Last month, for the first time and with some misgivings, I voted Liberal in the provincial (Ontario) election, saying goodbye to the ersatz socialism of the NDP. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next federal election.

The political quandary is a crowded place. Here’s an assessment of Retail Politics that contains a ray of hope.

Is the public so tired with the manipulations and the sales pitch, that they would welcome another approach? I don’t think you can disregard the opportunity for a party to morph into the anti-retail entity. When you consider the massive voter pool that no longer bothers, then the prospects for the apolitical perspective has value. Retail politics may rule the roost, but that doesn’t mean that the condition is permanent. In fact, the public is entirely unimpressed, which suggests a vacuum waiting to be filled.

That’s from a post by Steve at Far and Wide. Three paragraphs worth reading in full, and the comments.

Another blog that’s keeping me from despair is Liberals for Electoral Reform. They see the failure of the recent referendum as an early setback on the road to proportional representation and the “more philosophical, detailed debate” Steve is looking for in Canadian politics.