Beats flipping a coin...

September 21, 2008 11:48 PM

Still considering your options in the Canadian federal election? Try The Undecided, a web site that compares platform planks from the five major parties and gives you the ability to compare your opinions and prioritize the issues. When you are done, you get an assessment of which party you are most closely aligned with. Of course if you are STILL undecided, there is always the Undecided Party..
posted by salishsea (38 comments total)

Hah! Green, NDP, and Liberal were a virtual tie (27%, 27%, 25%) and Bloc and Conservative were 11% and 10%.

I guess that really is as Canadian as possible under the circumstances.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 11:58 PM on September 21, 2008

You should go out there and tell 40% of Canadians how un-Canadian they are.
posted by Krrrlson at 12:19 AM on September 22, 2008

is this site only available in Canada, or is their flash player detection script a wee bit faulty? All i get is text in TNR "Alternative content".
posted by slater at 12:46 AM on September 22, 2008

I'm all for tools like this, but this website is just awful. For some reason only four of the parties' platforms are shown for about half their issues (and not always the four that you would think). Not only that, but the descriptions of the platforms are truncated in the middle of the sentence about half the time. Even when you can read the whole description, the summaries don't really reflect the parties' policies very well. Whoever made this put in a half-assed effort at best (and were apparently too embarrassed to put their names on the site (though it seems that some dudes called The Movement are responsible)).
posted by ssg at 12:58 AM on September 22, 2008 [2 favorites]

What ssg said, plus I couldn't get at the last issue because it floated up and disappeared under the header. Election fail.
posted by doublesix at 1:04 AM on September 22, 2008

As ssg said again. Great idea, weak on execution.
posted by Shepherd at 2:10 AM on September 22, 2008

As an American visiting Toronto a few weeks ago, I was amused to hear the local talk radio hosts arguing about Obama and Palin. They mentioned that if they tried to talk about their own, recently announced, elections they would lose all of their listeners.
posted by pjenks at 2:19 AM on September 22, 2008

Another vote for ssg. I changed my screen resolution, still couldn't get to one question (I think) and I never could figure out how to expand the positions so I could read them in their entirety. A crap site.
posted by CCBC at 2:51 AM on September 22, 2008

Is there any way I can tell how that flash bunch of floating strips of paper works?
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:28 AM on September 22, 2008

I mean, the actual Flash.. You will all have to excuse me, I am in web design nerd mode.. although taking the quiz puts me in the NDP, which makes lots of sense as that's who all my canadian relatives support.
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:32 AM on September 22, 2008

Not available for comment was drummer Neil Peart, whose line: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice," is the Undecided Party's unofficial slogan.
posted by Eideteker at 4:04 AM on September 22, 2008

57% NDP, 23% Green, 11% BC, 8% Liberal, 0% Conservative.

Now all I need to do is book a flight and apply for citizenship...
posted by aihal at 5:01 AM on September 22, 2008

54% NDP, 16% BQ, 15% Green, 14% Libs, 0% Cons

The "issues" weren't all that great. What about the war, for one thing?
posted by Sys Rq at 6:26 AM on September 22, 2008

None of the above
posted by blue_beetle at 7:03 AM on September 22, 2008

That site didn't help me decide anything besides that I don't like that site.
posted by furtive at 7:13 AM on September 22, 2008

I'm glad it's not just me that's having technical difficulties. I've been wondering lately if I might not be more green than orange, despite having given money to the NDP for years, and I thought this might be a quick way to get a sense of whether that was true. Too bad it doesn't work for shit.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:51 AM on September 22, 2008

One of my little bits of paper floated off the screen, and then I got pissed of at the slider thing and closed it. I was veering dangerously close into NDP territory, anyway (As I have been lately, but damn do I not like Layton and have an innate antipathy to those sneaky crypto-CCCF bastards to begin with. They'll relocate me to a commune near the Battlefords and give all my money to the Doukhobors!)

Good idea, crappy execution - people spend hours clicking radio buttons for LiveJournal or OkCupid quizzes, why get all fancy with the Flash?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:53 AM on September 22, 2008

The technical issues issues were quite annoying and it was pretty easy to bias the test as it was going. I was hoping for some the like this, but for the Canadian candidates.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 8:06 AM on September 22, 2008

There seemed to be only one question about Kyoto, and it was something like "do you pledge to reduce greenhouse gases by at least xx% by 2030?" I want a much more detailed platform, thanks. And after saying yes to that, I get

you agreed with:
Liberals, Bloc Quebecois, undefined, undefined, undefined, Patrick Keenan, NDP, Green Party, undefined

Go undefined! I quadruple-agree with you! And P.S. to Patrick: Just because you're involved in the Movement, doesn't mean we care what your views are.

Also, the default weightings don't seem to give everything an equal weight. Not sure what was up with that one.

33% NDP, 23% Green, 21% Liberals, 12% Cons, 10% BQ.

(P.S. I get the impression that this site was created in 2006. Has it been updated?)
posted by Lemurrhea at 8:57 AM on September 22, 2008

Beautiful Flash, but not the best of the web for the reasons mentioned above.

