No, I certainly am not implying that you are not allowed to vote conservative just 'cause you live in Toronto, only that the conservatives may not even get one single seat in Toronto this election and so, though people do vote conservative in the city, the likelyhood of them winning any ridings in Toronto-proper is very small.
That does not mean that nobody should vote for them if they don't have a chance of winning. Should only Liberals voters vote in Liberal safe ridings and Conservative voters in Conservatives safe ridings and NDP voters in NDP safe ridings....etc? Who cares if they don't get a single seat in Toronto?
What's more, if they ever did win a seat in the 416, that MP would certainly be guaranteed a cabinet seat (and probably something important), and would probably be successful in drawing in funds for subways, etc. As it stands, because Toronto has a bunch of safe Liberal ridings, the Liberals ignore us when they are in power (not a single Ontario Liberal MP backed this province's Liberal Premier's call for more money for Ontario) and the Conservative do the same because it's an electoral wasteland for them. I certainly don't fault either party for thinking that way. You have to fight for votes in a democracy, so parties will throw money around where it matters. And sadly Toronto does not matter because it's not in play.
Harper going to be capable of shifting industry towards renewable energy production? No. Is he going to implement widespread wind-farms, geothermal heating systems and electric cars? No. Is he going to institute national childcare or pharmacare. Certainly not.
Does it ever occur to you that priorities are hardly the same for everybody? If those priorities mean that we will be raising taxes during a downturn, resulting in reduced consumer spending and a higher burden on companies than I would certainly vote against them. It's not that I don't support that vision. It's just that I don't agree that the time is right for extravagant new social spending. As to the priorities you point out....the Liberal and Conservative infrastructure commitments for the next 4 years are exactly the same. Lastly, many of those responsibilities: power generation, pharmacare, childcare, etc are provincial responsibilities. They might use some federal leadership but there's nothing stopping provinces from accomplishing any of that on their own. If you have ever left Toronto, you'll know that many provinces are already moving ahead on many of those fronts on their own.
What he will do is sell Canada off piece by piece, systematically dismantling every social institution that differentiates us from the US and sell off Canadian natural resources (claiming exports are very important to the economy) and he'll do it by holding that carrot in front of people's eyes saying: "I'll cut your taxes so vote for me".
A lot of unsubstantiated accusations for which you have not provided evidence. What social instituation has he sold off? And as for resources, in case you missed it in high school, that's the purview of the provinces not the federal government. I am all for re-opening the constitution on this one but in case you haven't noticed its the provinces whoring out Canada's resources not the feds.
I don't have a problem with taxes, I like to drive on roads, have police service...
I hardly doubt most people would disagree with paying taxes for any of those services. And if you notice most of those services, like many others you consume on a daily basis are paid for through municipal taxes not federal or provincial. I am always amazed at how people fail to understand the importance of municipal government and blame every daily issue on the highest level of government hundreds or thousands of miles away.
I believe in paying into a large pool so we all benefit.
Sure you do, but I am willing to bet that you are not in a tax bracket where that tax hit is significant at all. It's easy to advocate for new social spending when you are only paying 15% in taxes. Let's see if you feel the same way when you start making 70k+ and you're working 60-70 hr weeks. Let's see how you feel if your spouse wants to stay home to take care of the kids and he/she gets nothing because all that money went into a national daycare program, which ignores the fact that the best care that can be given is the one by parents.