If the election were today....

i live in canada and we too are gearing up for a federal election, the day after our thanksgiving (oct 15) and i will be voting for Jack Layton, from the new democratic party because those are the issues that i am interested in.

Hello Newtondak, I will be voting McCain/Palin. Though, to be sure I did not come to this decision easily. I am not a great fan of Sen. McCain. While I admire his commitment to our nation, his military service, and his continued deference to the principles of honor and duty, I am hard-pressed to overlook one or two of the major stands that he has taken on Capitol Hill. However, a reasoned person must look at the overall picture. I was steadfast about not making the decision to vote for McCain until after he picked his running mate. The fact that he chose a tried & true Conservative tells me that McCain is truly committed to making personal sacrifices for the greater good. There is no question that McCain would have personally preferred to have Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Yet, he put the will of The People (well, as many of The People who might ever be satisfied with a McCain veep pick anyway) above his own desires. I respect that. I've also been impressed with Sen. McCain's sense of adaptability in the recent past. Gustav interrupted, and threatened to shut down the GOP Convention, and Sen. McCain took it in stride. This economic meltdown is interfering with the campaigning process, yet Sen. McCain is willing to drop everything and get his buttocks back to D.C., where he (and every other U.S. Senator) is being paid $160,000.00 per year by the taxpayer to do a job!!! Also worthy of mention is Sen. McCain's non-grandstanding respect for gender equality. Many men wouldn't be that comfortable with their wife making so much more money. Some men would be intimidated by Cindy McCain's wealth, power, and success. Yet, Sen. McCain seems to be very comfortable in his own skin. So much so that he is willing to power share his professional life with a woman (Gov. Palin), as he shares his personal life with a woman (Cindy McCain). This is a trait that I've found to be quite noticeable among our military men and women. The military fosters an environment of comraderie & respect such that the skin color or the gender of the person in the fox hole next to you becomes wholly irrelevant. Lastly, on this point of equality and comfort in interracting with women, I am also deeply respectful of the fact that Sen. McCain has more high-ranking women on his Senatorial Staff, and on average pays his female staff slightly more than his male staff. The same cannot be said of his opposition. Since I am guided by fairness and justice, this is a key difference between the two candidates. In fact, the Democratic nominee was in my neck of the woods collecting big campaign checks from a few very wealthy female contibutors. The media was not allowed, as it was considered a 'closed campaign event'. Yet, after the event it was leaked to the media that a hot topic was 'equal pay for women'. As the story goes, the Dem. nominee must have given a terrific performance, because the money collected at the event was suggested to have been staggering. Yet ... "On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator... the average pay for the 30 women on McCain's staff was $59,104.51. The 16 non-intern males in McCain's office, by comparison, were paid an average of $56,628.83." http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=32005 In the spirit of trying to adhere to your request to not bash, I will urge the readers to open the above CNS NEWS link to learn the vast philosophical differences between the two candidates: 'do as I say, not as I do' versus 'don't hold me to a different standard' . Suffice it to say, while I have disagreed with Sen. McCain (and certainly will henceforth) I have never found him to be duplicitious, or self-serving, rather genuine and sincere -- even if he's sincerely ticking off his own party! In fact, he absolutely put his career on the line fighting with his own party over some of those issues that I alluded to earlier. As far as I'm concerned, that's honorable and shows a commitment to balance being 'true to thine own self', and deferring to the greater good. And, I can't argue with that!

I am supporting Obama. I do realize that the bail out will affect his plans but... I feel his position on energy is more comprehensive. He is a stronger supporter of green energy and I think that if we were able to implement his plans, our independance from foreign oil would be accomplished within my lifetime. I think Obama's healthcare plan does more than McCain's in the fact that it helps people who are rejected for benefits due to pre-existing conditions. I think he is more tolerant socially on things like gay rights and abortion, both of which I am for. I think that our standing in the world will turn back around due to diplomacy. He isn't afraid of war, but he believes it should be a last resort. I like his education plan because I believe the No Child Left Behind Act is a failure. I don't think taking funding away from schools that are failing is fair to our kids. I don't believe in "teaching the test" I don't believe in "trickle down" economics. I'm ready to try the opposite. Personally, I think he is a good person. He is very intelligent. I think he understands the problems of our country and will set us in the right direction. Not much of an issue since both sides are starting to agree, but I would like to see our troops out of Iraq. I would like to see more focus directly on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

I would vote for Obama and Biden. First he is a very smart man having graduated from Harvard and been president of the Harvard Law Review. Next, his willingness to be a social worker at the grass roots level means that he understands the poor people and their problems. I believe he tells the truth. I have to admit that he has blown it a bit lately as I watch "Pants on Fire" comments. For a long time I had been extremely proud of the fact that he had none at a time when his opponent had six "Pants on Fire" comments. I also believe that he is willing to listen and try to come to conscientious. I think it is extremely bad for anyone to become entrenched in their own ideas and not listen to what others have to say. This is even more important as a national leader as you must understand others.