B.C.’s Political Parties Platforms At-A-Glance – Thoughts for Immigrant Voters
Voting is important. It is both our responsibility and right to to true democratic society, where, a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” as said by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address. In general, voter turnout among immigrants is lower than among Canadian-born electorate.
This year we are electing our provincial government representatives and it is our responsibility to ensure that we know their political grounds, i.e. what they stand for. Each party has an election platform that describes their key priorities and future directions for our province. We created word clouds using the content from each of four election platforms which allowed us to identify the most frequently-used words in each ‘platform’ document. We also did a search of such words as “immigrant”, “diversity”, “in/equality”, and “foreign credentials/workers” in all four ‘platforms’. You can view the results of this 3-hour exercise in summary document titled: BC’s Political Parties At-A-Glance.
B.C.’s NDP
Platform title: Change for the better. Practical Steps
Lengths: 70 pages, 11,820 words
Cover page: a picture of young children in the classroom and calls for change for students, families, economy, etc.
The most prominent NDP platform wordcloud words are BC, British, NDP, government, Democrats, care, support, health, economy, better, Columbians, children, Nations, improve, services, change, future, Democrats, people, communities, workers, Aboriginal, public, tax, reduce, etc.
B.C.’s Liberals
Platform title: Strong Economy Secure Tomorrow
Length: 90 pages, 20, 147 words
Cover page: a family of three with a smiling girl at forefront
The most prominent Liberal platform wordcloud words are BC, NDP, today, Liberals, tomorrow, new, Canada, future, strong, economy, province, forward, jobs, tax, secure, debt, budget, communities, million, work, industry, billion, driving, growth, etc.
B.C.’s Green Party:
Platform title: Green Book 2013 (a living document)
Length: 42 pages, 20, 211 words
Cover page: Deep green background with no picture.
The most prominent Green platform wordcloud words are BC, , health, government, public, green, care, people, community, housing, children, needs, education, new, energy, environmental programs, Nations, British, support, local, food, resources, families, ecological system, land, forest, climate.
B.C.’s Conservative Party:
Platform title: We Believe in BC
Length: 28 pages, 10, 290 words
Cover page: A map of BC in grey
View Conservative Election Platform
The most prominent Conservative platform wordcloud words are BC, British Columbia, province, billion, million, believe, Canada, Conservatives, provincial spending, workers, years, fiscal,Liberals, GDP, decade, average, public, fiscal, budget, income, expenditures, natural, source, number, year, decline, debt.
Loading ...