[True_Moose]

This will be my first election voting (turned 18 in June), and that depresses me.

I definitely lean towards the left, but my vote is as close as can be to meaningless (I live in Stephen Harper's riding, formerly Preston Manning's, whose provincial MLA is Ralph Klein.) We have candidates from the NDP, Liberals, Conservatives, Greens, and the Canadian Heritage Party, which is a group of people who, to be perfectly honest, I would cross the street to avoid.

I have heard stories that the leader of the Greens is more concerned with having a political party over actually instituting the agenda of the party. The NDP I was going to vote for, but then I got word that one of my classmates was running for them in another riding in Calgary. The problem with him, is that he's one of those people that attaches himself to every social cause around, in an attempt to claim that he is socially aware. But quite honestly, if I have to watch one more of those Liberal-Conservative hate ads during a hockey game, I'm going to vomit.

So it looks like its going to be NDP. I worry that some of their spending might be a little overboard, but I agree with their social policies (they don't seem to be too fussed), and I see them as being the most effective arbiter in what will almost certainly be a minority government.