutbacks in the federal administration.

Justin Trudeau has been learning the job and we like his performance. We also like the bench strength and maturity of the Liberal team, which we are convinced will be allowed to operate as a team and not as an exercise in group ventriloquism.

We believe it is time for a change in Canada and the Liberals offer the best mix of new ideas and political experience to get the job done.

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