In Canada, you're seeing the same things happening. The NDP lost the last of their Saskatchewan rural seats in the last election (albeit by heartbreaking margins, and they may yet win them back) - and Saskatchewan has always had a very different rural culture. After that, the seats of our left-wing party were restricted to downtown urban centres - downtown Ottawa, downtown Toronto, downtown Vancouver, downtown Winnipeg, and downtown Halifax. Ridings with lots of young, well educated professionals, and with substantially higher per capita incomes than the rural seats dominated by the hard-right Alliance-turned-Conservative.
Actually, just to correct myself here, there are in fact still a very few exceptions, which however thoroughly serve to prove my point. Bev Desjarlais, for example, represents Churchill, a riding covering most of northern Manitoba, including lots of logging communities and First Nations reserves. While a firm socialist and labour advocate, Desjarlais went against the party whip to vote against same-sex marriage bills, strongly opposes gun control, and in general votes with the social conservatives on a wide variety of social issues. Peter Stoffer, from the north shore of Nova Scotia, was the other NDP member to conspicuously miss all of the votes on the same-sex marriage bills, and similarly represents the social conservative end of the party.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: widening weath gap
Date: 2005-06-06 10:18 pm (UTC)Actually, just to correct myself here, there are in fact still a very few exceptions, which however thoroughly serve to prove my point. Bev Desjarlais, for example, represents Churchill, a riding covering most of northern Manitoba, including lots of logging communities and First Nations reserves. While a firm socialist and labour advocate, Desjarlais went against the party whip to vote against same-sex marriage bills, strongly opposes gun control, and in general votes with the social conservatives on a wide variety of social issues. Peter Stoffer, from the north shore of Nova Scotia, was the other NDP member to conspicuously miss all of the votes on the same-sex marriage bills, and similarly represents the social conservative end of the party.