Thread: Vote Compass
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Old 03-29-2011, 12:06 AM   #43
SebC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frequitude View Post
Agreed. The fundamental flaw in this whole thing is where they place the Conservatives on the spectrum. No way they're that much further from center than the Liberals.

Rigged!
Well without a well defined scale, it's impossible to say where the center is. That said, if you were to distill the chart to a single axis that included economic and social policy the Liberals would be right on the center if defined so that the median voter is the center. The median Liberal voter is left of center, but if you made them a shape instead of a point, they'd be over the middle. So yes, the Conservatives are further from center.

Based on last election, removing the parties with >1% (simply so I don't have to place them) and on a scale of 0% right (100% left) to 100% right (0% left), the spectrum looks like this:

0-35% = Green, NDP, BQ
35-62% = Lib
62-100% = Con

50% is the center, and until the Cons win 50% of the popular vote, it belongs to the Libs.

I also think, on an economic policy scale (based on spending levels), the Liberals should be closer to the Conservatives than to the NDP, perhaps even to the right of the Conservatives. Not believing in Keynesian stimulus is an extreme right position though, so it's all subjective.
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