As most everyone knows, the Canadian elections are in 10 days.  As a staunch NDPer who loves the incumbant in my riding, I was happy to see yet another campaign in which I was voting for the winner, and I was sure my choice was the right one.

Then I watched the debates on CBC.  Jack Layton is creepy.  And rude.  He interrupted, and other than his "where is your platform, under your sweater?" comment, he really did not do that much for me.

I was unimpressed because he was outshone by a woman by the name of Elizabeth May.  She was witty, offbeat and I generally agreed with everything coming out of her mouth.  The platform of fiscally conservative and socially progressive is one that gets my heart racing.  There is not a lot of room for us on the left that do not necessarily support unions and environmentally unfriendly manufacturing, but do love gay marriage, legal abortions and running water on Firt Nations Reserves.

However, we live in a system of first-past-the-post.  If this were the United States of America, I would vote Elizabeth May.  But here in Canada, I would be voting Jenn Hunter.  While a perfectly lovely woman, she is not Paul Dewar.  She is not the green party's international affairs critic.  She does not have a track record of fighting for GMO labelling in Parliament. 

After a lot of soul searching, I went to the grocery store.  I had a realization standing in the produce section.  Local or organic? Which one matters? Do I vote for the local candidate whom I know I love and who is doing a good job, or do I pick a party based on their ehtics as a whole? I try my best to choose local first and organic second when it comes to produce, and apparently my voting tactics will be the same.

Go out and vote on October 14th.  And if you live in Ottawa Centre, vote for Paul Dewar and the NDP.