20% Cons, 20% NDP, 20% Lib, 20% Green, 20% Bloc. (!!)
posted by angrybeaver at 9:50 AM on September 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

They'll relocate me to a commune near the Battlefords and give all my money to the Doukhobors

That is strictly Conservative country.... you'd be right around Dief's birthplace.
posted by Deep Dish at 10:25 AM on September 22, 2008

Usually around this point in the election season there'd be a handy little party platform comparison chart that does this without all the mouse-clicks. Anyone got a link?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:51 AM on September 22, 2008

Another vote for ssg, I thought this site was great at first until I realized its bugs.
posted by thbt at 11:25 AM on September 22, 2008

I liked this little quiz-thing from CTV. It has the major issues with (unattributed) quotes from the major parties leaders (no green, sorry), and you click on the quote you most agree with. At the end they tell you which leader you chose the most.

It's hardly the most serious way to decide, but it was a neat little game.
posted by aclevername at 12:37 PM on September 22, 2008

With absolutely no knowledge of Canadian politics, I had 43% NDP.
posted by letitrain at 12:41 PM on September 22, 2008

It has the major issues with (unattributed) quotes from the major parties leaders (no green, sorry)

Actually, it includes the Greens and doesn't include the Bloc. Interesting that the quotes that they picked from Layton and May are so similar in content (though distinguishable in style) when their parties' platforms are really not all that similar.
posted by ssg at 12:53 PM on September 22, 2008

It's a good concept, but the positions on the different issues look like they've been cut and pasted from the platforms or statements of the leaders directly. So, it's pretty easy to tell which party has which position based on the text (especially for the conservatives, since all of the text is a variation of "we are currently working on x" or "we have done this").

It would be a great tool if a) someone went through and made the different policy positions for each more generic so that it was harder to tell which party had which position and b) there weren't people that would test NDP but vote conservative because that's what their parents have always done, by gum!
posted by Cyrie at 1:43 PM on September 22, 2008

Wait a minute. You guys get to choose "good" positions ... or "better ones"?

I want what they have.
posted by Surfurrus at 2:32 PM on September 22, 2008

Huh, well that flash was pretty slick on my work computer, surprisingly, but yeah, oversimplify much?

That being said:
42%NDP 35%Liberal 17%Green 10%Bloc and a whopping 0%PC

I think the only time the PC symbol popped up to note agreement is when I said Quebec shouldn't separate. That's it. But on most tests of this kind, Bloc comes up much higher for me.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:51 PM on September 22, 2008

58% NDP, which is pretty much the same as I was back in the '80s when I actually still lived in Canada.

Great idea, terrible, buggy implementation.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:46 PM on September 22, 2008

Tied between Conservative and NDP. Clearly I'm a messed up centrist.
posted by Kickstart70 at 8:54 PM on September 22, 2008

Hmm I got a five-way tie at 20%... not that I am undecided. In fact, I am more confident of my vote this year that I have ever been.
posted by Deep Dish at 9:15 PM on September 22, 2008

Is it just me, or do common-sense answers to Canadian political quizzes almost always result in scoring "NDP"? What's with that party, having all the sane ideas and yet never winning the vote?

Me, I think it's because while they talk a good talk, there are grave misgivings about them having feet with which to walk the walk. One of their candidates was a nudist with inappropriate HappiParts near a children's face-painting contest?!? Feet, meet bullets.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:51 AM on September 23, 2008

I think it's mainly that while we all like to espouse the ideas of the NDP, many of us vote with our wallets. And we know NDP governments cost a lot in taxes.

Personally, that doesn't bother me. I vote NDP. I even give the NDP money of my own volition. I'm okay with paying more taxes and getting better shared services out of it. But I think for a lot of people, come crunch time, they vote for lower taxes.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:16 AM on September 23, 2008

What's with that party, having all the sane ideas and yet never winning the vote?

That's exactly the reason: No one votes NDP because the NDP never wins. Really. People are just that thick.

The problem is the PC/Reform consolidation. It's tough to beat when the left is split three ways. So, in Conservative strongholds, people who would otherwise vote for the NDP tend to vote for the more popular Liberals in an effort to oust the Cons. But of course, the Cons still win, and the NDP end up looking much less popular than they really are. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Personally, I'd like to see the (similar enough) NDP and Greens join forces and finally do away with the Red/Blue dichotomy.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:17 AM on September 23, 2008

This campaign, the NDP are (were) expected to do well in BC but so far three of their candidates have resigned. Two were former Marijuana Party members/organizers/candidates; one is a former Green. The NDP used to run a pretty tight, well-organized ship, now they are trying to unite the Left.
But the reason the NDP is unlikely to form a federal government is that it has no presence in Conservative Alberta or PQ/Conservative Quebec. Without some Quebec seats it is almost impossible to form government. Without Alberta seats as well, there's no possibility.
posted by CCBC at 2:24 PM on September 23, 2008

As another American ignorant of Canadian politics (hey, I have to follow California state politics for my job, so I get way more than my share of politics, and I get my share of Canada being the relatively rare American Sloan fan), I ended up 75% Green Party.

Which sort of makes sense, since I work for an environmental group and don't think the Democrats are liberal enough.
posted by gohlkus at 12:18 AM on September 24, 2008

gohlkus: All of Canada's major political parties are more liberal than the US Democrats.
posted by ssg at 7:21 AM on September 24, 2008 [1 favorite]