« Why are the Conservatives Ahead? »

I throw up my hands and shake my head. I'm reading about polls, and debates and interviews in various resources. In almost all cases the Conservative response, if there has been one, has been one of suspicious, political dogma. Pick me because the other guys are scary. Pick me because I'm here already. Pick me and I won't change things up. Even with lukewarm responses to critical questions, the Conservatives are still expected to pull in over 30% of the vote.
The Conservatives have tried fear-mongering, playing to an idea that any other party doesn't have any international/foreign affairs experience. Ahem, this is Canada. We don't particularly have a requirement for serious foreign affairs expertise. We can't bully any one around, we generally follow suit with our southern neighbours (sometimes to our detriment). This should be a non-issue.

The Conservatives have tried to push us into believing that only they could assist with the Canadian Economy, yet everywhere we look, their actions aren't instilling a level of confidence in their economic prowess.

Status quo just isn't a good election promise. Not anymore.

There seems to be such a strong anti-Harper movement afoot, but for some reason, it's not translating into results in the polls. Facebook's got an *anyone-but-Harper* group.

Issues and platforms seem to be getting lost in the final days before the election.

Afghanistan

1. Conservatives to keep Canada involved until 2011.
2. Liberals don't specify an end date.
3. NDP wants to shift the military out now.
4. The Greens say 2009 is the end date for participation.

I don't think anyone really knew until this week that the Canadian cost of Afghanistan would exceed $18B.
You can do a lot for $18,000,000,000. Just look at all those zeros. $1500 per Canadian family. Every family.

The Economy

1. Conservatives go back on their word to have a no-bailout policy, provide $80M to a closing Windsor auto plant.
2. Gee, not even a Canadian owned manufacturer. Where was the money for Nortel?
3. Liberals will create a $1B fund to help adopt green technologies. This is a step in the right direction. Perhaps more green initiatives (i.e. solar farms) will finally get recognition and support.
4. The NDP will cancel corporate tax cuts. It's a nice change from the Bush-onomics that Harper has supported for the past 2 years.
5. The Greens follow a similar plan to the Liberals, with an emphasis on carbon taxes, without saying the words *carbon tax* in the same sentence.

But there are smaller issues at play that will eventually sway the average voter. Family allowances, childcare, the environment. The way in which the parties have run their election platforms. Even where they stand on innocuous issues such as copy-write, the Arts, health-care, gas pricing and Big Banks.

Where are you going to place your vote? Who are you going to trust? Will it be one seemingly insignificant facet that decides for you?