I Like Canadians.

The Toronto Globe and Mail ran an on-line poll about the American presidential race. Naturally this was not scientific and didn't take into account our convoluted electoral college routine, the poll was just a popularity poll. Here are the results.

Ralph Nader 21,252 votes 58%
John Kerry 11,277 votes 31%
George Bush 3,911 votes 11%

Wow, what strikes me is the fact that Canadians know about Ralph Nader more than Americans. Or maybe they just know Kerry and Bush too much and reject them. Of the three candidates only Nader represents anti-war viewpoints, that is probably the reason Canadians like Nader over Bush and Kerry.

In America the political election system is so skewed to the two major parties that a third party or independent candidate is automatically regarded as unimportant. The media completely ignores these candidates and by doing that the media keeps Americans uninformed about them. The only coverage the media ever gives Ralph Nader both this year and in 2000, is whether he will steal votes from other candidates. Does the media ever air his viewpoints, his stance on issues, or even his record as a consumer advocate? The answer is virtually no.

The media as well is ignoring Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party or David Cobb of the Green Party. Of course this is America the land of little choice. Oh we like to pretend we have multitudes of selections to choose from, the reality is that the media shuts out these additional candidates. The reality is that the two major parties have colluded over the years in many states to exclude other parties. They force the collection of signatures on petitions for other parties, yet the Republicans and Democrats don't even have to collect signatures.

Americans like to say we believe in competition, but competition is dead in our political system. If we were to compare our political system to the business world, we would say that the two major parties are in collusion to crush the competition and are in fact monopolies.

If we had to pick from only two cereals from only two companies and they both tasted similar, Americans would complain loudly. But that's what we have this presidential year. John Kerry and George Bush from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party who are both pro-war (with slight differences).

At least the Canadians recognize two cereals that taste similar. They are willing to buy a different cereal from a small independent company because it tastes better. It's too bad the media in America keeps advertising the same two old stale cereals, I mean candidates. It's too bad we can't have other choices. America, the land of little choice.

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