Non-US WisCon
Mar. 22nd, 2005 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bcholmesBeginning of a thought: I've met several UK, Australian and Canadian folk at WisCon. I love WisCon a whole heck of a lot. But I've noticed a lot of US-centrism there. Like when people want to avoid saying "last year, Republicans got slagged a lot", they say, "there was exclusion of non-Democrats" Uh. I'm a non-Democrat.
There's a joke. Someone's trying to explain the American political parties to a Canadian. "Well, the Republicans are, by American standards, right-of-centre, and their positions are probably closest to the Conservatives. And the Democrats are, by American standards, left-of-centre, and their positions are probably closest to the Conservatives."
Let me repeat: WisCon is great. I love WisCon and think that it's easily the best con I've ever been to. But I'd be interested in bouncing around thoughts of WisCon with other non-American WisCon attendees.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 03:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 04:10 pm (UTC)I loved Wiscon. I have to sort out fundage to go back some year.
Canadian Conservative Party
Date: 2005-03-22 04:28 pm (UTC)American Libertarians like to point out that the Republicans and Democrats are so close in behavior, if not necessarily in stated policy that there is no discernable difference. Sadly, they're often right. One of the great benefits of the Westminster Parliamentary System is the ability to successfully maintain many smaller parties that are shut out so successfully in form of Republic (operationally, albeit not officially).
Re: Canadian Conservative Party
Date: 2005-03-22 11:12 pm (UTC)Strictly speaking, no. A lot depends on who is running the show (both here and in the States), but in general, I think that both of the major parties in the States are more right wing than our Conservative party.
There's a story about Preston Manning (who is, in many ways, responsible for our current incarnation of the Conservative party) meeting Newt Gingrich. They apparently were very familiar with each other's reputations had thought highly of each other. But when they met, they got into a big disagreement about whether or not socialized health care is a good idea. Seems our most right wing party considers it obvious that socialized health care is a Good Thing.
In another example, in the last Ontario election, all three parties (Conservative, Liberal, and NDP) came out in favour of same-sex marriage (at that time, at fait accompli in Ontario, but still newsworthy). The best we could get out of John Kerry (who was, by his opponent's reckoning, far to the left of the mainstream American position) was that he didn't personally believe in same-sex marriage but maybe States should be allowed to decide for themselves.
The political centre in Canada is so far to left of the political centre in the US that, to us, both of your parties look pretty far to the right.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 04:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 05:21 pm (UTC)If I thought there was much chance at a laugh, I'd rant excessively on how this marginalized other political parties already handicapped by limited mainstream media access, and how victimized I felt by their insensitive presumption that all people painted the world in such black-and-white terms, etc. But, I fear that I'd only get a blush and a hasty apology, and that's just not very much fun...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-22 11:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-30 09:40 pm (UTC)*bounce*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-03 03:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-04-03 04:03 pm (UTC)