Most of the rest of Ontario is conservative, Almost all of the 30 or so ridings in metro Toronto are liberal…why is that? We would finally have a conservative majority if Toronto would stop voting liberal
Because while the vast majority of Ontario is Conservative in nature the actual GTA tends to vote Liberal due to intense hatred of said conservatives. Many people feel that the conservative values (making abortions and gay marriage illegal as an example) are violations of fundamental human rights. That despite the better economical policies that the Tories always seem to have, and the overwhelming corruption of the Liberal party, these are small sacrifices when faced with the alternative. The city of Toronto itself seems to hold that true.
cities vote different than the rural area. Toronto is VERY 'liberal' and multicultural. also IIRC doesnt the Toronto Metro and those cities built on that train line to Montreal (not sure) take up a large part of Ontario's pop where is in Ontario. Chicagofag Nigra so Im not too sure on this,
@70,298> Because while the vast majority of Ontario is Conservative in nature the actual GTA tends to vote Liberal due to intense hatred of said conservatives. Many people feel that the conservative values (making abortions and gay marriage illegal as an example) are violations of fundamental human rights. That despite the better economical policies that the Tories always seem to have, and the overwhelming corruption of the Liberal party, these are small sacrifices when faced with the alternative. The city of Toronto itself seems to hold that true.Unfortunately that hatred isn't really warrented. There's a lot of hatred on both sides of the Canadian and American elections. If the Republicans elected a monkey, Republicans would love him and vice versa with the Democrats. This entirely partisan/subjective/illogical way of thinking is why the American elections have been so close over the past couple times and the Canadian ones too; people are going to vote for the party they culturally associate with, no matter what.
Now on Conservative values, I disagree that they are making abortions and gay marriage illegal. This is true in the US for the Republicans, but the Democrats are against gay marriage also. In Canada, all the parties support gay marriage. It has been passed in parliament (brought forward by the Conservatives to be made into law) and it won't ever be brought into question again. It's the law. It's staying that way. Abortion meanwhile, is far too controversial for any party to ever touch because a majority of Canadians are happy with the current legalization of it.
Since the Conservatives formed government, they really haven't done anything controversial; I can't really think of any scandals. The worst the NDP have to say about them is that they give corporate tax cuts. This in itself is not a bad thing at all. Could that money go better places? Probably, but those places won't create new money and growth. Anyways, my point isn't to defend Conservatism.
The Liberal party has done a lot of damage to itself with the corruption and sponsorship scandal and now weak choices in leadership. I'd like to think that urban ridings (or mostly just Toronto) could get over themselves and vote Conservative, but I know they won't. Just like Texas won't get over itself and vote for Obama.
Essentially: there is too much pride in politics and not enough policy. Dion was probably a victim of this.