If You're Happy and You Know It Flap Your WINGS!

Some people are right handed and some are left, but did you know that politicians are right winged and left winged?

No, they aren't birds!

I'm talking about where they stand on the political spectrum which may sound very confusing, but it isn't actually.

Let me explain...............

I'll use a picture! :D

Our type of government is a DEMOCRATIC government. This means that the people who live here get to choose someone to represent them. If they don't like something that is happening, they tell their ELECTED representative whose job it is to speak for them. I put it in the middle because it is a very balanced kind of government.... nothing is extreme.

On the very EXTREME left is box that says "COMMUNISM" this means that everyone shares everything they have. No one is rich, no one is poor, everyone is equal. It's very difficult to maintain communism because eventually people start rebelling because they don't feel like they should share things they worked hard to earn. Nobody owns property or anything of their own, they just share it all.

On the very EXTREME right side of my picture I have a box that says "ANARCHY".: This is not really having a government or anyone telling you what to do. The idea is not having any one person or group or government in power.  It may sound like a lot of fun not having someone tell you what to do but we need laws and rules for everyone to be able to live together peacefully. People just do whatever they feel is right.

So in my picture, DEMOCRACY is in the middle. It's balanced.

The NDP (that's New Democratic Party) is sitting a little on the LEFT side of that balance. Why? Some of the main views the NDP are a little left winged. They care a lot about social welfare and not having poverty. They want to raise taxes for the rich people and lower taxes for the people who have less to try to make things more fair and equal. They believe that if someone has a certain level of income and they can afford it, then they should pay for health care and that money should go toward health care for people who can't afford it. They think Ontario should have rehabilitation programs for criminals instead of just punishing them in jail. You can see how some of these ideas are sort of like the COMMUNISM ideas on the left side... everyone taking care of each other and sharing, but they are nowhere as EXTREME as communism.

The PC (that's Progressive Conservative) are a little to the RIGHT side of that balance. Why? Some of the main views of the PC are a little right winged. Opposite from what the NDP think, the PC believe in building more jails to keep criminals off of the streets rather than spending the money to rehabilitate them. Right winged government believes more in spending money on our military. They want big businesses to grow on their own without the government helping. The PC party believes people should be more responsible for themselves and don't feel like government should run businesses and tell businesses how to do things.

The Liberals are a little right winged, but closer to the middle. They are more "CENTRALIST" because they are close to the centre. This means they share left wing and right wing views. They think government should evoke changes if the people want it, when the people want it. They believe in letting the people decide what happens and that the government should help things that need helping, but if they don't need help they just let things be.

The examples that I used to show this are EXTREME examples. None of our government is anywhere close to either of the extremes. And what's great about our government is that even though our three parties have some different ideas about how things should work, they all believe in our democratic system of government. They also share some ideas of how things should happen... this is how laws are made, when the all of the governments come together to agree on things for making Ontario a better place.